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number of two hundred; one, being their chieftain, was called Robin Hoode, who required the king and his company to stay and fee his men fhoot; whereunto the king granting, Robin Hoode whistled, and all the two hundred archers fhot off, loofing all at once; and when he whistled again they likewise fhot again; their arrows whiftled by craft of the head fo that the noife was ftrange and loud, which greatly delighted the king, queen, and their company. Moreover this Robin Hoode defired the king, and queen, with their retinue, to enter the green wood, where, in arbours made of boughs, and decked with flowers, they were fet and ferved plentifully with venison and wine by Robin Hoode and his men, to their great contentment, and had other pageants and pastimes."

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ANY and various were the amusements of our forefathers. Evidence of the abundance of national sports

and paftime are to be met with in almost all old English writers; and in a work of fo unpromifing a title as the "Anatomy of Melancholy," by Burton, in the seventeenth century, we are told that " ringing, bowling, fhooting, playing with keel-pins, coits, pitching of bars, hurling, wrestling, leaping, running, fencing, mustering, swimming, playing with wafters, foils, foot-balls, balowns, running at the quintain, and the like, are common recreations of country folks.” To this long lift he adds, Dancing, finging, masking, mumming, and ftage plays, are reasonable recreations if in season; as are Maygames, wakes, and Whitsun Ales, if not at unfeasonable hours;"

and the good-hearted Burton fays, "Let them," that is, the common people, "freely feast, fing, dance, have puppet-plays, hobby-horses, tabers; crowds (fiddles), and bagpipes, and play at ball and barley brake. Plays, masks, jesters, gladiators, tumblers, and jugglers, are to be winked at, left the people fhould do worse than attend them." The love of pageants, fhows, theatrical performances and interludes, was very general among the people. To fuch an extent was it carried, that it was found materially to interfere with the devotions of the Sabbath. The ministers of the Church, according to Stephen Goffon, were wont to "poft over the service as fast as they can galloppe," for there were fome games "or interlude to be plaide, and if no place else can be gotten, this interlude must be playde in the church." In order to regulate to fome extent this inclination to be

merry, the magiftrates of London obtained an edict from Queen Elizabeth, to the effect "that all heathenish playes and interludes fhould be banished upon Sabbath dayes." The legislature of those days believed that there was wisdom in laughter; they fought only to apply to it the rule of the wifeft of men, that there was a fitting time for all things, and thefe times, they thought, were not altogether exclufive of Sundays, for we find in 1618 James publishing the remarkable Declaration—

"Whereas we did juftly in our progreffe through Lancashire rebuke fome puritannes and precise people, in prohibiting and unlawfully punishing of our good people for using their lawfull recreations and honeft exercises on Sundayes and other holy dayes after the afternoon fermon or fervice; It is our will that after the end of

Divine service, our good people be not disturbed, letted, or discouraged from any lawfull recreation, fuch as dancing either for men or women, archery for men, leaping, vaulting, or any other fuch harmless recreation; nor for having of May games, Whitsun Ales, and morris daunces, and the setting up of May Poles, and other sports therewith used, so as the fame be had in due and convenient time, without impediment or neglect of Divine fervice. But withall we doe here account ftill as prohibited all unlawfull games to be used upon Sunday onely as beare and bull baiting, and interludes."

Miracle-plays, dramas from Scripture, myfteries, fecular plays and interludes, were the germs from which the British drama has arifen. In early times these plays were performed during the season of Lent. The parish clerks of London were the chief performers in a play at Skinner's Well, near Smithfield, which we are told lasted three days, the performance being honoured by the presence of the unhappy Richard II. and his queen, Ifabella of France. In 1490 the clerks alfo played for eight days, the subject being "the Creation of the World." The fcholars of St. Paul also formed a very celebrated company of miracle-players; they appear to have been defirous of retaining a monopoly in this refpect, and were no doubt, like members of the profeffion of the prefent day, fomewhat influenced by feelings of jealousy at the success of rivals. No doubt the parish clerks were confidered as trenching fomewhat on their profeffion, for in 1378 they prefented a petition to Richard II. praying him "to prohibit fome unexpert people from presenting the history of the Old and New Teftament, to the great prejudice

of the faid clergy, who have been at great expense in order to represent it publickly at Christmas." The parish clerks perfevered, and Royal Richard, the people's king, honoured their performance near the spot where, a fhort time before, he had met his unruly fubjects headed by Wat Tyler, and promised that he would be their leader. There was too a famous Coventry play, of which Dugdale fays,

"Before the fuppreffion of the monafteries, this city (Coventry) was very famous for the pageants that were played therein upon Corpus Chrifti day, which occafioning very great confluence of people thither from far and near, was of no fmall benefit thereto: which pageants being acted with mighty state and reverence by the Grey Friars, had theatres for the several scenes, very large and high, placed upon wheels, and drawn to all the eminent parts of the city for the better advantage of spectators, and contained the story of the Old and New Teftament, compofed in the old English rithme."

This play confifted of forty acts, each of which formed a detached subject from the Scripture, beginning with the Creation, and ending with the Laft Judgment. We will not pretend to give an analysis of this very comprehenfive drama. The description of the first Act, taken from Strutt's "Sports and Paftimes,” will suffice to convey a notion of the work.

"In the first pageant or act, the Deity is represented seated on his throne by himself, delivering a speech of forty lines, beginning

thus:

'Ego sum Alpha et Omega, principium et finis.'

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