[660] Bishop, 1188-1198. See Chambers, op. cit., ii. 36. Cf. the matter of the "castel of Emaus" in the cappers' play at Coventry, Sharp, 48.
[661] Furnivall misc., 206-7.
[662] See Hardin Craig, Two Coventry Corpus Christi Plays, Early English Text Society, to which I am much indebted. The older work on this subject is Sharp's Dissertation on the Dramatic Mysteries. Chambers' Mediæval Stage is very rich in Coventry material.
[663] See Leet Book, 205, for the case of the cardmakers, saddlers, painters and masons.
[664] Ib., 94, The case of the weavers' journeymen, who paid 4d. a piece, is the only one on record.
[665] Sharp, 8.
[666] Ib., 9, 10. There is no record that the dyers ever contributed to the Mystery Plays. In 1539 the Mayor of Coventry told Cromwell that the poor commons were at such expense with their plays and pageants that they fared the worse all the year after. Chambers, op. cit., ii. 358.
[667] Mr Chambers' surmise that the common lands were enclosed to build pageant-houses on is untenable. The rents derived from the enclosed lands was devoted to the upkeep of the pageants.
[668] Sharp, op. cit., 9.
[669] Ib., 20.