Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/35

 MIRACLE CYCLES. 23 c Fall ' from the Norwich cycle, and the Wake- field or Towneley manuscript contains alternative Shepherd plays. I pass to another point. A striking feature of the York cycle is the great difference in the length of the plays, the earlier ones being very short and some of the later very long. The same feature may also be observed elsewhere, though in the Chester cycle it has apparently been obscured by amalgamation. In a processional cycle this would cause great inconvenience and can hardly have been deliberately designed. It may possibly be an accidental result of subsequent revision, but it may equally be a natural though undesigned consequence of the manner of representation. For there is evidence that in the Corpus Christi procession the pageants originally preceded the Host, and we know that the place of greatest honour was that nearest the latter. Consequently, the least im- portant crafts would come first, and the shortness of the earlier plays may be due to the small resources of the guilds undertaking them. In studying the texts of the miracle plays that have come down to us, we have to be very careful to distinguish the nature of the manuscripts in which they are extant. At York, according to the records, the c originals ' of the plays were in the hands of the various guilds ; when the cor- poration found it necessary to have copies for their own use they caused a 'register' to be compiled, transcribing the separate plays in order into a volume. A similar origin may reasonably be postulated for the Wakefield manuscript. At