Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/381

 MIRACLE CYCLES. 367 which most probably indicates a variable locality. I shall, therefore, speak of the cycle as the N-town plays. 1 The manuscript was edited for the Shakespeare Society by J. O. Halliwell in 1841. Judged by the standards of the middle of last century the edition is commendably accurate. If it falls short of modern requirements it is less through errors in the text though indeed these are not rare than in that it hardly reflects at all the extraordinary confusion of the original manuscript, and conse- quently affords no clue for the unravelling of the bibliographical and literary history of the cycle. The editor yielded to the craze for making things look tidy. In his introduction he wrote (p. xii.) : ' The divisions in the MS. being very incorreftly given, I have endeavoured to make as correct an arrangement as possible.' Well, that was exa6tly what the scribe had endeavoured to do, and I think it would be difficult to say whether he or his suc- cessor made the worse muddle ; but whereas the one was ingenuous and usually left the difficulties of his arrangement visible to the reader, the other at least partially succeeded in covering them up. A further division, agreeing neither with the scribe's nor with Halliwell's, was proposed by E. K. Chambers, in what is by far the best 1 Some interesting arguments have recently been advanced for supposing the cycle to be that of Lincoln. The suggestion is not altogether new, but as yet the evidence falls far short of proof. The idea of connecting the elaborate development of the childhood of the Virgin in these plays with the festival of St. Anne at Lincoln is certainly attractive. See 'Athenaeum,' 16 Aug. and 13 Sept., 1913.