the term "miracle play" to those
dramas based on the legends of the saints, and would describe those
drawn from the Old and New Testaments as "mysteries" in conformity with
Continental usage. The distinction is logical, but its acceptance would
practically involve the sacrifice of the former term, since the
Dunstable play of St. Catherine, the plays founded on the lives of St.
Fabyan, St. Sebastian, and St. Botolph, which were performed in London,
and those on St. George, acted at Windsor and Bassingbourn--no others
are recorded--have all perished.

According to the "Banes," or Proclamation, of the Chester Plays, at the
end of the sixteenth century, the cycle of plays acted in that city
dates from the mayoralty of John Arneway (1268-76), and the author was
Randall Higgenet, a monk of Chester Abbey. These statements are, for
various reasons, open to impeachment. For one thing, Arneway's term is
incorrectly assigned to the years 1327-8--a far more probable date for
the plays, though there is no sort of certainty on the subject, and, in
the nature of things, a cycle of plays is more likely to have grown up
than to have been the work of a single hand. The later date is more
probable, because the re-institution of the Corpus Christi festival by
the Council of Vienne in 1311 has an important bearing on the annexation
of the miracle play by the trade-gilds, and it was only on their
assumption of responsibility that performances on the scale of a cycle
of plays could have been contemplated, or possible.

There are four great English cycles--those of Chester, York, Wakefield,
and Coventry. By a cycle is meant a series of plays forming together
what may be termed an encyclopaedia of history; it was attempted to crowd
into one short day "mater from the beginning of the world." This
ambitious programme bespoke the interested co-operation of many persons,
and the gilds, embracing it with enthusiasm, transformed the Corpus
Christi festival into an annual celebration marked by gorgeous pageants.
The word "pageant," which appears to be etymologically related to the
Greek [Greek: pegma], is technical in respect of miracle plays, and, in
this connexion, is thus defined, by Archdeacon Rogers:

"A high scafolde with two rowmes, a higher and a lower, upon four
wheeles. In the lower they apparelled them selves, and in the higher
rowme they played, beinge all open on the tope, that all behoulders
might heare and see them."

The pageants