nment in
Shakespeare's day, or even at an earlier period.[836] It was not
confined to England, and has been rendered memorable by the fearful
accident with which it was accompanied at the Court of France in 1392, a
graphic description of which has been recorded by Froissart. In the
"Winter's Tale" (iv. 4), the satyrs' dance is alluded to by the Servant,
who says: "Master, there is three carters, three shepherds, three
neat-herds, three swine-herds, that have made themselves all men of
hair; they call themselves Saltiers: and they have a dance which the
wenches say is a gallimaufry of gambols, because they are not in't." In
a book of songs composed by Thomas Ravenscroft and others, in the time
of Shakespeare, we find one[837] called the "Satyres' daunce." It is for
four voices, and is as follows:

"Round a round, a rounda, keepe your ring
To the glorious sunne we sing.
Hoe, hoe!

He that weares the flaming rayes,
And the imperiall crowne of bayes,
Him with shoutes and songs we praise.
Hoe, hoe!

That in his bountee would vouchsafe to grace
The humble sylvanes and their shaggy race."

[836] See Knight's "Pictorial Shakespeare," vol. ii. p. 384;
Singer's "Shakespeare," vol. iv. p. 85; Boswell's
"Shakespeare," vol. xiv. p. 371.

[837] See Douce's "Illustrations of Shakespeare," p. 222.

_Sword-dance._ In olden times there were several kinds of sword-dances,
most of which afforded opportunities for the display of skill. In
"Antony and Cleopatra" (iii. 11), there seems to be an allusion to this
custom, where Antony, speaking of Caesar, says:[838]

"he, at Philippi, kept
His sword e'en like a dancer."

[838] See Strutt's "Sports and Pastimes," 1876, pp. 300, 301;
Douce's "Illustrations of Shakespeare," p. 193.

And in "All's Well that Ends Well" (ii. 1), where Bertram, lamenting
that he is kept from the wars, adds:

"I shall stay here the forehorse to a smock,
Creaking my shoes on the plain masonry,
Till honour be bought up, and no sword worn
But one to dance with."

In "Titus Andronicus" (ii. 1), too, Demetrius says to Chiron:

"Why, boy, although our mother, unadvis'd
Gave you a dancing-rapier by your side."

_Tread a Measure_, to which the King refers in "Love's Labour's Lost"
(v. 2), when he tells Boyet to tell Rosaline

"we have measur'd