The mentions of ‘bearers of the care and baneres’ of them ‘that wated of the paient’ and of ‘the carynge of the trowt and wyn about the town’ seem to show that the plays were processional. On the other hand the one extant play (cf. p. 424) ends with a remark of the _Diabolus_ to ‘All that is gathered in this stead.’ Perhaps the pageants first took part in the Corpus Christi procession proper and afterwards gathered in a field. The Mercers’ ordinary of 1480 shows that the procession was ‘by vij in morning,’ and the plays were certainly in the evening, for it was deposed in a law-suit at Durham in 1569 that Sir Robert Brandling of Newcastle said on Corpus Christi day, 1562, that ‘he would after his dinner draw his will, and after the plays would send for his consell, and make it up’ (_Norfolk Archaeology_, iii. 18). For the list of plays, so far as it can be recovered, see p. 424. The ordinary of the Goldsmiths (1536) requires their play (Kynges of Coleyn) to be given at their feast[884]. NEW ROMNEY, KENT. There are many notices of a play in the town accounts between 1428 and 1560. In 1456 the wardens of the play of the _Resurrection_ are mentioned. In 1463 the jurats paid Agnes Ford 6_s._ 8_d._ ‘for the play of the Interlude of our _Lord’s Passion_.’ From 1474 the banns of the play are mentioned. In 1477 the play was on Whit-Tuesday. In 1518 the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports forbade the play, but it was revived elaborately in 1560. The accounts mention the purchase of copes and vestures from the corporation of Lydd, and refer to ‘a fool,’ ‘the Cytye of Samarye,’ ‘our last play,’ ‘the iijᵗʰ play,’ ‘the iiijᵗʰ play,’ and the ‘bane cryers.’ No crafts are mentioned: perhaps the play was produced by the corporation itself. The performances may have been on Crockhill or Crockley Green. ‘Playstool’ is a common name for a bit of land in Kent. Performances were often given in other towns: see s.v. LYDD. The play seems to have been only a _Passion and Resurrection_ play, and not a complete cycle. ‘Le Playboke’ is mentioned from 1516. It is in an Elizabethan inventory of town records. A second play of _St. George_ was probably started in 1490 when a chaplain of the guild of St. George went to see the Lydd _St. George_ play, with a view to reproducing it. In 1497 the chaplains received the profits of the play. Players from the following towns are found acting at New Romney: Hythe (1399), Lydd (1422), Wittersham (1426, they ‘shewed th’ interlude’), Herne (1429), Ruckinge (1430), Folkestone (1474), Appledore (1488), Chart (1489), Rye (1489), Wye (1491), Brookland (1494), Halden (1499), Bethersden (1508)[885]. NORTHAMPTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. Brotanek (_Anglia_, xxi. 21) conjectures that the _Abraham and Isaac_ of the Dublin MS. may come from Northampton (cf. p. 427), and hints at an explanation of the ‘N. towne’ in the prologue to the _Ludus Coventriae_ as ‘N[orthampton] towne’ (cf. p. 421).