Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/298

 286 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH without the e cauda,' l but the verses do not appear in that work. In rewriting the lyric the Wake- field author introduced the common tag : And alle for luf of the, which is also found modified as : And all is for his loue, in the so-called Digby Burial and Resurrection play, a curious composition which includes quite a number of lyrical fragments : O myn harte, wher hast thou bee ? Com horn agayn and leve with me ! . . . Quia amore langueo. . . Who can not wepe com lern at me. 2 The point then at which I have been aiming is that when we find parallels between two miracle plays we must not hastily assume that the fact points to any direct connexion between them. Where the resemblance between two plays lies in the general construction and the order of events we have to bear in mind the possibility that a common source may have given rise to a similar structure. Where two or more plays are alike closely based upon the scriptural narrative, it is obvious that they will present likenesses which it 1 a b 3 a* b 3 a b 3 a b 3, apparently not a very common stanza in Middle-English, but occurring, rather irregularly, in the latter part of Wakefield xxvm. The ' Gospel of Nicodemus ' adds a tail cdcd 3. 2 'The Digby Plays,' ed. Furnivall, New Shakspere Soc., 1882 (E.E.T.S., 1896), p. 171 : see 11. 1467, 1495-6, 1462, 693.