III Playing at Work
“The king (George III.) danced all night, and finished with the Hemp-dressers, that lasted two hours.”
—Memoir of Mrs. Delany.
No. 20 Virginia Reel
This dance, which we will not here attempt to describe, is no doubt well known to our readers; but we doubt if any of them has reflected on its significance. It is, in fact, an imitation of weaving. The first movements represent the shooting of the shuttle from side to side, and the passage of the woof over and under the threads of the warp; the last movements indicate the tightening of the threads, and bringing together of the cloth.70
There is a very similar Swedish dance, called “Weaving Woollen,” in which the words sung are—
Weave the woollen and bind it together,
Let the shuttle go round!
The originally imitative character of the dance is thus well illustrated. The “Hemp-dressers’ Dance,” in which George III. figured, seems to have resembled this, according to the description quoted in the memoir referred to in the heading of this chapter.