Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/390

 376 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH stage directions, and to take place on a number ot scaffolds disposed round an open space. The same is true of the next group. This opens with another prologue, introducing a procession, and contains the Passion and Resurrection. There is an appearance of Contemplatio immediately fol- lowing the prologue and beginning play 29, and the writing is continuous down to the end of the 'Hortulanus' scene. This is a very complex group, and the insertion of the numbers 29 to 37 is for the most part quite arbitrary. The last group again consists of separate and independent plays: 38, 'Emmaus'; 39, 'Ascen- sion'; 40, 'Pentecost'; 41, 'Assumption of the Virgin ' ; 42, ' Doomsday/ The end is lost. Now, in the speech by Contemplatio, which forms a sort of second prologue or preface to the Passion group, there occurs a remarkable reference to 'the matere that we lefte the last yere.' This has been the subject of frequent comment, and it is clear that, in the form for which this preface was designed, the cycle, whatever it may have comprised, was intended for performance in yearly sections. It has been less generally remarked that the preface clearly states that the matter that ' last yere we shewyd ' began with the Entry in other words, that it comprised no more than the imme- diately preceding group of plays. If, therefore, Contemplatio's prologue is intended, as it pre- sumably is, to apply to the cycle in its present form, we must suppose that this was meant to be acted in several, according to the above analysis in six, yearly sections.