The craftsman in those days had to do good work, or he would hear of it. He had to obey his company, or he would hear of it; and he had to take, with outward show of contentment, the wages that were assigned to him, or he would hear of it. He might be imprisoned, or put in pillory. We shall see a few cases of his punishment presently. As a final punishment he might be thrust outside the gates of the City, and told to go away and to return no more. Then, one fears, there would be nothing left for the craftsman but to turn _ribaud_, if he was clever enough to learn the arts of _ribauderie_; or to sink into the lowest depth and become a _villein_, bound to the soil. If it was a city of hard work, it was also a city of play in plenty. London citizens, old and young, have always delighted beyond measure in games, shows, sports, and amusements of every kind. There were many holidays, and Sunday was not a day of gloom. The calendar of sport begins with the first day of the year, and ends with the last day. The year began with New-year's gifts: These giftes the husband gives his wife and father eke the child, And master on his men bestows the like with favour milde, And good beginning of the year they wish and wish again, According to the ancient guise of heathen people vaine. These eight days no man doth require his debtes of any man; Their tables do they furnish forth with all the meat they can. There were skating and sliding upon the ice in Moorfields, where the shallow ponds froze easily; or they played at quarter-staff, at hocking, at single-stick, at foot-ball, and at bucklers. In the evening they played at cards and "tables" and dice. Now men and maids do merry make At stool-ball and at barley-break On Shrove Tuesday they had cock-fighting, a sport continued with unabated popularity until within the memory of man--nay, it is rumored that he who knows where to look for it may still enjoy that humanizing spectacle. Every Friday in Lent the young men went forth to Smithfield and held mock fights, but the custom was in time discontinued; at Easter they had boat tournaments. At this holy season also they had boar fights, and the baiting of bulls and bears. They had stage plays--the parish clerk in Chaucer "played Herod on a scaffold high." In the year 1391 the parish clerks had a play at Skinners Well, Smithfield, which lasted for three days. In 1409 they represented the creation of the world, and it lasted eight days. Then there were the pageants, shows, and ridings in the city. Here are two, out of several described by Stow.