the aforesaid play, in respect of the play before the gate of his dwelling in the street of Micklegate, and in other tenements in the city."

2

In a natural reaction from the misstatement of Mr. Toulmin Smith, there is a tendency to forget that although the procession of Corpus Christi had no direct connexion with the pageant plays, still it was in existence long before the gild of Corpus Christi was inaugurated,3 and that as it took place for several years on the same day as the pageant plays were acted, doubtless the craftsmen took a prominent part; in fact, the number of torches to be borne in the procession by each craft is twice given in the Memorandum Book, and fines imposed by the misteries are sometimes appropriated to keep up processional lights and torches. Marshals, smiths and shipmen all had special ordinances dealing with the subject.5 Unfortunately the festival was often connected in the minds of law-abiding citizens with tumults and disturbances. In 1419, the skinners came to complain to the mayor that as they bore their lighted torches in the procession coram Corpore Christi ibidem presenti," several men of the crafts of carpenters and shoemakers attacked them with sticks and axes. Not only was this a serious breach of the peace, but it also impeded the procession. Two carpenters and a cordwaner were imprisoned and then brought before the mayor. They threw themselves on the mercy of the chamber; they were bound over to keep the peace by a bond of £100, and eight sureties undertook in writing to be answerable for them. In 1421 the saucemakers, tilemakers, turners, hayresters, bollers and millers asked that their plays, "the Suspencio Jude, the Condemnacio Christi, the Flagellacio et Coronacio cum Spinis, and the Particio Vestimentorum Christi" should be combined into one play. The mayor and council agreed; but the amalgamation seems to

1. Ibid., p. 65.

2.

Toulmin Smith, English Gilds, E.E.T.S., p. 141. Dr. Brentano's introduction, lxxxv.

3. Ibid., p. 32, R. H. Skaife, Register of the Gild of Corpus Christi, Surtees Soc., vol. 57.

4. Ibid., pp. 118, 295.

5. Ante, pp. xl, xli.

6. Ibid., p. 79.

THE REVIVAL IN YORK

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have resulted in disputes as to payment. In the following year the craftsmen submitted to arbitration. The decision was that the production of the play should be entrusted to the saucemakers and tilemakers; the millers should pay them ten shillings a year, but two of them should accompany the pageant and share the refreshments"in cibo potuque solacia percipiant." The hayresters only paid five shillings, and only one of their craft went with the pageant. Apparently the men were attempting to use the pageants as a means of advertizement; this effort was sternly repressed. None of the trades should place any sign of their trade above the pageant-the arms of the city only were tolerated. Ten years later the saucemakers, too, retired and paid five shillings to the tilers in preference to acting themselves.1

In 1422 the painters, stainers, pinners and latoners suggested to the mayor and council that it would be a distinct gain to the audience if the two plays, for which they were answerable, were amalgamated and curtailed. The mayor, aldermen and council of the chamber benignantly accepted, and cordially commended the craftsmen for their laudable proposition. They decreed that from that time the painters and stainers should be exempt from bringing out a play, but should pay five shillings annually to the pinners and latoners, who would undertake to bring out the two abbreviated plays in their new form.3

Three years later a new and vivifying force was brought to bear on these Corpus Christi festivals. It seemed as if a spiritual power was about to raise them from the atmosphere of tumults, quarrels and grudging performance into a

1. Ibid., pp. 171-173.

2. Ibid., pp. 102–104.

3. The pinners seem to have suffered much from foreign competition. In 1564 the council grappled with the evil. Upon a bill of supplicacion exhibited by the pynnars, it is agreed for amendement of the sayd craft that the tynclars and makers of fyshehookes and other wares belongyng the pynnars craft shalbe contributory and paye yerely towardes the chardge of pynnars pageant iiijd. a pece. Item, that all forynars pynnars from hensforth shall resort to Thursday market there to sell their pynnes and wares openly; and none of theym to be suffred to goe hawkyng about the cite or to mens howses to sell their wares. And that it shalbe leeful to the serchars of pynnars of this citie to serche the sayd forynars wares, and also to take pageant money of them of every suche forynar usyng to sell pynnes or other their stuff aforesayd within the sayd citie, iiijd. a pece in the yere." Municipal Records, House Book, xxiii., fo. 163.

higher plane, where they should become a permanent means of recalling a sordid people annually to their religious duties. Willelmus Melton, a brother of the order of friars minors, learned in the scriptures, preached earnestly to the people that they should leave off the noisy drunken riots, which disgraced the celebration of the festival. He showed them that they imperilled their immortal souls, and lost all the indulgences granted by the blessed Pope Urban IV. His eloquence was so convincing that the mayor called a special council meeting to discuss the matter. Evidently they were anxious to avoid committing themselves to quite such a gloomy view of the effect of the festivals on the morals of York, as that held by the revivalist.1 They met the predicament with circumspection. They prefaced their decision by the safe platitude that it could not be a crime nor could it offend God, if good were turned into better, " quod delictum non est, nec Deum offendit, si bonum in melius commutetur." But they refused to act until they had felt the popular pulse; so they convened a large city assembly in the common hall. The more democratic assembly showed the greater religious zeal. It was solemnly proclaimed by common consent that procession and plays should be held on separate days; the plays to be acted on the day before the feast, the procession on Corpus Christi day. Thus, citizens and visitors. could perform all their religious duties, obtain the indulgences, and still not sacrifice their traditional love of the dramatic representations.2 The influence of Willelmus soon passed,

