"Horace Surpassed" (lengthily subtitled "or, a beautiful description of a New England Country-Dance") was published by the American author Thomas Green Fessenden (left) in his 1806 collection, Original Poems. Fessenden (1771-1837) was, according to the biographical notes here, a lawyer, poet, farmer, journalist, newspaper editor, and member of the Massachusetts legislature. He was born in Massachusetts, educated at Dartmouth, and spent most of his life in New England. His original fame as a poet grew from the 1803 work "Terrible Tractoration", a satire about physicians who refused to adopt a quack medical device. (Yes, really!)
In his spare time, Fessenden evidently liked country (contra) dancing, and his poem is a cheerful look at the characters of rural New England society: agile Willy Wagnimble, clumsy Charles Clumfoot, graceful Angelina, etc. The "New England Country-Dance" in the subtitle should be understood as referring to a social evening, not to an actual country-dance.
A rather catty review quoted the poem at length
not because it is superiour to the rest, but as a fair specimen of the work, and it describes an amusement which is "all the rage."
--- The Monthly anthology, and Boston review. (July, 1806)
Fessenden topped his poem with a quote from Horace's Odes. "Iam satis terris nivis atque dirae" ("Enough of snow and hail at last") is the opening line of "To Augustus, The Deliverer and Hope of the State" (1.2). This particular Ode concerns the disastrous overflowing of the Tiber, possibly as a punishment of the gods for the ill deeds of Rome (notably, the assassination of Julius Caesar), with Augustus as its hoped-for saviour. An 1882 translation of the Ode may be found here. I must confess that I cannot detect any thematic connection between it and Fessenden's poem, so I'll chalk it up to Fessenden's ego and desire to be recognized as a poet.
The full original text with my best approximation of the formatting is in bold below, with a few comments of my own interspersed in italics. In the absence of page breaks, the footnotes have been moved to the end.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HORACE SURPASSED;
OR, A
BEAUTIFUL DESCRIPTION
OF A
NEW ENGLAND COUNTRY-DANCE.
--------------
"Jam satis terris, nivis atque diræ," &c.
How funny 'tis, when pretty lads and lasses
Meet altogether, just to have a caper,
And the black fiddler plays you such a tune as
Sets you a frisking.
It was common from colonial times onward for musicians to be African-American, slave or free, and for a fiddler (often a traveling one) to be the main source of music for a rural dance.
High bucks and ladies, standing in a row all,
Make finer show than troops of continentals.*
Balance and foot it rigadoon and chassé,
Brimful of rapture.
Balance and foot it, rigadoon, and chassé are typical late eighteenth- to early nineteenth-century country dance figures and steps. The dancers in a country dance stand in facing rows, most commonly in this era with all the men on one side and the women on the other.
Thus poets tell us how one Mister Orpheus
Led a rude forest to a country-dance, and
Play'd the brisk tune of Yankee Doodle on a
New Holland fiddle.
According to Kate Van Winkle Keller's Dance Figures in America database, at least four sets of figures were set to "Yankee Doodle".
Spruce our gallants are, essenc'd with pomatum,
Heads powder'd white as Killington-Peak snow-
storm:*
Ladies, how brilliant, fascinating creatures,
All silk and muslin!
But now behold a sad reverse of fortune,
Life's brightest scenes are checker'd with disaster,
Clumsy Charles Clumfoot treads on Tabby's
gown, and
Tears all the tail off!
Stepping on a lady's gown is one of those eternal problems at balls...
Stop, stop the fiddler, all away this racket --
Hartshorn and water! See the ladies fainting,
Paler than primrose, fluttering about like
Pigeons affrighted!
Not such the turmoil, when the sturdy farmer
Sees turbid whirlwinds beat his oats and rye down,
And the rude hail-stones, big as pistol-bullets,
Dash in his windows!
Though 'twas unhappy, never seem to mind it,
Bid punch and sherry circulate the brisker;
Or, in a bumper, flowing with Madeira,
Drown the misfortune.
This verse about using alcohol to smooth over such social calamities was deleted from the poem, along with the subtitles and the quotation from the Ode, when it was reprinted (starting here) in the pseudonymous 1837 collection Terrible tractoration: and other poems by Christopher Caustic.
Willy Wagnimble dancing with Flirtilla,
Almost as light as air-balloon inflated,
Rigadoons round her, 'till the lady's heart is
Forc'd to surrender.
Dancing as courtship: the nimble male dancer impresses the lady with his fancy footwork.
Benny Bamboozle cuts the drollest capers,
Just like a camel, or a hippopot'mos,
Jolly Jack Jumble makes as big a rout as
Forty Dutch horses!
Cutting capers: doing fancy steps. Without much grace, in the case of Benny and Jack!
See Angelina lead the mazy dance down,
Never did fairy trip it so fantastick;
How my heart flutters, while my tongue pro-
nounces,
Sweet little seraph!
"Mazy" is a common adjective for dances. A maze is an obvious reference for country dances, with their interweaving figures, but the phrase "mazy waltz" also pops up frequently in nineteenth-century works.
Such are the joys, that flow from country-dancing,
Pure as the primal happiness of Eden,
Wine, mirth, and musick, kindle in accordance
Raptures extatick.
The last line is the second time he uses "rapture" to describe country-dancing; in the second stanza the dancers were "Brimful of rapture".
* The soldiers, who enlisted during the American revolutionary war were termed "Continentals."
* Killington Peak. The summit of the green mountains in Vermont is so called.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An original printing of Original Poems may be seen at Hathitrust, with "Horace Surpassed" starting here.
The word "mazy" has completely disappeared from British English except in the fossilised phrase "mazy run" for a skilful and impressive move in football [soccer]. I've always understood it as a run with many rapid changes of direction, sending multiple opponents the wrong way.
Posted by: Eleanor | August 03, 2018 at 04:09 AM
I first came across it in the Reminiscences of Captain Gronow, in the famous passage where he talks about the introduction of the quadrille in 1815, concluding with:
The "mazy waltz" was also brought to us about this time; but there were comparatively few who at first ventured to whirl round the salons of Almack's; in course of time Lord Palmerston might, however, have been seen describing an infinite number of circles with Madame de Lieven. Baron de Neumann was frequently seen perpetually turning with the Princess Esterhazy; and, in course of time, the waltzing mania, having turned the heads of society generally, descended to their feet, and the waltz was practised in the morning in certain noble mansions in London with unparalleled assiduity.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | August 03, 2018 at 11:18 AM