Elizabethan Era Game Ball Manuals Containing Handy

Other variations of the sport included holding two rapiers at once or a rapier and a dagger.

Outdoor activities included tennis, bowls, archery, fencing, and team sports like football and hockey which were more violent and less rule-bound than their modern versions.

Card games, board games, and gambling were all immensely popular, as were music and dancing events where people of all classes could show their skills and make new friends.

The success of all these activities and the general pleasure and hilarity they produced is evidenced by the Puritan movements hearty disapproval of just about all of them.

When not managing their estates and servants, the wealthy looked to while away the time with a wide variety of activities.

Meals were, of course, an opportunity to entertain friends and more distant relations, especially on Sundays and public holidays.

Feasts with exotic menus were a chance to show off ones wealth, knowledge of culinary trends and good taste in fine dishes, cutlery, and glassware.

In addition, some after-dinner entertainment might be provided by jugglers, acrobats, jesters, and musicians.

Elizabethan Era Game Ball Manuals Containing Handy

Gardening was a popular pursuit with manuals containing handy tips available, and, naturally, having a garden was essential for many of the outdoor games mentioned below, not to mention having the cash for specialised equipment like rackets and board game pieces.

Such public entertainments as Elizabethan theatre were cheap enough for most to be able to buy a ticket, although commoners largely preferred such blood sports as animal baiting.

Country dances with musicians and fiddlers were organised and towns sometimes welcomed public performances by travelling artists such as acrobats and puppeteers, Morris dancers (traditional folk dancers who wore colourful clothes, ribbons and bells) or free concerts put on by musicians known as waits.

Games that did not require specialised equipment were popular, although the rules for these varied much more than the more formalised games of the aristocracy and depended very much on local traditions.

In the Elizabethan period, enclosures of forest land and strict poaching laws severely restricted hunting opportunities for the lower classes but the rich continued to esteem it as part of a young mans education and as an excuse for men to ride horses and spend time in their country estates.

The use of trained birds to hunt was popular, as was using the increasingly more reliable and accurate gunpowder weapons to shoot.

Fishing using a rod was also done, especially by those with artificial lakes on their estates.

One or more of the dogs were put into the pit and went for the bull or bears ears or nose, holding on grimly until the bigger animal collapsed from exhaustion.

A judge likely decided when the match was over as bears were too rare to be killed each bout.

These bloodsports attracted bets on the likely winner and, in the case of bullbaiting, the meat of the dead animal was eaten.

The arena for these sports likely influenced the later theatres for drama.

Although the arrival of gunpowder weapons meant that the full armour of the medieval knight was now obsolete on the battlefield, dressing up anyway and jousting still proved an attractive pastime for aristocrats.

Tournaments were sometimes a part of festivals, as were military drills where bands of pikemen showed off their collective skills.

As with jousts, the weapons used were blunted but anyone not careful enough could still sustain a serious injury.

Some fencing matches had the participants hold shields which came in two types: the large square or circular target or the small circular buckler.