207. POPULAR AMUSEMENTS AND FESTIVALS
INDOOR GAMES
It is pleasant to turn from the superstitions of the Middle Ages to the games, sports, and festivals which helped to make life agreeable alike for rich and poor, for nobles and peasants. Some indoor games are of eastern origin. Thus chess, with which European peoples seem to have become acquainted as early as the tenth century [33] arose in India as a war game. On each side a king and his general, with chariots, cavalry, elephants, and infantry, met in battle array. These survive in the rooks, knights, bishops, and pawns of the modern game. Checkers is a sort of simplified chess, in which the pieces are all pawns, till they get across the board and become kings. Playing cards are another Oriental invention. They were introduced into Europe in the fourteenth century, either by the Arabs or the gypsies. Their first use seems to have been for telling fortunes.
[Illustration: CHESS PIECES OF CHARLEMAGNE
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. The figures are carved in ivory.]
OUTDOOR GAMES
Many outdoor games are derived from those played in medieval times. How one kind of game may become the parent of many others is seen in the case of the ball-play. The ancients tossed and caught balls as children do now. They also had a game in which each side tried to secure the ball and throw it over the adversary's goal line. This game lasted on into the Middle Ages, and from it football has descended. The ancients seem never to have used a stick or bat in their ball-play. The Persians, however, began to play ball on horseback, using a long mallet for the purpose, and introduced their new sport throughout Asia. Under the Tibetan name of pulu ("ball") it found its way into Europe. When once the mallet had been invented for use on horseback, it could be easily used on foot, and so polo gave rise to the various games in which balls are hit with bats, including tennis, hockey, golf, cricket, and croquet.
BAITING
The difference between our ideas of what constitutes "sport" and those of our ancestors is shown by the popularity of baiting. In the twelfth century bulls, bears, and even horses were baited. Cock-fighting formed another common amusement. It was not till the nineteenth century that an English society for the prevention of cruelty to animals succeeded in getting a law passed which forbade these cruel sports. Most other European countries have now followed England's example.
FESTIVALS
No account of life in the Middle Ages can well omit some reference to the celebration of festivals. For the peasant and artisan they provided relief from physical exertion, and for all classes of society the pageants, processions, sports, feasts, and merry-makings which accompanied them furnished welcome diversion. Medieval festivals included not only those of the Christian Year, [34] but also others which had come down from pre- Christian times.
[Illustration: BEAR BAITING.
From the Luttrell Psalter.]
SEASONAL FESTIVALS
Many festivals not of Christian origin were derived from the ceremonies with which the heathen peoples of Europe had been accustomed to mark the changes of the seasons. Thus, April Fool's Day formed a relic of festivities held at the vernal equinox. May Day, another festival of spring, honored the spirits of trees and of all budding vegetation. The persons who acted as May kings and May queens represented these spirits. According to the original custom a new May tree was cut down in the forest every year, but later a permanent May pole was set up on the village common. On Midsummer Eve (June 23), which marked the summer solstice, came the fire festival, when people built bonfires and leaped over them, walked in procession with torches round the fields, and rolled burning wheels down the hillsides. These curious rites may have been once connected with sun worship. Hallow Eve, so called from being the eve of All Saints' Day (November 1), also seems to have been a survival of a heathen celebration. On this night witches and fairies were supposed to assemble. Hallow Eve does not appear to have been a season for pranks and jokes, as is its present degenerate form. Even the festival of Christmas, coming at the winter solstice, kept some heathen features, such as the use of mistletoe with which Celtic priests once decked the altars of their gods. The Christmas tree, however, is not a relic of heathenism. It seems to have come into use as late as the seventeenth century.
THE MORRIS DANCE
Young and old took part in the dances which accompanied village festivals. Very popular in medieval England was the Morris dance. The name, a corruption of Moorish, refers to its origin in Spain. The Morris dance was especially associated with May Day and was danced round a May pole to a lively and capering step. The performers represented Robin Hood, Maid Marian, his wife, Tom the Piper, and other traditional characters. On their garments they wore bells tuned to different notes, so as to sound in harmony.
MUMMING
Mumming had a particular association with Christmas. Mummers were bands of men and women who disguised themselves in masks and skins of animals and then serenaded people outside their houses. Oftentimes the mummers acted out little plays in which Father Christmas, Old King Cole, and St. George were familiar figures.
[Illustration: MUMMERS From a manuscript now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. It was written and illuminated in the reign of Edward III.]
MIRACLE PLAYS
Besides these village amusements, many plays of a religious character came into vogue during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The earliest were the miracle plays. They presented in dramatic form scenes from the Bible and stories of the saints or martyrs. The actors at first were priests, and the stage was the church itself or the churchyard. This religious setting did not prevent the introduction of clowns and buffoons. After a time the miracle play passed from the clergy to the guilds. All the guilds of a town usually gave an exhibition once a year. Each guild presented a single scene in the story. An exhibition might last for several days and have as many as fifty scenes, beginning at Creation and ending with Doomsday. [35]
[Illustration: A MIRACLE PLAY AT COVENTRY, ENGLAND The rude platform on wheels which served as a stage, was drawn by apprentices to the market place. Each guild had its own stage.]
MORALITY PLAYS
The miracle plays were followed by the "moralities." They dealt with the struggle between good and evil, rather than with theology. Characters such as Charity, Faith, Prudence, Riches, Confession, and Death appeared and enacted a story intended to teach moral lessons. [36] Out of the rude "morality" and its predecessor, the miracle play, has grown the drama of modern times.