- tion of information[1] relative to the plays once performed
there, and the manner in which the actors were dressed. In 1456, Queen Margaret was at Coventry, when she saw "alle the pagentes pleyde save domesday, which might not be pleyde for lak of day." Even as late as 1575, "certain good harted men of Coventree" had the honour of performing before Queen Elizabeth in the celebrated entertainment at Kenilworth, and gained considerable applause.[2] And Heywood, in a passage which has been frequently quoted, alludes to the devil as a famous character in the old Coventry mysteries:—
"For as good happe wolde have it chaunce,
Thys devyll and I were of olde acqueyntaunce;
For oft, in the play of Corpus Christi,
He hath played the devyll at Coventry."[3]
The Coventry Mysteries attracted the attention of the antiquary, Dugdale, at an early period, and he has given us the following curious and important account of them:—
"Before the suppression of the monasteries, this city was very famous for the pageants that were play'd therein, upon Corpus-Christi day; which occasioning very great confluence of people thither from far and
- ↑ Collected from the records of the corporation. Mr. Sharp has also printed a Coventry play of a later date, which does not contain the dialectical peculiarity mentioned above.
- ↑ Laneham's Letter, 12mo. Lond. 1575, p. 32.
- ↑ Playe called the foure P P. sig. d. ii. Sharp has given us
many particulars relative to this character. See also Collier's Hist.
Dram. Poet. vol. ii. p. 262-266.
