32 
were exhibited, correspond very nearly with the list printed by Mr. 
Drake in the appendix to his History, except that in Drake’s list 
several trades are named for the production of each pageant, whilst in 
the MS. only one occurs. Some of the pageants described in the 
printed list are not to be found in the MS. register. It is difficult to 
decide when the greater part of the Register was written, but there 
can be no hesitation in pronouncing the whole to be of much later 
date than the MS. now before the meeting. Some things in it 
appear to be as late as since the Reformation, and it is highly 
probable that liord Ashburnham’s MS. is the identical book of 
the Corpus Christi play which, in the spring of the year 1579, the 
Corporation of York ordered to be carried to my Lord Archbishop 
and Mr. Dean to correct, when an application was made to them by 
the citizens to allow the play to be played at the ensuing anniversary 
of the festival. Prefixed to the Barbour’s pageant is a note in these 
words : “ Doctor, this matter is newly mayd whereof w^e have no 
copjjy.” The person who is thus addressed as if the book were in¬ 
tended for his perusal, was probably Doctor Matthew Plutton, then 
Dean of York, whom the Corporation had previously consulted 
repecting the performance of another religious mystery called the 
“ Crede Play.” 
The subject of the MS. now presented to the Society, is the appear¬ 
ance of our Saviour to his disciples after his resurrection, and the 
incredulity of the apostle Thomas, as recorded in the 20th chapter of 
St. John’s Gospel. A drama upon this incident of Holy Writ is con¬ 
tained in every known series of miracle plays. In Drake’s list this 
pageant is styled “ Apparicio Christi Thome Apostolo et aliis,” and is 
assigned to the company of Scriveners, who were associated in the 
production of it with the Lumners or illuminators, the Questors or 
examiners, and the Dubbers or binders of MS. books. Mr. Collier 
tells us that Dr. Sykes’s jMS., upon the parchment cover of which the 
word “ Skryveners” is written in an old hand, was doubtless the very 
prompt-book used by the person denominated the book-holder, whose 
duty it was to watch and assist the hesitating performers in the deliv¬ 
ery of their parts. “When the representations were at an end,” (he 
says) “ these prompt-books were collected together, and deposited in 
some chest or other receptacle in the Guildhall, until they should be 
again required.”'^* It seems to me more probable that each trade had 
the custody of its own prompt-book, and that from time to time, as 
* “The Skryveners’ play, The Incredulity of St. Thomas,” edited by J. Payne 
Collier, Esq., F.S.A. Introduction, p. 4.—Camden Miscellany, Vol. IV. 
