This chapter will consider several plays from the later Middle Ages. You are advised to be familiar with at least some of these in advance of reading this chapter. An excellent anthology with examples from the four main cycles is:
Happé, Peter (ed.) Medieval Mystery Plays. (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975, or any later reprint) [ISBN 040430938].
The Wakefield Master’s work can be found in:
Cawley, A.C. (ed.) The Wakefield Pageants in the Towneley Cycle. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1959) [ISBN 0719006066].
For online texts see:
www.umm.maine.edu/faculty/necastro/drama/index/asp
Also highly recommended for detailed coverage of key topics, as well as extensive bibliographies, are:
Beadle, Richard (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Theatre. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005) [ISBN 0521459168].
Stevens, Martin Four Middle English Mystery Cycles: Textual, Contextual and Critical Interpretations. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992) [ISBN 0691067147].
There are some modernised selections which may be useful as a starting point, although they are no substitute for the original Middle English texts:
Beadle, Richard and Pamela King (eds) York Mystery Plays: A Selection in Modern Spelling. (Oxford: World’s Classics, 2009) [ISBN 9780199552535].
Davies, R.T. (ed.) The Corpus Christi Play of the English Middle Ages. (London: Faber, 1972) [ISBN 0571089054].
Useful studies of the Wakefield Master are:
Stevens, Martin ‘Language as Theme in the Wakefield Plays’, Speculum 52 (January, 1977) pp.100–117
Helterman, Jeffrey Symbolic Action in the Plays of the Wakefield Master. (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1982) [ISBN 0820305340].
Medieval drama constitutes a sizeable corpus. Most texts survive in fifteenth-century manuscripts, but records suggest much earlier origins. Whereas traditions of popular religious drama continued on the continent, the English Reformation banned such performances as idolatrous and ‘Popish’. The German Passion Play has been continuously performed every ten years since the mid-seventeenth century. In England, the core festival of Corpus Christi, around which the cycle drama flourished, was abolished in 1548, while the last known performance of the cycle was at York in 1580. Shakespeare in his youth is likely to have witnessed such performances. Certainly, his art, like Marlowe’s, is heavily indebted to native traditions.
Activity
Read Jacques’ speech on the Seven Ages of Man (Shakespeare’s As You Like It, Act 2, sc.7, 139-66); consider also Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. These display typical features of medieval drama: systematising, moralising and allegorising.
As with all drama, it is vital to read the plays with a sense of their performance possibilities. Few stage directions survive (although the Chester manuscript preserves 68 such directions). These are texts designed to be performed; the words on the page only come alive in action. So, as you read, try to be alert to varieties of voice, try to visualise gestures, props, actions and interactions between characters. Be on the lookout for comic elements. Above all, keep in mind that medieval drama offers an invaluable window into the popular culture of the period, as it was performed by amateurs as outdoor events open to all to watch.
The rebirth of theatre in the west can be credited to the Catholic Church. After the collapse of the Roman Empire during the fifth century, all literary and cultural contact with the great civilisations of the Classical world was ended. The tradition of drama in its Classical form was lost to the medieval period. Only after c.1250 did the West have access to Aristotle’s work, and then in a poor Latin translation. While there was some transmission of Classical materials via Arabic scholars, very little was generally available.
There is some debate around the origins of medieval drama. E.K. Chambers in his monumental work, The Mediæval Stage (1903) formulated a ‘progression’ theory. This theorises the evolution of drama from ecclesiastical Latin re-enactments of key biblical events into secular, vernacular forms. From the thirteenth century onwards, drama moved from within the church to the outdoors. This account has been subject to intense pressure, and is now largely discredited. Scholars now favour a view of medieval drama as comprising a multiplicity of forms, which coexisted and were mutually influential. V.A. Kolve’s study, The Play Called Corpus Christi (1966), proposed a ‘semi-liturgical’ origin as a compromise resolution of the problem.
