[Illustration: Fig. 183.--Peasant Dances at the May Feasts.--Fac-simile
of a Miniature in a Prayer-book of the Fifteenth Century, in the National
Library of Paris.]
[Illustration: Fig. 184.--Dance by Torchlight, a Scene at the Court of
Burgundy.--From a Painting on Wood of 1463, belonging to M. H. Casterman,
of Tournai (Belgium).]
Dancing lost much of its simplicity and harmlessness when masquerades were
introduced, these being the first examples of the ballet. These
masquerades, which soon after their introduction became passionately
indulged in at court under Charles VI., were, at first, only allowed
during Carnival, and on particular occasions called _Charivaris_, and they
were usually made the pretext for the practice of the most licentious
follies. These masquerades had a most unfortunate inauguration by the
catastrophe which rendered the madness of Charles VI. incurable, and which
is described in history under the name of the _Burning Ballet_. It was on
the 29th of January, 1393, that this ballet made famous the festival held
in the Royal Palace of St. Paul in Paris, on the occasion of the marriage
of one of the maids of honour of Queen Isabel of Bavaria with a gentleman
of Vermandois. The bride was a widow, and the second nuptials were deemed
a fitting occasion for the Charivaris.
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