Quadrille

“ It does not seem to us as though there could be anything more harmless than dancing a cold-blooded quadrille. It is a simple walk around, and is not even exercise. Of course a man can, if he chooses, get in extra steps enough to keep his feet warm, but we contend that no quadrille, where they only touch hands, go down in the middle, and alamand left, can work upon a man's religion enough to cause him to backslide. ”

“ Twelve young girls and men of the nobility open the dance with a quadrille, prescribed according to court etiquette, and marked by a quaint stateliness. The girls are dressed alike in simple frocks of white and silver, while the young men are in more or less elaborate uniform. After the quadrille, dancing is general, but the crowd is too great for it to be any pleasure at first. ”

“ My young ladies’ quadrille is all arranged—even the dress is made and the partners all named, which, to spare their feelings, I did from my own observation, and made Captain —— write a regular aide-de-camp’s invitation to join my quadrille; and I believe the right gentlemen are secured, with one melancholy exception—that of a gentleman who dances eternally with everybody, seeing that he has two feet ”

“ We know it is a quadrille party, because we saw some men taking up the front drawing-room carpet while we sat at breakfast this morning, and if further evidence be required, and we must tell the truth, we just now saw one of the young ladies ‘doing’ another of the young ladies’ hair, near one of the bedroom windows, in an unusual style of splendour, which nothing else but a quadrille party could possibly justify. ”

“ We waltzed several figures of the German Quadrille, till we came to that one where a chair is placed in the centre of the circle, in which each lady in turn sits, and has the opportunity of refusing or accepting every gentleman in the set as a partner in a waltz. ”

“ An admirable item in the programme of the fancy-dress ball is the quadrille, the lancers, or the cotillon, which shall be danced by people clad in costumes of the same period, such harmony being a special pleasure to the beholder, who may nevertheless also glean some entertainment from the spectacle of the nineteenth-century Columbine hobnobbing with the fourteenth-century monk ”

“ I thought you said 'quadrille.’ But I know the turns. Right turn, I turn to the right; left turn, I turn to the left; about turn, I just just about, but not quite; form fours, I form—excuse me, but how does one man form fours? ”

“ The plain, fancy, Lancers, Polka, Mazourka, and German, are among the most popular.
In plain quadrilles, a lady takes no steps, merely walking gracefully through the figures, but her feet must keep perfect time to the music, and she must know the changes of position perfectly.
A quadrille may be very properly described as a conversation dance, as there are long pauses between the figures, when the dancers must have a fund of small talk ready for their partners. ”

“ A quadrille cannot go on evenly if any confusion arises from the ignorance, obstinacy, or inattention of any one of the dancers. It is therefore useful to know every way in which a figure may be danced, and to take your cue from the others. ”

“ Sometimes a number of couples execute a regular figure, reminding me of our quadrilles at home, though very different. A large central space being cleared, a young man darts out from one side of the hall, and is met by a lady from the opposite side. ”

“ Having performed this duty, some extend themselves at full length, but without allowing the belly to touch the ground, and in this posture describe a circle with the head, yet without stirring either hands or feet, by which they are supported. Others take thick wooden clubs, about a foot and a half long, and cut into the shape of pears, place one on each shoulder, brandish them about in cadence with the music, at the same time stamping with their feet, and continuing this exercise for half an hour. ”

“ And if the hips, which are the pole of a man, are by reason of his position, placed so, that the right is higher than the left, make the point of the higher shoulder in a perpendicular line above the highest prominence of the hip, and let this right shoulder be lower than the left. Let the pit of the throat always be over the centre of the joint of the foot on which the man is leaning. The leg which is free should have the knee lower than the other, and near the other leg. ”

“ The arch is well known to be the strongest form of support, and the arches of the feet are consequently adapted to be the best supports for the weight of the body. An arch has level abutments and a centre or keystone, which is represented in the foot by that bone with which the bones of the leg articulate. Now if the abutments of an arch are not level the position of the keystone is altered and the arch at once becomes unstable. ”

“ And so, in the same pensive lucidity, I find the poetry of all human anatomy in standing on a single leg. To express complete and perfect leggishness the leg must stand in sublime isolation, like the tower in the wilderness. As Ibsen so finely says, the strongest leg is that which stands most alone.
This lonely leg on which I rest has all the simplicity of some Doric column. The students of architecture tell us that the only legitimate use of a column is to support weight. ”

“ Then we follow the angles, and find they break into large simple curves. We trace the great curve of the body, its backward thrust, the width of shoulders, and comparatively narrow width across the hips, the thick curve of the thigh and its narrowing line to where the knee bends on the chair, the curve of the calf, and the flatter line of the knee to the foot where it bends downward in a great spoon-shaped curve. The right leg has far more delicate curves. ”

“ In a little dirty room with the painted panels of its walls filthy with spittle, and conversation audible through the thin partition from the next room, in a stifling atmosphere saturated with impurities, on a bedstead moved away from the wall, there lay covered with a quilt, a body. One arm of this body was above the quilt, and the wrist, huge as a rake-handle, was attached, inconceivably it seemed, to the thin, long bone of the arm smooth from the beginning to the middle. ”

“ The wider of the trousers, the fuller the skirts, the less shall we see of the difficult legs, says the young artist. But no matter how thick and frilly are the petticoats and how wide are the trousers, those difficult legs are not to be ignored. They must be traced lightly beneath the garments.
We cannot disguise the fact that if we are drawing human beings, two legs, two arms, and a head and body of reasonable proportions are essential for each. ”

