A tournament was originally an exhibition of combat between mounted men. Named from the tournament, or quick turning of the horses, it appeared in Europe in the 11th century, and quickly grew in popularity, both in France and England, where, in the reign of Henry II, it became necessary to prohibit tournaments owing to extravagant indulgence in them by the younger nobility. Later, tournaments were allowed to be held under royal licence, und a classic account of one in the time of Richard I is given in the book Ivanhoe, in which the customs and rules of such assemblies are graphically indicated. Froissart is also a mine of information regarding tournaments.
The essential feature of a tournament was the single combat of knight with knight, each striving to unhorse or incapacitate his opponent, the usual weapon being the lance. Sometimes, however, one body of knights fought against another body. They took place on most occasions of rejoicing.
Participation in tournaments was usually reserved for those of noble birth, and about the end of the 13th century a new set of rules was embodied in a statute of arms for tournaments, which laid down, among other provisions, that disputes arising out of a tournament were to be settled by a court of honour composed of princes and earls. By the 16th century the tournament had degenerated until it was merely a form of pageant. The term is now applied to many kinds of athletic contests.
In the 18th century novel Ivanhoe, the author, Walter Scott describes the arena and audience of a fictional 12th century tournament as follows:
On the verge of a wood, which approached to within a mile of the town of Ashby, was an extensive meadow, of the finest and most beautiful green turf, surrounded on one side by the forest, and fringed on the other by straggling oak-trees, some of which had grown to an immense size. The ground, as if fashioned on purpose for the martial display which was intended, sloped gradually down on all sides to a level bottom, which was enclosed for the lists with strong palisades, forming a space of a quarter of a mile in length, and about half as broad. The form of the enclosure was an oblong square, save that the corners were considerably rounded off, in order to afford more convenience for the spectators. The openings for the entry of the combatants were at the northern and southern extremities of the lists, accessible by strong wooden gates, each wide enough to admit two horsemen riding abreast. At each of these portals were stationed two heralds, attended by six trumpets, as many pursuivants, and a strong body of men-at-arms for maintaining order, and ascertaining the quality of the knights who proposed to engage in this martial game.
On a platform beyond the southern entrance, formed by a natural elevation of the ground, were pitched five magnificent pavilions, adorned with pennons of russet and black, the chosen colours of the five knights challengers. The cords of the tents were of the same colour. Before each pavilion was suspended the shield of the knight by whom it was occupied, and beside it stood his squire, quaintly disguised as a salvage or silvan man, or in some other fantastic dress, according to the taste of his master, and the character he was pleased to assume during the game. The central pavilion, as the place of honour, had been assigned to Brian be Bois-Guilbert, whose renown in all games of chivalry, no less than his connexions with the knights who had undertaken this Passage of Arms, had occasioned him to be eagerly received into the company of the challengers, and even adopted as their chief and leader, though he had so recently joined them. On one side of his tent were pitched those of Reginald Front-de-Boeuf and Richard de Malvoisin, and on the other was the pavilion of Hugh de Grantmesnil, a noble baron in the vicinity, whose ancestor had been Lord High Steward of England in the time of the Conqueror, and his son WilliamRufus. Ralph de Vipont, a knight of St John of Jerusalem, who had some ancient possessions at a place called Heather, near Ashby-de-la-Zouche, occupied the fifth pavilion. From the entrance into the lists, a gently sloping passage, ten yards in breadth, led up to the platform on which the tents were pitched. It was strongly secured by a palisade on each side, as was the esplanade in front of the pavilions, and the whole was guarded by men-at-arms. The northern access to the lists terminated in a similar entrance of thirty feet in breadth, at the extremity of which was a large enclosed space for such knights as might be disposed to enter the lists with the challengers, behind which were placed tents containing refreshments of every kind for their
tion, with armourers, tarriers, and other attendants, in readiness to give their services wherever they might be necessary.
The exterior of the lists was in part occupied by temporary galleries, spread with tapestry and carpets, and accommodated with cushions for the convenience of those ladies and nobles who were expected to attend the tournament. A narrow space, betwixt these galleries and the lists, gave accommodation for yeomanry and spectators of a better degree than the mere vulgar, and might be compared to the pit of a theatre. The promiscuous multitude arranged themselves upon large banks of turf prepared for the purpose, which, aided by the natural elevation of the ground, enabled them to overlook the galleries, and obtain a fair view into the lists. Besides the accommodation which these stations afforded, many hundreds had perched themselves on the branches of the trees which surrounded the meadow; and even the steeple of a country church, at some distance, was crowded with spectators.
