Four cycles of miracle plays are still extant, the York, Chester, Coventry and Towneley or Woodkirk plays. The Towneley series, so called from the family who long owned the manu script, much resembles the York cycle, and like it displays much vigor and humor. The Chester plays perhaps appeal most to modern taste. The religious passages are more reverent, the humor less coarse and the versification less harsh. The Coventry plays are full of didacticism, and this, with the introduction of personified abstrac tions, relates them more closely than the others to the Moralities. Fragments of other cycles have also survived. The Vulgate and the Apocrypha are the chief sources of the texts. In places some tragic elevation is reached, marred, however, by repetition and moralizing. Melodramatic and ranting scenes were popular. The comic scenes are often very spirited, and clearly based upon observation of the life of the people. Anachronisms are common, and the supernatural is treated with great naivete.
The miracle plays were at their best in the time of Chaucer. In the 15th century the Moral ities arose to compete with them for favor, but never equaled them in dramatic achievement. The miracle plays continued to be given until the beginning of the 16th century, but in the reign of Elizabeth they had ceased to be a vital force. Their influence in preparing the way for the Elizabethan drama was very great, however. They introduced elementary types of comedy and tragedy, farce and melodrama, and accus tomed the people as a whole to dramatic conven tions. They made a national drama possible in the time of Shakespeare, and kept the theatre from being a mere amusement for the nobility, or a diversion for a small group of literary people.
Bibliography.— Chambers, 'The Mediaeval Stage (2 vols.); 'Chester Plays,' edited by Wright (London 1847) ; D'Ancona, A., 'Satre rappresentazioni dei secoli 14-16' (Florence 1862) • Davidson, Charles, 'Studies in the Eng lish Mystery Play' (New Haven 1892); 'Digby Mysteries,' edited by Furnivall (London 1W2); Gayley, C. M., Plays of Our Forefathers' (New York 1907); Hemingway, S. B., 'Eng lish Nativity Plays' (in 'Yale Studies in English,' Vol XXXVIII, New York 1909) ; Jusserand, J. A. J., 'Literary History of the English People> (ib. 1895) ; Mackenzie, W. R., 'English Moralities' (ib. 1914); Manly, J. M., 'Specimens of the Pre-Shakespearean Drama' (Boston 1897); 'Miracles de Notre Dame,' edited by G. Paris and Robert (Paris 1876-81) ; Moore, E. H., 'English Miracle Plays and Moralities' (London 1907) ; Pettit de Julleville, Louis, 'Les Mysteres) (in du theatre de France,' 2 vols., Paris 1886) ; Pollard, A., W., 'English Miracle Plays, Moralities and Interludes' (5th ed., Oxford 1909); Stoddard, F. H., 'References for Students of Miracle Plays and Mysteries' (Berkeley 1N7); Sy monds, 'Shakspere's Predecessors in the Eng lish Drama' ; 'Towneley Mysteries,' edited by Raine (Newcastle 1836); Ward, A. W., 'His tory of English Dramatic Literature) (3 vols., New York 1899); Wright, 'Early Mysteries' (London 1831); 'York Plays,' edited by L. T. Smith (Oxford 1885).