les arrêts d'amour. André, the Chaplain, has given us a collection of the principal rules, by which these judicatures were guided, and which is said by him to have been revealed to a Breton knight in the following manner. The champion, wandering through a thick forest, in hopes of encountering the great Arthur, was met by a fair lady, who thus addressed him :-" I know whom you seek; but your search is vain without my aid. You have sought the love of a Breton lady, and she requires you to procure for her the celebrated faucon, which reposes on a perch in the court of Arthur. To obtain this bird, you must prove in combat the superior charms of the lady of your heart over those of the mistress of every knight in the court of Arthur." A number of romantic adventures follow. At last, the knight finds the faucon on a perch of gold: a paper is suspended to the perch by a golden chain; this paper contained the code of love, which it was necessary for the knight to promulgate, ere he might venture to bear away the falcon as a prize. This code of erotic laws was presented to a tribunal composed of many brilliant and beautiful judges. It was adopted by them, and ordered to be observed by all the suitors of their court, under the heaviest penalties. The code contained thirty-one articles, of which we shall give a few.* They are all mentioned by André the Chaplain. 1. Marriage is no excuse against another attachment. 2. He, who knows not how to conceal, knows not how to love. 3. No one can love two persons at one time. 4. Love must always increase or diminish. 16. At the sudden appearance of his mistress, the heart of a true lover trembles. 23. A true lover must eat and sleep sparingly. 28. A moderate presumption is sufficient to produce suspicion in the mind of a lover. 30. The image of his mistress is present, without intermission, to the mind of the true lover. It does not clearly appear what were the sanctions of these awful laws, or by what process the courts of love enforced obedience to their decrees; nor indeed is it very evident whether all the cases, which came within their cognizance, were not merely fictions of the imagination, for the purpose of displaying the poetical talents of the advocates, and the wit and beauty of the judges. M. Raynouard, however, seems to consider these tribunals as possessed of the power of enforcing their decrees, not * Some of these enactments are not very unlike the laws of Chaucer's Court of Love, which were twenty in number, but which are more free and more humourous than any contained in this code. indeed, by the exertion of force, but by the stronger agency of opinion of opinion, which permitted not a knight to enjoy tranquillity in the bosom of his family, while his peers were waging war beyond the seas-of opinion, which compels the gamester to pay a debt of honour with the money, for want of which his industrious tradesman is starving-of opinion, which does not permit a man to refuse a challenge, though the law has designated it a crime-of opinion, before the influence of which even tyrants tremble.* It is, however, very questionable, whether this powerful influence could ever be called into action in any instance; for in the questions, which were propounded for the consideration of the judges, the names of the parties do not appear to have been introduced, and, therefore, it was impossible to direct the anathemas of the court, against any particular individual. The Troubadours, who pleaded the cause, generally appeared only in the character of advocates. In the history of André, the Chaplain, whose work is written in Latin, the parties to the cause are merely designated by a quidam, or quadam. We shall give a few of the cases, with the decisions of the lady-judges, for the edification of our fair readers, especially those, who are casuistically and coquettishly inclined. CASE. A knight betrothed to a lady had been absent a considerable time beyond the seas. She waited, in vain, for his return, and his friends, at last, began to despair of it. The lady, impatient of the delay, found a new lover. The secretary of the absent knight, indignant at the infidelity of the lady, opposed this new passion. The lady's defence was this :"Since a widow, after two years of mourningt, may receive a new lover; much more may she, whose betrothed husband, in his absence, has sent her no token of remembrance or fidelity, though he lacked not the means of transmitting it." This question occasioned long debates, and it was argued in the court of the Countess of Champagne. The judgment was delivered as follows: "A lady is not justified in renouncing her lover, under the pretext of his long absence, unless she has certain proof that his fidelity has been violated, and his duty forgotten. There is, however, no legal cause of absence, but necessity, or the most honourable call. Nothing should give a woman's heart more delight than to hear, in lands far distant from the scene of his achieve Raynouard, II. cxxiii. + This was one of the laws of the court of love, "Two years' widowhood, in case of death, shall be duly observed by the survivor." The lady, who was the defendant in this cause, would not have found so easy an excuse in our law, which requires that seven years should pass after the absence of any one beyond sea, before the presump. tion of death can arise. ments, the renown of her lover's name, and the reverence, in which he is held by the warlike and the noble. The circumstance of his having refrained from despatching a messenger, or a token of his love, may be explained on prudential reasons, since he may have been unwilling to trust the secret of his heart to every stranger's keeping; for though he had confided his despatches to a messenger, who might not have been able to comprehend them, yet, by the wickedness of that messenger, or by his death on the journey, the secret of his love might be revealed." The ingenuity, displayed by the pleaders on both sides, was considerable, and the decisions of the judges, which are generally pretty diffuse, are usually luminous and conclusive. Unfortunately for the fame of la gaie science, there were no reporters at that day to transmit to us the authentic records of the courts of love; and we must, therefore, be satisfied with the relics, which have been casually preserved of these singular proceedings. We may remark, however, that the authority of the decisions, which remain, are still unimpeached by any superior jurisdiction. ON DANCING. A good man's fortune may be out at heels. SHAKSPEARE. WERE a book to be written upon the discordant opinions held by different nations, or by the same people at different periods, upon any given subject, none would present a more contradictory estimate, than the harmless recreation of dancing. For some thousand of years, in the early stages of the world, it was exclusively