The early Miracle plays of England were divided into two classes:  the first, given at Christmas, included all plays connected with the birth of Christ; the second, at Easter, included the plays relating to his death and triumph.  By the beginning of the fourteenth century all these plays were, in various localities, united in single cycles beginning with the Creation and ending with the Final Judgment.  The complete cycle was presented every spring, beginning on Corpus Christi day; and as the presentation of so many plays meant a continuous outdoor festival of a week or more, this day was looked forward to as the happiest of the whole year.

Probably every important town in England had its own cycle of plays for its own guilds to perform, but nearly all have been lost.  At the present day only four cycles exist (except in the most fragmentary condition), and these, though they furnish an interesting commentary on the times, add very little to our literature.  The four cycles are the Chester and York plays, so called from the towns in which they were given; the Towneley or Wakefield plays, named for the Towneley family, which for a long time owned the manuscript; and the Coventry plays, which on doubtful evidence have been associated with the Grey Friars (Franciscans) of Coventry.  The Chester cycle has 25 plays, the Wakefield 30, the Coventry 42, and the York 48.  It is impossible to fix either the date or the authorship of any of these plays; we only know certainly that they were in great favor from the twelfth to the sixteenth century.  The York plays are generally considered to be the best; but those of Wakefield show more humor and variety, and better workmanship.  The former cycle especially shows a certain unity resulting from its aim to represent the whole of man’s life from birth to death.  The same thing is noticeable in Cursor Mundi, which, with the York and Wakefield cycles, belongs to the fourteenth century.

At first the actors as well as the authors of the Miracles were the priests and their chosen assistants.  Later, when The town guilds took up the plays and each guild became responsible for one or more of the series, the actors were carefully selected and trained.  By four o’clock on the morning of Corpus Christi all the players had to be in their places in the movable theaters, which were scattered throughout the town in the squares and open places.  Each of these theaters consisted of a two-story platform, set on wheels.  The lower story was a dressing room for the actors; the upper story was the stage proper, and was reached by a trapdoor from below.  When the play was over the platform was dragged away, and the next play in the cycle took its place.  So in a single square several plays would be presented in rapid sequence to the same audience.  Meanwhile the first play moved on to another square, where another audience was waiting to hear it.