{"id":169,"date":"2021-11-25T22:13:14","date_gmt":"2021-11-25T22:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dancebiographies\/?p=169"},"modified":"2022-03-01T18:05:53","modified_gmt":"2022-03-01T18:05:53","slug":"hester-santlow-scenical-dancing-the-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dancebiographies\/2021\/11\/25\/hester-santlow-scenical-dancing-the-drama\/","title":{"rendered":"Hester Santlow Scenical Dancing: The Drama"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Moira Goff<\/mark><\/h2>\n\n\n\n


In An Essay towards an History of Dancing<\/em>, John Weaver had described Scenical Dancing as \u2018a faint Imitation of the Roman Pantomimes\u2019.1<\/sup> In his scenario for The Loves of Mars and Venus<\/em>, he explained the accomplishments of these performers from classical antiquity to his audience:

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026 these Mimes and Pantomimes were Dancers that represented a Story or Fable in Motion and Measure: They were Imitators of all things, as the Name of Pantomime imports, and perform\u2019d all by Gesture and the Action of the Hands, Fingers, Legs and Feet, without making use of the Tongue. The Face or Countenance had a large Share in this Performance, and they imitated the Manners, Passions, and Affections, by the numerous Variety of Gesticulations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n


Weaver went on to refer to the \u2018Rules of the Drama in their mute Performances\u2019 and to their \u2018confining each Representation to a certain Action, with a just Observation of the Manners and Passions, which that Action naturally produced.\u20192<\/sup>

These quotations provide clues to the skills he prized in Hester Santlow, who he elsewhere praised as<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a Dancer \u2026 where Art and Nature have combin\u2019d to produce a beautiful Figure, allow\u2019d by all Judges in our Art to be the most graceful, most agreeable, and most correct Performer in the World.3<\/sup><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Weaver surely needed little persuading that she was a performer who had a mastery of the \u2018Force and Beauty of graceful Motion, and handsome Gesture\u2019 \u2013 skills that were the foundation of Scenical Dancing.4<\/sup> <\/span>

There are two scenes in The Loves of Mars and Venus<\/em> for which Weaver prescribes specific gestures: scene two in which Venus and Vulcan perform a \u2018Dance being altogether of the Pantomimic kind\u2019; and scene six in which Mars, Venus and Vulcan express a series of Passions as Vulcan enjoys his revenge. In both Weaver builds the action around the contrasting gestures of Venus and Vulcan.

In scene two, the passacaille is succeeded by \u2018a wild rough Air\u2019 and the Graces and Cupid run off leaving Venus alone on stage. The scene takes on a very different atmosphere:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enter to Venus, Vulcan: They perform a Dance together; in which Vulcan expresses his Admiration; Jealousie; Anger; and Despite: And Venus shews Neglect; Coquetry; Contempt; and Disdain.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n



This is the dance \u2018of the Pantomimic kind\u2019. On the following pages of the scenario, Weaver describes the gestures used by Vulcan and Venus. There are nine for Vulcan, expressing more powerful and varied Passions than the five for Venus, which are mainly variations on the theme of rejection. Put together, they show the progress of this mute argument, which begins with Vulcan\u2019s Admiration of his beautiful wife and ends with a gesture of Detestation towards him by Venus as she leaves the stage.5<\/sup> The pair could have moved through some conventional dance figures and even performed some steps with their successive gestures, although the music would surely not have conformed to a particular dance type.

Scene six brings Weaver\u2019s \u2018Dramatick Entertainment of Dancing\u2019 to a conclusion as Vulcan exacts his revenge on his wife and her lover and their fellow deities enter as witnesses:

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vulcan shews them his Prisoners. Shame; Confusion; Grief; and Submission, are discover\u2019d in the Actions of Venus; Audacity; Vexation; Restlessness; and a kind of unwilling Resignation; in those of Mars. The Actions of Vulcan, are of Rejoicing; Insulting; and Derision.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n


None of Vulcan\u2019s actions are included among the gestures described on the last page of the scenario, although the Shame, Grief and Submission of Venus are there. Here, the three leading characters probably performed their actions and gestures simultaneously without really moving round the stage, until Neptune persuades Vulcan to forgive Venus and Mars and they are reconciled before the final Grand Dance.6<\/sup>

Weaver apparently drew on John Bulwer\u2019s rhetorical treatises Chirologia and Chironomia<\/em>, first published together in 1644, although this source seems to have been overlooked by researchers.7<\/sup> Rhetoric, of course, provides a link to acting. Another such link is Charles Gildon\u2019s The Life of Thomas Betterton<\/em> published in 1710, which refers to some of the gestures described by Weaver.8<\/sup>

