198 THE CHESTER MYSTERIES. 
which represented the Coming of Antichrist. As far as I 
know, it is found nowhere else except in one early Latin collec- 
tion, though the legend on which it was founded is a very well- 
known one. Antichrist convinces the Kings of the Earth by 
raising the dead, but is confounded by Enoch and Elias, whom 
he is, nevertheless, able to slay, but is himself slain by the 
Archangel Michael, and his soul carried off by demons, whilst 
Enoch and Elias are recalled to life and taken to heaven’s bliss 
by Michael. ‘‘ Long,” he says, ‘have you been dwelling in 
Paradise, but to Heaven, where Himself is, now shall you go 
with me.” 
The next play, which is the 24th and last, bears the awful 
title of ‘‘ Doomsday,”’ and very awful and terrible it is. At the 
very end the Four Evangelists appear, and bear testimony that 
they have written and taught the truth concerning Christ’s 
redemption, and therefore “ excusation none there is,” if the 
witness was unheeded. In the 22nd play, of which the subject 
is the Descent of the Holy Spirit, there is a very quaint scene, 
in which the Twelve Apostles give utterance each in turn to a 
kind of paraphrase of the Twelve Articles of the Apostles’ 
Creed, the corresponding words of the Creed itself being recited 
in Latin between each verse, 8. Peter beginning with : 
‘¢T believe in God omnipotent, 
That made earth and firmament, 
With stedfast harte and true intent ; 
And he is my comforte.’’ 
And the newiy-chosen S. Matthias ending with : 
‘*T believe, as all we may, 
Everlasting life after my day, 
In heaven to have ever and aye, 
And so overcome the devil.’ 
After which, 8. Peter proposes that they shall all 
; ‘©Goe each one to divers countreye, 
And preach to shier and to cittie 
The Faith, as Christ us bade.”’ 2 
It seems to be pretty certain that the Chester Plays were not 
acted annually, though we do not know whether the interval 
at which the performances took place were regular or irregular. 
In the years when (to use the quaint old phrase) the plays 
‘‘went not,” there was a grand procession of the Trade Guilds 
of Chester, dating, perhaps, from even earlier times than the 
mysteries themselves, which included a great many strange 
devices, and was known as the Midsummer Show. 
All these ancient customs, but especially the Whitson Plays, 
were the delight and pride of the citizens of Chester, though it 
is possible, and even probable, that there may always have been 
some who disapproved of them, and would have liked to see 
them put down. Thus, in the 14th and 15th centuries, we find 
the followers of Wiclif crying out against the popular religious 
drama, and when we understand how very large was the inter- 
mixture of legendary matter, we can readily understand their 
