"Moreška je najčešće spominjan ples iz 15. stoljeća ali ga je unatoč
tome najteže klasificirati i opisati u čitavoj povijesti plesa" (Curt
Sachs). Moreška se u svakoj zemlji razvijala na različite načine. U
Italiji je taj pojam imao čitav niz značenja: mimički, plesani "balet"
(često s alegorijskim temama); osobiti tradicijski ples; bojevni
ples; poseban plesni korak. U talijanskoj moreški nikad se ne
spominju Maori, nevjernici ili kršćani, a moreški sličan ples
mattaccino, često bojevni ili svadbeni rijetko su u farsama i operama
izvodili matti — lude, budale.The author discusses the moresca as it was performed in cities and courts from Rome to
Venice, illustrating its multiformity, unique in all Europe with examples. Written
references to the moresca first appeared in Italy around the mid-fifteenth century, and after
about a hundred years, the moresca started getting mentioned less and less. Moresca and
mattaccino were closely related, as they were, and still are, in the Americas. By the early
seventeenth century, references to both these dance types have all but disappeared, replaced
by the theatrical intermedio and the staged abbattimento. Finally, there is a brief
discussion of the mattaccino, for which less material has surfaced, but which resembles the
moresca in several ways: in its various guises and elusiveness
