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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A06404	Brief conclusions of dancers and dancing Condemning the prophane vse thereof; and commending the excellencie of such persons which haue from age to age, in all solemne feasts, and victorious triumphs, vsed that (no lesse) honourable, commendable and laudable recreation: as also true physicall obseruations for the preseruation of the body in health, by the vse of the same exercise. Written by I.L. Roscio.; Conclusions upon dances, both of this age, and of the olde	Lowin, John, 1576-1659.	1609 (1609)	STC 16875; ESTC S106398	7,299	24

Brief Conclusions of Dancers and Dancing Condemning the prophane vse thereof and commending the excellencie of such Persons which haue from Age to Age in all solemne Feasts and victorious Trumphs vsed that no lesse Honourable Commendable and laudable Recreation As also true Physicall obseruations for the preseruation of the body in health by the vse of the same Exercise Written by I. L. Roscio SIC CREDE Imprinted at London for Iohn Orphinstrange and are to bee sold at his shop by the Cocke and Katherine-wheele neere Holbourne bridge 1609. THE PRINTER TO the Reader LEt mee now entreate thee courteous tractable Reader not to stay thy minde vpon the word Dances but to make thy recourse thorow the matters which are deduced vnder that title For what cause Otherwise the subiect of this purpose as I thinke shall seeme vnto thy iudgement to be vaine and friuolous whereas of it selfe it is altogether serious and of a great moment Heare mee a little The Author of this Treatise concerning Dances doth not lay the foundation of his arguments vpon his owne opinion nor vpon the fantasticall imaginations of some others but vpon the word of GOD it selfe which is comprehended in the Holy Bookes of the Olde and Newe Testaments The which thing may verie plainely be discerned by the vnion or congruitie of this small Treatise being not framed according to the pleasure of the eye but for the comfort of the heart In which comfort these holy men and women which he hath named and before our eyes heere erected magnified the most mightie Creator of all visible and inuisible creatures holding it to bee their dutie not onely priuately to laud and reioyce in him for the victories they receiued but also to stirre vp the people which they ruled by the actiuenes and agilitie of their bodies in Dances to praise and laud the immortall worker of their triumphs Therefore bee thou instructed by the doctrine heerein contained and the Lord haue thee alwaies vnder his protection Your friend IOHN ORPHINSTRANGE CONCLVSIONS VPON DANCES BOTH OF THIS AGE AND OF THE OLD Three diuers opinions of learned men concerning Dances CReat is the diuersitie of opinions about the vsage of dances euen as it is about a thousand other matters of no slender importance Some men of good vnderstanding and litterature doe affirme dances to bee holy of themselues and their chiefe allegation regardeth the sixt Chapter of the second booke of Samuel where it is written that the Prophet Dauid danced before the Arke of the Lord when it was carried from the house of Obed-Edom to the Citie of Dauid with shouting and sound of Trumpet Many others doe maintaine that such an exercise is prophane and doe principally inferre out of the 32. chapter of Exodus that the corrupted Israelites did dance in their idolatrie about the molten Calfe which they compelled Aaron to make But after the iudgement of the greater number it is a thing altogether indifferent and their highest argument doth embrace one speech of Christ in the 7. chap. of the Gospell according to Saint Luke which is this They are like vnto little children sitting in the market place and crying one to another and saying VVee haue piped vnto you and ye haue not danced wee haue mourned vnto you and you haue not wept Let the hearers and readers open their mindes vnto vs or vnto others vpon such diuersities It may easily be perceiued in marking some places of the Old and New Testaments that the holinesse prophanation and indifferencie of dances must be considered vpon the causes of dancing Wherefore wee are minded to set downe by the permission of the Almightie some instructiue obseruations touching that purpose Of the Dances vsed in the Old Age and formerly of the holy THat Dance was holy which as wee read in the 15. chap. of Exodus was effected by Miriam the Prophetesse sister of Aaron and Moses with all the other Israelitish women when God had miraculously destroyed their deadly foes the Aegyptians to wit King Pharao and his mightie hoste in ouerthrowing and drowning them all at once in the red Sea For they danced in