Chapter I

), Dannatt, Dancock, etc. Balaam is an imitative spelling of the local Baylham.

In considering these Old Testament names it must be remembered that the people did not possess the Bible in the vernacular. The teaching of the parish priests made them familiar with selected episodes, from which they naturally took the names which appeared to contain the greatest element of holiness or of warlike renown. It is probable that the mystery plays were not without influence; for the personal name was not always a fixed quantity, and many of the names mentioned in the preceding paragraph may have been acquired rather on the medieval stage than at the font.

This would apply with still more force to names taken from the legends of saints and martyrs on which the miracle plays were based. We even find the names Saint, Martyr and Postill, the regular aphetic form of apostle (