260 Charles Davidson — English Mystery Plays. 



Whether this source is an earlier play, or whether each is independ- 

 ently based upon Luke, Chap. I, will be the theme of a later chapter.' 

 \L The cycle of Newcastleon-Tyne has disappeared, except the 

 play of Noah's Ark. This play has been grievously modernized, to 

 the destruction of the stanzaic structure. Here and there a sem- 

 blance of the original stanza can yet be detected and the stanza 

 restored, but such instances are rare. 



Noah Respondit. 



Even wo worth thou fouled sin, 



For all too dear thou must be bought, 



God for thanks he made mankind, 



Or with his hands that he them wrought : 



Therefore or ever you blind, 



You mind your wife and turn your thought, 



For of my work I will begin, 



So well were me all forth brought. 



Y IX, stanza 12, contains the rime series — 'synne,' 'blynne,' 

 ' mankynne,' * wynne,' which enables us to restore the above rimes, 

 ' sin ' = ' synne,' ' mankind ' = ' mankynne,' ' blind ' = * blynne,' and 

 thus to restore the sense of the fifth line. This is then a double 

 quatrain stanza, or the pedes of a Northern septenar stanza, possibly 

 similar to Y IX. 



Other changes also are necessary. An improved reading for the 

 first line would be — 



Ever wo worth the fouled synne. 



In the words, 'for thanks,' one fails to detect the verb 'vorj'ence,'" 

 ' f orthinke,' ^ meaning 'repents.' 



Other portions of the play were, without much doubt, written in 

 another stanza. This, then, is a play with two or more stanza forms ; 

 probably a pieced play like some of those in W. The introduction 

 of Deabolus is foreign to other known English plays, apparently, 

 and indicates French influence, as does the stationary play-field of 

 Newcastle. More than this we cannot determine from the scanty 

 and corrupt remains of the Newcastle cycle. 



From this cursory view of the cycles, we return now to the York 

 cycle, to question it in regard to the interdependence of its different 

 plaj^s. 



1 See Chap. XXIV. 2 Stratmann. 3 Halliwell. 



