Editing Medieval dance (section)

==Carole==
{{For|the carol as a musical form|Carol (music)|Christmas carol}}

The most documented form of secular dance during the Middle Ages is the carol also called the "carole" or "carola" and known from the 12th and 13th centuries in Western Europe in rural and court settings.<ref name="harvard">"Carole" in {{cite book|title=New Harvard Dictionary of Music|editor=Don Michael Randel|location=Cambridge, MA|publisher=[[Harvard University Press]]|year=1986|isbn=0-674-61525-5|url=https://archive.org/details/newharvarddictio00rand}}</ref> It consisted of a group of dancers holding hands usually in a [[circle dance|circle]], with the dancers singing in a leader and refrain style while dancing.<ref name="hoppin">{{cite book|title=Medieval Music|last=Hoppin|first=Richard H.|location=New York|publisher=[[W. W. Norton]]|year=1978|page=[https://archive.org/details/medievalmusic00hopp/page/296 296]|isbn=0-393-09090-6|url=https://archive.org/details/medievalmusic00hopp/page/296}}</ref> No surviving lyrics or music for the carol have been identified.<ref name="harvard"/> In northern France, other terms for this type of dance included "ronde" and its diminutives "rondet", "rondel", and "rondelet" from which the more modern music term "rondeau" derives.<ref name="hoppin"/> In the German-speaking areas, this same type of choral dance was known as "reigen".<ref name="sachs271">{{cite book|last=Sachs|first=Curt|title=World History of the Dance|location=New York|publisher=[[W. W. Norton]]|year=1963|page=271|isbn=0-393-00209-8}}</ref>

Mullally in his book on the carole makes the case that the dance, at least in France, was done in a [[circle dance|closed circle]] with the dancers, usually men and women interspersed, holding hands. He adduces evidence that the general progression of the dance was to the left (clockwise) and that the steps probably were very simple consisting of a step to the left with the left foot followed by a step on the right foot closing to the left foot.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mullally|first=Robert|title=The Carole: A Study of a Medieval Dance|location=Farnham, Surrey, England|publisher=Ashgate|year=2011|pages=41–50|isbn=978-1-4094-1248-9}}</ref>

===France===
====Chretien de Troyes====
[[File:Meister des Rosenromans 001.jpg|thumb|From a manuscript of the ''[[Roman de la rose]]'', c. 1430.]]

Some of the earliest mentions of the carol occur in the works of the French poet [[Chrétien de Troyes]] in his series of [[Arthurian romance]]s. In the wedding scene in [[Erec and Enide]] (about 1170)

{{Poem quote|Puceles carolent et dancent,
Trestuit de joie feire tancent

Maidens performed rounds and other dances, each trying to outdo the other in showing their joy<ref>English translation from {{cite book|title=Chrétien de Troyes – Arthurian Romances (translated by Carleton W. Carroll)|location=London|publisher=[[Penguin Books|Penguin]]|year=1991|page=[https://archive.org/details/arthurianromance00chr/page/62 62]|isbn=0-14-044521-8|url=https://archive.org/details/arthurianromance00chr/page/62}}</ref>
|lines 2047–2048<ref>{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080506194033/http://www.uhb.fr/alc/medieval/Erec3.htm |archive-date=2008-05-06|url=http://www.uhb.fr/alc/medieval/Erec3.htm|title=Erec et Enide, éd. Foerster, v. 1845–2924|publisher=Université Rennes 2 Haute Bretagne Centre d'Études des Textes Médiévaux|access-date=2009-02-24}}</ref>
}}

In [[The Knight of the Cart]] (probably late 1170s) at a meadow where there are knights and ladies, various games are played while:

{{Poem quote|
{{lang|fro|Li autre, qui iluec estoient,}}
{{lang|fro|Redemenoient lor anfances,}}
{{lang|fro|Baules et queroles et dance;}}
{{lang|fro|Et chantent et tunbent et saillent}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.princeton.edu/~lancelot/L-3U.html|title=Manuscript U|publisher=Princeton University |access-date=20 January 2025}}</ref>

