[1174] This must not be confounded with the mysteries acted on Corpus Christi Day by the Franciscans at Coventry, which were also called Coventry Plays, and of which an account is given from T. Warton's Hist. of Eng. Poetry, &c., in Malone's Shakesp. vol. ii. part ii. p. 13-14.
[1175] Not 1012, as printed in Laneham's Letter, mentioned below.
[1176] Ro. Laneham, whose letter, containing a full description of the shows, &c., is reprinted at large in Nichols's Progresses of Q. Elizabeth, &c., vol. i. 4to. 1788. That writer's orthography being peculiar and affected, is not here followed.
[1177] Laneham, p. 37.
[1179] Ibid.
[1180] Laneham describes this play of Hock Tuesday, which was "presented in an historical cue by certain good-hearted men of Coventry" (p. 32), and which was "wont to be play'd in their citie yearly" (p. 33), as if it were peculiar to them, terming it "their old storial show" (p. 32). And so it might be as represented and expressed by them "after their manner" (p. 33): although we are also told by Bevil Higgons, that St. Brice's Eve was still celebrated by the northern English in commemoration of this massacre of the Danes, the women beating brass instruments, and singing old rhimes, in praise of their cruel ancestors. See his Short View of Eng. History, 8vo. p. 17. (The preface is dated 1734.)
[1182] Laneham, p. 33.
[1183] The Rhimes, &c., prove this play to have been in English: whereas Mr. Tho. Warton thinks the mysteries composed before 1328 were in Latin. Malone's Shakesp. vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 9.