In Paris, indeed, the ballet was very securely instituted. The
Academie Royale de Musique et de Danse had been founded in 1669, and
from that date the ballet, as an entertainment of dancing only, may be
said to have come into being. There had been earlier ballets, but
these were of the nature of old English masques, and consisted of
songs and spoken dialogues in addition to dances; the term _ballet_,
it need hardly be explained, being derived from the Italian _ballata_,
the parent of our own _ballad_. At first the French Opera or Academy
suffered from the smallness of its troop; vocalists could be obtained
from the church choirs, but for the ballet it was hard to find
recruits; and sometimes young boys were pressed into the service, and
constrained to personate nymphs, dryads, and shepherdesses--"_danseurs_,"
writes a French historian of the Opera, "_qui sous un masque et des
vetements feminins, les formes arrondies par l'art et le coton,
n'excitaient qu'un enthousiasme modere_." At court there
was no lack of dancers of the gentler sex, however, and at court
the ballet prospered greatly.
Pages:
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645