. Early English poetry, ballads, and popular literature of the Middle Ages ;. The body of this monster was formed of lightmaterials, being composed of canvas stretchedover a framework of wood : the outside was paintedof a sea-green colour, witli gilt scales, picked outwith red. The body was five feet in length, andwas sometimes used to secrete wine abstractedfrom the mayors cellars. The neck was capableof elongation, (measuring three feet and a halfwhen extended), was supported by springs attachedto the body, and was caj)able of being turned inany direction at the will of the bearer. Frombetwe
. Early English poetry, ballads, and popular literature of the Middle Ages ;. The body of this monster was formed of lightmaterials, being composed of canvas stretchedover a framework of wood : the outside was paintedof a sea-green colour, witli gilt scales, picked outwith red. The body was five feet in length, andwas sometimes used to secrete wine abstractedfrom the mayors cellars. The neck was capableof elongation, (measuring three feet and a halfwhen extended), was supported by springs attachedto the body, and was caj)able of being turned inany direction at the will of the bearer. Frombetween the ears the whole outer extremity ofthe back was surmounted by a sort of mane, ofcrimson colour, tied in fantastic knots around thejuncture of the enormous tail, which extendedabout five feet, curling at the further extremity,as exhibited in the cut (a). Between the wingswas a small aperture for air, and beneath the bodywas hung a sort of petticoat to conceal the legs of XXIX the bearer, whose feet were furnished with The dragons head had its lower jaw furnishedwith a plate of iron resembling a horse-shoe; itwas formerly garnished with enormous nails, whichproduced a terrible clatter when the jaws mettogether. They were made to open and shut bymeans of strings, and the children amused them-selves by throwing halfpence into the gapingmouth, which turned to the right and left duringthe whole of the journey, noisily clashing its jaws,from which the Dragons popular name of snapwas probably derived. The procession did not possess any other peculiarfeature of antique show. Walker, in a short historical essay on the Irishstage, published in the Transactions of the RoyalIrish Academy, vol. ii. 1788, gives the following extract from the MS. of Robert Ware, whichshows that the Irish companies or guilds, hadeach their pecuUar mysteries and moralities, likethose of Chester and Coventry.— Thomas Fitz-Gerald, Earl of Kildare, and Lord-Lieutenant ofIreland in the year 1528,
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840, booksubjectenglishliteratureear
