294 Charles Davidson — English Mystery Plays. 



It would seem that in the time of these later plays the poets were 

 conversant with a considerable body of devotional poetry. They 

 wrote, taking excerpts and turns of expression from contemporaneous 

 literature, and we shall find it difficult to estimate the independence 

 of any single author, unless we saturate our minds with the non- 

 dramatic poetry of their day. 



The discussion of Y 'The Judgment Day' need not delay us long 

 The ^Juditium' is the corresponding W play. The Y play is 

 throughout by one author. The W play displaces the first eighteen 

 stanzas by a new introduction, all of which is lost except the last 

 stanza. The second wicked soul follows with three stanzas agreeing 

 in W and Y.^ W then inserts thirty-two lines which are spoken 

 by 'Quartus Mains,' after which it continues with Y 22. 



The two striking features of the play are, first, the non-dramatic 

 character of the second scene, which might very easily be an adap- 

 tation of a devotional monologue of Deus or Jesus, such as abound 

 in the devotional poetry of the day ; and, secondlj^, the introduction 

 of the satirical comedy of Tutivillus in AY, mention of which has 

 been made in an earlier chapter. 



In closing this discussion of the affiliation of the cycles, it may be 

 well to emphasize the relation of church plays to certain agreements 

 that exist among the cyclic plays, since Herttrich^ and Hohlfeld" have 

 cited such coincidences as proof of interdependence among the cycles. 

 We have stated above the reason for distinguishing the coincidences 

 which accompany notable actions as correspondences due to familiar 

 knowledge of the plays through frequent repetition rather than 

 through acquaintance with texts. Such sentences do not argue deri- 

 vation from a common text, but rather dependence upon church 

 plays in which a conventional expression accompanies a markworthy 

 action. 



Such expressions abound in the plays, and further reference to 

 them would be unnecessary, were it not for the prominence that 

 other investigators have given them. Suffice it here, that I consider 

 of this character Herttrich's reference to Y XYIII, and Hohlfeld's to 

 Y XIII, XYII, and XXXVI. As to the verses culled by Hohlfeld 

 from Y XLIII and W XXIV, they are so literally translated from 

 Mark XVI, lY-lS, that I think them unsafe data for any argument 

 of direct connection between the plays themselves. 



1 In Y XXXIV the third soldier is named Sir Wymond. In the Romance of Athelston 

 the earl of Dover is Sir Wymond. Cp. Die Romanze von Athelston in Englische Studien, 

 vol. 13, p. 332. 



2 Herttrich, p. 6. s Anglia, vol. 11, p. 254. 