Activity
Research the origins of medieval drama, either online or using the works mentioned above, to assess the variety of possible influences and sources.
Among the most likely materials which fed into the drama of the later medieval period, you will find:
Activity
Make sure that you understand each of these categories in particular, investigate the meanings of the words in bold.
Medieval drama is a substantial, complex body of work. The various types of play have traditionally been categorised under three main headings: Mystery cycles, Miracle plays and Morality plays.
Most surviving plays from the period are from the mystery cycles. The term ‘mystery’ comes from the Latin mysterium, meaning ‘occupation, craft’. The former were produced and performed by craft guilds for the feast of Corpus Christi. This feast was created in the thirteenth century as an official church festival dedicated to the body of Christ, in the form of the eucharist. This is a moveable feast day, occurring on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, between 23 May and 24 June. An outdoor procession with the consecrated host was followed by performance of the plays. At the height of the northern European summer, plays could take place outdoors, using natural light, from dawn to dusk. The most common type of performance was on mobile pageant wagons, which paraded through the streets of the city, periodically pausing for performance at set stations. There is evidence of cycle drama across the British Isles, with fragments surviving from towns such as Newcastle, Lincoln, Preston, Norwich, Coventry and Worcester). Four cycles survive substantially: York, Wakefield (also known as the Towneley cycle, after the family which came to own the manuscript), Chester and ‘N-town’ (sometimes, as in Happé, referred to as Ludus Coventriae, due to an erroneous reading by a much earlier scholar). Note that the term ‘play’ can be used of the whole cycle, or of individual plays within a cycle (sometimes called ‘playlets’ or ‘pageants’).
Activity
From the selection in Happé or elsewhere, consider the range of subject matter covered by the mystery cycles.
The cycles typically present re-enactments of major events from both the Old and New Testaments. They cover the whole of Christian history, from Creation to Doomsday. The events of the New Testament dominate, however, with only a small group of plays concerned with the Old Testament. The main principle governing the selection of events seems to be typological correspondence. Such patterns contribute to an understanding of God’s divine plan.
Activity
From what you know of typology, identify some possible connections between the plays listed in Happé which present material from the Old and New Testaments.
Typology works according to established methods of integrating the separate elements of the Bible. So, Moses features as a ‘type’ of Christ (leading his people out of captivity, feeding them in the wilderness, his forty years in the wilderness figuring Christ’s forty days in the desert, the water from the rock symbolising the water from Christ’s side, and so on). Similarly, Noah and Abraham both prefigure Christ’s obedience to the will of God, even to the point of sacrifice.
Activity
Notice how many different plays feature Jesus, at various ages.
One of the most important things to grasp about the cycle drama is its immense scale. These massive public performances required a great deal of money to finance them, as well as a sizeable cast. The York cycle demands no fewer than thirty different actors to play the part of Jesus, while Towneley and Chester each require eleven. The York cycle comprises 48 short plays, each performed at least twelve times at different stopping points. It has been estimated that this cycle would have taken approximately fourteen hours to complete. Modern revivals of cycle drama typically manage to recreate only a small selection of plays at very few stations. The other surviving cycles also demonstrate an impressive range and scale: the Wakefield cycle has 32 plays, while the Chester cycle has 25 plays and the N-town cycle has 38 plays.
The wealthy guilds competed to produce ever more impressive spectacles, some almost bankrupting themselves in the process. Essentially, the cycles were occasions for civic honour and the conspicuous display of wealth just as much as religious celebration. The involvement of the local community meant that in the relatively small cities of the time, most of the population would experience the plays, or contribute in some way, whether as performers, artisans or audience. This drama was truly popular, but also political, as the plays contributed to the city’s prestige. The inclusiveness can be overstated, however; it is important to remember that certain classes were excluded, such as women, peasants, children and servants. As in Shakespeare’s theatre, acting seems to have been restricted to men. Yet there is one tantalising reference to a lost ‘Play of the Assumption’ which was performed by the ‘worshipful wives of Chester’ (see Happé, p. 46, l. 129).
