A history of English sexual morals / by Ivan Bloch ; translated by William H. Forstern.

  • Iwan Bloch
Date:
1936
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A history of English sexual morals / by Ivan Bloch ; translated by William H. Forstern. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    648/700 (page 618)
    sixteenth century, when they were superseded by ' sock1 dances, which first came into fashion at the court ml querades and balls under Elizabeth and James I. For the, and also after the Restoration there was a demand j> dancing instruction which was met by foreign danci masters, mainly French. Addison published in the Spectator (1711) a letter suppose to have been written by a business man concerning tl dancing customs of the time. The imaginary business mi takes his daughter to a ball, and while he approves of son dances as being graceful and conducive to maidenly reserv he condemns dances like the ' Allemande ', in which tl dancers roll on the floor, so that the shocked business ma ' could see far higher above the girl's shoes than was seemly Addison also mentions the ' kissing dance ', in the course < which the male partner must keep his lips pressed to those < the lady for a whole minute. Addison strongly objected to th ' contre danse ', which he regarded as dangerous to moraL though he was against abolishing this dance, which, if dance decently, was conducive to physical grace. The dancing-masters of the eighteenth century had an evi reputation, for under the cloak of private dancing classe they frequently held sexual orgies of the most disgusting kind, a state of affairs to which attention was first calle( by Sir John Fielding. Already in Shakespeare's time all the continental dance* were known in England. One of the most popular was the so-called ' morisca ', a Moorish dance imported from Spain. The dancers painted their faces black, wore Eastern costume with bells round their ankles, and hopped about so strenu- ously that it was seriously suggested that this dance was the cause of rheumatism and gout. The English national dances included the ' cushion dance ', which was also a game. One of the dancers placed a cushion [618]