Elizabeth
issued a proclamation forbidding unlicensed interludes or plays,
especially concerning religion or government policy on pain of
imprisonment for at least fourteen days. The common people still
went to morality plays, but also to plays in which historical
personages were portrayed, such as Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry
V. Some plays were on contemporary issues. Musicians played
together as orchestras. Music and singing was a popular pastime
after supper; everyone was expected to participate. Dancing was
popular with all classes. Gentlemen played cards, dice, chess,
billiards, tennis, and fenced and had games on horseback. Their
deer-hunting diminished as forests were cut down for agriculture
and the deer was viewed as an enemy eating crops. Falconry
diminished as hedges and enclosures displaced the broad expanses
of land.
Country people enjoyed music, dancing, pantomime shows with masks
of mythological or symbolic characters, riddles, wrestling,
hurling, running, swimming, leap frog, blind man's buff,
shovelboard played with the hands, and football between villages
with the goal to get the ball into one's own village. Football and
shin-kicking matches often resulted in injuries. The bought
ballads from traveling pedlars. Early morning dew gathered in May
and early June was thought to have special curative powers. There
were many tales involving fairies, witches, devils, ghosts, evil
spirits, angels, and monsters enjoyed by adults as well as
children.
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