Activity
From Happé, or other sources, identify the specific guilds associated with each play, and consider the effects of laymen enacting religious drama.
It is apparent that some plays tended to be assigned to appropriate craft guilds, with the necessary skills and resources to produce the particular spectacle. At York, for example, the ‘Building of the Ark’ was performed by the Shipwrights, the ‘Adoration of the Magi’ by the Goldsmiths, the’Last Supper’ by the Bakers, the ‘Crucifixion’ by the Pinners and Latteners, and the grand finale, ‘Judgment Day’, by the Mercers. This last is known to have used an extremely ornate pageant wagon, decorated with gold and featuring elaborate pulleys for special effects. Records suggest that the productions were far from primitive or crude in nature. Medieval drama, like Renaissance drama, did not use naturalistic conventions or attempt great verisimilitude; rather it exploited established sets of convention and symbolism involving a different aesthetic to that of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century theatre of illusion. The twentieth century witnessed many experiments with dramatic form and style which revivified many features of non-naturalistic medieval drama. The verse forms impose strict metrical rhythms, with emphatic rhyme, which serves a practical purpose of assisting memorisation as well as texturing the material in thematically useful ways. The use of the vernacular with pronounced local dialects and colloquial idiom creates a very earthy feel. Anachronisms abound, as temporal boundaries are fluid. Contemporary costumes and topical references contribute to a vividly immediate and direct experience. Overall, the extraordinary effect is of ordinary people embodying the divine. The nature of the cycle drama means that religious impulses combine with secular entertainment and it is important to evaluate the relative weight of these two functions.
Other forms of drama are attested to, although less extensive material survives. Miracle plays representing the lives and works of the saints were usually performed on the saint’s feast day. Some plays enact biblical events, some move beyond the biblical narratives. Those which survive are mainly in Latin, with some French and German examples. Compared to the substantial corpus of European plays surviving, numbering hundreds, the English mystery play tradition is limited to just three plays, which must represent a tiny proportion of what once existed.
A third type of drama was plentiful in the later Middle Ages. Morality plays involve allegorical representations of the lives of representative human beings. They explore the moral temptations of the world and the necessity of earning salvation. The battle between good and evil for possession of man’s soul is depicted through personified abstractions. The most famous example is the late fifteenth-century play, Everyman, where the central figure is faced with the urgent necessity of preparing for death. This universal theme is given imaginative treatment, and some emotional depth, as Everyman in turn looks for support from his friends, his family, and his own resources (allegorically personified as Strength, Beauty, Five Wits and so on). He is progressively abandoned by each, until finally only Good Deeds remains, pointing to a clear moral lesson. The didactic impulse is prevalent throughout medieval drama, but it is generally considerably qualified by other concerns, including the need to entertain and to engage attention. This it does through a variety of means, some of which shall now be explored in detail.
The Wakefield cycle is very close to that of York, with several plays virtually identical. This illustrates the accretive and collective nature of the drama. Yet, while medieval plays are anonymous and composite creations, certain distinctive features emerge which suggest particular playwrights at work. One such playwright is the ‘Wakefield Master’ (Martin Stevens prefers the term ‘Wakefield Author’). A quarter of the Wakefield cycle can be attributed to this unnamed but distinctive individual. A comparable figure is the ‘York Realist’ or ‘York Redactor’ whose style permeates eight plays. The Wakefield Master is associated with several plays in the Towneley cycle. His work concerns itself with a series of biblical events of intense emotional depth. He treats the first murder in ‘The Killing of Abel’, the global destruction of the Flood in ‘Noah’, a central incident in salvation history with ‘The Nativity’, genocide in ‘The Massacre of the Innocents’, and extreme violence in ‘The Buffeting of Christ’. His chosen subjects tend to present goodness in stark contrast to evil. There is also an inventive use of non-biblical materials (often folk stories and legends), such as the anti-tithing satire in ‘The Killing of Abel’, the representation of Noah’s wife as the sort of rebellious scold beloved of anti-matrimonial satirists and a daring incorporation of sheep stealing comedy in the ‘Second Shepherds’ Play’.
