town. Sometimes religious plays were acted in churches before the
Reformation; but in Cornwall the people formed an earthen
amphitheatre in some open field, and as the players did not learn
their parts very well, a prompter used to follow them about with a
book and tell them what to say. Coventry, York, Wakefield, Reading,
Hull, and Leicester were famous for their plays, and in the
churchwardens' accounts we find many entries referring to the
performances.

1469.--_e.g._ Item paid to Noah and his wife ... ... xxi^d.
" " for a rope to hang the ship in the church ... ii^d.

These performances would probably seem very foolish and childish to
a modern audience, but they helped to enliven and diversify the
lives of our more simple-minded forefathers.

The people, too, loved pageants which were performed on great
occasions, during a Royal progress for instance, or to welcome the
advent of some mighty personage. Great preparations were made for
these exhibitions of rustic talent; long verses were committed to
memory; rehearsals were endless, and the stories of Greek and Roman
mythology were ransacked to provide scenes and subjects for the
rural pageant. All this must have afforded immense amusement and
interest to the country-folk in the neighbourhood of some lord's
castle, when the king or queen was expected to sojourn there.
Shepherds and shepherdesses, gods and goddesses, clowns and mummers,
all took part in the play, and it may interest my readers to give an
account of one of these pageants, which was performed before Queen
Elizabeth when she visited the ancient and historic castle of
Sudeley.[16]