212 Charles Davidson — English Mystery Plays. 



The London Drapers resolved to have no Midsummer pageant, 

 because there were so many pageants ready standing for the Empe- 

 ror's coming into London, but they afterwards agreed to renew the 

 old pageants and to establish a new one of the Golden Flees, also to 

 bring out their giant, Lord Moryspys,^ and to present a morys dance.^ 



This item furnishes us one clue to the absence of plays by the 

 craft guilds of London. The royal entries called for frequent and 

 costly pageants from the gilds. These pageants were preserved, and 

 refurbished when occasion demanded them. A cursory reading of 

 the gild accounts shows that the pageants and ridings were felt as a 

 heavy tax,^ though a necessary one, and make it reasonable that the 

 gilds, having these pageants on hand, should be reluctant to build 

 movable pageants also for Corpus Christi and other religious or civic 

 festivities. They accordingly used their stationary pageants, as the 

 Drapers did in the Midsummer festival. 



1577. Visit of the Prince of Orange to Ghent. Tableaux vivants, 

 allegorical, with address to the Prince.^ 



1578, Jan 18. Entry of Governor-General Matthias into Brussels. 

 Tableaux vivants, allegorical, stationary.^ 



1595. Entry of the Archduke Ernest into Antwerj). Allegorical 

 pageants.' 



The pageants of these three entries mark the decay of pageantrj^ 

 After the allegorical and complimentary pageant had established 

 itself, there naturally followed on the part of the artists a straining 

 for striking effects and quaint conceits. All sense of unity was lost, 

 and mysterious or grotesque representations, that would make the 

 vulgar gape, became the fashion. The custom had become absurd, 

 and was out of place in the new life that Avas stirring the hearts of 

 men. Our latest item knits the old to the new. 



1603. Entry of James I into London. Ben Jonson's pageant 50 

 feet high and 50 feet long, a representation of the city of London, 

 with verses attached.^ 



1 These giants were a necessary adjunct to a display. They were sometimes station- 

 ary, more often movable. G og-magog* and Corinseus, otherwise called Gog and Magog, 

 now at Guildhall, are relics of the olden time.— Hone, pp. 263-270; also Magnin, p. 61; also 

 Fabyn, p. 603. 



2 Herbert, vol. 1, p. 455. 



3 Canterbury, as a halting place en route for the continent, would have suffered a 

 heavy tax for pageantry, but avoided it by entertaining outside the city walls,— in a 

 booth erected for the purpose and stocked with victuals and liquors if the halt were 

 for refreshment, in a monastery if a night's lodging were desired. See Ninth Report of 

 the Royal Commission on Historical MSS. 



4 Motley, vol. 3, p. 295. s Motley, vol, 3, p. 305. 

 6 Sharp, a cut of a pageant is given, pp. 24, 25. '' Sharp, p. 4. 



