losely connected with the religious observances was the convivial
side of the gild's life. On the annual gild day, or more frequently,
the members all gathered at their hall or some inn to a feast, which
varied in luxuriousness according to the wealth of the fraternity,
from bread, cheese, and ale to all the exuberance of which the Middle
Ages were capable.

Somewhat later, we find the craft gilds taking entire charge of the
series or cycles of "mystery plays," which were given in various
towns. The words of the plays produced at York, Coventry, Chester, and
Woodkirk have come down to us and are of extreme interest as embryonic
forms of the drama and examples of purely vernacular language. It is
quite certain that such groups of plays were given by the crafts in a
number of other towns. They were generally given on Corpus Christi
day, a feast which fell in the early summer time, when out-door
pleasures were again enjoyable after the winter's confinement. A cycle
consisted of a series of dialogues or short plays, each based upon
some scene of biblical story, so arranged that the whole Bible
narrative should be given consecutively from the Creation to the
Second Advent. One of the crafts, starting early in the morning, would
draw a pageant consisting of a platform on wheels, to a regularly
appointed spot in a conspicuous part of the town, and on this
platform, with some rude scenery, certain members of the gild or men
employed by them would proceed to recite a dialogue in verse
representative of some early part of the Bible story. After they had
finished, their pageant would be dragged to another station, where
they repeated their performance. In the meantime a second company had
taken their former place, and recited a dialogue representative of a
second scene. So the whole day would be occupied by the series of
performances. The town and the craftsmen valued the celebration
because it was an occasion for strangers visiting their city and thus
increasing the volume of trade, as well as because it furnished an
opportunity for the gratification of their social and dramatic
instincts.

It was not only at the periodical business meetings, or on the feast
days, or in the preparation for the dramatic shows, that the gildsmen
were thrown together. Usually all the members of one craft lived on
the same street or in the same part of the town, and were therefore
members of the same parish church and constantly brought under one