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A theatrical exhibition; a spectacle. "A pageant truly played." Shak. To see sad pageants of men's miseries. Spenser.

Scenic shows or spectacles, taken collectivelly; spectacular guality; splendor. Such pageantry be to the people shown. Dryden. The pageantry of festival. J. A. Symonds.

To see as in the delirium of one affected with calenture. [Poetic] Hath fed on pageants floating through the air Or calentures in depths of limpid flood. Wordsworth.

ways; differently; variously. "Diversely interpreted." Bacon. How diversely love doth his pageants play. Spenser.

Unsubstantial; not real or strong. "Insubstantial pageant." [R.] Shak.

A mask; a pageant; an interlude. [Obs.] Nares. He promised us, in honor of our guest, To grace our banquet with some pompous jest. Kyd.

music; many kinds of government; various kinds of soil, etc. How diversely Love doth his pageants play, And snows his power in variable kinds ! Spenser. There is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. I Cor. xv. 39. Diogenes was asked in a kind of scorn: What was th…

A sort of moving machine employed in the old pageants. [Obs.] B. Jonson.

A procession distinguished by ostentation and splendor; a pageant. "All the pomps of a Roman triumph." Addison.

Proud or ostentatious display; parade; pomp. I envy none their pageantry and show. Young.

, or as unusual and worthy of special notice; a remarkable or noteworthy sight; a show; a pageant; a gazingstock. O, piteous spectacle O, bloody times! Shak.

Showy; magnificent; sumptuous; pompous; as, a splendid palace; a splendid procession or pageant.

Hence, any triumphal procession; a pompous exhibition; a stately show or pageant. [Obs.] Our daughter, In honor of whose birth these triumphs are, Sits here, like beauty's child. Shak.