Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/302

 290 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH purely literary considerations which point to an order in the layers identical with the one he pro- posed. The oldest portions belong to a simple didactic cycle carefully composed in elaborate stanzas and withal rather dull. The ' Sacrifice of Isaac/ the c Exodus,' c Christ and the Doctors/ the 'Transfiguration/ the 'Harrowing of Hell' are typical plays of this period. I imagine their date to be probably not later than 1350,' and the resem- blance between the different plays is sufficient to suggest a single authorship ; they certainly belong to a single small school. The plays of the second period are probably the work of more than one hand, and some of them cannot without difficulty be distinguished from those of the original cycle. Their chief distinction is that they include such attempts at humour as the collection has to offer Noah and his wife, and the offerings of the Shep- herds, the latter containing the parallels with the Shrewsbury liturgical fragments and also the work of a writer who is distinguished as being the only great metrist who devoted his talents to the English religious drama as we know it. His con- tributions include the 4 Fall of Lucifer/ the c Death of Christ/ and also, I think, ' Doomsday.' The work of the last period, like that of the first, belongs presumably to a single author. With the exception of the c Last Supper/ an untouched play of the first period, and the ' Remorse of Judas/ which probably contains portions of more than one 1 If Craigie's date for the * Gospel of Nichodemus' is to be trusted not earlier either, but I am not altogether satisfied of this. See above, p. 282, note, at end.