Note 378 — Chapter XXII · GUILD PLAYS AND PARISH PLAYS (continued)

I can only give the most general account of the legendary content of the plays. For full treatment of this in relation to its sources cf. the authorities quoted in the bibliographical note to chapter xxi, and especially L. T. Smith, York Plays, xlvii; P. Kamann, in Anglia, x. 189; A. Hohlfeld, in Anglia, xi. 285. Much still remains to be done, especially for the Chester plays and the Ludus Coventriae. The chief earlier sources are probably the Evangelium Pseudo-Matthaei and the Evangelium Nicodemi (including the Gesta Pilati and the Descensus Christi ad Inferos), both in Tischendorf, Evangelia Apocrypha, and the Transitus Mariae in Tischendorf, Apocalypses Apocryphae. The later sources include the Legenda Aurea of Jacobus de Voragine (†1275) and the Cursor Mundi (ed. R. Morris for E. E. T. S.), a Northumbrian poem of the early fourteenth century.