ABSTRACT
The term, carole, as a reference to a dance still performed disappears from French writing about 1400. The characteristics of the dance while it was still in vogue. One circumstance that ensured its continued use was the enduring popularity of the Roman de la Rose, of which there are numerous fifteenth-century manuscripts. This celebrated poem, composed in the thirteenth century, includes a lengthy description of allegorical figures dancing a carole. Yet a choreographic sense for the word caroleseems likely in the following extract from a poem composed sometime in the late fifteenth century. Although one should note that the word is used to form a rhyme, and may therefore represent nothing more than a useful archaism. Yet in spite of its rarity in actual usage, caroleas a choreographic term was starting to appear about this time as a headword in the emerging field of lexicography.
