296 Charles Davidson — English Mystery Plays. 



rie in France, to the Meistersanger in Germany, or to the craft-gild 

 in England. Its fraternization with the comedy of the hedge-rows,, 

 last scion of the ancient dramatic stock, produced the Feast of Fools 

 and the Feast of the Ass in France. Touched with the spirit of 

 earnest criticism which gives to England her power of self -renova- 

 tion, it became in its last days the precursor of the satirical comedy 

 in politics and manners. Its unorganized mass has been a quarry 

 of literary material for later authors, and motives kindred to our 

 thought are still found within its content. 



In France the plays were more especially the exponent of the 

 literati and of the nobility, but in England they pulsed with the life 

 of the crafts. Religious, philanthropic, and economic motives lay at 

 the basis of the gild life. The processions, pageantr}^, arid votive 

 offerings, through which the gild expressed its corporate devotion, 

 presented faithfully the religious spirit of the artisan. Through an 

 adaptation of pageantry, its customary vehicle of homage, the civic 

 body did honor to its earthl}^ sovereign in the Royal Entrj^ A com- 

 mon spirit shaped a common material to religious, divertive and 

 political ends, in procession, pageantry, and play. Therefore pa- 

 geantry and processional customs bear directly upon the problems 

 of the plays, and must be continually kept in mind as ofttimes con- 

 ditioning the form of the play itself. 



The craft plays were the favorite literature of the people for about 

 two centuries. In them are embedded phases of thought prevalent 

 in successive generations of men. Their sympathy with life fore- 

 tokens the drama of life, the Shakespeare who purifies the native 

 drama in the alembic of the classic. 



Since a cycle, as that of York, was the expression of the mind of 

 generations, it might be expected that its contents would change as 

 successive standards of taste or opinion prevailed. As each play 

 was in great measure the peculiar property of one gild, its fortunes 

 must have been intimately connected with those of the gild. A 

 sumptuous pageant wagon and skilled actors fitly represented an 

 opulent gild. A fusion of plays through the excision of scenes ad- 

 vertised the joint labors of weaker crafts. Thus it came about that 

 a cycle contains the plays, independent or revised, of many writers 

 of different periods and schools, and that these plays, when popular, 

 passed from cycle to C3''cle, or influenced powerfully the style of 

 new plays. 



A lack of appreciation of this intimacy of connection between play 

 and gild life and fortune, has heretofore prevlented an earnest inquiry 



