ses, the manger
at Bethlehem, the slaughter of the Innocents, the Temptation, the
resurrection of Lazarus, the Last Supper, the Trial, the Crucifixion,
and the Easter triumph are a few of the Miracle plays that were acted
in the city of York.

The Actors and Manner of Presentation.--At first the actors were
priests who presented the plays either in the church or in its
immediate vicinity on sacred ground. After a while the plays became so
popular that the laity presented them. When they were at the height of
their popularity, that is, during the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, the actors were selected with great care from the members
of the various trades guilds. Each guild undertook the entire
responsibility for the presentation of some one play, and endeavored
to surpass all the other guilds.

[Illustration: HELL MOUTH._From a Columbia University Model_.]

Considerable humor was displayed in the allotment of various plays.
The tanners presented the fall of Lucifer and the bad angels into the
infernal regions; the ship carpenters, the play of Noah and the
building of the ark; the bakers, the Last Supper; the butchers, the
Crucifixion. In their prime, the Miracle plays were acted on wooden
platforms mounted on wheels. There were two distinct stories in these
movable stages, a lower one in which the actors dressed, and an upper
one in which they played. The entrance to the lower story, known as
Hell Mouth, consisted of a terrible pair of dragonlike jaws, painted
red. From these jaws issued smoke, flame, and horrible outcries. From
the entrance leaped red-coated devils to tempt the Savior, the saints,
and men. Into it the devils would disappear with some wicked soul.
They would torture it and make it roar with pain, as the smoke poured
faster from the red jaws.

In York on Corpus Christi Day, which usually fell in the first week in
June, the actors were ordered to be in their places on these movable
theaters at half past three in the morning. Certain stations had been
selected throughout the city, where each pageant should stop and, in
the proper order, present its own play. In this way the enormous
crowds that visited York to see these performances were more evenly
scattered throughout the city.

The actors did not always remain on the stage. Herod, for example, in
his magnificent robes used to ride on horseback among the people,
boast of his prowess, and overdo everything. Shakespeare, who was
evidently famil