Obviously the subject-matter of all these pageants and miracles was provided by the familiar ecclesiastical legend of St. George the dragon-slayer, with which was occasionally interwoven the parallel legend of St. Margaret[783]. Similar performances can be traced on the continent. There was one at Mons called _le lumeçon_[784]. Rabelais describes one at Metz, of which, however, the hero was not St. George, but yet another dragon-slayer, St. Clement[785]. There is no need to ascribe to them a folk origin, although the dragon-slaying champion is a common personage in folk-tale[786]. They belong to the cycle of religious drama, which is dealt with in the second volume of this book. And although in Shropshire at least they seem to have been preserved in a village stage-play up to quite a recent date[787], they obviously do not directly survive in the folk-play with which we are concerned. As far as I know, that nowhere takes place on St. George’s day. The Dragon is very rarely a character, and though St. George’s traditional exploit is generally mentioned, it is, as that very mention shows, not the motive of the action. On the other hand the legend, in its mediaeval form, has no room for the episode of the Doctor[788]. At the same time the Dragon does sometimes occur, and the traditional exploit is mentioned, and therefore if any one chooses to say that the fame of St. George in the guild celebrations as well as the fame of the ‘seven champions’ romance determined his choice as the hero of the later sword-dance rhymes, I do not see that there is much to urge against the view[789].