Charles Davidson — English Mystery Plays. 297 



as to the possibly composite characters of the cycles. Such inquiry 

 as has been made failed of results, because the key to the metrical 

 problem was sought in the dialect, and not in the metrical forms. 

 The plays as we have them are seriously modified by the labor of 

 scribes. These scribes could, and ofttimes did, change the dialect 

 essentially ; the metrical structure they could reduce to ruins, but 

 could not destroy beyond the possibility of restoration. If, there- 

 fore, the individuality, locality, and relative date of stanzaic struc- 

 tures were once established, a sure key would be placed in the hands 

 of the investigator, through which he could read the secrets of the 

 cycles. 



With the establishment and definition of the Northern septenar 

 stanza the segregation of a parent York cycle becomes possible, and 

 the composite character of single plays of the Woodkirk cjgYq is 

 made evident. The connections among the four cycles now reveal 

 themselves, and the commanding position of the York plays can no 

 longer be questioned. 



The Mysteries constitute the most important body of connected 

 literature in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. They contain 

 the work of many authors, writing on related subjects in different 

 styles and metres. In this work very possibly every generation for 

 two centuries is represented. The mass of material is sufficient, and 

 its arrangement through the labors of successive authors on single 

 plays is such, that the Mystery Plays must become the most impor- 

 tant source of literary history for their time, and the determining 

 factor in many dialectal questions. 



This monograph simply opens the field for other workers. If it 

 has demonstrated the significance of stanzaic structure, unlocked the 

 cycles, justified the segregation of certain plays as a parent cycle, 

 proved the interdependence of the four craft-cycles in the two extant 

 Coventry plays, established characteristics of workmanship and the 

 relative dates of two or three authors, the labor of a year will not 

 have been in vain. Such a result, however, raises more questions 

 than it settles, and invites other explorers. Some first steps may 

 have been taken, but final results must be the work of many scholars, 

 and embrace the whole body of contemporaneous literature. Until 

 some approximate statement of the connections between this litera- 

 ture and the early Elizabethan has been made, no just estimate can 

 be formed of the proportions in which the national and classical ele- 

 ments combined to produce the golden age of English literature. 



