[SCA-Dance] Source of quote about La Volta

L. J. Sparvero ljsparvero at gmail.com
Mon Oct 29 08:16:56 EDT 2007


Actually I think it's an early 20th century English translation of a
17th century German quote. If I'm correct, the original quote has
nothing to do with English dance at all. I've seen the quote in a 1906
translation of the works of Heinrich Heine on the Faust Ballet, and
Heine references a 17th century book about the evils of dancing. Mind
you, I've never tracked down the original German work quoted.

Heine is even available online now:
Go to: http://books.google.com/books?id=I8ALAAAAIAAJ
Click "Read this book" and jump to the bottom of page 277.

Hope this helps, -L.J. aka Lyev


On 10/29/07, Joanna and Murray <joannaandmurray at homemail.com.au> wrote:
> I've been asked about the source of the "murders and miscarriages" quote below.
>
> I haven't a clue. Can anyone help?
>
> Joanna
>
>  > Here's the quote about La Volta that I told you about. Do you think
> > anyone on the dance list might know the original source for this? The book
> > I've got it from is frustratingly vague about its research.
> >
> > Obviously, it's not the whole quote from the book I'm looking for, only
> > the bit at the end. I only included the rest so you could have a sense of
> > the context. If the rest of the book is anything to go by, this "critic"
> > was someone in the 16 century, or the author would have specified
> > otherwise.
> >
> > "Dancing was the public court activity /par excellence/, and the queen's
> > [Elizabeth I's] enthusiasm for this social and moral form of exercise
> > lasted well into her old age. 'I assure you,' wrote one courtier from the
> > 'warm winter box' of Richmond Palace, 'six or seven gallyards of a
> > morning, besydes musycke and syngynge, is her ordinary exercise.' Queens
> > were rivals even in these activities. The famous portrait in Penshurst
> > Plalace of Elizabeth dancing /La Volta/, supported by Dudley, Earl of
> > Leicester, is in fact an English transposition of an earlier French
> > painting featuring Marguerite de Valois in identical posture. One critic
> > claimed: 'The Voltas which magicians have brought from Italy have this
> > misfortune, that a great many murders and miscarriages result from them. "
> >
> > Quoted from */_Music at Court_/*, Christopher Hogwood. London, The Folio
> > Society, 1977.


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