During each of the York Festivals, from 1954 onwards, one of the York Cycle of Mystery Plays has been performed on a waggon in the streets of the city, thus reviving the medieval fashion of presenting these plays. For the 1954 presentation. the players were drawn from the cast of the main production of the Mystery Plays but, since 1957, boys of Archbishop Holgate's Grammar School have made up the cast, renewing in a modern context the concept of the gild or closed fraternity responsible for the original productions. Girls from Queen Anne Grammar School (1960) and from York College for Girls (1966 and 1973) have also taken part.

The play is presented at two 'stations': the west front of York Minster (which, in the Middle Ages, was in the closed cathedral precinct) and King's Square, one of the original medieval stations generally referred to as "Girdlergate end" (Girdlergate is now called Church Street). Between the two stations it passes in procession along part of the old 'pageant route', which began on Pageant Green (Toft Green) near Micklegate Bar and finished at Pavement, near the Shambles. The waggon (or 'pageant') is drawn, as in the Middle Ages, by hauliers belonging to the gild presenting the play. From the early fourteenth to the late sixteenth century the Plays were performed in this way in the streets on Corpus Christi Day by the craft gilds of the city, each gild being responsible for the presentation of a particular play, and for the 'pageant' on which it was shown.

The play chosen for 1973 is HEROD AND THE THREE KINGS, which was originally staged by the MASONS' and the GOLD-SMITHS' gilds. There were possibly two separate plays at first but, in the form in which the plays have come down to us, the text of both plays is identical from line 54 onwards. The Masons may have been allotted the Herod play as they might reasonably be supposed to have been expert in what may be judged to have been an architectural setting; whereas the Goldsmiths, on the other hand, would find the provision of rich gifts and crowns for the Kings particularly within their 'mistery'.

It would probably be before the middle of the fourteenth century that the Masons' and Goldsmiths' Play was first performed. Its last performance was almost exactly four hundred years ago, and it is interesting to recall that the first generations of scholars of Archbishop Holgate's School will have seen the latter presentations of a play which their successors are reviving in its complete form for the first time since that date.

The writing is simple and straightforward in style, but there is a free use of rhyme and a great deal of alliteration. The stage direction at the beginning, from the surviving manuscript, says:

Three kings coming from the east, Herod questioning them about the child Jesus, and Herod's son and two counsellors and a messenger. Mary with the child, and the star above, and three kings offering gifts".

For the present production, the text has been prepared from the original Middle English by the producer, who wishes to record his debt to the late Canon Purvis, to whose work on the Plays anyone concerned with their production must be beholden. Except in one or two places where the medieval wording might have been obscure, this version follows the fifteenth century text faithfully. Sometimes this has resulted in the retention of words and phrases which are now unfamiliar; but this does not hinder the ready comprehension of what is said as the well-known tale is unfolded. There are formal greetings and expositions, and each of the four main characters introduces himself in his opening lines. The Adoration is marked by three formal speeches of worship, one from each of the Kings, and the play ends, as so many in the Cycle do, with a direct benediction to the onlookers:

He that is well of wit

Us guide and with you be!

STEWART LACK.

The Sixteenth and Seventeenth plays of the York Cycle of Mystery Plays performed on a Pageant Waggon in the streets of York during the York Festival, 1973

PLAYERS

HEROD .. Nicholas Arkie

SECOND COUNSELLOR John Allen

FIRST COUNSELLOR. .. Stephen Ramm

HEROD'S SON .. .. David Wilson

MESSENGER .. .. .. .. Andrew Fineron

FIRST KING .. .. Kerry Hutchinson

SECOND KING.. .. .. .. Paul Silvester

THIRD KING .. .. .. .. Timothy Skilbeck

MAID . . Jane Johnson or Lynne Riley

JOSEPH .. . . .. .. Stewart Lack

MARY .. Julia Norman or Juliet Moore

ANGEL .. .. Keith Flanagan

PAG ES Edward Scutt, Michael Faulkner, Kenneth Mounter

APPRENTICES -. Keith Brown, Huw Williams

HALBERDIERS Bryan Enghsh, Andrew Law, Carl Nielson

The Play produced by STEWART LACK

Setting and Costumes from designs by the Producer

Setting constructed by ANDREW CARR and embellished by MICHAEL ROGERS assisted by boys of Archbishop Holgate's Grammar School

Costumes made by the Wardrobe Mistresses

PHYLLIS BYTHEWAY, KAY DE LITTLE and EILEEN SEVERS

 The cast is drawn from Archbishop Holgate's Grammar School by permission of the Headmaster, Mr. D. A. Frith, M.A., J. P., and from York College for Girls, by permission of the Headmistress, Miss M.G. Drury, R.A.

The illustration on the Cover is from an original design by Stewart Lack.

The text of the play is the translation of Stewart Lack, by whom copyright is reserved. Published by the Author.