Beatty—The St. George, or Mummers’\ Plays. 279 
the saint m!ust have been very well known in Elngland. He ap¬ 
pears in the old English Martyrology of the ninth century; 1 
and he displaced St. Eidward as the patron saint of England 
in 1349. Moreover, his legend was read in the churches on 
the Sunday before his day (April 23). 
I give a part of this as it actually reached the ears of the 
people about the middle of the fifteenth century in Gloucester¬ 
shire. 2 It also has the advantage of briefly putting before us 
the main incidents in the legend. The most complete form of 
the later, or “canonical,” version is found, of course, in 
Jacob a Voraigne. 3 
1 E. E. T. S. Ed. Herzfeld, 1900. Only the martyrdom appears. 
The dragon is a later accretion. Professor J. E. Matzke finds that the 
legend of St. George is mentioned as early as 494, when it was pro¬ 
nounced apocryphal and not worthy of credence, by Pope Gelasius. 
Professor Matzke shows that the earlier forms of the story contained 
only the tortures and death of the Saint, and that the Dragon came in 
after the composition of the “Legenda Aurea” in the thirteenth cen¬ 
tury—‘‘Contributions to the History of the Legend of St. George,” in 
Publications of the Modern Language Association , vol. 17, pp. 464-535, 
vol. 18, pp. 99-171; “The Legend of St. George; Its Development into a 
Roman d’Aventure;” 1, c., vol. 19 ? pp. 449-478. See also E. S. Hartland. 
“The Legend of Perseus,” vol. 3, passim, with references’. 
2 Sidney Hartland, “County Folk-Lore: Gloucestershire.” F. L. S., 
1895. 
3 “Legenda Aurea,” lviii. The story of St. George is’ epitomized in 
E. S. Hartland, “The Legend of Perseus,” 3 vote., 1894-1896, vol. 3, 
pp. 38-40. Also S. Baring-Gould, “Curious Myths of the Middle Ages,” 
p. 301; W. A. Clouston, “Popular Tales and Fictions,” 2 vols., 1887, vol. 
1, pp. 155-157. In connection with Mr. Hartland’s statement that he 
does not find this class of legend below a rather advanced grade of cul¬ 
ture, it may be worth while to call attention to the Wollunqua myth 
of the North Central Australians (Spencer and Gillen, “Northern 
Tribes of Central Australia,” 1904, chap. 7.) This Wollunqua monster is 
a huge serpent who lives in a certain pool; and the natives live in 
constant dread of it. There is a tradition that it once came out and 
destroyed a number of people, but it was driven off. Here are all the 
elements of the St. George legend, except the hero and his sword. The 
Australian monster was driven off by being pelted with stones, and he 
is less’ systematically voracious. But the courteous hero and system 
are the inventions of civilization. 
