ose who manage,
or those who act, such plays. Many scenes and events of the Bible would
lend themselves wonderfully to dramatic rendering. But the choice of
these must not be left to the lessee of a theatre: nor must the acting
of such plays be permitted to those who live by making the people laugh.

47. PLAYS AND PAGEANTS.

PART II.

After the religious dramas, the Pageants gratified the desire for
spectacle and show. Pageants were held on every grand occasion: to
welcome the sovereign: to honour the new Lord Mayor: to celebrate a
victory. Then they erected triumphal arches adorned with pasteboard
castles, ships, houses, caves--all kinds of things. They either carried
with them, as part of the procession, or they stationed at some point,
the City Giants. London was not alone in having giants. York, Norwich,
Chester, possessed city giants. In Belgium the city giant is still
carried in procession in Antwerp, Douai, and other towns. The figure of
the giant symbolised the strength and power of the city. After Agincourt
Henry V. was welcomed at the south gate of London Bridge by two giants:
his son, Henry VI., was also received by a giant seventeen years later.
Two giants stood on London Bridge to welcome Philip and Mary: the same
two, at Temple Bar, afterwards welcomed Elizabeth. The pair of giants
now in Guildhall were carved in 1707. The names Gog and Magog are wrong.
The original names were Gogmagog and Corineus.

The following account of the Pageant to celebrate the return of the
victor Henry V. after Agincourt is preserved in Stow's 'London.'

The Mayor and Aldermen, dressed in scarlet, with collars and chains,
with 400 citizens in 'murrey,' all well mounted, rode out to meet the
King at Blackheath. Then, after formal greetings, they all rode to
London. In Southwark the King was met by all the London clergy in their
most sumptuous robes, with crosses and censers. At the entrance of
London Bridge, on the top of the tower, stood a pair of giants, male and
female, the former bearing in his right hand an axe, and in his left
hand the keys of the City. Around them stood a band of trumpeters.

On the drawbridge were two lofty columns, on one of which stood an
antelope and on the other a lion--both the King's crests.

At the other end of the Bridge was another tower, and within it an image
of St. George, with a great number of boys representing angels. These
sang an anthem, 'Give thanks, O England, to God for