Charles Davidson — English Mystery Plays. 207 



ties, farces, chansons, chants royaux, etc., the mystery falling to the 

 various societies of confreres of which the Confreres de la Passion, 

 of Paris, was the most famous. The sources and makers of the 

 English plays will be the subject of the following chapters. 



XVII. 

 PAGEANTRY IN MEDIAEVAL ENGLAND. 



As we enter the English field, we are confronted by a confusion of 

 names that is bewildering. It would seem as though writers classed 

 everything from a wrestling bout to a mystery as a play. Some do 

 not hesitate to afiirm that pageant and play were synonymous terms.^ 

 So little regard has been paid to classification by such writers as 

 Warton, Collier, and Ward, that the student cannot trust their 

 conclusions, but must patiently gather his data for himself at first 

 hand, and classify them as his conception of the mediaeval life of 

 England becomes clearer. Gradually he will perceive that society 

 in that day was a great stickler for tradition, that the custom found 

 in a given city in one century probably existed there in but slightly 

 altered form in the next century, that the customs in a given city 

 were many and various, and were, within certain limits, sharply 

 defined and kept separate. England was, indeed, Merrie England in 

 those days, but she went about her amusements as though they were 

 very serious, and usually very thirsty, business. 



It would take me too far from my theme to attempt to describe all 

 the shows and plays that formed part of a city's life for even one 

 year. The royal entries, the ridings of different social or religious 

 gilds, the church processions in which the laity took part with their 

 pageants of tableaux, their giants and monsters, the plays in the 

 churches, by the craft gilds, at the entertainment of notables, the 

 setting of the watch, the May-day festivities, etc., if faithfully por- 

 trayed for a single city, would till a thesis, and give a new and 

 valuable picture of civic life. If to this we add the direct literary 

 influence of France upon the nobility and court society of England 

 at a time when England and a large part of France were politically 

 one, the subject of amusements in mediaeval England assumes vast 

 proportions and becomes exceedingly intricate. As a result, writers 

 upon this subject have failed to observe distinctions that were clear 



1 Collier says that in 1502 pageant was only another name for a play. 



