218 Charles Damdson — English Mystery Plays. 



of the procession through the city. Such seems to be a reasonable 

 interpretation of the facts as presented by the records. 



The Prevalence of Craft Cycles. 



To the student of records it soon becomes evident that the gilds 

 considered their plays a great financial burden, though one that was 

 usually borne willingl}^ The account books contain frequent items 

 of expenditure for the plays ; the regulations provide for the pay- 

 ment of jDageant money by every member of the gild. These plays 

 were a matter of moment also to the city authorities, whose records 

 abound in regulations concerning them, penalties to be laid upon 

 every craft, owning or contributing to a pageant, that does not 

 faithfully discharge its trust. Repeatedly they are said to be to the 

 citj^'s honor and profit, showing that the authorities were not un- 

 conscious of the advautao^e to trade arising- from the influx of 

 strangers. Frequently, especially at York, a gild that has become 

 weak is released from the charge of a pageant, and made contribu- 

 tory to one according to its ability. So numerous are the references 

 to the plays in the records of city and gild that I cannot but think 

 that silence on the part of the records in any city is proof that such 

 plays were not maintained in that city. 



It is necessary for an understanding of the mutual relationships 

 of these cycles of plays to segregate the gild plays from the multi- 

 tude of occasional plaj^s and processional shows with which the time 

 abounded. Fortunately, the task of cataloguing the towns that 

 maintained such plays is greatly lightened by a list formed by Miss 

 Lucy Toulmin Smith and published in her edition of York Plays,* 

 and reprinted by F. H. Stoddard.^ This list may include all the 

 towns, though we do not know what further study of town records 

 may bring to light. It surely contains many plays that are not 

 gild plays, and it becomes necessary by a process of elimination to 

 determine what are true craft plays. 



1 pp. LXIV-LXVIII. 2 Stoddard. 



