268 Charles Davidson — English Mystery Plays. 



little value in the days of literary liberty, but significant when they 

 appear in work that knew no innovations, one comes to feel that 

 here is a personality, seeking expression that shall not be an echo. 



Through a like scrutiny the literary workmanship of these plays 

 reveals to the mind of the investigator evidences of unity of treat- 

 ment that, to my mind, are worth far more than rime tests. 



Again, these results from rime tests must be received with caution 

 for two additional reasons ; first, because the text needs thorough 

 emendation, and the quality of the riming sounds must be estab- 

 lished by wide comparisons, together with the careful definition of 

 sub-dialects, before we can form our categories with confidence ; 

 and, secondly, because the classification of data has not been ex- 

 tended over a sufiiciently wide area to admit of safe generalization. 

 These are tasks for many scholars. My purpose is accomplished, if 

 my data are sufficiently accurate to establish the unity of the parent 

 cycle. To that extent I believe them trustworthy, and also that, 

 taken in conjunction with many rather intaiigible stj^listic evidences, 

 they form a reasonable basis for belief in a single authorship. 



Let us see, then, what plays constitute this parent cycle. The list* 

 is as follows — 



The Parent Cycle. 



Y IIj The Creation, to the fifth day. 

 Y VIII, The Building of the Ark. 



Y IX, Noah and his Wife, the Flood and its waning. 



Y X, Abraham's Sacrifice of Isaac. 



Y XI, The Departure of the Israelites from Egypt, the Ten 



Plagues, and the Passage of the Red Sea. 



Y XII, The Annunciation, The Prologue. 



Y XV, The Angels and the Shepherds. — The first three stanzas 



and the last four, omitting the comic episode. 

 Y XVII, The Coming of the Three Kings to Herod ; the Adora- 

 tion. — The Salutation, stanzas 22, 23, 24, has perhaps 

 been reworked, or may have been written in accord- 

 ance with established custom. Salutations of similar 

 style appear elsewhere in mediaeval poetry. 



Y XX, Christ with the Doctors in the Temple. 



Y XXIII, The Transfiguration. 



Y XXIV, The Woman taken in Adultery. The Raising of Laz- 



arus. 



1 Cp. Hohlfeld in Anglia 11, p. 248. 