[S]ome others were playing at childhood games – rounds, dances and reels, singing, tumbling, and leaping"<ref>English translation from {{cite book|title=Chrétien de Troyes – Arthurian Romances (translated by William W. Kibler)|location=London|publisher=[[Penguin Books|Penguin]]|year=1991|page=[https://archive.org/details/arthurianromance00chr/page/228 228]|isbn=0-14-044521-8|url=https://archive.org/details/arthurianromance00chr/page/228}}</ref>
|lines 1656–1659}}

In what is probably Chretien's last work, [[Perceval, the Story of the Grail]], probably written 1181–1191, we find:

<blockquote>Men and women danced rounds through every street and square<ref>English translation from {{cite book|title=Chrétien de Troyes – Arthurian Romances (translated by William W. Kibler)|location=London|publisher=[[Penguin Books|Penguin]]|year=1991|page=[https://archive.org/details/arthurianromance00chr/page/415 415]|isbn=0-14-044521-8|url=https://archive.org/details/arthurianromance00chr/page/415}}</ref></blockquote>

and later at a court setting:

<blockquote>The queen ... had all her maidens join hands together to dance and begin the merry-making. In his honour they began their singing, dances, and rounds<ref>English translation from {{cite book|title=Chrétien de Troyes – Arthurian Romances (translated by William W. Kibler)|location=London|publisher=[[Penguin Books|Penguin]]|year=1991|page=[https://archive.org/details/arthurianromance00chr/page/491 491]|isbn=0-14-044521-8|url=https://archive.org/details/arthurianromance00chr/page/491}}</ref></blockquote>

===Italy===
{{Main|Italian folk dance}}
[[Image:Lorenzetti Good Govt Detail.jpg|thumb|Lorenzetti 1338–1340]]

[[Dante Alighieri|Dante]] (1265–1321) has a few minor references to dance in his works but a more substantive description of the round dance with song from Bologna comes from Giovanni del Virgilio (floruit 1319–1327).<ref name="padovan">{{cite journal|last=Padovan|first=Maurizio|year=1985|title=Da Dante a Leonardo: la danza italiana attraverso le fonti storiche|journal=Danza Italiana|volume=3|pages=5–37}}</ref>

Later in the 14th century [[Giovanni Boccaccio]] (1313–1375) shows us the "carola" in Florence in the ''[[Decameron]]'' (about 1350–1353) which has several passages describing men and women dancing to their own singing or accompanied by musicians.<ref name="padovan"/> Boccaccio also uses two other terms for contemporary dances, ''ridda'' and ''ballonchio'', both of which refer to round dances with singing.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Nosow|first=Robert|year=1985|title=Dancing the Righoletto|journal=Journal of Musicology|volume=24|issue=3|pages=407–446|doi=10.1525/jm.2007.24.3.407}}</ref><ref name="bragaglia">{{cite book|last=Bragaglia|first=Anto Giulio|title=Danze popolari italiane|location=Roma|publisher=Edizioni Enal|year=1952}}</ref>

Approximately contemporary with the ''Decameron'' are a series of frescos in [[Siena]] by [[Ambrogio Lorenzetti]] painted about 1338–40, one of which shows a group of women doing a "bridge" figure while accompanied by another woman playing the [[tambourine]].<ref name="padovan"/>

===England===
In a life of [[Saint Dunstan]] composed about 1000, the author tells how Dunstan, going into a church, found maidens dancing in a ring and singing a hymn.<ref>{{cite book|title=Early Britain|editor-last=Ford|editor-first=Boris|chapter=Music|last=Page|first=Christopher|place=Cambridge, UK|year=1992|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|page=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgecultura0000unse/page/252 252]|isbn=0-521-42881-5|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgecultura0000unse/page/252}}</ref> According to the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' (1933) the term "carol" was first used in England for this type of circle dance accompanied by singing in manuscripts dating to as early as 1300. The word was used as both a noun and a verb and the usage of carol for a dance form persisted well into the 16th century. One of the earliest references is in [[Robert of Brunne]]'s early 14th century ''[[Handlyng Synne]]'' ([[Handlyng Synne|Handling Sin]]) where it occurs as a verb.<ref>{{cite web |title=Robert of Brunne's 'Handlyng synne' |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/AHA2735.0001.001/1:4?rgn=div1;sort=occur;subview=detail;type=simple;view=fulltext;q1=carol |publisher=University of Michigan Library Digital Collections |access-date=20 January 2025}}</ref>