Tilt-yards and Toys
The tilt-yard was both a feature of courtly life, visible on maps, and a symbol of pointless human investments in what Pulter calls “subsolary toys.”
Tiltyard, number 24 in bottom right. Wenceslaus Hollar, “The ground plot of Kenilworth Castle,” Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Of Masques and Triumphs
These things are but toys to come amongst such serious observations. But yet, since princes will have such things, it is better they should be graced with elegancy than daubed with cost [tricked up expensively]. … For jousts and tourneys [tournaments] and barriers [another kind of martial exercise]: the glories of them are chiefly in the chariots, wherein the challengers make their entry, especially if they be drawn with strange beasts, as lions, bears, camels, and the like; or in the devices of their entrance; or in the bravery of their liveries; or in the goodly furniture of their horses and armor. But enough of these toys.