Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/333

 MIRACLE CYCLES. 319 tradition represented by H. Of this I will quote one rather remarkable instance. At 1. 257 of the Chester play, H reads : Behold how he has lead our lawes. . . while D B W K substitute ' learned ' for 'lead/ Deimling adopted this reading, and suggested that in H ' lead ' is an error for ' read.' Now the York play has : Behald howe he alleggis oure la we ... 193 and. that of Wakefield: Behald how he lege oure lawes ... 185 There can be little doubt that F read : Behold how he a lege oure lawes. . . and that K followed this. C altered the line com- pletely. The compiler of x took ' a ' to be a verb, ' ha ' = has, and either misread or altered ' lege ' to c lede,' whence H c lead.' The reading of the other manuscripts is due to an editorial emendation by the scribe of j3. W. W. GREG.