This may account for the transference of the gild plays to Whitsun week. The clergy, anxious to have the Corpus Christi procession to _themselves_ without the trade gilds, may have said to the citizens, “If you will have your plays at another time we will, at our own charge and expense, provide a play on Corpus Christi, so that there shall be no loss to the citizens in that respect.”[36] Thus the plays got transferred to Whitsuntide. [36] This is precisely what happened at York, where after 1426 the Corpus Christi procession and the plays were separated. My third quotation must be:-- “Sir John Arnway was maire of this citie[37] When these playes were begon truly God graunt us merely And see theym many a yere.” [37] Arneway was Mayor, 1268-76. This is the earliest mention of their origin. At last the momentous Monday in Whit-week arrived, and early in the morning the first car started from the great gates of the Abbey, where the Abbot and his followers sat in state, and proceeded down the street to the High Cross, where the Mayor and Corporation were assembled. As each car finished its play, its place was taken by another, and so in regular succession and at appointed places, the whole series of plays was gone through in three days. By this sensible and orderly arrangement a citizen could retain his standing place or seat, and be assured of missing nothing. No doubt seats at the performing points commanded a premium, and documents exist of an interesting law-suit between two citizens with reference to the right to occupy a “roome or place for the Whytson plaies in the Bridge-gate streets in the Cyty of Chester.” We can imagine the pride of the Cestrian housewife when she saw her husband magnificently dressed as “Herod,” or her sons in parti-coloured costumes as “devils” rushing from the bottom to the top of the car only to disappear in “Hell’s mouth” amidst fire, smoke, and sulphur, and the laughter and applause of her neighbours; and may not she have felt a holy thrill when, perhaps, her youngest boy on bended knee offered his small shepherd’s pipe or his nutting stick as a gift to the “Lord of all”? Depend upon it Chester was full of legitimate pride on such occasions, for, as the citizens said in their Banes, “None had the like, nor the like did sett out.” And the educational force of this cannot be overestimated. The young citizen when he took up the freedomship of his company, took up also duties of stage craft and stage management which had been traditional for generations in that company. If he possessed ability as an actor he had no difficulty in obtaining a part to play, and if he could not act then he found plenty to do in preparation for the play, which _esprit de corps_ demanded should not be behind other companies.