Ancient Sports and Pastimes. 619 
their poems were called, from the language in which they 
were composed, Romaunts, or Romances. ‘Their favourite 
themes were the beauty of the fair, and the achievements 
of the brave, in conflicts not only with human adversaries, 
but with enchanters, giants, dragons, and other creations of 
the poet’s imagination. The troubadours were held in high 
consideration by both sexes, because they celebrated the 
deeds of the one and the beauty of the other. Richard I. 
appears to have composed romantic_verses; in the popular 
story of his deliverance from the castle in which he was 
confined in Austria, the troubadour Blondel makes himself 
known to the royal captive by singing a poem which they 
had jointly composed. 
One of the old metrical romances celebrates the doings 
of Richard Cceur-de-Lion, and gives a description of his 
encounter with a lion. The sobriquet probably suggested 
the story. While Richard was in prison, Wardrewe, the 
king’s son, having heard of his great strength, desired to 
see him, and asked him if he dared stand a buffet from his 
hand, and added the condition that on the morrow he 
should return him another. Richard consented, and re- 
ceived a blow that staggered him; but on his antagonist’s 
arrival the following day Richard gave him a blow on the 
cheek which broke his jaw, and killed him on the spot. 
The joculators, or jugglers, and tumblers, or dancers, 
were originally, as we have stated, included under the name 
of minstrels; the jugglers were also called tregatones. 
Chaucer says of them: “Sometimes they will bring in the 
similitude of a grim lion, or make flowers spring up as ina 
meadow; sometimes they cause a vine to flourish, bearing 
white and red grapes; or show a castle built of stone, and 
when they please cause the whole to disappear.” No doubt 
these jugglers performed very wonderful feats, which were 
attributed, by the ignorance of our ancestors, to the power 
of magic. 
An account of ancient pastimes would be incomplete 
without some notice of the stage, since dramatic writings 
will generally present tolerably lively pictures of contem- 
porary manners. Nowadays, if an author writes a play, 
the action of which is placed in a bygone age, he does his 
best to find out what was the costume of the period; he 
avoids making his characters tell of events which happened 
after their time; in fact, he tries to make them talk and 
act as they would in real life. Anachronisms are banished 
to the region of burlesque. If a burlesque writer wishes to 
