P. 27, l. 24. For to hide.] Dr. Marriott, the editor of _A Collection of English Miracle Plays_, 8vo. Basel, 1838, quotes a play entitled, _The Travailes of the three English Brothers_, 4to. Lond. 1607, to show that an exact representation of the primitive state of our forefathers in the garden of Eden was exhibited on the English stage “as late as the close of the sixteenth century.” This is an absurd misrepresentation, and has been founded on an erroneous interpretation of a passage in the play above-mentioned, which is spoken by Kemp, the actor, in a conversation with Sir Anthony Sherley. According, however, to one of the stage directions in the Chester Mysteries, Adam and Eve _stabunt nudi et non verecundabuntur_; so that, joined with the present passage in the Coventry Mysteries, there is at least some ground for believing that such was actually the case at an earlier period.[11] Dr. Marriott’s mistake has been already noticed by the Rev. A. Dyce, in his interesting introduction to Kemp’s _Nine Daies Wonder_, reprinted for the Camden Society, p. xv; and I take the opportunity of introducing in this place some particulars relating to Kemp, which throw a new light upon his history, more especially in relation with the above-mentioned play, and proves that the introduction of the comic actor, and his interview with Sherley, was strictly founded upon fact. The authors of the play, indeed, assert in their prologue their intention of “Clothing our truth within an argument, Fitting the stage and your attention; Yet not so hid but that she may appeare To be herselfe, even truth.”