At the Moulin Rouge, The Dance At the Moulin Rouge, The Dance At the Moulin Rouge, the Dance is an oil-on-canvas painted by French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. It was painted in 1890, and is the second of a number of graphic paintings by Toulouse-Lautrec depicting the Moulin Rouge cabaret built in Paris in 1889. It portrays two dancers dancing the can-can in the middle of the crowded dance hall. A recently discovered inscription by Toulouse-Lautrec on the back of the painting reads: "The instruction of the new ones by Valentine the Boneless." This means that the man to the left of the woman dancing, is
Oh Dear! What Can the Matter Be? And nobody knew she was there. The second old lady was Abigail Splatter. She went there 'cause something was definitely the matter. But when she got there, it was only her bladder, And nobody knew she was there. </poem> One suggested precursor to the bawdy song, recorded in William's "Upper Thames" collection is the following "old morris fragment": <poem> Oh, dear, what can the matter be? Three old women tied to an apple tree! One ran away, the others stopped till Saturday. Oh, dear, what can the matter be? </poem> As with many folk songs and tall tales each verse