As an actress as well as a dancer, Hester Santlow would have been familiar with many of the gestures that Weaver describes. During the 1716-1717 season, she played 21 different acting roles (the majority of which were in comedies) and among them were 14 roles that she kept throughout her acting career. Her \u2018line\u2019 in tragedy was the pathetic heroine, such as Ophelia in Shakespeare\u2019s Hamlet <\/em>and Selima in Rowe\u2019s Tamerlane<\/em>, both plays were staples of the repertoire. In comedy, she was often cast as the young, witty heroine, for example Harriet in Etherege\u2019s The Man of Mode and Angelica in Farquhar\u2019s The Constant Couple<\/em>. These roles, in particular, provide clues to her representation of Venus in Weaver\u2019s The Loves of Mars and Venus<\/em>. It is worth noting that both Selima and Harriet had earlier been played by the singer-actress Anne Bracegirdle, who had acted and sung Venus in Motteux\u2019s The Loves of Mars and Venus<\/em>. Motteux\u2019s masque was one of Weaver\u2019s sources for his ballet and he may well have seen Mrs Bracegirdle as Venus.9<\/sup>

Etherege\u2019s The Man of Mode<\/em> provides some hints towards Mrs Santlow\u2019s performance of Venus\u2019s \u2018Coquetry \u2026 seen in affected Airs, given her self throughout the whole Dance\u2019.10<\/sup> In the first scene of act three, Harriet and Young Bellair feign courtship and he advises her how to behave:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At one motion play your Fan, roul your Eyes, and then settle a kind look upon me.<\/p>

\u2026<\/p>

Now spread your Fan, look down upon it, and tell the Sticks with a Finger.<\/p>

\u2026<\/p>

Clap your hand up to your bosom, hold down your Gown. Shrug a little, draw up your Breasts and let \u2018em fall again, gently, with a Sigh or two,<\/p>

\u2026<\/p>

Clap your Fan then in both your hands, snatch it to your Mouth, smile, and with a lively motion fling your Body a little forwards. So\u2014now spread it; fall back on the sudden, cover your Face with it, and break out into a loud Laughter\u2014take up! Look Grave, and fall a fanning yourself\u201411<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n



Such a sequence, practised when she played Harriet, provided a store of actions that Hester Santlow could draw on for the Coquetry of Weaver\u2019s Venus.

There are very few illustrations of actors and actresses in performance before the late 18th century, so it is difficult to demonstrate visually a link between Weaver\u2019s gestures and Mrs Santlow\u2019s acting skills. Frontispiece illustrations to plays developed significantly when John Bell began to publish Bell\u2019s British Theatre from 1776.12<\/sup> Among the plates made to accompany Bell\u2019s editions are two that suggest the continuity of the conventions governing gestures. One shows Ann and Spranger Barry as Selima and Bajazet in Nicholas Rowe\u2019s Tamerlane<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Frontispiece plate from Nicholas Rowe, Tamerlane<\/em> (London, 1776), in Bell\u2019s British Theatre<\/em>, Vol. 3.<\/mark><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n



The scene is from act five and Mrs Barry as Selima is suing for mercy.13<\/sup> The other shows Mrs Hartley in the title role of Rowe\u2019s Jane Shore<\/em>.14<\/sup> Hester Santlow never appeared in the play, but Mrs Hartley\u2019s gesture, from act four, is recognisably Weaver\u2019s Detestation which he describes as a \u2018more passionate Form\u2019 and a \u2018redoubled Action\u2019 in which \u2018both the turn\u2019d-out Palms are so bent to the left side, and the Head still more projected from the Object\u2019.15<\/sup> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Frontispiece plate from Nicholas Rowe, Jane Shore <\/em>(London, 1776). Bell\u2019s British Theatre<\/em>, Vol. 1<\/mark><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n



Gestures similar to Weaver\u2019s can also be found in Gilbert Austin\u2019s Chironomia <\/em>published in London in 1806. For example, he describes and depicts Shame which \u2018in the extreme sinks on the knee and covers the eyes with both hands\u2019 and \u2018Mild resignation\u2019 which \u2018falls on the knee, crosses the arms on the breast, and looks forwards and upwards to heaven\u2019, adding in both cases that he is showing a \u2018feminine expression\u2019 of the Passion.16 <\/sup> Writing some 90 years after Weaver, it is reasonable to assume that Austin is referring to conventions that had changed significantly. Yet, there are enough resemblances within his gestures between Austin\u2019s gestures, those that can be seen in 18th-century depictions of actors and Weaver\u2019s descriptions to suggest a continuous tradition. Austin\u2019s mention of the \u2018feminine expression\u2019 of particular Passions opens the possibility that Hester Santlow used her own conventions of gesture, from her work as an actress, in The Loves of Mars and Venus. The action in John Weaver\u2019s \u2018Dramatick Entertainment of Dancing\u2019 may have owed more to her than we can ever know.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOTES<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

