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The following is a paper I presented at the 2006 History Lab annual postgraduate conference at the Institute for Historical Research in London.

Abstract:
Popular opinion has perpetuated pre-revisionist scholars' assertion that English puritans were "killjoys", categorically opposed to all entertainments and pleasurable pastimes. Historians such as Patrick Collinson and Peter Lake have since complicated this view of puritanism and reforming movements, but one relevant recreation, dancing, has escaped revision.

This paper will examine how attitudes towards and practices of dancing both reflected and compounded the religious controversies of Tudor and Stuart England. Ecclesiastical and civic court records and account books indicate that the vehement and repeated claims of dancing's sinful lustfulness, made familiar by the likes of John Northbrooke and Philip Stubbes, misrepresent contemporaries' problems with dance. While dancing's role in courtship did make it susceptible to claims of sexual impropriety, authorities were primarily concerned about unruly or drunken dancers and audiences; potential plague infection due to crowds; youths skipping work, school, or church to go dancing; and whether or not dancing should be permitted on Sundays and holy days. Moreover, with James I's publication and Charles I's republication of the Book of Sports - which officially sanctioned dancing on holy days - an individual's position on dancing could be representative of political as well as religious convictions.

The physical practice of dancing galliards and corantos was an entertaining and enjoyable but rarely momentous activity. However, the impassioned opposition of reformers and traditionalists in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England made dancing a morally, socially, and legally dangerous delight.

    • Introduction
    • Terminology and Definitions
    • Antidance Attacks in Treatises and Pamphlets
    • Defenses of Dance in Conduct, Dance, and Education Manuals
    • Concerns with Disorder and Misbehaviour
    • Dancing on Sundays and Holy Days
    • The Book of Sports
    • Conclusion

For more of my papers please return to: Papers, Essays, and Lectures.