Chapter I: Preface

In the hope of bringing the actual presentment of Mediaeval Miracle Plays more vividly before the minds of children, I have cast information concerning them into the form of a story. But, while this method of dealing with the plays may prove to the childish reader more interesting and palatable than a mere summary of what is known concerning them, it leads to certain liberties difficult to avoid in fiction.

It seemed, to take an example, in some ways more convenient to lay the scene of the little story in York. Yet many of the Wakefield and Coventry plays lend themselves to description better than those of the York series. However, when in the course of the tale I have made use of an alien play, I have taken care to mention the fact, and to invent a reason (plausible enough, I trust, in a story) for its performance at York.

Again, the stage directions for some of these old plays are so vague that the precise manner of their presentment must be left to individual imagination and common sense. In a story there is no room for tentative speculations, nor for suggested alternative treatments; and this being the case, I trust I may be forgiven if occasionally I handle my material over-confidently. This explanation is offered to older students, to whom, simple as it is, my little summary, compiled from the recognized authorities on the subject of miracle plays, may yet be of some value. In writing it I found most helpful and delightful Mr. Sidney W. Clarke’s book, _The Miracle Play in England_, and, written by Mr. Ernest Rhys, the preface to _Everyman_, in Everyman’s Library. To both these gentlemen my thanks are specially due.

N. S.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE
I. Introduction 1
II. How Colin and Margery kept the Feast of Corpus Christi 17
III. The Creation of the Angels, and the Fall of Lucifer 23
IV. The Making of Sun, Moon and Stars: of Birds, Beasts, and
Fishes: of Man and Woman. The Garden of Eden 35
V. Noah’s Ark 44
VI. The Story of Abraham and of Isaac 56
VII. The Shepherds’ Play 67
VIII. King Herod, the Wise Men, and the Massacre of the Innocents 77
IX. At the End of the Day 91
X. Everyman 99

THE OLD MIRACLE PLAYS OF ENGLAND