Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/193

MIRACLE CYCLES. 181 c Banns, 1 or versified arguments of the pageants, intended for recitation by way of advertisement of the annual performance. Some of the manuscripts of the plays contain copies of a late set of banns, a more complete version of which is preserved in Rogers' 'Breviary of Chester.' 1 These banns belong presumably to the third quarter of the six- teenth century. But an earlier and quite distinct version of the banns is also extant. This, which was copied for Randle Holme out of the ' White Book of the Pentice/ is called by Chambers the pre^reformation banns, and is certainly earlier than I547. 2 Accompanying each set of banns is a list of the pageants and the guilds performing them. Now the series of pageants described in the two sets differ in two points. The earlier contains a play, ' of our lady thassumpcion/ which is absent from the later, while this records as a single play the Scourging and Crucifying of Christ, which forms two distinct pageants in the earlier. 3 It has been assumed, not unreasonably, by Chambers and 1 The Banns in MS. K are printed by Wright and Deimling, the latter adds i collations from B. Eighteen additional lines from Rogers' 'Breviary' (MS. Harley 1944) were printed by Furnivall in the introduction to his edition of the ' Digby Plays,' New Shakspere Soc., 1882 (E.E.T.S, 1896), p. xx. 2 Holme's copy is in MS. Harley 2150, whence it was printed by R. Morris in his ' Chester in the Plantagenet and Tudor Reigns,' p. 307. 3 At the risk of obscuring the argument I feel bound to add that the 'Assumption' appears in neither list, and that the 'Scourging' and 'Crucifying' are divided in both lists. This, however, only proves that lists and banns are drawn from different sources. Indeed, there is reason to believe that Holme's and Rogers' lists are both copied from the 'White Book.'