Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/395

MIRACLE CYCLES. 381 ment with the text, though it is true that it does not explicitly mention the Burning Bush as the scene of the Lawgiving ! Considering, however, what an unusual subject for a play the incident is in English drama, it is difficult to resist the con- clusion that, in spite of the difference of metre, the description in the Prologue was actually written for the pageant we possess. The last of the Old Testament plays is a ' Prophetae,' another independent pageant in short oftaves. Prophet plays, of course, abound, and there would be no reason to suppose that the one described in the Prologue was in fact the one now found in the text, were it not for the stress which both Prologue and text lay upon the ' Radix Jesse/ We now pass to the second group of plays, what we may call the Incarnation section, and agreement with the Prologue ceases abruptly. The separate pageants are linked together by speeches of Con- templatio. In a sort of preface this character promises a representation of events down to the Visit to Elizabeth * and therwith a conclusyon.' This promise is fulfilled. But it is the first three plays, namely the ' Conception,' ' Presentation,' and c Marriage of the Virgin,' that are the most intimately connected, there being appearances of Contemplatio in the intervals between these plays, numbers 8, 9, and 10. The 'Annunciation/ play 11, also begins with a speech by Contemplatio, but this is either a mere blunder on the part of the scribe or else a very clumsy piece of botching on that of the reviser. For an examination of the passage in the manuscript proves beyond all doubt v DD