Each series of plays possesses distinct characteristics, and, happily, Chester can claim that her plays have in them “less to offend and a more reverential tone” than many others, for it is useless to disguise the fact that many readers object to these plays as seeming to treat religious subjects with levity. But with a little reflection we shall see that these plays do not deserve such condemnation if judged from the right standpoint, and that standpoint is assuredly _not_ the twentieth century. We must throw ourselves back five centuries at least if we are to obtain a right focus. From the time of St. Paul, God’s Word has been preached in divers ways and by divers methods, and we must not be surprised if the mediæval preacher was shrewd enough to use the dramatic instincts of the people as distributing media of religious knowledge.[6] [6] Milton thought of writing _Paradise Lost_ as a Mystery Play, but changed his mind. Let us remember that the Bible and religious books could not be read or consulted by the people; and as late as the seventeenth century we find an aged rustic who knew nothing of our Saviour except what he had learnt by seeing a _Corpus Christi_ play at Kendal, where “there was,” said he, “a man on a tree, and the blood ran down.” There is a good deal of strong argument put into the mouths of mediæval players by the old Wycliffe preacher, who makes them say that “by such playing of miracles men be converted to good living--and, since it is lawful to have the miracles of God painted, why is it not as lawful to have the miracles of God played, since men may better read the will of God and His marvellous works in the playing of them rather than in the painting of them ... for this is a dead book, the other a quick?” The introduction of humour into these sacred plays is no novelty. There is a broad touch of it as early as the time of Hilarius in his play of _St. Nicholas_, and we cannot deny that the writers of our Miracle Plays showed some skill in thus early lighting upon one of the greatest of dramatic rules, viz. the law of contrast. Then, again, one other point, which is generally overlooked, must be taken into consideration. The Persons of God and our Saviour are treated with the _utmost_ reverence. It is only when the common people come on the stage that we find a certain coarseness and humour. And this is no more than we should expect to find.