“ For if a man be placed flat on his back, with his hands and feet extended, and a pair of compasses centred at his navel, the fingers and toes of his two hands and feet will touch the circumference of a circle described therefrom. And just as the human body yields a circular outline, so too a square figure may be found from it. For if we measure the distance from the soles of the feet to the top of the head, and then apply that measure to the outstretched arms, the breadth will be found to be the same as the height, as in the case of plane surfaces which are perfectly square. ”

“ The position of the arm perhaps will be best described by supposing an oblong hollow square, formed by the measure of four arms, as in plate the first, where the arm in its true position forms the diagonal of such an imaginary figure. ”

“ Why, one child, who was very vain about her figure, must needs get a piece of string, or tape, and begin to measure her companion's wrist, thumb, neck, waist, and height, saying--"Twice round the thumb, once round the wrist, twice round the wrist, once round the neck, twice round the neck, once round the waist, and twice round the waist, once the height." ”

“ You may make the round limb of the same D in another fashion; namely, as a pen naturally would, broader above than below. For this, draw the diagonal c. b. and describe your exterior arc as before; but to describe the interior, in the line c. b. take a point m. lower down than i. and distant from it the width of the broader limb, and without altering your compass describe an interior line; but where the limb must needs be narrower, there you are to accommodate it with your hand, both below and above, as in the following cut. ”

“ The powerful tendon of the quadriceps extensor muscle, in which the patella is developed as a sesamoid bone, protects and strengthens the front of the joint and functionates as the anterior ligament of the joint. In the attitude of complete extension in which the joint is locked, no demand is made on the quadriceps apparatus; with the commencement of flexion, the stability of the joint, and the weight-bearing capacity of the limb as a whole, depend largely on the controlling influence of the quadriceps muscle ”

“ Now we can mark down the big shadows—under the loose sleeve of the shirt, at the waistbelt, between the legs and the folds at the back of the knickerbockers, at the knee, and beneath the heels. We follow the grip of the hand on the chair, remembering that something solid and big flattens and pushes out the palm. The uplifted right arm is turned from us. ”

“ From the top of that precious fabric we have described hang the two arms, which are terminated by the hands, and which bear a perfect symmetry one with another. The arms are knit with the shoulders in such a manner that they have a free motion, in that joint. They are besides divided at the elbow and at the wrist that they may fold, bend, and turn with quickness. ”

“ If the neck were as wide as the shoulders, and the chest and the blades, that is, if the body would run straight up from these points, then the top edge could be fitted with nothing else but a square piece of cloth. ”

“ The arms, which were carried on the right of the body, well elevated, at the start of the figure, are slowly swung across to the left of the body as the balance leg swings forward and across the print. The close of the figure is one of the most striking and effective poses in the whole list of school figures. Unless the balance leg is carried well forward and across the print, the body straightened up and the arms carried across simultaneous with the bringing forward of the balance leg, the figure will degenerate into a spiral. ”

“ Each man has an iron band riveted round his ankle, and another round his waist, and the chain is fastened, one end into each of these bands, and dangles between them, clanking with every movement. This leaves the wearers free to use their arms, and, indeed, their whole body, it being only a weight and a badge and a note for discovery, from which they cannot rid themselves. ”

“ The width of the wrist goes 12 times into the whole arm; that is from the tip of the fingers to the shoulder joint; that is 3 times into the hand and 9 into the arm.
The arm when bent is 4 heads.
The arm from the shoulder to the elbow in bending increases in length, that is in the length from the shoulder to the elbow, and this increase is equal to the thickness of the arm at the wrist when seen in profile. ”

“ In considering the relative size of each portion of the limbs—if, in the walk, there be a greater or less approach to the marching pace, the hip is large; for we naturally employ the joint which is surrounded with the most powerful muscles, and in any approach to the march, it is the hip-joint which is used, and the knee and ancle-joints which remain proportionally unemployed. ”

“ He would balance himself, while nursing one leg over the knee of the other, on the two hind legs of his chair, or even on one of them, and was indulging in gymnastics of this sort when the leg of the chair suddenly snapped, and he, a large and heavy man, rolled on the floor. ”

“ When the square is cut away from the center of the circle, and a hole cut in the center large enough for the neck to pass through, and the front edges are again connected, then it will fit the whole outside of the human form, except the sides below the arm. The square cut out of the circle takes away all shoulder slope. ”

“ To begin with, I shall draw a man such as lads draw on walls, a line for each arm, another for each leg, with the fingers longer than the arm. Long after, one or other of us will notice this lack of proportion; we shall observe that the leg is thick, that this thickness varies, that the length of the arm is proportionate to the body. In this improvement I shall either go side by side with my pupil, or so little in advance that he will always overtake me easily and sometimes get ahead of me. ”

“ The Wrist ought to be of a Height sufficient to cover the Body without contracting the Arm, which cannot be fixed to a particular Height; for a short Man against a tall one, should raise it as high as the Head, which People of equal; Stature, or a tall Man against a short one, ought not to do. ”

“ Why was the vertebral column at the back of the body as in quadrupeds, when it would have been more logical, in creating a man who stands on his feet, to place it in the centre of the body as a strong support, thus avoiding the curvatures and weakness of the spine that are now suffered by this disequilibrium in the support of its weight? ”

“ Placing the plate so that the two perforations are at the left, we have the principal figure in an upright posture. This figure apparently represents a personage of some importance, as he is decked from head to foot with a profusion of ornaments and symbols. He is shown in profile with the arms extended in action, and the feet separated as if in the act of stepping forward. The head is large, occupying about one-third of the height of the design. ”