were constructed of wood and iron, and so thoroughly that
it was seldom that they needed to be renewed. In the floor of the stage
were trap-doors covered with rushes. The whole was supported on four or
six wheels so as to facilitate movement from point to point; and as the
miracle plays were essentially peripatetic--within, at least, the bounds
of a particular town, and sometimes beyond--this was a very necessary
provision.

Each pageant had its company. The word "company" here is not exactly
synonymous with "gild," for several gilds might combine for the object
of maintaining a pageant and training and entertaining actors, and the
composition of the company varied according to the wealth or poverty,
zeal or indifference, of different gilds. Thus it came to pass that the
number of pageants, in the same city, was subject to change, companies
being sometimes subdivided, and at other times amalgamated; and in the
latter event the actors undertook the performance of more scenes than
would otherwise have fallen to their share. Commonly speaking, there was
probably no lack, whether of funds or players, at any rate as regards
the principal centres. The cycles were the pride of the city, and it
would have been a point of honour with the members of the several
companies not to allow themselves to be outclassed by their competitors.

To enumerate the gilds taking part in the miracle plays is tantamount to
making an inventory of industrial crafts at the close of the Middle
Ages. The "Order of the Pageants of the Play of Corpus Christi at York,"
compiled by Roger Burton, the town clerk, and comprising a list of the
companies with their respective parts, yields the following analysis:
Tanners, plasterers, card-makers, fullers, coopers, armourers, gaunters
(glovers), shipwrights, pessoners (fishmongers), mariners,
parchment-makers, book-binders, hosiers, spicers, pewterers, founders,
tylers, chandlers, orfevers (goldsmiths), marshals (shoeing-smiths),
girdlers, nailers, sawyers, spurriers, lorimers (bridle-makers),
barbers, vintners, fevers (smiths), curriers, ironmongers,
pattern-makers, pouchmakers, bottlers, cap-makers, skinners, cutlers,
bladesmiths, sheathers, sealers, buckle-makers, horners, bakers
cordwainers, bowyers, fletchers (arrow-featherers); tapisers, couchers,
littesters (dyers), cooks, water-leaders, tilemakers, millers, twiners,
turners, tunners, plumbers, pinners, latteners, painters, butchers,
poulterers, sellers