Activity
Read the opening stanzas of the Towneley ‘Noah’ play (Play 3 in Happé), paying particular attention to the verse form.
One of the prime features of the Wakefield Master is his use of a 9 line stanza (although some editors such as Peter Meredith interpret it as a 13 line stanza). The rhyme scheme, aaaa bcccb, is extremely demanding and extravagantly complex. One might compare the far simpler yet still sophisticated form favoured by the York Realist, with a stanza rhyming abab bcbcb. Technically, the Wakefield Master’s verse form can be analysed as comprising three parts: the frons (the first 4 lines), the bob (a line of just 3 or 4 syllables) and the cauda (a ‘tail’ of four short lines to conclude). The poetry is worth some attention.
Activity
As you study the plays, analyse a selection of stanzas, considering how the varied rhymes function (e.g. to connect or to juxtapose key terms; to emphasise certain words), how the pace is managed, and what special effects are produced (e.g. of volatility or stasis) depending on the skilful manipulation of the form.
Another key characteristic of this dramatist is the deployment of an exceptionally colloquial idiom, typically featuring an extensive vocabulary of abuse. His work favours the vivid expression of vitriol, scorn, innuendo, violence and extreme pathos, aligned with striking simplicity of diction. The immediacy of the colloquial style of speech is combined with many learned terms, classical allusions, musical and literary references. Linguistic inventiveness is obvious from the large number of words which occur uniquely in these plays, over a thousand in all.
It has to be admitted that the high density of colloquialisms and the northern English dialect do present some problems initially for the reader. But Happé has a good glossary and online resources such as the Middle English Dictionary can help enormously. The following is a basic list of essentials to note about the northern English dialect:
Y = I, hem = them, hir = their/ her, scho = she, the(e)/ ye/ yow = you
The following spelling variants are common: i and y, u and v, c and k (e.g. ilk=each, vs=us, beseke=beseech, sik/ swilke=such)
The northern dialect uses ‘a’ where the southern dialect of Chaucer uses ‘o’ (e.g. amange, awn, baith, ga, hame, hald, lang, mair, na)
There are some French phrases and vocabulary (e.g. bewscher = beausire, ‘good sir’; gramercy = grand merci, ‘great thanks’)
Local idioms and proverbial expressions include: ding = strike, gate = way, gome = person, mikill = much, sall/xal = shall, tak tent = pay attention.
It is well worth the effort involved in gaining familiarity with the language via re-reading and glossing of terms, without worrying too much about understanding every word. Above all, the plays need to be responded to as drama.
This play is part of the downward spiral of sin and retribution presented by the first few plays in the cycle (depicting the fall of Satan, the fall of Adam, and the instigation of murder by Cain).
Activity
Read and analyse closely the first scene between Cain and the boy.
From the moment he enters, abusing and cursing his horses, Cain signals disharmony. He then attacks the boy (emblematic of social discord and conflict). When he strikes the boy he uses imagery of mutual exchange, ‘That I borrow wil I quite’ (I shall repay in kind what I receive). This idea of human behaviour as transactions based on notions of repayment becomes a thematic strand throughout the play.
Activity
Consider Abel’s first appearance and the qualities he embodies.
Abel plainly presents a complete contrast to Cain, embodying ideals of service, duty and giving freely. The juxtaposition shows that Cain’s behaviour perverts a potential model of mutuality and cooperation. Abel functions as a ‘type’ of Christ: he is obedient, meek and pious, while Cain is noisy, aggressive and obscene.
Activity
Think for a moment about the dramatic impact of such a contrast.