It only remains to notice respecting the general arrangement, that one gallery in the very centre of the eastern side of the lists, and consequently exactly opposite to the spot where the shock of the combat was to take place, was raised higher than the others, more richly decorated, and graced by a sort of throne and canopy, on which the royal arms were emblazoned. Squires, pages, and yeomen in rich liveries, waited around this place of honour, which was designed for Prince John and his attendants. Opposite to this royal gallery was another, elevated to the same height, on the western side of the lists; and more gaily, if less sumptuously decorated, than that destined for the Prince himself. A train of pages and of young maidens, the most beautiful who could be selected, gaily dressed in fancy habits of green and pink, surrounded a throne decorated in the same colours. Among pennons and flags bearing wounded hearts, burning hearts, bleeding hearts, bows and quivers, and all the commonplace emblems of the triumphs of Cupid, a blazoned inscription informed the spectators, that this seat of honour was designed for 'La Royne de las Beaulte et des Amours'. But who was to represent the Queen of Beauty and of Love on the present occasion no one was prepared to guess.
Meanwhile, spectators of every description thronged forward to occupy their respective stations, and not without many quarrels concerning those which they were entitled to hold. Some of these were settled by the men-at-arms with brief ceremony; the shafts of their battle-axes, and pummels of their swords, being readily employed as arguments to convince the more refractory. Others, which involved the rival claims of more elevated persons, were determined by the heralds, or by the two marshals of the field, William de Wyvil, and Stephen de Martival, who, armed at all points, rode up and down the lists to enforce and preserve good order among the spectators.
Gradually the galleries became filled with knights and nobles, in their robes of peace, whose long and rich-tinted mantles were contrasted with the gayer and more splendid habits of the ladies, who, in a greater proportion than even the men themselves, thronged to witness a sport, which one would have thought too bloody and dangerous to afford their sex much pleasure. The lower and interior space was soon filled by substantial yeomen and burghers, and such of the lesser gentry, as, from modesty, poverty, or dubious title, durst not assume any higher place. It was of course amongst these that the most frequent disputes for precedence occurred.
Walter Scott goes on to describe the rules of the tournament, which he says were imparted to the audience by the monarch:
First, the five challengers were to undertake all comers.
Secondly, any knight proposing to combat, might, if he pleased, select a special antagonist from among the challengers, by touching his shield. If he did so with the reverse of his lance, the trial of skill was made with what were called the arms of courtesy, that is, with lances at whose extremity a piece of round flat board was fixed, so that no danger was encountered, save from the shock of the horses and riders. But if the shield was touched with the sharp end of the lance, the combat was understood to be at 'outrance', that is, the knights were to fight with sharp weapons, as in actual battle.
Thirdly, when the knights present had accomplished their vow, by each of them breaking five lances, the Prince was to declare the victor in the first day's tourney, who should receive as prize a warhorse of exquisite beauty and matchless strength; and in addition to this reward of valour, it was now declared, he should have the peculiar honour of naming the Queen of Love and Beauty, by whom the prize should be given on the ensuing day.
Fourthly, it was announced, that, on the second day, there should be a general tournament, in which all the knights present, who were desirous to win praise, might take part; and being divided into two bands of equal numbers, might fight it out manfully, until the signal was given by Prince John to cease the combat. The elected Queen of Love and Beauty was then to crown the knight whom the Prince should adjudge to have borne himself best in this second day, with a coronet composed of thin gold plate, cut into the shape of a laurel crown. On this second day the knightly games ceased. But on that which was to follow, feats of archery, of bull-baiting, and other popular amusements, were to be practised, for the more immediate amusement of the populace.
At the flourish of clarions and trumpets, they started out against each other at full gallop; and such was the superior dexterity or good fortune of the challengers, that those opposed to Bois-Guilbert, Malvoisin, and Front-de-Boeuf, rolled on the ground. The antagonist of Grantmesnil, instead of bearing his lance-point fair against the crest or the shield of his enemy, swerved so much from the direct line as to break the weapon athwart the person of his opponent - a circumstance which was accounted more disgraceful than that of being actually unhorsed; because the latter might happen from accident, whereas the former evinced awkwardness and want of management of the weapon and of the horse. The fifth knight alone maintained the honour of his party, and parted fairly with the Knight of St John, both splintering their lances without advantage on either side.
