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Conclusion

            In “Terpsichore Reviled: Antidance Tracts in Elizabethan England” Mary Pennino-Baskerville asserts that antidance tracts make us “better acquainted with the kind of dancing popular in the England of Elizabeth.” [75] While some of the dancing practices described by Fetherstone, Northbrooke, Stubbes, and others are corroborated in archival records and appear to be common and representative, the Records of Early English Drama collections refer to other examples of dancing that do not appear or are only briefly touched on in the antidance treatises. Morris dancing is underrepresented, married couples and families who dance together are not mentioned, and lewd dancing is overemphasized. While antidance treatises certainly offer an interesting and colourful view of dancing in early modern England, they are not a reliable source for determining “the kind of dancing popular in the England of Elizabeth.” On the other hand, “In any period of history it is not the truth, but what people believe to be the truth, that counts.” [76]

Footnotes