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collection has been handed down to us in a comparatively pure state, and whatever transcriptions the plays may have undergone previous to the existing copy, written about the reign of Henry VI., the additions have been few. They were certainly acted after the Reformation, and some doctrinal passages, regarding the seven sacraments and transubstantiation, were then omitted*. The series next in point of antiquity, as far as the age of the manuscript is concerned-the Ludus Coventria-has many comparative modernizations, which are also to be found, though not to the same extent, in the Chester Whitsun plays. Each succeeding transcriber seems to have taken liberties with the text, and as in some cases they followed the ancient mode of spelling, and in others adopted that which was employed when they lived, the Chester series affords specimens of orthography of different ages, from the middle of the fourteenth to the beginning of the seventeenth century †.

It remains to speak briefly of the mechanical contrivances for the representation of Miracle-plays.

They were acted on temporary erections of timber, indifferently called scaffolds, stages and pageants;

*These passages are cancelled with red ink, but are still very legible: opposite one of them in the margin, and in a hand-writing perhaps of the reign of Edward VI. are the words 'corrected and not played.'

+ Mr. Sharp, in his Dissertation,' has published a Coventry Miracle-play, from a transcript made by one Robert Croo, in 1534, who professes that it is newly correcte.'

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Scaffold and Stage we have from the old French Eschafaud and Estage; but the etymology of pageant is by no means so clear. Mr.

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and there is no doubt that in some instances they were placed upon wheels, in order that they might be removed to various parts of large towns or cities, and the plays exhibited in succession *. The testimony of Archdeacon Rogers, who wrote his account of Chester prior to the death of Elizabeth, seems decisive upon this point, as far as the performances there are concerned he says that the scaffold consisted of two rooms, a higher and a lower in the lower, the performers attired themselves, and in the higher they acted; which was open at the top, in order that all might be able to see the exhibition +. The same authority would lead to the conclusion, that only one 'Sharp, in his' Dissertation,' refers to all the authorities on the subject, and arrives at the conclusion, that Pageant is derived from the Greek nyv, in consequence of the pieces of timber of which it is composed being compacted together. The plays themselves were often called pageants, from the elevations on which they were exhibited.

*The scaffold, or at least the frame on wheels, on which it used to be placed, seems at a later date to have had the name of the carriage. By a MS. among the second Randle Holme's collections in the British Museum, it appears that at an assembly holden in the Common Hall of Pleas' in Chester, the Tailors' company had leave to build upon a piece of ground where their 'carriage-house' formerly stood. This was in 1631, and it is one of the latest and faintest traces regarding Miracle-plays in England.

† See Malone's Shakespeare by Boswell, iii. 335. It is to be observed, that Mr. Sharp, in his work on the Coventry plays, adds a covering to the stage. Sometimes this lower room seems to have been employed to represent Hell, the Devils rising out of or falling into it. MS. Digby, 133, in the Bodleian, is the Miracle-play of Mary Magdalen's Repentance, and one of the stage directions in it is the following: Here enters the Prynse of the Devylls in a stage with hell onderneth the stage.'

scaffold, stage, or pageant, was present at the same time in the same place, and doubtless such was the fact, according to the arrangement of the plays to which Archdeacon Rogers refers. It is indisputable, however, that the Chester Miracle-plays, as they exist in the British Museum, could not have been so represented. Some of the pieces require the employment of two, and even of three scaffolds, independent of other contrivances: the street also must have been used, as several of the characters enter and go out on horseback *

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The same remark will apply both to the Widkirk collection of plays, and to those in the volume called Ludus Coventriæ: in the latter, indeed, the place,' and the mid place,' are mentioned as the scene of part of the action; and there can be no doubt, from the terms of some of the stage directions, that two, three, and even four scaffolds were erected round a centre, the performers proceeding, as occasion required, from one to the other across the mid place†.”

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* Strutt (Manners and Customs, iii. 130) says that the early stage consisted of three several platforms on stages raised one above another.' According to the Histoire du Théâtre Français, (Paris, 1745, ii. 290,) this was the contrivance sometimes resorted to abroad. When Le Mistère de la Passion was played at Antwerp, in 1486, 'Le 'Théâtre étoit construit au bas des Halles. Il y avoit cinq Escha'fauds à plusieurs étages, couverts d'ardoises: le Paradis, qui étoit ‹ le plus élevé, contenoit deux étages.' When it had previously been performed on the plain of Veximiel, there were nine stages de haut, ency commes degrés.' (Ibid. ii. 285.)

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†This must also have been the case in the exhibition of the Digby Miracle-play of Mary Magdalen, in which a castle and a ship were

Without entering more at large into this point, which will be illustrated in the course of the examination of the productions themselves, it may be observed, that in one Widkirk play Cain is exhibited at plough with a team of horses; and in another it is absolutely necessary for the story, that something like the interior of & cottage should be represented, with a peasant's wife in bed, who pretends to have been just delivered of a child, which lies by her side in a cradle. The castella picta, enumerated among the properties of the fraternity of Corpus Christi at York, were probably, as before remarked, ornamented scaffolds, employed in the exhibition of the Miracle-plays of that city in the commencement of the fifteenth century..

In the following pages, a synoptical and comparative view is attempted of the three sets of Miracleplays already enumerated, in order to show the manner in which the same subject was treated in different parts of the kingdom. This plan affords, also, the opportunity of pointing out such alterations as appear to have taken place at various dates; proceeding upon the supposition, that Miracle-plays were originally introduced into the populous districts of the kingdom contemporaneously. It has been a work of much labour, but I trust the result will be found more amusing than might be expected.

introduced, as will be seen hereafter. The 'place,' termed placea, and a mons, are also mentioned in the stage directions.

155

THE

WIDKIRK, CHESTER, AND COVENTRY

MIRACLE-PLAYS.

THE PROCLAMATION OF THE PLAYS.

THE Widkirk Miracle-plays are without any introductory matter.

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The Chester Whitsun-plays are preceded by a kind of proclamation (called the Banes,'), which was made by certain Vexillators in various parts of the city on St. George's day, before the commencement of the performances. It goes through the subjects of the whole series, and attributes the authorship to 'Don Rondall, a monk of Chester Abbey,' and excuses the introduction of some things, not warranted by any writ,' on the ground that it was done to make sport,' and to glad the hearers." The following

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stanza seems to prove that the Banes' were written not long after the completion of the Reformation*.

'As all that shall see them shall most welcome be, 'Soe all that here them, wee moste humblie praye, 'Not to compare this matter or storie

* Harl. MS., No. 1944, is a copy of Archdeacon Rogers's collections regarding Chester, which contains a curious addition to this introduc

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