The shouts of the multitude, together with the acclamations of the heralds, and the clangour of the trumpets, announced the triumph of the victors and the defeat of the vanquished. The former retreated to their pavilions, and the latter, gathering themselves up as they could, withdrew from the lists in disgrace and dejection, to agree with their victors concerning the redemption of their arms and their horses, which, according to the laws of the tournament, they had forfeited. The fifth of their number alone tarried in the lists long enough to be greeted by the applauses of the spectators, amongst whom he retreated, to the aggravation, doubtless, of his companions' mortification.
During intervals of the tournament it appears that heralds inspired the contestants and audience by announcements and chants inspiring chivalry and bravery such as:
'Love of ladies, splintering of lances! stand forth gallant knights, fair eyes look upon your deeds!' Research Tournament
In an organism, circulation is the flowing of sap or blood through the veins or channels, by means of which the perpetual and simultaneous movements of composition and decomposition manifested in organic life are carried on. Although Galen, who had observed the opposite directions of the blood in the arteries and veins, may be said to have been upon the very point of discovering the circulation, the discovery was reserved for William Harvey, who in 1628 pointed out the continuity of the connections between the heart, arteries, and veins, the reverse directions taken by the blood in the different vessels, the arrangements of valves in the heart and veins so that the blood could flow only in one direction, and the necessity of the return of a large proportion of blood to the heart to maintain the supply.
In 1661 Malpighi exhibited microscopically the circulation in the web of a frog's foot, and showed that the blood passed from arteries to veins by capillaries or intermediate vessels. This finally established the theory with regard to animals, but the movements of sap in vegetables were only traced with difficulty and after numerous experiments.
Many physiologists were reluctant to ascribe the term 'circulation' to this portion of the economy of plants; but though sap, unlike the blood, does not exhibit movements in determinate vessels to and from a common centre, a definite course is observable. In the stem of a dicotyledonous tree, for example, the sap describes a sort of circle, passing upwards from the roots through the newer woody tissue to the leaves, where it is elaborated under the action of air and light; and thence descending through the bark towards the root, where what remains of it is either excreted or mixed with the new fluid, entering from the soil for a new period of circulation.
In infusorial animalcules the movement of the fluids of the body is maintained by that of the animal itself and by the disturbing influence of nutritive absorption. In the Coelentera (zoophytes, etc) the movement receives aid besides from the action of cilia on the inner walls of the body. The Annelids, as the earth-worm, possess contractile vessels traversing the length of the body. The Insects, Crustaceans, Myriapods, and Spiders have a dorsal tube, a portion of which may be specially developed as a heart. The blood is driven to the tissues, in some cases along arterial trunks, being distributed not in special vessels, but simply through the interstices of the tissues. From the tissues it is conveyed, it may be by special venous trunks to a venous sinus which surrounds the heart and opens into it by valvular apertures. The Mollusca have the heart provided with an auricle and a ventricle, as in the snail and whelk; two auricles, one on either side of the ventricle, as in the fresh-water mussel; or two auricles and two ventricles, as in the ark-shells. Among the ascidians, which stand low in that division of animals to which the molluscs belong, the remarkable phenomenon is encountered of an alternating current, which is rhythmically propelled for equal periods in opposite directions.
All vertebrated animals (except Amphioxus) have a heart, which in most fishes consists of an auricle and ventricle, but in the mud-fishes (Lepidosiren) there are two auricles and one ventricle; and this trilocular heart is found in the amphibians, and in most reptiles except the crocodiles, which, like birds and mammals, have a four-chambered organ consisting of two auricles and two ventricles. In these two last-named classes the venous and arterial blood are kept apart; in the trilocular hearts the two currents are mixed in the ventricle. Research Circulation
Arion was an ancient Greek poet and musician. He was born at Methymna, in Lesbos, and lived about 625 BC. He lived at the court of Periander of Corinth, and afterwards visited Sicily and Italy. Returning from Tarentum to Corinth with rich treasures, the avaricious sailors resolved to murder him. Apollo, however, having informed him in a dream of the impending danger, Arion in vain endeavoured to soften the hearts of the crew by the power of his music. He then threw himself into the sea, when one of a shoal of dolphins, which had been attracted by his music, received him on his back and bore him to land. The sailors, having returned to Corinth, were confronted by Arion, and convicted of their crime. The lyre of Arion, and the dolphin which rescued him, became constellations in the heavens. A fragment of a hymn to Poseidon, ascribed to Arion, is extant. Research Arion
