Note 863 — Chapter V · THE DIFFERENCING ELEMENTS OF COMMUNAL POETRY (continued 3)
Reading edition
An early reference, from “Ruodlieb,” may be added to show the connection of dance and song; the passage occurs in a description of the dancing bears (III. 84 ff., ed. Grimm-Schmeller, Lat. Ged. des X. u. XI. Jhrh., p. 144):—
cum plebs altisonam fecit gyrando choream,
accurrunt et se mulieribus applicuere,
quae gracili voce cecinerunt deliciose,
insertisque suis harum manibus speciosis
erecti calcant....
The bears dance, then, along with the singing and dancing women; Grimm calls them spielweiber, and quotes an ecclesiastical prohibition (ibid., p. xv); but part of the description, witness the plebs, will pass for a communal dance.