Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/397

 MIRACLE CYCLES. 383 templatio are mainly in long lines and follow irregularly various metres. The make-up of the manuscript affords fairly conclusive evidence that they were written in after the rest in spaces left for the purpose. They are, therefore, presumably the work of a reviser or compiler who was hand- ing the copy to our scribe piecemeal. Now, in the Prologue we find no trace of the Conception, Presentation, and Elizabeth plays at all. These are the long oclave pieces, and it will be remembered that the Prologue was likewise silent on the subject of the Lamech episode in the same metre. The portions in long oftaves are, therefore, additions to the cycle subsequent to the composition of the Prologue. This is our first important result in analysis. Plays viii and ix of the Prologue contain the Marriage of the Virgin, x the Annunciation, xi Joseph's Trouble. Let us take the plays of the text in order. The ' Conception v is quite regular in long oclaves. The ' Presentation/ in the same metre, includes a passage written in quatrains and shorter lines, but the change is accounted for by the subject, the recitation of the Fifteen Degrees. With regard to the c Marriage ' it will be noticed that two Prologue plays correspond to a single play in the text. There is reason to suppose that the latter has been considerably cut down as well as revised and interpolated, and there is satisfactory evidence both that it contains the remains of the plays described in the Prologue, and also that it has a different origin from its immediate predecessors. They, of course, leave Mary an inmate of the