The Thirteenth, Greatest of CenturiesWalsh, James J. (James Joseph)
History
The Thirteenth, Greatest of Centuries
Walsh, James J. (James Joseph)
Civilization, Medieval -- 13th century; Universities and colleges -- History
16, 17. Orfevers (Goldsmiths), Goldbeaters, Moneymakers.
The three kings coming from the East, Herod asking them about the
child Jesus; the son of Herod, two counsellors, and a messenger.
Mary with the Child, a star above, and the three kings offering
gifts.
How completely the people of each town were engaged in the
presentation of the plays, can be judged from the following
supplementary list of the other trade guilds that took parts. Many of
them bear quaint names, which are now obsolete. They included the
girdellers, makers of girdles; nailers, sawyers, lorymers (bridle
makers), the spurriers (makers of spurs), the fevers or smiths, the
curriers, the plumbers, the pattern-makers, the bottlers, the
cap-makers, the skinners, the bladesmiths, the scalers, the
buckle-makers, the cordwainers, the bowyers (makers of bows), the
fletchers (arrow-featherers), the tilemakers, the hayresters (workers
in horse hair), the boilers (bowl-makers), the tunners, the sellers or
saddlers; the fuystours (makers of saddle tree), the verrours
(glaziers), the broggours (brokers), the dubbers (refurbishers of
clothes), the luminers or illuminators, the scriveners, the drapers,
the potters, the weavers, the hostlers and mercers. The men of no
occupation, however menial it may seem to us, were barred. Each of
these companies had a special pageant with a portion of the Old or New
Testament to represent and in each succeeding year spent much of their
spare time in preparing for their dramatic performance, studying and
practising their parts and making everything ready for competition
with their brother craftsmen in the other pageants. Only those who
know the supreme educative value of dramatic representations for those
actively interested in them, will appreciate all that these plays
meant for popular education in the best sense of the word, but all can
readily understand how much they stood for in popular occupation of
mind with high thoughts and how {247} much they must have acted as a
preventive of debasing dissipations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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