Charles Davidson — English Mystery Plays. 263 



In Y IX the stanza departs from the standard in the cauda. The 

 typical Cauda is a quatrain ; the cauda of IX is a sestet, riming 

 c d c c c d. To my miind this riming series shows Southern influ- 

 ence. However, in every other particular, — alliteration, verse move- 

 ment, caesura, the agreement with X and XI is very marked. How 

 much this may miean we see by comparing the stanza schemes of X, 

 stanza 1;^ IX, stanza 1;^ and XXYI, stanza 4.^ 



It is well to remember that this Y XXYI is the play to which W 



* Conspiracio' answers, and, as we hope to prove later, supplanted the 

 earlier play of the York cycle, as being more in accord with the 

 later taste. 



The differences between these stanzas of IX and XXYI are more 

 important than is the single circumstance of agreement in rime. 

 They are the differences in alliteration and verse-movement that 

 mark the degeneration of the stanza. XXYI is later than IX, and 

 has its connections with XXX, XXXI, and the remainder of a small 

 group of plays, of which the first supplanted the old ' Conspiracy,' 

 and the rest presented the trials and various incidents prior to 



* Christ led up to Calvary.' This whole group, through style, verse- 

 movement, and disorganization of stanza, reveals interesting aflSlia- 

 tions with the so-called Co, and with certain plays of W.* 



In Y Yin the stanza is equivalent to the pedes of IX. It would 

 be nothing surprising if an author who was experimenting with the 

 cauda of his favorite stanza should try the experiment of dropping 

 it altogether. The York cycle, however, contains another play in 

 this double quatrain measure, play XXXIX, for the second stanza 

 of which the following scheme can be formed — 



This scheme is very different from that of XXYI. The verse- 

 movement and alliteration agree well with those of YIII and IX, 

 but the language seems of a later date. 



It is well to remember that this was a favorite stanza for the four- 

 accent verse that sprang from the iambic tetrameter of the Latin, 



1 See p. 240. a See p. 242. s See p. 242. 4 See p. 251. 



