rment. The street itself was
quite freely used whenever conditions seemed to require it: messengers,
for example, pushed their way realistically through the crowd; devils
ran merrily about in its open space; and when Herod felt the whole stage
too narrow to contain his fury he sought the ampler bounds of the
market-place to rage in. Sometimes two or more stages were placed in
proximity to accommodate actions that must take place at the same time.
Thus we read in _Scene 25_ ('The Council of the Jews') of the _Coventry
Play_, 'Here xal Annas, shewyn hymself in his stage, be seyn after a
busshop of the hoold lawe, in a skarlet gowne, and over that a blew
tabbard furryd with whyte, and a mytere on his hed, after the hoold
lawe' (the dress is interesting); and a little further on, 'Here goth
the masangere forth, and in the mene tyme Cayphas shewyth himself in his
skafhald arayd lyche to Annas'; while yet a little later appears this,
'Here the buschopys with here (_their_) clerkes and the Phariseus mett,
and (? in) the myd place, and ther xal be a lytil oratory with stolys
and cusshonys clenly be-seyn, lyche as it were a cownsel-hous'. Again,
in _Scene 27_ ('The Last Supper') will be found this direction: 'Here
Cryst enteryth into the hous with his disciplis and ete the Paschal
lomb; and in the mene tyme the cownsel-hous beforn-seyd xal sodeynly
onclose, schewyng the buschopys, prestys, and jewgys syttyng in here
astat, lyche as it were a convocacyon.' This last is quoted for the
additional inference that the Coventry stage remained in one place
throughout the play; for the previous reference to the 'cownsel-hous' is
that quoted, two scenes earlier. There was another custom, practised in
Chester, and probably in other towns where the crowd was great. There
the whole stage, dressing-room and all, was mounted on wheels and drawn
round the town, pausing at appointed stations to present its scene. By
this means the crowd could be widely scattered (to the more equitable
advantage of shopkeepers), for a spectator had only to remain at one of
these stations to behold, in due order of procession, the whole play
acted. Thus mounted on wheels the stage took the name of a pageant (or
pagond, in ruder spelling),--a name soon extended to include not only a
stage without wheels but even the stage itself. It is used with the
latter meaning in the Prologue to the _Coventry Play_.

With regard to the time occupied by the play, it is not possib