George Washington Cable was an American writer. He was born in 1844 at New Orleans and died in 1925. He served in the Confederate army during the American Civil War, then took a commercial situation, but about 1879 devoted himself entirely to literature. His first important book was Old Creole Days published in 1879. Among others written since are the Grandissimes; Madame Delphine; The Creoles of Louisiana (a history); Dr. Sevier; The Silent South (a plea for the negro); The Negro Question;
Strange True Stories of Louisiana; John March; Strong Hearts; The Cavalier. For most readers the chief interest of his novels lies in their excellent descriptions of French Creole life in the southern states; and his pictures of negro life are no less effective. Research George Cable
Sir Alec Guinness (also spelled Guiness) is a British actor. He was born in 1914 at London. He started life as an advertising copywriter before studying acting. In the 1930s, he was in various stage productions With the Old Vic; in 1941, he joined the British navy, in which he served as an officer. After the Second World War, he began a serious film career. He soon became proficient in playing multiple roles in a single movie. In Kind Hearts and Coronets in 1949, he amazed audiences by playing eight roles, but it was as a stiff-upper-lipped British officer in The Bridge on the River Kwai in 1957 that he won an Oscar for best actor. In 1959, Queen Elizabeth II knighted him for his outstanding work on the stage and in movies. Research Alec Guinness
Dion Boucicault (real name Dionysisus Lardner Bourcicault) was an Irish author and actor. He was born in 1822 at Dublin and died in 1890. Educated at Bruce Castle School, Tottenham and London University he was intended for an architect, but the success of a comedy, the well-known London Assurance, which he wrote when only nineteen years old, determined him for a career in connection with the stage. He first appeared on the London stage at the Princess' on the 14th of June 1852 in his own play 'The Vampire'. Dion Boucicault being a remarkably facilewriter, in a few years had produced quite a lengthy list of pieces, both in comedy and melodrama, and all more or less successful. We may mention Old Heads and Young Hearts, Love in a Maze, Used Up, the Corsican Brothers.
In 1853 he went to America, where he was scarcely less popular than in England. On his return in 1860 he produced a new style of drama, dealing largely in sensation but with more heart in it than his earlier work. The Colleen Bawn and Arrah-na-Pogue are the best examples. Indeed the best Dion Boucicault could do was such pictures of Irish life and manners. As an actor he was clever, but not highly gifted. His dramatic pieces are said to number more than 150. Research Dion Boucicault
James Garner (real name James Scott Baumgarner) is an American actor. He was born in 1928 at Norman, Oklahoma. The first man in Oklahoma to be drafted as an infantry soldier to serve in the Korean War, he was awarded two purple hearts and wounded. In 1954 he entered show business, being given a non-speaking part in a broadwat show by an old friend, and later signing with Warner-Brothers. Research James Garner
Barbara Steele is an English actress and film producer. She was born in 1938 at Birkenhead, Cheshire. First studying to become a painter, in 1957, she joined an acting repertory company and made her debut in the 1958 British comedy 'Bachelor of Hearts', before becoming type-cast as a horror-movie beauty. Research Barbara Steele
Amor was the Roman god of love. He was the son of Mercury and Venus and was generally represented as a beautiful naked boy, winged, blind, and armed with a bow and a quiver full of arrows with which he transfixed the hearts of lovers, kindling desire in them. He was equivalent to, but not identical to the Greek Eros. Research Amor
Embedded in the wall of the heart are four structures that conduct impulses through the cardiac muscle to cause first the atria then the ventricles to contract. These structures are the sinoatrial node (SA node), the atrioventricular node (AV node), the bundle of His, and the Purkinje fibres. On the rear wall of the right atrium is a barely visible knot of tissue known as the sinoatrial, or SA node. This tiny area is the control of the heartspacemaker mechanism. Impulse conduction normally starts in the SA node. It generates a brief electrical impulse of low intensity approximately 72 times every minute in a resting adult. From this point the impulse spreads out over the sheets of tissue which make up the two atria, exciting the muscle fibres as it does so. This causes contraction of the two atria and thereby thrusts the blood into the empty ventricles. The impulse quickly reaches another small specialized knot of tissue known as the atrioventricular, or AV node, located between the atria and the ventricles. This node delays the impulse for about 0. 07 seconds, which is exactly enough time to allow the atria to complete their contractions. When the impulses reach the AV node, they are relayed by way of the bundle of His and Purkinje fibres to the ventricles, causing them to contract. The electrical current races across the two ventricles within 0.06 seconds, causing the squeezing, thrusting motion of these powerful pumping chambers. The heart also has its own built in safety factors. The AV node, in an emergency situation, can take over the functions of the SA node by becoming the generator of the impulses. It is not quite as efficient, generating only a rate of 40 or 50 beats per minute. Research Atrioventricular Node
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Abbreviations
Research Tournament
