ABSTRACT
Among the many items listed in the York Mercers' 1433 Indenture of stage properties and costumes for their play of Doomsday are a variety of hangings for the pageant waggon. As part of the York Doomsday Project, have been looking at the late fourteenth- and fifteenth-century York Mercers and Merchant Adventurers in their wider context. This includes a foray into their trading relations with the continent of Europe, which was conducted largely through the port of Kingston upon Hull. York mercers must have been used to dealing with goods in at least three languages, Latin, English, and Flemish, at least in a sort of travellers' pidgin. There were also enough Fleming and Hansard aliens among their own number to keep this flexibility alive. The York Doomsday Project is founded on several premises. One of them is that the play is anchored in the life of its community.