singing prayses vnto God for their deliuerance and so the cause of their dancing was godly and consequently the dance it selfe was holy That Dance was holy likewise which the Scripture sheweth vs in the 11. chap. of Iudges when Iptah had vanquished his aduersaries the Ammonites and returned to his house which Ammonites had beene verie cruel oppressors of the Israelits eighteen years For the daughter of Iaphtah with her compapanions went out to meete her father and danced in magnifying the Lord because he had giuen him the victorie ouer his enemies Is not the like argument to be framed vpon the like subiect in the 18. chap. of the first book of Samuel We see there how that the women of Israel came out of all their Cities to honour Dauid returning from the slaughter of Goliath the Philistim and how that they danced in giuing glorie to the Almightie because hee had auenged his people Israel of their foes the Philistims which were slaundering and blaspheming idolaters And the 15. Chapter of the booke of Iudith doth confirme this matter of dancing in that it manifesteth the Dances of that most vertuous godly and valiant widow Iudith after she had saued the Citie of Bethulia and discomfited the Persians Medes and all the rest by smiting off with her heroicall hand the head of Olofernes chiefe Captaine of Nabuchodonosor King of the Assyrians Vpon what occasions in the Old Age the dances were vsed NOw euerie man may learne by those premisses that the godly women of Israell did dance publikly after some great victorie in praysing and glorifying the name of the Lord for the same and that they did not vse that kinde of exercise with any minde toward some worldly pleasure But was it onely about victories It was also about the celebration of some solemne feast consecrated vnto God as we haue the example thereof in the 21. Chap. of Iudges For the Elders of Israel hauing no wiues for two hundreth men of Beniamin had them goe to Shiloh where a feast of the Lord was celebrated euery yeare saying Goe and lye in wait in the Vineyards and when ye see the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in Dances then come yee out of the Vineyardes and catch you euery man a wife of the daughters of Shiloh and goe into the land of Beniamin So ye may clearely see that the vsage of dancing was not onely ordained for victories but also for solemne feasts and that a conclusion may be gathered out of it to be lawfull to reioyce with dances at the time of mariages and of all other holy and great occasions But it were meete and conuenient ye should alwaies remember one thing that whensoeuer the occasions of dancing are holy then the forme of dancing ought to represent holinesse as the indifferent doe require indifferencie the discerning wherof must

as Wise and to vnderstand what the will of the Lord is Moreouer many of these Dances are so much artificiall at the least within our cogitations and within the cogitations of some other persons which haue also obserued in the holy Histories of the old Testament the manner of Dancing practised among the Israelitish women that liued in the feare of God many of these Dances I say are so much artificiall that the humaine mindes can not be intended nor attentiue to the Art of Dancing and to the prayse of God together Whether it bee lawfull for men to dance with women MAny men doe argue that it is lawfull for them to dance with women because say they the Prophet Dauid exhorteth vs in one of his Psalmes to praise God in Dances But that argument cannot bee strong enough For besides that the Hebrewe word doth carry diuers significations the later and riper Translations both in English and in other Languages doe not name any Dance Therefore we would rather counsell them to take an other way and sende them to that Text of the Prophet Ieremie in the 31. Chapter The Virgine shall reioyce in the Dance and the yong men and the olde men together for I will turne their mourning into ioy will comfort them and giue them ioy for their sorrowes Heere many others do endeuour themselues to make an opposition in this manner As the flowing of milke and hony say they is taken in the Scripture for the aboundance of all things necessary to the humane life so the Dance is put in that Text for the greatnes of ioy But let them marke or remember one thing The wordes must be vnderstood in an other sense when they are repugnant vnto reason but the word Dance is not repugnant vnto reason in that text of Ieremie aboue recited To what estates the Dances are thought to be more becomming IF wee will but marke meanely well a little part of the 15. Chap. of Exodus alreadie mentioned it shall be sufficiently manifest vnto vs that the Israelitish women Danced