“Sir John Arnway was maire of this citie[37]
When these playes were begon truly
God graunt us merely
And see theym many a yere.”
[37] Arneway was Mayor, 1268-76.
This is the earliest mention of their origin.
At last the momentous Monday in Whit-week arrived, and early in the
morning the first car started from the great gates of the Abbey, where
the Abbot and his followers sat in state, and proceeded down the street
to the High Cross, where the Mayor and Corporation were assembled. As
each car finished its play, its place was taken by another, and so
in regular succession and at appointed places, the whole series of
plays was gone through in three days. By this sensible and orderly
arrangement a citizen could retain his standing place or seat, and be
assured of missing nothing. No doubt seats at the performing points
commanded a premium, and documents exist of an interesting law-suit
between two citizens with reference to the right to occupy a “roome or
place for the Whytson plaies in the Bridge-gate streets in the Cyty of
Chester.”
We can imagine the pride of the Cestrian housewife when she saw her
husband magnificently dressed as “Herod,” or her sons in parti-coloured
costumes as “devils” rushing from the bottom to the top of the car only
to disappear in “Hell’s mouth” amidst fire, smoke, and sulphur, and the
laughter and applause of her neighbours; and may not she have felt a
holy thrill when, perhaps, her youngest boy on bended knee offered his
small shepherd’s pipe or his nutting stick as a gift to the “Lord of
all”?
Depend upon it Chester was full of legitimate pride on such occasions,
for, as the citizens said in their Banes, “None had the like, nor the
like did sett out.”
And the educational force of this cannot be overestimated. The young
citizen when he took up the freedomship of his company, took up also
duties of stage craft and stage management which had been traditional
for generations in that company. If he possessed ability as an actor he
had no difficulty in obtaining a part to play, and if he could not act
then he found plenty to do in preparation for the play, which _esprit
de corps_ demanded should not be behind other companies.
And so the Elizabethan drama found a people already prepared, by
centuries of familiarity with the stage as an amusement, to respond to
the demands good plays might make on their imagination and receptive
faculties. The Mysteries were but young plants--Shakespeare was the
fruit.
The fact is, the whole country was given up to plays of this sort, and
we know of more than one hundred towns and villages which enjoyed these
entertainments. The annual play at Wymonham (or Windham), in Norfolk,
lasted two days and two nights; and the inhabitants of Lydd, in Kent,
were so keen that they went to the play on a Sunday, while watchmen
were paid to keep guard on the shore against a surprise from the French.
If the trade gilds showed any desire to shirk such representations,
the Mayor could, and did, issue a notice commanding a performance; and
it was also the Mayor’s duty, as officer of the King’s peace, to issue
proclamations on all festive occasions of this sort.
The ordinances of the Mayor of York, in 1394 and subsequently, show
that the regulations to control the plays and populace were most
stringent and comprehensive, and that the plays began as early as 4.30
A.M.
In addition to the ordinary series of Chester Mystery Plays, we find
that the play of the _Assumption_ was performed at the High Cross in
1488, and before Prince Arthur in 1497, both at the Abbey gates and at
the High Cross; and also in 1515 in St. John’s Churchyard. We find,
also, the Cappers, Pewterers, and Smiths undertaking plays in 1520-1;
and that in 1529 _King Robert of Sicily_ had been performed at the High
Cross.