Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/36

 24 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH Chester, on the other hand, the 'original' was a complete manuscript in the possession of the cor- poration, the guilds having transcripts of their individual plays. On one occasion the Smiths paid for permission to peruse the c original/ At Beverley they were copies, c registra,' of the Pater Noster play that were given to the crafts, the ' original ' being retained by the corporation. It would per- haps be unwise to insist much upon the use of the words c original ' and ' register ' in the records, but the distinction is corroborated by an examination of the extant manuscripts. That of the York cycle is a manifest compilation, blanks having been left for the insertion of plays which were not at the moment forthcoming. In the Wakefield manu- script blanks were not left, but missing plays were sometimes inserted later on out of their proper order. One separate manuscript of a York play is extant. It is made to fold in a wrapper for the pocket, and bears marks of having been much handled. On the cover is the name of the Scriveners' guild. Inside is a late transcript of that guild's pageant, the ' Doubting of Thomas,' without title, number, or heading of any kind. It is not a copy from the ' register,' which, though younger, it sometimes corrects, but is clearly itself an ' original ' descended from a line of earlier c originals ' now lost. Turning to the Chester plays, we find no less than five collective manu- scripts. All are late, the earliest being dated 1591. A comparison of the text proves both that a number more must have perished, and that the general features of the cycle are of some