ABSTRACT
The five extant “cyclic” manuscripts of the Chester Cycle, however, contain two markedly different versions of Play V, which relate the giving of the Laws to Moses, the episode of Balaam and Balak, and either the Vengeance of Israel or the Prophet Sequence. This chapter examines how the writers of these two versions have adapted the subject matter to meet different dramatic and thematic requirements. A different division is provided by the play lists in the Breviary of Chester History, compiled after 1609 from the material of Archdeacon Robert Rogers of Chester Cathedral, and in MS Harley 2150, which indicate that Plays I–IX were performed. In Chester V, the immediate problem is its relationships to the preceding play of Abraham (IV) and the following play of the Nativity of Christ (VI), and the wider problems of its relationship to all the preceding Old Testament or following New Testament plays.
