The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1869-07-20

i
OIL 'he character of pagan festival, is OF
necessity indecent or immodest, and that il
may not be made the source of much in.
nocent and refined enjoyment, II is a
mistake, e,too, to suppose that the ballet has
exclusive attractions for men. Educated
and accomplished women both young and
old, love to see a handsome girl, handsome
y dressed or drapcd, displaying herself in
the graceful figures and movements of the
dance, upon the same principle that they
admire picture, poem, flower, tree.
a landscape, or anything in the works of
God or man that appeals to the sense of
beauty, proportion, and harmony. And
II one such young woman is beautiful
sight, fifty or hundred or more Of sucl,
woman dressed alike, or slightly differing
Tor the contrast of color, are 7,dr passu. a
beautiful spectacle, when they perform
gyrations and ovolutions upon the stage
and neither by gesture nor sign nor suggest.
ion convey, or seek to convey, to the
mind of the beholder any impression but
that which springs from the legitimate
exercise OF their art, The scanty drapery
OF the ballet girls, when not carried TO the
extreme that suggests-not dancing, or
the case and grace of dancing, but some.
thing else-is no offence either AGAINST
modesty or good manners, Yet ever since
the days of Martial, and perhaps long
before, the Prudes, Puritaps, and sterner
moralsts OF society have seen in the public
dance means for the corruption of public
manners though the eye, which they have
never wearled in denouncing. Addison,
in the article in the Spectator, from,
which extract has alrcdy been made. ha.
good, natured fling at the stage dances
OF his day when ballet was as vet TN.
known. "I," he says, "who know not
hing Of women but from seeing plays. can
give great guesses at the whole structure
OF the fair sex by being innocently placed
IN the PIT, and lnsultcd by the petticoats
of the dencers-the advantages Of whose
pretty persons are great help to dull
paly.' The costume Of the modern ballet
OF thirty years ago, when Taglioni's grace
iul skirts barely displayed the knee, was
objected to by the prudes Of both sexes.
In spite however Of objections, good
natured otherwise, the ballet has continued
to grow in popularity and the skirts of
the dancers to grow less and such inter.
tainments have spread from the Italian
opera houses to the great, and afterward
to the minor theatres, and finally. have
invaded and taken possession of the music
bals.
Bailey's lovely statue of "Eye at us
+ fountain,' in which there is not the
slightest pretencc of drapery of conceal.
ment OF the divine form, fresh from the
hands of the Creator, is purity itself; and
any one who sees impurity in it has the
lmpurity in his own heart. In the same
manner, there is no indelicacy in the
display of the pretty bare legs of little
maldens of from four or five years old or
IN the bare feet and ankles of the bonnv
Scotch lasses, innocent alike of shoes and
i 'tofkpTs ikdPsa agaa a ST fdil fR5@i damseIs, who
made the d d'splay for meretricious purs
pose. There are statues and statuettes to
be seen all over Europe in which nudity
is as complete as it is beautiful but when
such statues or statuettes are initiated by
purveyors of obscenity, and crowned with
a modern bonnet, wrapped in a modern
shawl, and cncased in modern stockings,
and nothing else, their vile intention
becomes apparent, ard they fall properly
under the cognizance Of the police. The
display is nj indecent per Sc, as when an
actress OF high attainments and genius, in
default OF actor of truthfulness and talent
enough to undertake the part, appears as
Romeo any more than it is indelicate or
improper for a man 10 hide the form by
appearing in petticoats to play the part Of
ono of the witches in Macbeth. The
intention is everything, Just as it is in kill
ing. lfyou intend 10 kill, your are n
murderer,a and deserve the murderers fate.
If you kill in self defence and in just and
patriotic cause.-The a soldier-you are
not blamable but virtuous. In like
manner, the scanty lrapery of the ballet
for the purposes of art, and art alone, is
no offence against good taste or good man.
ners but if the ballet giri--not for the
sake of attract " lew attcntion-over.
does the scantiness and betrays the im-
modcsty of her mind by her motions or
gestures, she commits an offence, and
ought to be hisscd from the stage which
she disgraccs
Ii at any place Of public entertainment
the undrcss of women is of a character to
deter men from introducing their pure
minded mothers, wives, sisters, or daughters
to witness the performance, such place of
entertainment is doomed to bankruptcy.
1t may drag on precarious existence for
a while, by keeping within hair s,breadth
of the penalties of the law that prohibits
the immodest exposure of the person but
the world and the worlds opinion are
against u, and it must 90 the way of all
anachronisms and offences against the
public conscience. But let US not, in the
outcry against short petticoats, commit
treason against an art that ministers, like
other arts, 10 the qualification of the sense
of beauty. All true art is like music-it
cannot be indecent or improper in ITSELF
and is only made so by the extraDeous
association Of words and thoughts that
come out of the mind of the observer, and
not out of things OF served "To the pure
all things are pure. "ln dancing" says
SIR Richard Steele, 'all the charms OF an
agreeable person are in their highest