[1] I am not without hopes of one or two more collections turning up. In
MS. Addit. 4791, fol. 157, is given a list of the plays represented at
Dublin on Corpus Christi day, 1468, which differs materially from the
contents of any known series. The play of the “Sacrifice of Abraham,” in
Trinity College, Dublin, may be one of these. It has been printed by Mr.
Collier.
[2] Wood’s Athenæ, by Bliss, vol. ii., p. 458. Hegge does not allude to
the MS. in any of his writings.
[3] MS. Cotton. Julius, C. iii., fol. 193. James was then resident at
Oxford.
[4] In the old catalogue of the Cottonian library, commenced in the year
1621, in MS. Harl. 6018, there is no notice of the present MS. I find,
however, in a list of books “lent out of my study befor this 23 Aprill,
1621,” an entry which may be interesting to the reader: “Ælfricus Grammar
Saxon to Ben: Jonson.” This was doubtlessly “the most ancient grammar
written in the Saxon tongue and character,” which Kynaston saw in his
hands. See Gifford’s Jonson, vol. ix., p. 254.
[5] Collected from the records of the corporation. Mr. Sharp has also
printed a Coventry play of a later date, which does not contain the
dialectical peculiarity mentioned above.
[6] Laneham’s Letter, 12mo. Lond. 1575, p. 32.
[7] _Playe called the foure P. P._ sig. d. ii. Sharp has given us many
particulars relative to this character. See also Collier’s _Hist. Dram.
Poet._ vol. ii. p. 262-266.
[8] The reader will not perhaps be displeased to see this passage as it
stands in the original MS. of Dugdale’s work:—“Before the suppression of
the monasteries, this cittye was very famous for the pageants that were
play’d therein upon Corpus Christi day. These pageants were acted with
mighty state and reverence by the fryers of this house, and conteyned the
story of the New Testament which was composed into old English rime. The
theatres for the severall scenes were very large and high; and, being
placed upon wheeles, were drawne to all the eminent places of the cittye,
for the better advantage of the spectators. In that incomparable library
belonging to Sir Thomas Cotton, there is yet one of the bookes which
perteyned to this pageant, entitled _Ludus Corporis Christi_, or _Ludus
Coventriæ_. I myselfe have spoke with some old people who had, in their
younger yeares, bin eyewitnesses of these pageants soe acted; from whom
I have bin told that the confluence of people from farr and neare to see
that shew was extraordinary great, and yielded noe small advantage to
this cittye.”
[9] “It appears, by the latter end of the prologue, that these plays
or interludes were not only played at Coventry, but in other towns and
places upon occasion.”—_Wright’s Historia Histrionica_, 8vo. Lond. 1699,
p. 17.
[10] History of Dramatic Poetry, vol. ii. p. 156.