ABSTRACT
In view of the apparent infrequency of performance in post-Reformation Chester it would be pleasing to have more than the possibility of a scribal error as evidence for redating the Smiths’ account as 1545-46. Article on the Chester plays Lawrence Clopper drew attention to the problem of accurately dating the earliest Smiths’ account for the Whitsun plays as it appears in the seventeenth century transcription made by Randle Holme. Clopper suggests that Holme may have mistakenly transposed the last two numerals of the date as he did with another account, although in the instance the error was corrected. The Smiths tended to include the names of new members at the end of their lists after those of widows. The Smiths’ accounts provide evidence for post-Reformation performances of the Chester plays only in the years 1546, 1561, 1567, 1568, 1572, and 1575, although it is possible that the missing accounts for the early 1550s might reveal performances in 1550 and 1554.
