ABSTRACT
The Privy Council reprimanded Chester's Bishop Downham in 1568 and again in 1575 for failing to actively suppress recusancy amongst his flock, not only in Lancashire but also in West Cheshire. Although the term 'palatinate' was unofficial until the 1290s, Chester nonetheless seems to have had the privileges, if not the title, from shortly after the conquest. In the minds of the Chester common council, the language of commonwealth and benefit to the city would thus have seemed appropriate to the situation. The Chester playwright wants Herod's performance to engage our active attention in a way that precludes all possibility of what a modern audience would call 'suspension of disbelief'. In this way, Chester's Herod participates in an understanding of tyranny best articulated in Trevisa's translation of The Governance of Kings and Princes. Unlike his counterparts in Towneley and York, Herod in the Chester cycle does not simply react in rage or become petrified by fear.