a religious ceremony. The dance of the Jews, established by the Levitical law to be exhibited at their solemn feasts, is, perhaps, the most ancient upon record. The dancing of David is also frequently quoted; and many commentators have thought, that every Psalm was accompanied by a distinct dance. In several of the temples, a stage was specially erected for these exercises; but, in process of time, they seem to have been practised by secular, as well as spiritual performers. The daughters of Shiloh were thus recreating themselves in the vineyards, when they were caught by the young men of the tribe of Benjamin, who presently danced into their good graces, and carried them off for wives-a process, which is frequently imitated, even in these degenerate days. The heathens, also, could "sport a toe," in the very earliest ages. Pindar calls Apollo" the dancer;" Homer, in one of his hymns, tells us, that this deity capered to the music of his own harp; and from Callimachus we learn, that the Nereides were proficients in this elegant accomplishment, at the early age of nine years*. For several centuries, it was confined to military movements, when a battle was a grand Ballet of Action, opposing armies became partners in the dance of death, and cut throats and capers with equal assiduity. Since those truculent and operatic days, it has been limited to festive and joyous occasions; but how various the estimation in which it has been held by inconsistent mortals! Socrates, a wise Grecian, took lessons in this art from Aspasia. Cicero, an enlightened Roman, urges the practice of dancing against Galbinius, as a grave and heinous offence. Of the moderns, many hold it an utter abomination to dance upon a Sunday; while others signalize the Sabbath by an increased hilarity of heel. In Germany, a band of enthusiastic damsels formerly testified their devotion to St. Vitus, by dancing round his shrine, until they contracted a malady, which still bears his name: the modern Herrnhuters, of the same district, would suffer martyrdom, rather than heathenize their legs by any similar profanation. Our own country, at the present moment, possesses a sect of Jumpers, who, seeming to imagine that he, who leaps highest, must be nearest to Heaven, solemnize their meetings by jumping like kangaroos, and justify themselves very conclusively from Scripture, because-David danced before the Ark-the daughter of Shiloh danced in the yearly festival of the Lord-and the child John, the son of Elizabeth, leapt before it was born! The Methodists, on the other hand, maintain, in its full latitude, the doctrine of the ancient Waldenses, and Albigenses, that as many paces as a man makes in dancing, so many leaps he makes towards 'Hell. Even the amiable Cowper, the poet, suffered his fine mind to be so darkened by bigotry, as to believe, that a great proportion of the ladies and gentlemen, whom he saw amusing themselves with dancing at Brighthelmstone, must necessarily be damned; and in a religious publication, now before me, I find it stated, that a sudden judgment overtook a person for indulging in this enormity: a large lump started up in his thigh while dancing; but upon his solemn promise not to repeat the offence, the Lord heard his prayer, and removed his complaint A writer in the same work, after denouncing those who admit " dancing and other vain amusements into their schools," concludes with an alarming belief, "that this dancing propensity has, in some places, nearly danced the Bible out of the school!" In conformity with these enlightened views, and in defiance of the sacred writer, who expressly declares that there is a time to dance, the Methodists exclude from their communion all those who practise dancing, or teach it to children, while their ministers refuse to administer the * See the Vestriad, a mock Epic Poem. Evangelical Magazine, August 1812. VOL. I. NO. III. U + Hayley's Life, p. 100. § Ibid. June 1808, Sacrament to all persons guilty of frequenting balls. Let us hope that the increasing good sense of these well-meaning, but misguided ascetics, will speedily get the better of such monkish austerities; that the time may come, when they may feel persuaded that our Heavenly Father can contemplate this innocent recreation of his creatures with as much benignity as a parent beholds the gambols of his children; and that the now gloomy inmates of the Tabernacle may justify the change, by adopting the beautiful sentiment of Addison" Cheerfulness is the best Hymn to the Deity." I do not despair of seeing a whole brotherhood and sisterhood standing up in pairs for a countrydance, all anxious to make amends for lost time; while he, who is to lead off, claps his yellow gloves in ecstasy, and calls aloud to the band to play up Wesley's Fancy, or the Whitfield Reel. I abhor that atrocious and impious doctrine, that France and England are natural enemies, as if God Almighty had made us only to cut one another's throats; and yet I must say that I hate the French, and hate them too for one of their most elegant accomplishments-their inexhaustible genius for dancing. With the fertility of their ballet-masters, I have no quarrel: let them attitudinize till they have twisted the human form into as many contortions as Fuseli; let them vary figures and combinations ad infinitum, like the kaleidoscope; let them even appropriate distinct movements to each class of the human and superhuman performers. I admit the propriety of their celebrated pas called the Gargouillade, which, as a French author informs us, is devoted to the entrée of winds, demons, and elementary spirits, and of whose mode of execution, he gravely proceeds to give an elaborate and scientific description. But why, Mr. Editor, why must their vagaries quit their proper arena, the Opera stage, and invade our ball-rooms and assemblies? Sir, they have kicked me out of dancing society full twenty years before my time. The first innovation, that condemned me to be a spectator, where I used to be a not undistinguished performer, was the sickening and rotatory Waltz; of which I never saw the ob ject, unless its votaries meant to form a contrast to the lilies of the valley, "which toil not, neither do they spin." Waiving all objections upon the ground of decorum, surely the young men and women of the present age were giddy enough before, without the stimulus of these fantastical gyrations. If a fortunehunter chooses to single out an heiress, and spin round and round with her, like a billiard-ball, merely to get into her pocket at last, there is at least a definable object in his game; but that a man should volunteer these painful circumvolutions for pleasure, really seems to be a species of saltatory suicide. I never saw the figurantes at the Opera whirling their pirouettes, like whipping-tops, without wishing to be near them with a stout thong, |