with Miriam the Prophetesse for that they were mooued and brought to it by the sayd Miriam which began to Dance and was the leader of them Whereby wee shall remaine fully perswaded that those women did not embolden themselues towardes that exercise in the presence of her which was aboue them in dignitie vntill they were bidden and inuited to it by her example And this doth cause the opinions of many Learned men to be that such an exercise is rather appertayning to the Nobilitie and Gentilitie then to the other estates and that the inferiours ought not to vse it among the superiours nor in the presence of them except the superiours doe bidde or inuite the inferiours to the same whether it be by speach or otherwise Concluding thereupon that same Art to be much abused in our age because say they it is practised by a great many without any diseretion at all Let vs giue some insight to a few words of the 11. Chap. of Iudges which wee haue alledged in another line of this Treatise No mention is made of any person in those Dances but of the daughter of Iephtah which was Captaine ouer the people of Israel Doth not this argue with great probabilitie that the said daughter of Iephtah was the moouer and guider of that dancing as shee was the highest in estate and condition among her fellowes And doth it not by consequence come to agree with that purpose which now we haue holden in a brief deduction a very little before about the dauncing of Miriam the Prophetesse with the other women of Israel None extraordinarie sharpnesse or viuacitie of wit is necessarie to make it enter into the comprehension of that point We haue already touched the fiftenth chapter of the Booke of Iudeth which wee must touch againe at this present time vpon the discourse which we haue in hand For these words are written in the end of it concerning the sayde most honorable Iudeth They also crowned her with Oliues and her that was with her and shee went before the people in the Dance leading all the Women Which words do greatly augment without any part of doubt the strength and vigour of our argumentation to wit that the Dances do not seeme to become so well the lower sort as the higher and that we may thinke according vnto reason to be somewhat inconuenient for the lower to haue the exercitation of dancing neere the higher vnlesse some leaue he giuen of these vnto those one way or other And herevnto this very short addition as we do perswade our selues cannot bee but fitly applyed that by the Histories of daunces contained in the holy Scripture it seemeth vnto the consideration of many godly persons that the practise of Dancing is more becomming vnto women then vnto men Why Dances are forbidden in some places among the Christians THe prohibition of Dances in Geneua in some other Territories which do keepe all the orders of the same in matters of Religion and Ecclesiasticall Discipline was made because of the great abuses of them to cut off the pernicious euils which oftentimes happened thereby Is not this a sufficient argument to prooue such an action to be good Behold our Messias in the 18. Chap. of the Gospel according to S. Matthew doeth command euery one of vs to cast away his hand or his foote or his eye if they cause him to offend saying that it is better to enter into life with one hand or with one foote or with one eye then hauing two hands or two feete or two eyes to be cast into euerlasting fire Therefore if in that case we must needs be depriued of things which are so much profitable necessarie why should those nations haue refused to suppresse a thing which among them was become altogether vaine and prophane Wee read in the 21. Chap. of Numbers that Moses by the commandement of God did make a Serpent of Brasse and erected it for a signe vnto the Israelites And we read in the 18. Chap. of the second Booke of Kings that the religious King Hezekiah did beat downe and breake in peeces the sayd Brasen Serpent because he saw that the people of Israel continued yet to adore the same in burning Incense vnto it If then it haue been lawfull to abolish the Sacrament of God in consideration that it was abused why should it not be lawfull to put away the inuentions of men for the like cause Mee thinketh it were enough to make vs leaue and forsake the vsage of such Dances as are onely effected for the pleasure of our eyes to obserue and consider with studious diligence one thing in the 14. chap. of the Apostle S. Matthew How that through the meanes occasion of a Dance S. Iohn Baptist was put to death which was a most excellent Prophet a most faythfull forerunner of our Sauiour Iesus Christ To whom with the Father and the Spirit be all magnificence and glorie perpetually Amen FINIS