Dramatic representations were so tainted by the grossness and licentiousness of the age, that priests were prohibited from attending them, till the Church introduced religious plays, founded on scriptural incidents, and which were known as miracles and mysteries. For these the actors were trained by the clergy, and sacred edifices and vestments were placed at their disposal, to give truth and lustre to the representations. There were frequent tournaments after the Norman Invasion, and these were patronized and encouraged by Richard C[oe]ur de Lion. From this era they occupied a prominent place in the national institutions and history, and afforded many opportunities for the display of picturesque costume. Ladies on these occasions were conspicuous, and sometimes rode in parti-coloured tunics with short hoods and tippets wrapped about their heads. Their girdles were decorated with gold and silver, and they carried small swords. The space marked out for the combat was surrounded by raised seats for high-born dames, princes, and the judges of the conflict. Knights wore their ladies' colours on their helmets, emblazoned on their clothing, and on the trappings of their horses; and throngs of troubadours, heralds, and minstrels dressed in gorgeous attire, were present to discharge their duties, and to give importance to the spectacle. The ancient English Morris Dance, performed with other quaint usages on the 1st of May, is supposed to be of Moorish origin. It is depicted on an antique stained glass window at Betley, in Staffordshire. The May-pole and the Man with the Hobby Horse (who represents a Moorish King, and is the consort of the May Queen), occupy a prominent position. The other characters are the Fool, the Lesser Fool, Tom the Piper, a Spaniard, the Franklin or private gentleman, a Churl or peasant, the May Queen, a Nobleman, and a Friar. The dresses were adorned with bells, intended to sound the measure of the dancers. They were of different sizes, and were called the fore bell, the second bell, the treble, the tenor, and the great bell. Planché, in his valuable work, the "Cyclopædia of Costume," states the earliest illustration of a _bal costumé_ is in a MS. of the fifteenth century, in the Ambrosian Library at Milan, and he gives a reproduction from an old painting on wood dating from 1463, representing a dance by torchlight at the Court of Burgundy. Each person holds a long lighted taper, and this dance, up to the sixteenth century, was usually reserved for wedding festivities. In England masked balls were rare before the reign of William III., and in France they first took place during the regency of Philip, Duke of Orleans, when the Opera House was converted into a ball-room. Father Sebastian, a Carmelite friar, devised a means of elevating the floor of the pit to the level of the stage, and of lowering it at pleasure.