_Thus, when, at first, LOVE had them marshallèd, (As erst he did the shapeless mass of things) He taught them Rounds and winding Heyes to tread, And about trees to cast themselves in rings: As the two Bears, whom the First Mover flings With a short turn about Heaven's Axle-tree, In a round dance for ever wheeling be._
_But after these, as men more civil grew, He did more grave and solemn Measures frame; With such fair order and proportion true, And correspondence every way the same, That no fault-finding eye did ever blame: For every eye was movèd at the sight With sober wondering, and with sweet delight._
_Not those old students of the heavenly book, ATLAS the great, PROMETHEUS the wise; Which on the stars did all their lifetime look, Could ever find such measures in the skies, So full of change and rare varieties: Yet all the feet whereon these measures go Are only Spondees, solemn, grave, and slow._
_But for more divers and more pleasing show, A swift and wandering dance She did invent; With passages uncertain, to and fro, Yet with a certain Answer and Consent To the quick music of the instrument. Five was the number of the Music's feet; Which still the Dance did with five paces meet._
_A gallant Dance! that lively doth bewray A spirit and a virtue masculine; Impatient that her house on earth should stay, Since she herself is fiery and divine. Oft doth she make her body upward flyne With lofty turns and caprioles in the air, Which with the lusty tunes accordeth fair._
_What shall I name those current travases, That on a triple Dactyl foot, do run Close by the ground, with sliding passages? Wherein that dancer greatest praise hath won, Which with best order can all orders shun; For everywhere he wantonly must range. And turn, and wind, with unexpected change._
_Yet is there one, the most delightful kind, A lofty jumping, or a leaping round, When, arm in arm, two dancers are entwined, And whirl themselves, with strict embracements bound, And still their feet an Anapest do sound; An Anapest is all their music's song, Whose first two feet are short, and third is long._
_As the victorious twins of LÆDA and JOVE, (That taught the Spartans dancing on the sands Of swift Eurotas) dance in heaven above, Knit and united with eternal bands; Among the stars their double image stands, Where both are carried with an equal pace, Together jumping in their turning race._