1. G. G. Coulton, a Medieval Garner, pp. 570-575. From a MS. volume of English sermons, written at the end of the fourteenth century. The preacher is arguing against those who defend miracles plays. "But hereagainst they sayen, oftentimes by such miracle-playing men and women seeing the passion of Christ and of his saints be moved to compassion and devotion, weeping bitter tears. Then they be no scorning of God but worshipping." To this the preacher replies, But the weeping that falleth to men and women by the sight of such miracle-playing as they be not principally for their own sins nor of their good faith within sorry, but more of their sight without [therefore their] sorrow is not allowable before God but more reprovable. For, sithen Christ Himself reproved the women that wepten upon Him in His passion, much more they be reprovable that weepen for the play of Christ's passion, leaving to weepen for the sins of themselves and their children, as Christ bade the women that wepten on Him.” Cf. Behind the Scenes at a Miracle Play, ibid., 701-703.

2. Ibid., pp. 156-158.

THE MISTERY OF GOLDSMITHS

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the people obtained two holidays, but continued to perform their plays on Corpus Christi day and relegated the religious procession to the following day. In other directions, however, the friar was more directly successful, he induced the citizens to close their shops on Sundays; and anxious to destroy sin, being a lover of virtue, "volens peccatum destruere et amator honestatis," he persuaded the mayor to put an old ordinance in force, which obliged whores either to find sureties for good behaviour, or to relinquish their manner of life, or to leave the city.1

In 1431 the goldsmiths came into the council chamber with a piteous story of their overburdened condition. The recital of their woes loses much by translation, still the passage gives such a terse and vivid picture of the burdensome nature of the pageant policy that the whole seems to merit reproduction.

"In the name of God, Amen. It must not be overlooked but rather committed to memory that the goldsmiths of the city of York, during years gone by, have borne a grievous burden and enormous costs on account of their two pageants in the play of Corpus Christi. But now the world is changed for them, they have become poorer than they were wont to be, their wealth has decreased in the way mentioned before. They came in great numbers to appeal to the great men and the council of the chamber in order to get assistance in this matter for the relief of their burdens, which were too heavy to be borne. But if this is impossible, they ask that they might be relieved from one of their pageants with its attendant expenses, which increase continually, for [they said] that they could no longer bear the burden of both their pageants without enormous trouble to themselves. On the other hand the masons of this city grumbled among themselves about their pageant in the play of Corpus Christi in which Fergus was scourged, because the subject matter of that

1. Ibid., pp. 158, 159.

2. Miss Toulmin Smith writes: "This play, founded on a well-known incident in the apocryphal legend of the death of Mary, is the only one, all trace of which is wanting in the Register." op. cit., p. xxvii. But neither Drake, nor Davies, nor Miss Toulmin Smith have noticed this allusion to it.

pageant is not contained in holy scripture and gave rise to more laughter and noise than devotion. Sometimes quarrels, disputes and fights arose from it among the people; and they could seldom or never produce and play their pageant by daylight like the earlier pageants. The masons, therefore, desired with a great desire to be freed from this pageant, and to be allowed another, which should be in accordance with holy scripture and could be produced and played by daylight. And for the fulfilment of these their desires both the parties aforesaid [the goldsmiths and the masons] made applications and prayers to the mayor and council to obtain their willing consent and good will in this matter. Whereupon Thomas Snaudon, mayor, and also the aldermen and council of the chamber, graciously forwarding the wishes and desires of the men of the aforesaid crafts, and deeming them in accordance with what was fitting, gave judgment that the aforesaid goldsmiths for the decrease of their grievous burdens should be relieved of one of their pageants-namely, that of Herod. And likewise that the masons should be relieved and quit of the pageant of Fergus. And that the said masons shall have for themselves and their craft the aforesaid pageant of Herod, which the goldsmiths previously had produced; and produce it at their expense and play it in a more fitting manner, which is seemly for the honour of the city, as often as the aforesaid pageant shall happen to be played in the aforesaid city."

to

In 1476 an effort was made to raise the standard of the performances. The mayor and council ordained "that yerely in the tyme of lentyn there shall be called afore the maire iiij of the moste conyng discrete and able players serche here and examen all the plaiers and plaies and pagentes thrughoute all the artificers belonging to the Corpus Christi play." Only those players" sufficiant in personne and conyng were accepted, "insufficient personnes either in conyng, voice, or personne to discharge, ammove, and avoide." Two years later

1. Ibid., pp. 123, 124.

2. Corporation House Books, vol. I., fol. 147. I am indebted to Mr. Giles for connoting this extract with the original.