7 - Clpdigital.org

210 CARNEGIE LIBRARY OF PITTSBURGH
life in the guise of poetry, art, and romance. As men are wont to idealize
the characters and conditions of former times, the material for
pageants is naturally taken from older days on which a glamour and
halo rests. . .
The pageant. . .has found favor in all times and among all peoples.
The description of the great festivals of the ancients as contained in
their annals and sculptured figures on tombs, temples, pyramids, and
monuments show that Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans were adept at
introducing into their celebrations many features of pageantry. One
of the best illustrations is the Panathenaic procession, as presented on
the frieze of the Parthenon, reproductions of which are so often used
as decorations. When a Roman consul was tendered a triumph, the
long column, as it made its way to the Capitoline Hill, contained, in the
serried legions, the groups of captives and spoils of war, symbols of
the might of the city and of her dominion over strange and distant
peoples, while memorials in emblems, insignia, lictors, vestals, and
aediles in robes of office stirred the pride of the citizens in the mighty
past. So, too, under the empire, the great exhibitions in the amphitheater
impressed the imagination of a fickle populace with the supreme
majesty of their rulers and with the grandeur of the Roman state. . .
When European society began to take definite shape, after the
stress and tumult of the dark ages, the church and court took up again
the work of popular entertainment. An elaborate ritual of worship
was built up, and miracle and morality plays came into vogue. The
accession of a new monarch gave occasion for coronation processions
and ceremonies in place of the Roman triumph. The age of chivalry
brought in jousts and tournaments and contests of troubadours.
Knightly orders, such as the Templars and Hospitalers, made much of
insignia, devices, and ordered and intricate evolutions. Elaborate armor
and heraldry added distinction and splendor to all gatherings. Probably
no time was so fruitful in material to impress the senses and stir
the imagination, and, to this day, the makers of spectacular performances
find a wealth of material in the panoply and ceremonials of the
Middle Ages. Contact with the East through the Crusades brought
in new and strange costumes, and music of peculiar charm. Princes
and monarchs delighted to surround themselves with rich symbols of
authority and power. Nor did they neglect to employ such rites and
ceremonies in their functions and processions as would lend the sanction
of religion and give plausibility to their claim of king and noble
of divine right. Scott, in his Waverley novels, delights to picture such
stately scenes, and his description of the tournament at Ashby de la
Zouche in "Ivanhoe" and the festivities at Kenilworth Castle in honor
of Queen Elizabeth are models of their kind. An earlier pageant that
made a distinct impression on the popular mind was that of the Field
of the Cloth of Gold at the meeting of Henry VIII of England and
Francis I of France. In the free cities of Italy and Germany, the rulers
made much of civic festivals on fixed days and especial occasions, and