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Show 18 THE CODE OF TERPSICHORE. Dancing, far from being, as among other nations, an innocent amusement is, with the Spanish an excitement to vice and immorality. Compare the national dances of the former with those of the latter, we shall see that the Chica, the Fandango, the Sarao21, and a few others, bear the stamp of the strongest, deepest, and most immoderate passion, whilst the Tarantella, the Fourlane2S, the Contredanse29, the Provencale, the Mazourque, commonly called la Russe30, VEcossaise, I'Allemande, la Hongroise, & c , all well known popular dances, are kept within certain limits and forms, far more creditable to society. The Neapolitan Tarantella is, of all modern dances, the liveliest and most diversified, but like the Sicilienne, it possesses much similitude to the Fandango. Both are, I believe (but particularly the former), a mixture of Spanish and Italian dancing, and must have had their rise on the introduction of the Spanish style into Italy. The Tarantella31 is the national dance of the Neapolitans. It is gay and voluptuous ; its steps, attitudes and music, still exhibit the character of those who invented it. This dance is generally supposed to have derived its name from the Tarantella, a venomous spider of Sicily. Those who have the misfortune to be bitten by it cannot escape dissolution but by a violent perspiration, which forces the poison out of the body through the pores. As exercise is the principal and surest method to effect this perspiration, it was discovered, by repeated experiments, that music was the only incentive to motion on the unhappy sufferers. It possessed the power of making them leap about, until extreme fatigue put an end to their exertions. They then fell, and the sweating thus occasioned, seldom failed of effecting a radical cure. |