Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/203

Rh Smithfield while the flames consumed them. It was the age of rack and thumb-screw, and familiar to all were the heads of traitors freely exhibited to a callous public. Of out-door sports, hawking and hunting still held their place, while within, dancing was becoming more and more popular. Elizabeth herself was a famous dancer, and woe betide the courtier who could not tread a measure or go through the stately movements of the "peacock." Card-playing had now superseded the game of chess, and was growing more and more in favour. Primero, trump, and gleek were the favourites, involving heavy stakes, which bring back the cry of Falstaff: "I never prospered since I forswore myself at primero." But all these amusements pale before the growing delight of play-going. To the allegorical morality play—revived to-day by the Elizabethan Stage Society in the representation of "Everyman"—succeeded historical representations, at first crude, but carried to a triumphant height by Shakspere. When Elizabeth ascended the throne there was no theatre: miscellaneous plays were acted in the courtyards of great inns or other open spaces, on temporary stages standing