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 CHAPTER IV

AMUSEMENTS IN GENERAL

HE American in Paris often asks himself the question: What do they all do for a living? At first sight, every one, whether high or low, seems to be wholly bent on pleasure, a bent the Parisians have developed into a fine art. One is also likely to contrast the slow-moving, business-like Londoners of to-day with their mercurial neighbours by the Seine. This, however, is a contrast wholly of modern times. London, in fact all England, in the time of Shakespeare was in a state of transition, undergoing a rapidity of change, an enlargement of horizon, that has not been equaled before or since. Their increasing importance created in the Elizabethans a feeling of self-satisfaction. Since 1588 they had been care free. The development and diversity of fun-producing sports and customs reached a climax at the end of the sixteenth century. Inasmuch as space-limits prevent a complete enumeration here of the amusements of the time, it is interesting to note a partial list of games, which, though written long before the Elizabethan age, is