rg further north, has,
like Liverpool, its miles of quays and wharves and its hundreds of
vessels. But the trade of London is still far greater than that of any
other port in the world, and for its three hundred years of prosperity
we must thank, above all men, that wise merchant Sir Thomas Gresham.

[Illustration: SIR FRANCIS DRAKE, IN HIS FORTY-THIRD YEAR.

(_From the engraving by Elstracke._)]

He did more than give an Exchange to the City. He gave a college: he
gave his own house in Broad Street for a college: he endowed it with
professorships: he intended it to become for London what Christ Church
was to Oxford, or Trinity to Cambridge. It has been converted into a
place for the delivery of lectures, but there are signs that the City
will once more have such a college as Gresham intended.

46. PLAYS AND PAGEANTS.

PART I.

There were no theatres in England, nor any Plays, before the reign of
Queen Elizabeth. This is a statement which is true, but needs
explanation. It is not the case that there was no acting. On the
contrary, there has always been acting of some kind or other. There was
acting at the fairs, where the Cheap Jack and the Quack had their
tumbling boys and clowns to attract the crowd. There were always
minstrels and tumblers, men and women who played, sang, danced, and
tumbled in the hall for the amusement of the great people in the long
winter evenings. Not including the wandering mummers, the Theatre was
preceded by the Religious Drama, the Pageant, and the Masque.

The Religious Drama was usually performed in churches, but sometimes in
market-places and in front of churches. They represented scenes from the
Bible and acts of saints. In a time when the people could not read, such
shows presented Sacred History in a most vivid form. No one could
possibly forget any detail in the Passion of Our Lord who had once seen
it performed in a Mystery, with the dresses complete, with appropriate
words and action, and with music. In the year 1409 there was a play
representing the Creation of the World performed at Clerkenwell. It
lasted eight days, and was witnessed by a vast concourse of all ranks.
Here were shown Paradise, our first parents, the admonition of the
Creator, the Fall, and the expulsion. Such a sight was better than a
hundred sermons for teaching the people.

The plays were not generally so long and so ambitious. They acted
detached scenes: the two men of Emmaus meeting the Risen