Charles Davidson — English Mystery Plays. 247 



play, modification of the play in compliance with the taste of the 

 period was an easy matter. This stanza, with various modifications, 

 appears in York plays XXVIII, XXIX, XXX, XXXI, XXXIII, and 

 stanzas or portions of stanzas, formed unmistakably upon the same 

 verse pattern, are found in the Woodkirk, the so-called Coventry, 

 and even in the Chester jjlays. 



This stanza, as the earlier septenar, had a life history of change 

 and deterioration. Sometimes the excessively long lines broke into 

 two, with riming caesuras and the development of new stresses. Such 

 verses, in process of resolution, exist in Pilate's speech in the Ch 

 play, ' The Resurrection :' 



For I am prince pearles, 

 Most royal man of riches, 

 I may deale and I may dresse, 

 My name is Sir Pilate. 



In these lines the alliteration has suffered injury, and the rime has 

 been lost. They are a weak imitation, almost a prose version, of 

 such lines as York XXXII : 



For sir Pilate of pounce as prince am y preued 

 As renke most royall in richeste array— 



and the Woodkirk ' Flagellation : ' 



Say, wote ye not that I am Pylate, perles to behold ? 

 An earlier form of the same appears in W, * Consp. &> Captio : ' 



Cayphas. 



Syr Pilate, prince of mekylle price. 

 That prevyd is withoutten pere— 



which lines form the beginning of an ababababcdcd stanza. 



Furthermore, the bonds of rime were loosened, and sometimes the 

 long lines passed towards the boundaries of rhythmical prose. This 

 is illustrated by Y XXXI, "And drawe to no drofyng, but dresse 

 you to drede, with dasshis," where "drede" rimes with the second 

 line below, and "dasshis" with the fourth ; also by Y XXXII, 1. 10, 

 where "To knawe" has no aftiliation with the verse structure, and 

 calls to mind similar versification in legends and romances. 



Again, the breaking of stanzaic structure by the indefinite exten- 

 sion of the pedes of the stanza, as in Y XXXII, stanza 2 ; in Co 

 XV, in Joseph's second speech ; in Sir Gawain and The Green 

 Knight, and elsewhere, led to the establishment of a species of 

 verse, riming in most cases it is true, but with an irregular suc- 

 cession of stresses and tending toward a rhythmical prose. An 

 investigation of the transformation and relationship of this stanza 

 would yield rich results, but we must leave it as a task for others. 



