ABSTRACT
It is entirely appropriate that a paper concerned with the pageant carriages and route of the Chester Whitsun Plays should take for its title a quotation from one of David Rogers' early seventeenth-century compilations of material describing the city's late-medieval plays. These descriptions, attributed by David to his father Robert Rogers, Archdeacon of Chester, who died in 1595, exist in four slightly different and at times contradictory versions in five manuscripts.! Regardless of contradiction and attendant doubts as to precise authorship and accuracy, the descriptions have been probably the single most influential source in defining the popular idea of the appearance of a medieval pageant wagon. In the absence of contemporary pictorial evidence from this country, Rogers' description has found its way into almost every work concerned with the tradition and development of English theatre. Sucn popular familiarity though has bred some critical contempt and there have been attempts to discredit the descriptions on the grounds of lateness, inconsistency and religious prejudice. 2 Whilst it is true that Rogers, in adopting the tradition that the plays were first performed in the mayorality of John Arnewaye in 1328, was perpetuating an error, it is unreasonable to assume that all of his material is unreliable, particularly that which may derive from the personal experience of Robert Rogers, such as the appearance of the pageant carriages and the route taken by them through the city. I have argued elsewhere for the reasonable accuracy of that part of the description which relates to the pageant carriage and make no apologies here, other than for repetition, for beginning with and making continued reference to Rogers' description of "the maner of these playes".3
