Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/182

i 7 o PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH manuscript is known, while of it we have five, the oldest of which did not come into existence till several years after the plays themselves had been performed for the last time. Nor are they tran- scripts of a single original, but, as we shall see, the existence of at least four intermediate copies can certainly be inferred. This points to an antiquarian interest in the subject:, for the last performance of the cycle took place 1575, and there does not appear to have been much dramatic enterprise after that date. Alleged preparations for a per- formance in 1600 rest on no cogent evidence. I will now enumerate the known manuscripts in chronological order. 1 It is perhaps a further 1 All are paper and in folio. Bodley's is the only one that has not been rebound. Since no adequate description of these manu- scripts appears to exist, I give here a more detailed account of them than was possible in my lecture. 1591. D. In the library of the Duke of Devonshire at Chats- worth (?). Measures 11^x7^ inches. Imperfect at the beginning, the first pageant supplied in a modern transcript from MS. K, probably by J. P. Collier. The first leaf that survives is the original folio 6, on which the second pageant begins. Written throughout in a very good and clear, though somewhat current, English hand, without ornament. Speakers' names centred. Speeches divided and stage directions marked off from the text by long rules ; quatrains or half stanzas separated by short rules from the left. There were originally 150 folios. The manuscript is perfect at the end, and below the ' Finis' is the note: 'By me Edward Gregorie scholler at Bunbury the yeare of our lord god 1591.' It is not certain whether this is in the same hand as the text. Lower on the same page is the name ' Richard Gregorie.' This manuscript was missing when Deimling prepared his edition. 1592. W. In the British Museum, MS. Addit. 10305. Measures 11x7 inches. Mutilated at both ends, but the old foliation shows that no leaves are actually missing at the beginning. There are 168 folios, and 96 lines of text, which would occupy two leaves, are wanting at the end. This is the most ornamental