1)<\/mark>\u00a0John Weaver,\u00a0An Essay towards an History of Dancing<\/em>\u00a0(London, 1712), p. 168. All of Weaver\u2019s published works are reproduced in facsimile in Richard Ralph,\u00a0The Life and Works of John Weaver<\/em>\u00a0(London, 1985), to which references will also be given. For this quotation see p. 665.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2) <\/mark>John Weaver,\u00a0The Loves of Mars and Venus<\/em>\u00a0(London, 1717), pp. x-xi. Ralph,\u00a0John Weaver<\/em>, pp. 739-740.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3)<\/mark> John Weaver,\u00a0Anatomical and Mechanical Lectures upon Dancing<\/em>\u00a0(London, 1721), p. x. Ralph,\u00a0John Weaver<\/em>, p. 869.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4)<\/mark> Weaver,\u00a0Loves of Mars and Venus<\/em>, p. xi. Ralph,\u00a0John Weaver<\/em>, p. 740.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5)<\/mark> Weaver,\u00a0Loves of Mars and Venus<\/em>, pp. 20-23. Ralph,\u00a0John Weaver<\/em>, pp. 752, 754-756.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6)<\/mark> \u00a0Weaver,\u00a0Loves of Mars and Venus<\/em>, pp. 27-28. Ralph,\u00a0John Weaver<\/em>, pp. 760, 762.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7)<\/mark> John Bulwer,\u00a0Chirologia: or the naturall language of the hand \u2026 whereunto is added Chironomia: or, the art of manuall rhetoricke<\/em>\u00a0(London, 1644). Studies of Bulwer\u2019s treatises have focussed on the influence of his sign language in the teaching of deaf people, they await detailed scrutiny by historians of acting as well as dancing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8)<\/mark> See Ralph,\u00a0John Weaver<\/em>, pp. 135-136 for Gildon and Weaver\u2019s\u00a0Essay<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9)<\/mark>\u00a0For Mrs Santlow\u2019s acting repertoire in relation to\u00a0The Loves of Mars and Venus<\/em>\u00a0see Moira Goff, \u2018In pursuit of the dancer-actress\u2019, in\u00a0Women\u2019s work: making dance in Europe before 1800<\/em>, ed. Lynn Matluck Brooks (Madison, Wis., 2007), 183-204 (pp. 191-194).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10)<\/mark> Weaver,\u00a0Loves of Mars and Venus<\/em>, p. 22. Ralph, John Weaver<\/em>, p. 755.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

11)<\/mark> George Etherege,\u00a0The Man of Mode<\/em>\u00a0(London, 1676), pp. 35-36.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

12)<\/mark> See Judith Milhous and Robert D. Hume,\u00a0The publication of plays in London 1660-1800<\/em>\u00a0(London, 2015), chapter 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

13)<\/mark> Nicholas Rowe,\u00a0Tamerlane<\/em>\u00a0(London, 1776)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

14)<\/mark>\u00a0Nicholas Rowe,\u00a0Jane Shore<\/em>\u00a0(London, 1776)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

15)<\/mark> Weaver,\u00a0Loves of Mars and Venus<\/em>, p. 23. Ralph,\u00a0John Weaver<\/em>, p. 756.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

16)<\/mark>\u00a0Gilbert Austin,\u00a0Chironomia<\/em>\u00a0(London, 1806), p. 489, figures 108, 109.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMAGES<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
  1. James Roberts (artist) and John Thornthwaite (engraver), frontispiece plate from Nicholas Rowe, Tamerlane<\/em> (London, 1776) in Bell\u2019s British Theatre<\/em>, vol. 31. Copy courtesy of Special Collections and Archives, Queen’s University Belfast.<\/li>
  2. James Roberts (artist), frontispiece plate from Nicholas Rowe, Jane Shore<\/em> (London, 1776), in Bell\u2019s British Theatre<\/em>, vol. 1. \u00a9Victoria & Albert Museum.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    NEXT POST<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    The next post, on Clarissa Wybrow (n\u00e9e Blanchet), is by Keith Cavers and will appear on 10th December 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By Moira Goff In An Essay towards an History of Dancing, John Weaver had described Scenical Dancing as \u2018a faint Imitation of the Roman Pantomimes\u2019.1 In his scenario for The Loves of Mars and Venus, he explained the accomplishments of these performers from classical antiquity to his audience: \u2026 these Mimes and Pantomimes were Dancers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[37,63,67],"class_list":["post-169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-hester-santlow","tag-john-weaver","tag-theatrical-dancing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dancebiographies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dancebiographies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dancebiographies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dancebiographies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dancebiographies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dancebiographies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dancebiographies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169\/revisions\/237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dancebiographies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dancebiographies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dancebiographies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}