Dancing Politics in Anglo Culture, from Jacobite to Jacobin and Royalist to Republican
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W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects Fall 2016 Cabinet of Monkies: Dancing Politics in Anglo Culture, from Jacobite to Jacobin and Royalist to Republican Amy Stallings College of William and Mary, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Stallings, Amy, "Cabinet of Monkies: Dancing Politics in Anglo Culture, from Jacobite to Jacobin and Royalist to Republican" (2016). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1477068518. http://doi.org/10.21220/S2C30H This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Cabinet of Monkies: Dancing Politics in Anglo Culture, from Jacobite to Jacobin and Royalist to Republican Amy Catherine Stallings Newport News, VA BA, The College of William and Mary, 2006 MA, The College of William and Mary, 2009 A Thesis presented to the Graduate Faculty of the College of William and Mary in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Lyon G. Tyler Department of History The College of William and Mary August, 2016 © Copyright by Amy Catherine Stallings, 2016 ABSTRACT PAGE Dance has long been known to play a significant role in the social life of colonial British America. What historians have largely failed to note is the integral nature of dance to the realm of politics and the formation of national identity. From the earliest days of its dissemination in print, English country dance served a political purpose. In 1651, under Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate government, Royalists like John Playford used dance as a subtle form of resistance. Urging the public to remember the monarchy fondly and join together in a quintessentially English pastime, Playford’s English Dancing Master created an imagined community of political dissenters. The Playford manuals set the standard for the politicization of dance in Anglo culture, both in the politically-charged dance titles they contained and in the intended function of dance performance itself. Ballroom politics spread across the Atlantic to England’s North American colonies. In the years preceding the American Revolution, as well as during the war itself, the ballroom became a political space to a heightened degree. While minuets established a clear social hierarchy, country dances broke it down into more democratic forms. Codes of conduct at assemblies allowed attendees (especially women) to publicize their political allegiances through their dress, behavior, and dance selection. British and Americans sought to politicize the ballroom for their advantage; spectacular fetes such as Howe's Mischianza won local populations to the British cause, while the Philadelphia Assembly prohibited Loyalists from subscribing to its events. Partially in response to British pomp, the Continental Army characterized its festivities as orderly, economical, and virtuous. In the Federal era, political rivals again used dance as a form of propaganda, warring over the legacy of independence. International tensions ran high, with France embroiled in a bloody revolution that sent a new wave of emigres fleeing abroad, many to America. Pro- and anti-French feeling spilled over into the ballroom. As the rise of the middle class rendered dance an understandable language across a wide swath of the voting population, two major themes arose: that of dance as a wholesome rustic activity in keeping with lauded classical virtues, and that of the social-leveling, chaotic frolic, imbibed with vice and dangerous Jacobin principles. An analysis of dance metaphors reveals growing discomfort with race relations and with the political aspirations of the lower classes, suggesting the gradual closure of the window of opportunity that independence had proffered. English country dance persisted into Jacksonian America, despite the rise of French cotillions and quadrilles. Though it was a tool of reconciliation after the War of 1812, the longways set’s association with egalitarianism made it a target for anti-Jackson feeling by the 1820s. Changing styles in dance and politics also undercut the role of the ballroom. Women assumed a more public role in rallies and social movements, and small-set and partner dances allowed dancers to self-segregate, hindering large-scale communication on the dance floor. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ii Introduction: On the Right Foot 2 Chapter 1: “Begin the Dance” 14 Chapter 2: “The Hobbies of the Times” 27 Chapter 3: “Dance, Dance, Revolution” 68 Chapter 4: “News From America” 112 Chapter 5: “Rival Candidates” 167 Chapter 6: “Time Wheels Us Round” 205 Chapter 7: Conclusions 249 Bibliography 273 Vita 292 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There is a long list of people without whom this work would have been impossible and an even longer one of people to whom I am greatly indebted. No one, however, has been more instrumental, at every stage of this dissertation’s development, than Dr. James Penn Whittenburg. Examining dance as the topic of my master's thesis was his suggestion; he has shown me more support and especially more patience than I could have hoped for; and but for his encouragement, I would probably never have pursued a Master's Degree at all, let alone a Ph.D. The opportunities for intellectual growth that he and Dr. Carolyn Whittenburg have offered me through the National Institute of American History and Democracy have shaped the last fourteen years of my life and will always influence the way I study history and share it with others. The rest of my committee—Dr. Paul Mapp, Dr. Charles McGovern, and Dr. Christopher Hendricks—have also been more than generous in giving of their time and energy in order to read and comment on my research, and to challenge me in productive ways. Special thanks to Dr. Dale Hoak for his participation in the formative stages of this project. I will forever be grateful to the English country dance community, firstly, the English Country Dancers of Rochester, New York, and subsequently, the Williamsburg Heritage Dancers. They have helped me to understand the techniques and importance of social dancing in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries by allowing me to experience these dances brought back to life in the present. Likewise, I owe many thanks to the Jane Austen Society of North America— specifically, to the Western New York, Southeastern Virginia, and Central Virginia Regions, at whose meetings I gave early versions of the papers that became this dissertation. My family has been endlessly supportive throughout the long ordeal of graduate school. They think more highly of my talents than I deserve, but I hope I can make them proud. Thanks Mom, Dad, and David for accompanying me on research trips, actively taking an interest in my subject matter, listening to some very long monologues about colonial dance as I worked through my findings. And thanks to tea and ice cream for existing and being my gastronomic pillars of strength, morning, noon, and night, and quite often in between. Finally, I must acknowledge that my high school history teacher, Mr. Feldman, was right after all. When I took his class at age fifteen, he predicted that I would become a historian. I flatly denied it. In retrospect, I realize he couldn’t have come to any other conclusion about a student who was so animated at the sight of a portrait of Caesar Rodney. He can now say “I told you so.” ii All the ills of mankind, all the tragic misfortunes that fill the history books, all the political blunders, all the failures of the great leaders have arisen merely from a lack of skill at dancing. ~Molière, Le Bourgeoise Gentilhomme, 1670 Introduction On the Right Foot I ought to have recollected, that under the close inspection of two such watchful salvages, our communication, while in repose, could not have been easy; that the period of dancing a minuet was not the very choicest time for conversation; but that the noise, the exercise, and the mazy confusion of a country-dance, where the inexperienced performers were every now and then running against each other, and compelling the other couples to stand still for a minute at a time, besides the more regular repose afforded by the intervals of the dance itself, gave the best possible openings for a word or two spoken in season, and without being liable to observation. ~Sir Walter Scott, Redgauntlet, 18241 When my adviser first suggested to me that I research dance in the colonial and early Federal periods, I’m sure I stared at him skeptically. What on earth could I expect to learn about dance that would be worthy of a dissertation? Even if I did find something, whom could I expect to read it? Was it possible that something I enjoyed so much— English country dancing—could actually form the basis for a powerful historical argument? A longtime admirer of the works of Jane Austen, I already recognized the importance of the dance floor in facilitating social encounters; and it was Miss Austen, unsurprisingly, who led me toward one of my central themes. In Northanger Abbey, published posthumously in 1818 but written during the closing years of the previous century, Austen’s hero Henry Tilney teases heroine Catherine Morland by drawing a parallel between dancing and marriage: “You will allow, that in both, man has the advantage of choice, woman only the power of refusal....” Catherine repeatedly objects to the comparison, and Henry at last acknowledges some dissimilarity: “In marriage, the 2 man is supposed to provide for the support of the woman; the woman to make the home agreeable to the man; he is to purvey, and she is to smile.