Before the Reformation Coventry was famous for the pageants played on Corpus Christi day, which drew crowds from far and near. Dugdale describes stages very large and high set on wheels and drawn round the city, on which the Grey Friars acted the story of the Old and New Testament in English verse. Richard III came to see them in 1483 and Henry VII and his queen in 1492. Dugdale had been told of the crowds by old people who had seen the plays when young.
The Coventry pageants
Corpus Christi · Coventry, Warwickshire
No longer kept
had theatres for the several scenes, very large and high, placed upon wheels, and drawn to all the eminent parts of the city, for the better advantage of spectators
From Hone's Every-Day Book, vol. 1, cols. 755-758. Read the original
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