ABSTRACT
The Towneley pageants are contained in a single manuscript, in the Huntington Library in California. It is a large folio volume of parchment leaves made elaborate partly by the use of a fine series of decorative initials and partly, though to a more limited extent, by the use of rubrication. The extant York pageants, from Pentecost to Coronation, number 890 lines, so the missing leaves in Towneley could have contained a complete sequence of later life of Pan Mary seyth pageants up to her coronation, or something more unusual on the lines of Chester. Examination of the way in which Towneley treats York is important for the light it can throw on the possible development of the cycle, but it is also important as an indication of the ways in which writers alter, adapt and develop their sources. The major vernacular source of Towneley is undoubtedly York, but there are also some minor vernacular pieces absorbed into the pageants.
