hung up on the court gates, and by the shields which bore imprese or mottoed emblems, and called for interpretation by the squires or pages who bore them.[1] Often, moreover, the tilters themselves entered in elaborately mimetic caparisons, incongruous enough to a modern taste with the vigorous manly exercise to which they were a preliminary, but no doubt attractive to that of the Renaissance, which for all its literary talk about 'decorum' cared at heart but little for congruity. The speechifying might be resumed when the tilting was over, or at the banquet which closed the day's festivity.[2] I gather together the few details of this tilt pageantry which have escaped a perhaps merited oblivion. There were speeches, and a chariot with a damsel and an
- ↑ A galley on the waterside at Whitehall is described as hung with these shields by Von Wedel (2 R. Hist. Soc. Trans. ix. 236) in 1584 and by Hentzner in 1598, 'emblemata varia papyracea, clypei formam habentia, quibus, adiectis symbolis, nobiles in exercitiis equestribus & gladiatoriis uti sunt soliti, hic memoriae caussa suspensa', and Manningham, 3, describes 'certayne devises and empresaes taken by the scucheons in the Gallery at Whitehall' in 1602. The Shield Gallery was still extant in the time of Pepys. Aubrey, Wilts. 88, says that a similar collection of shields at Wilton were 'of pastboard painted with their devices and emblems, which was very pretty and ingenious'. Of course, these were not used in the actual encounter. On imprese, cf. F. Brie, Shakespeare und die Impresa-Kunst seiner Zeit (1914, Sh.-Jahrbuch, l. 9); G. F. Barwick, Impresas (2 Library, vii. 140); Lee, Shakespeare, 455. A contemporary treatise is Paolo Giovio, Dialogo dell' Imprese Militari et Amorose (1555). Good examples are afforded by Pericles, II. ii.
- ↑ Von Wedel (loc. cit. 258) describes the accession tilt of 1584: 'About twelve o'clock the queen with her ladies placed themselves at the windows in a long room of Whitehall palace, near Westminster, opposite the barrier where the tournament was to be held. From this room a broad staircase led downwards, and round the barrier stands were arranged by boards above the ground, so that everybody by paying 12d. could get a stand and see the play. . . . During the whole time of the tournament all who wished to fight entered the lists by pairs, the trumpets being blown at the time and other musical instruments. The combatants had their servants clad in different colours; they, however, did not enter the barrier, but arranged themselves on both sides. Some of the servants were disguised like savages, or like Irishmen, with the hair hanging down to the girdle like women, others had horse manes on their heads, some came driving in a carriage, the horses being equipped like elephants, some carriages were drawn by men, others appeared to move by themselves; altogether the carriages were of very odd appearance. Some gentlemen had their horses with them and mounted in full armour directly from the carriage. . . . When a gentleman with his servant approached the barrier, on horseback or in a carriage, he stopped at the foot of the staircase leading to the queen's room, while one of his servants in pompous attire of a special pattern mounted the steps and addressed the queen in well-composed verses or with a ludicrous speech, making her and her ladies laugh. When the speech was ended he in the name of his lord offered to the queen a costly present, which was accepted and permission given to take part in the tournament.'
