254 Charles Davidson — English Mystery Plays. 



Lucifer in Creatio. These couplets seem to be a condensation of 

 sonae unknown play. 



2. For introduction, the four couplets introducing the call of 

 Deus, "Abraham, Abraham," in the plaj^ of Abraham. 



3. For expansion of thought or to convey indirectly a lesson, many 

 quatrains — sometimes only three verses — that are usually introduced 

 between stanzas, as in 'Pharao' after 1. 13,^ 1. 108, 1. 120; in 'Pagina 

 Doctorum' after 1. 173, 1. 174, 1. 175. 



4. For plays of transition where the compiler desired that certain 

 incidents of the Bible should be made prominent, and could find no 

 suitable play, the drama of Isaac — Isaac blessing Jacob — and that of 

 Jacob — when Jacob was named Israel, 



5. For plays that are formed from tw^o or more plays by the use 

 of selected stanzas or parts of stanzas, ' Flagellacio' and 'Extractio 

 Animarum.' To this compiler, however, we are indebted for the 

 preservation of the second ' Shepherd Play,' our earliest farce, and for 

 the ' Judicium,' which, in the part of Tutivillus," contains a satire on 

 the fashions and manners of the day. 



III. The Chester plays are, as Hohlfeld has well said, the work of 

 a translator.^ I incline, however, to the opinion that the cycle w^as 

 not French, but Anglo-Norman. The agreements with the other 

 cycles are significant. They include — 



1. ' The Salutation,' which shows agreement among Ch, Y, W, and 

 S & T of Co. 



2. ' The Purification,' which shows agreement among Ch, Y, W, 

 and W of Co. 



3. The Song of Jesus, where there is agreement between Ch and W. 



4. In ' Christ Betrayed' the agreement between Ch and W in two 

 lines accompanying the stroke of the sword. 



To these may be added the distinctively English passages — 



1. The gossips' song, Ch I, p. 53. 



2. The part of Mulier, Ch IT, p. 81. 



It may be admitted that the Song of Jesus and the gossips' song 

 are later additions, that 'The Purification' is an adaptation of the 

 York play ; still, 'The Salutation' is in the stanza of the cycle and 

 probably by the same translator ; therefore not all of these agree- 

 ments arose from the late adoption of plays from other cycles. 



1 The verse-numbers apply to the corresponding- York play. 



2 Cp. Tuteville in Rodentiner Osterspiel, pp. 49, 50. The coincidence appears to arise 

 by independent derivation from 'toute-vilain.' 



3 Anglia, vol. 11. 



