Thomas Heywood, defending the theatre in his Apology for Actors (c.1612), writes that through drama everyone knows the history of England from William the Conqueror, nay even from Brutus. If not that full range, Shakespeare's history plays did nevertheless offer spectators and readers an opportunity to learn a significant part of English history. These theatre participants might expand and reinforce that knowledge through pageants and masques that constituted another major form of drama; these entertainments form the focus of this essay.

The Induction of 2 Henry IV can serve to open this subject. According to the stage directions, Rumour enters, ‘painted full of tongues’ and speaks: ‘Open your ears; for which of you will stop / The vent of hearing when loud Rumour speaks?’ (1–2). This Rumour spreads continual slanders, a ‘pipe / Blown by surmises, Jealousy’s conjectures’ (15–16). But, Rumour asks, ‘what need I thus /My well-known body to anatomise?’ (20–1).