A very curious specimen of the plays that grew out of the Corpus-Christi festival was lately discovered in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, the manuscript being, it is said, as old as the reign of Edward IV., who died in 1483.  It is called The Play of the Blessed Sacrament, and is founded on a miracle alleged to have been wrought in the forest of Arragon, in 1461.  In form it closely resembles the Miracle-Plays founded on Scripture, the Saviour being one of the characters, the others being five Jews, a bishop, a priest, a merchant, and a physician and his servant.  The merchant, having the key of the church, steals the Host, and sells it to the Jews, who promise to turn Christians in case they find its miraculous powers verified.  They put the Host to various tests.  Being stabbed with their daggers, it bleeds, and one of the Jews goes mad at the sight.  They next attempt nailing it to a post, when one of them has his hand torn off; whereupon the physician and his man come in to dress the wound, but after a long comic scene are driven out as quacks.  The Jews then proceed to boil the Host, but the water forthwith turns blood-red.  Finally, they cast it into a heated oven, which presently bursts asunder, and an image of the Saviour rises and addresses the Jews, who make good their promise on the spot.  The merchant confesses his theft, declares his penitence, and is forgiven, under a strict charge never again to buy or sell.  The whole winds up with an epilogue from the bishop, enforcing the moral of the play, which turns on the dogma of transubstantiation.

There are three sets of Miracle-Plays extant, severally known as the Towneley, Coventry, and Chester Collections; the first including thirty plays, the second forty-two, and the third twenty-four.  Some of the manuscripts are thought to be as old as the time of Henry VI., who died in 1471.  The three sets have all been recently printed by the Shakespeare Society.  The Towneley set most likely belonged to Widkirk Abbey:  at what time they grew into use there and at Coventry is not certainly known.  At Chester the plays were probably first acted in 1268; after which time they were repeated yearly, with some interruptions, till 1577.  And we have conclusive evidence that such exhibitions formed a regular part of English life in the reign of Edward III., which began in 1327.  For Chaucer alludes to “plays of miracles” as things of common occurrence; and in The Miller’s Tale he makes it a prominent feature of the parish clerk, “that jolly was and gay,” that he performed in them.  And in 1378, which was the first year of Richard II., the choristers of St. Paul’s, London, petitioned the King to prohibit some ignorant persons from acting plays founded on Scripture, as conflicting with the interest of the Clergy, who had incurred expense in getting up a set of plays on similar subjects.  Stowe informs us, also, that in 1409 there was a great play in London, “which lasted eight days, and was of matter from the creation of the world.”