Only it does not appear in connexion with the liturgical plays[359], and perhaps it is more plausible to regard it as denoting the ‘function’ of the guild of actors, just as its doublet _menestrie_, the English ‘minstrelsy,’ denotes the ‘function’ of the minstrels[360], or its doublet _métier_, which in English becomes in fact ‘mystery,’ denotes the ‘function’ of the craft guilds. Perhaps the theory of M. de Julleville finds a little support from the term _actio_, which appears, besides its meaning in connexion with the Mass[361], to be once at least used for a play[362]. At any rate _actus_ is so used as a Latin equivalent of the Spanish _auto_[363]. CHAPTER XXI GUILD PLAYS AND PARISH PLAYS [_Bibliographical Note._—The English miracle play has been often, fully, and admirably studied from the point of view of dramatic literature; perhaps less so from that of stage history. The best accounts are those of B. Ten Brink, _History of English Literature_, bk. v, chs. 2-6 (trans. W. C. Robinson, vol. ii, 1893); A. W. Ward, _History of English Dramatic Literature_ (2nd ed., 1899), vol. i, ch. 1; W. Creizenach, _Geschichte des neueren Dramas_, vol. i (1893); and the introduction to A. W. Pollard, _English Miracle Plays, Moralities and Interludes_ (3rd ed., 1898). These supersede J. P. Collier, _History of English Dramatic Poetry_ (2nd ed., 1879), vol. ii, and J. L. Klein, _Geschichte des englischen Dramas_ (1876), vol. i. Other useful books are J. A. Symonds, _Shakspere’s Predecessors in the English Drama_ (1884), ch. 3; K. L. Bates, _The English Religious Drama_ (1893), and J. J. Jusserand, _Le Théâtre en Angleterre_ (1881), ch. 2. The substance of this last is incorporated in the same writer’s _Literary History of the English People_, vol. i (1895), bk. iii, ch. 6. W. J. Courthope, _History of English Poetry_, vol. i (1895), ch. 10, should also be consulted, as well as the valuable detailed investigations of A. Hohlfeld, _Die altenglischen Kollektivmisterien_, in _Anglia_, vol. xi (1889), and C. Davidson, _Studies in the English Mystery Plays_ (1892). I do not think that S. W. Clarke, _The Miracle Play in England_ (n.d.), and C. Hastings, _Le Théâtre français et anglais_ (1900, trans. 1901), add very much. A. Ebert, _Die englischen Mysterien_, in _Jahrbuch für romanische und englische Literatur_, vol. i (1859), is an early manifestation of German interest in the subject, and the still earlier native learning may be found in T. Warton, _History of English Poetry_ (ed. W. C. Hazlitt, 1871), §§ 6, 33; E. Malone, _Historical Account of the English Stage_, in _Variorum Shakespeare_ (1821), vol. iii; W. Hone, _Ancient Mysteries Described_ (1823). The antiquarianism of T. Sharp, _Dissertation on the Pageants or Dramatic Mysteries Anciently Performed at Coventry_