It is remarkable that the play depicts Cain as a comedic figure. He responds to his brother’s warm greeting with a surly, ‘Com kis myn ars!’. This is likely to engage the audience at once, in shocked laughter. Cain’s crude language denotes his sinfulness, while Abel’s language is exemplary. Yet, ironically, Cain may command more of the audience’s attention, as the victim tends to be less compelling.
Activity
Read lines 104-244, noting the ‘common sense’ attitudes displayed by Cain, as he complains about hard work and the difficulties of his life.
Much of what Cain says would resonate with certain sections of the audience. His observations about life’s harshness, poor farmers oppressed by bailiffs, rich lords exacting heavy rents, poor harvests, the burden of tithes, and so on, were issues of widespread concern. By evoking assent to some of Cain’s grievances, the dramatist traps some of the audience into feeling sympathy for the villain. It is a clever technique, to enlist the audience on the ‘wrong’ side, as it implicates them in the sins they are watching. The figure of the industrious ploughman is frequently used in medieval literature as an ideal (compare Piers Plowman and Chaucer’s ploughman pilgrim in the ‘General Prologue’ to The Canterbury Tales). The dramatist is exploiting the positive connotations of the ploughman to comic effect. Far from being ‘a good yeoman’ as he is initially described by the boy, Garcio, almost 100 lines before he actually appears, Cain can be seen to pervert the ideal. His outrageous cursing and expletive-laden speech, antagonistic banter and altercation with the boy, produce some unsettling comedy.
Activity
Read the biblical Book of Genesis (Chapters 6–9) comparing its treatment of Noah’s wife with that in the play.
The playwright expands upon the very sparse biblical material, to create a powerful character in ‘Uxor’ (Latin naming is common practice). Here, the humour is dependent on traditional anti-feminist satire against gossipy, shrewish wives. According to the general medieval interpretation of the wife, Noah’s wife represents the redeemed sinner, finally brought to salvation by taking refuge in the Church (the Ark). The earliest pictorial depiction of the recalcitrant wife boarding the Ark is in the Junius manuscript c.ad1000. By the late Middle Ages, the figure of Noah’s wife had accumulated a weight of symbolic meaning. Typologically, while Noah is Christlike, obeying God and saving mankind, his wife is a ‘type’ of the Virgin Mary, accepting the divine will. Such an unambiguous moral reading is far removed from the world of the ‘Noah’ play. The ‘N-Town’ play of Noah presents a much more sobre, dignified account, with a submissive and virtuous wife. The Wakefield Master’s version is characteristically lively and robust by comparison. He presents the feuding couple as a comedy of marital discord.
Activity
Consider (i) the entertainment value and (ii) the didactic value of the play’s representation of marital strife, for example, in lines pp.182–225.
This treatment of the couple is characteristically English, differing from the European tradition in that it ‘sees in Noah’s wife not a figure harmoniously in the scheme of salvation but one who initially repeats the pattern of the Fall’ (Rosemary Woolf, The English Mystery Plays,
p.133). Much of the action is reminiscent of the knockabout, farcical world of fabliau. Critics debate whether the comedy unbalances the moral allegory. For a dramatic performance, the entertaining aspects are important, but the danger is that the amusing physical antics may displace the religious message. Noah is also a troubling figure, in his impatience, and verbal and physical violence. Some feel that the ‘reformation’ of the characters comes too suddenly and too late to atone for the earlier misrule.
Activity
Consider the treatment of the wife’s reluctance to board the Ark (ll.313-15, 336-72). How is she portrayed?
There is, once again, some human weakness with which the audience can sympathise, as the wife is understandably confused and afraid, and takes refuge in the time-honoured female occupation of spinning. It is interesting to compare this version with the York play where her delay is ascribed to a wish to collect her belongings (signifying attachment to material possessions), and the Chester play, where she insists on drinking with her ‘gossips’ (indicating worldly appetites and drunkenness). The Wakefield play’s motif of finishing her spinning, like the other scenarios, symbolises spiritual sloth, but appears less sinful.
