[Footnote 658: For this and the singing of the _Quem quæritis_, "whom seek ye?" we have a "stage direction" in the _Regularis Concordia_ of S. Ethelwold as early as Edgar's reign (959-79). See Chambers, ii. App. O.] [Footnote 659: _Ib._, ii. 41.] [Footnote 660: Bishop, 1188-1198. See Chambers, _op. cit._, ii. 36. _Cf._ the matter of the "castel of Emaus" in the cappers' play at Coventry, Sharp, 48.] [Footnote 661: _Furnivall misc._, 206-7.] [Footnote 662: See Hardin Craig, _Two Coventry Corpus Christi Plays_, Early English Text Society, to which I am much indebted. The older work on this subject is Sharp's _Dissertation on the Dramatic Mysteries_. Chambers' _Mediæval Stage_ is very rich in Coventry material.] [Footnote 663: See _Leet Book_, 205, for the case of the cardmakers, saddlers, painters and masons.] [Footnote 664: _Ib._, 94, The case of the weavers' journeymen, who paid 4d. a piece, is the only one on record.] [Footnote 665: Sharp, 8.] [Footnote 666: _Ib._, 9, 10. There is no record that the dyers ever contributed to the Mystery Plays. In 1539 the Mayor of Coventry told Cromwell that the poor commons were at such expense with their plays and pageants that they fared the worse all the year after. Chambers, _op. cit._, ii. 358.] [Footnote 667: Mr Chambers' surmise that the common lands were enclosed to build pageant-houses on is untenable. The rents derived from the enclosed lands was devoted to the upkeep of the pageants.] [Footnote 668: Sharp, _op. cit._, 9.] [Footnote 669: _Ib._, 20.] [Footnote 670: See illustrations in _Furnivall Misc._ taken from MS. Bodl. 264 ff. 54_b_, 76_a_. These pageants do indeed look like a glorified Punch and Judy show, as Mr Chambers has said.] [Footnote 671: It is difficult to say what they may not have endured. At Skinnerswell in 1411, a play lasted for seven days! There were twelve to sixteen stations at York; but the York plays were far shorter than the Coventry ones.] [Footnote 672: Sharp, _op. cit._, 73.] [Footnote 673: By the kindness of the editor of the _Victoria County History_, I am permitted to include this note from an unprinted MS., Inq. p.m. 19 H. 8, 46-45 (_P.R._O.) proof of age of Walter Smith of Coventry. It is important as furnishing proof that S. Christian is the right reading instead of S. Catherine, which Dr Craig would substitute. For S. Christianus, bishop of Auxerre in the ninth century, and S. Christiana, virgin, of Jermunde in Flanders, who flourished in the eighth century, see Smith and Wall, _Dict. Chr. Biog._ Miss Toulmin Smith, thinks that S. Christina and S. Christiana were distinct persons. There was a play in honour of the former at Bethersden in Kent. _York Plays_, lxv.] [Footnote 674: Craig, _op. cit._ xxi.-ii.] [Footnote 675: See Chambers, ii., 419-20.] [Footnote 676: Dugdale, _op. cit._, i. 183.] [Footnote 677: They may have been performed as late as 1591.] [Footnote 678: Cott. Vesp D., viii. ed. by Halliwell Phillips.]