on public occasions being generally preceded by
a brief account of the order in which the characters were to walk. These
indexes were distributed among the spectators, that they might
understand the meaning of such allegorical representations as were
usually exhibited. In the "Merchant of Venice" (i. 1), Salarino calls
argosies "the pageants of the sea," in allusion, says Douce,[666] "to
those enormous machines, in the shapes of castles, dragons, ships,
giants, etc., that were drawn about the streets in the ancient shows or
pageants, and which often constituted the most important part of them."
Again, in "As You Like It" (iii. 4), Corin says:

"If you will see a pageant truly play'd,
Between the pale complexion of true love
And the red glow of scorn and proud disdain,
Go hence a little, and I shall conduct you,
If you will mark it."

[665] "Sports and Pastimes," 1876, pp. 25-28; see Warton's
"History of English Poetry," vol. ii. p. 202.

[666] "Illustrations of Shakespeare," p. 154.

And in "Antony and Cleopatra" (iv. 14), Antony speaks of "black
vesper's pageants."

The nine worthies, originally comprising Joshua, David, Judas Maccabaeus,
Hector, Alexander, Julius Caesar, Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godfrey of
Bouillon, appear from a very early period to have been introduced
occasionally in the shows and pageants of our ancestors. Thus, in
"Love's Labour's Lost" (v. 2), the pageant of the nine worthies is
introduced. As Shakespeare, however, introduces Hercules and Pompey
among his presence of worthies, we may infer that the characters were
sometimes varied to suit the circumstances of the period, or the taste
of the auditory. A MS. preserved in the library of Trinity College,
Dublin, mentions the "Six Worthies" having been played before the Lord
Deputy Sussex in 1557.[667]

[667] Staunton's "Shakespeare," 1864, vol. i. pp. 147, 148.

Another feature of the Whitsun merry-makings were the Cotswold games,
which were generally on the Thursday in Whitsun week, in the vicinity of
Chipping Campden. They were instituted by an attorney of
Burton-on-the-Heath, in Warwickshire, named Robert Dover, and, like the
Olympic games of the ancients, consisted of most kinds of manly sports,
such as wrestling, leaping, pitching the bar, handling the pike,
dancing, and hunting. Ben Jonson, Drayton, and other poets of that age
wrote verses on this festivity, which, in 1636, were collected into one