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... ntent at http://about.jstor.org/participate--jstor/individuals/early-journal--content. JSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary source objects. JSTOR helps people discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content through a powerful research and teaching platform, and preserves this content for future generations. JSTOR is part of ITHAKA, a not--for--profit organization that also includes Ithaka S+R and Portico. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. XX.-THE MIRACLE PLAY IN ENGLAND-NOMENCLATURE 1 It is the purpose of this paper to make a critical inquiry into the actual use of the term Miracle Play in England from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries. The present state of opinion among most historians of the English drama is that the term there during that period came to include all religious plays. The trend of this view during the last sixty or seventy years, as it develops from conservative statement to absolute, sweeping generalization, forms an interesting chapter in the history of critical nomenclature. In 1843, Thomas Wright, in his introduction to an edition of the Chester Plays (p. vii), wrote: In France, the distinction between miracles and mysteries was carefully preserved to the latest times. In England, as early as the fourteenth century, there appears to have been some confusion in the application of these terms, and the name of miracles was given frequently to all kinds of scripture plays as well as to plays of saints' miracles. Collier's statement a generation later is well generalized (Hist. Engl. Dram. Poetry, 1879, ii, p. 53): The dramatic productions of this country (England) exist in no more ancient form than that of plays founded upon the Old and New Testaments, with additions from the apocryphal gospels: the legends of the lives of saints and martyrs appear also to have afforded subjects for exhibitions of the same kind. Their proper designation is miracles or Plays of Miracles. J. H. Wylie, though not primarily a historian of the It is a pleasure to acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. Manly for the thesis of this paper and for many helpful suggestions in connection with it. 448 MIRACLE PLAY IN ENGLAND--NOMENCLATURE 449 drama, in his history of England 2 adds the following passage to our chronological survey of material: "But the 'great miracles' were 'the Passion of our Lord and the sJ. H. Wylie, History of England under Henry IV, Longmans, Green and Co., 1884-1898, 4 vols., vol. II, pp. 221-2. In support of his statement he gives, among others, from the cyclic plays two citations not mentioned by any of the other historians. So I take space to consider them here. The first is from the Chester Plays (loc. cit., pp. 113-5), The Salutation and Nativity Play. The following is the situation: Salome, one of the two midwives who came at Joseph's call, appeared after Mary had given painless birth to Christ, refused to believe that there had been a miracle in the birth, and attempted to find out " whether shee be cleane maie." Her hand was miraculously made lifeless, but was healed again after she had done the bidding of an angel that appeared and told her to pray to Christ for forgiveness. The angel said: This mirackle nowe, that thou seeiste here Is of Godes owine power. After this the Expositor spoke thus: Lo, lordinges all, of this mirackelle here Fre[r] Barthelemew, in good manere, Beareth wittnes without were, As plaied is you beforne; Another mirackle, yf I maie, I shall rehearse, or I goe awaie, That befell that same daie That Jesus Christe was borne. Then he proceeded to tell of another that occurred at the time of Christ's birth. The other passage cited by Wylie is from the York Plays (p. 362), the Mortificacio Christi. Caiphas mocks Jesus on the cross: I calle Pe a coward to kenne, pat meruaylles and mirakills made, pou mustered enmange many menne, But, brothell, lou bourded to brede. In both cases cited here, of course, the references are not to a type or dramatic form, but to the miraculous acts. For an analysis of this method in detail-with its attendant fallacies-as employed at length by another writer see my study, A New Theory Concerning the Origin of the Miracle Play (Banta, 1914) , chap. i. GEORGE R. COFFMAN Creation of the World,' etc. Such exhibitions were usually known in England as 'the miracles' or 'the marvels.' Chambers (The Mediaeval Stage, ii, p. 108) in a brief statement assumes the inclusive usage: The English miracle play reaches its full development with the formation of the great processional cycles almost immediately after the establishment of the Corpus Christi festival in 1311. But Gayley's definition permits no play of a religious nature to escape: All religious historical plays, biblical or legendary, cyclic or independent, of events contemporaneous with, or subsequent to, the Scriptural, were miracles, properly so called by our forefathers.' So much for the present state of opinion. Now the evidence as to the actual usage is of two kinds: that given by churchmen and others whose interests were not primarily in the drama, and whose point of view would, therefore, be popular and uncritical; and that found in town and corporation records, in similar documents, and in MSS. of preserved plays; in short, the evidence of those who had some official connection with the drama and whose point of view, as a result, would be more critical and intelligent than that of the layman.4 An examination of these two kinds of evidence shows (1) that even records of popular usage do not justify the 3C. M. Gayley, Representative English Comedy (1907), p. xviii. Cf. also, among others, A. W. Ward, Hist. Eng. Dram. Lit. etc., (1899) I, p. 57; A. H. Thorndike, Tragedy (1908), p. 23; F. E. Schelling, The Elizabethan Drama, (1908), i, p. 10. 'Relative to the point of view of the playwright, the words of Brander Matthews are apt here (A Study of the Drama, p. 112): " Every student . . . must remember always that we have no right to assume that the author ever gave a thought to the specific name the historians of literature might one day bestow on his masterpiece." William of Wadington, and not the editor is to blame, and, furthermore, he makes due apologies. Manuel, pp. 413-4, 11. 12736ff.: De le franceis, ne del rimer, Ne me doit nuls hom blamer, Kar en engletere fu ne, E norri, ordine, et aleue; De une vile sui nome Ou ne est burg ne cite. De deu seit beneit chescun hom Ky prie pur Wilham Wadigtoun. " Cf. Tretise on Miraclis Pleyinge (Matzner, Alteng. Sprachpr. I, p. 228): "Also sithen it makith to se veyne si3tis of degyse, aray of men and wymmen by yvil continaunse, eyther stiryng othere to letcherie, and of debatis . . ., wherfore it suffrith not a man to be holden enterly the 3erde of God over his heved, etc." 1 The Seint ysidre (Seynt Ysodre of the Handlyng) is Isidore of Seville (c. 560-616, A. D.). The reference is to his Etymologiae and may refer to two passages. The first is Etym. xvm, 27 (!Migne, P. L., 82, p. 653), De ludis circensibus: "Ludi circenses sacrorum causa, ac gentilium celebrationibus instituti sunt. Unde et qui eos