_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_ THE STORY OF ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA With twelve illustrations in half-tone, and frontispiece in colours. 2/6 net. Miss Syrett writes with a remarkable freshness and deftness of touch which will appeal to readers of all ages, but especially to the young reader. For the story as she tells it has the colour and joy of a fairy tale—and yet is true; and the delicate reserve shown in dealing with the religious side of the narrative adds to its impressiveness. A. R. MOWBRAY & CO. Ltd. London and Oxford [Illustration: Entrance of the Magi. [Page 83].] THE OLD MIRACLE PLAYS OF ENGLAND By NETTA SYRETT _AUTHOR OF “THE STORY OF ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA”_ WITH TWO ILLUSTRATIONS FROM WATER-COLOUR DRAWINGS BY HELEN THORP A. R. MOWBRAY & CO. Ltd. London: 28 Margaret Street, Oxford Circus, W. Oxford: 9 High Street The Young Churchman Co., Milwaukee First impression, 1911 PREFACE In the hope of bringing the actual presentment of Mediaeval Miracle Plays more vividly before the minds of children, I have cast information concerning them into the form of a story. But, while this method of dealing with the plays may prove to the childish reader more interesting and palatable than a mere summary of what is known concerning them, it leads to certain liberties difficult to avoid in fiction. It seemed, to take an example, in some ways more convenient to lay the scene of the little story in York. Yet many of the Wakefield and Coventry plays lend themselves to description better than those of the York series. However, when in the course of the tale I have made use of an alien play, I have taken care to mention the fact, and to invent a reason (plausible enough, I trust, in a story) for its performance at York.