[670] See illustrations in Furnivall Misc. taken from MS. Bodl. 264 ff. 54b, 76a. These pageants do indeed look like a glorified Punch and Judy show, as Mr Chambers has said.
[671] It is difficult to say what they may not have endured. At Skinnerswell in 1411, a play lasted for seven days! There were twelve to sixteen stations at York; but the York plays were far shorter than the Coventry ones.
[672] Sharp, op. cit., 73.
[673] By the kindness of the editor of the Victoria County History, I am permitted to include this note from an unprinted MS., Inq. p.m. 19 H. 8, 46-45 (P.R.O.) proof of age of Walter Smith of Coventry. It is important as furnishing proof that S. Christian is the right reading instead of S. Catherine, which Dr Craig would substitute. For S. Christianus, bishop of Auxerre in the ninth century, and S. Christiana, virgin, of Jermunde in Flanders, who flourished in the eighth century, see Smith and Wall, Dict. Chr. Biog. Miss Toulmin Smith, thinks that S. Christina and S. Christiana were distinct persons. There was a play in honour of the former at Bethersden in Kent. York Plays, lxv.
[674] Craig, op. cit. xxi.-ii.
[675] See Chambers, ii., 419-20.
[676] Dugdale, op. cit., i. 183.
[677] They may have been performed as late as 1591.
[678] Cott. Vesp D., viii. ed. by Halliwell Phillips.
[679] An error, since Old Testament scenes are also included.