Activity
Read and compare the Chester Noah play’s representation of the Wife.
Moral edification can, of course, exist alongside moments of humour, as sympathy can accompany strict censure. The fact that these plays complicate simplistic oppositions of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ characters, helps to situate them as relevant and realistic for the audience.
Like ‘The Killing of Abel’, this play opens with complaints of a topical nature, here from the three grumbling shepherds.
Activity
Identify precisely what each shepherd complains about. How distinctively is each presented?
The first shepherd frankly admits that he enjoys complaining:
It dos me good, as I walk thus by myn oone,
Of this warld for to talk in maner of mone.
(ll. 46-7)
But, like Cain, he has real grievances which would strike a chord among many of the audience. He resents ‘these gentlery men’, who leave him ‘for-taxed’ (excessively taxed). His complaints voice those of a whole class of agricultural labourer, ‘Thus ar husbandys [farmers] opprest’. The second shepherd speaks on behalf of ‘we sely wedmen’ (pitiful married men). He indulges in some comic anti-feminist ranting which presumably amused some of the audience. The third shepherd appears to be the youngest, acting as their servant and complaining of hunger. All in all, they are an odd group of specially chosen witnesses to the birth of Christ.
Activity
Read the central section of the play, which presents the sheep stealer, Mak, and his wife, Gill (especially ll. 296-349 and 413-629).
The play develops into a lively social comedy, as the shepherds try to outwit the thieves. The ingenious plot, whereby Mak and Gill conceal the stolen sheep in a cradle, pretending it is their newborn son, is a bold parody of the nativity of Christ. The very literal presentation of the newborn ‘lamb’ demonstrates the playwright’s confident and daring practice. As in the Noah play, material from folk tradition is incorporated into the authorised account. Mak’s punishment of being tossed in a canvas clearly originates as a folk ritual, as a mock death. It serves in some way to exorcise the sinners, as neither Mak nor Gill speaks again. The precise symbolic significance of Mak is much disputed. He has been variously interpreted as a symbol of the devil, or Antichrist, even as an emblem of criminality resulting from social oppression. What is certain is the humour achieved by the husband and wife’s double act:
Uxor: I swelt! [am dying]
Outt, thefys, fro my wonys! [house]
Ye com to rob us for the nonys. [on purpose]
Mak: Here ye not how she gronys?
Your hartys shuld melt.
Dramatically, the sub-plot is a daring strategy. It provides strikingly novel material and frustrates expectations in a carnival spirit. The prolonged suspense is highly effective, as the shepherds’ observations about the ‘baby’s ugliness gradually resolve, ‘He has a long snowte [...] foure feytt [...] a hornyd lad’. By the time the sub-plot is complete, there are only 13 stanzas remaining (out of the total of 84) for the main action of the play.
Activity
Consider the final 13 stanzas. How does the play recover from the mayhem?
The play expertly regains an appropriate seriousness, with great speed. The transition from ‘low’ comedy to ‘high’ seriousness is achieved through song; in this case, an angelic hymn. As the more familiar story unfolds, the language is charmingly simple yet elegant. The Hail sequence (stanzas 80-82) marks a palpable change of mood and tone. The divine nature of this child stands out all the more forcefully in contrast to the preceding scene. The shepherds’ joy is expressed in their affectionate address to the baby, using terms appropriate for a human child, such as ‘swetyng’ , ‘lytyll tyne mop’, ‘lytyll day starne’ [star], and ‘derlyng dere’. They also recognise the baby’s divinity, specifically acknowledging him as ‘sufferan savyoure’, ‘maker’, ‘full of Godhede’. The true significance of the nativity is enacted via this transformation, the swift replacement of raucousness and misery with peace and quiet happiness. Mary contributes a single stanza, but it is one which assures of salvation and her own mediating role, ‘And now is he borne./ He kepe you fro wo!/ I shall pray hym so.’ Her final injunction to ‘Tell furth as ye go,/And myn [reflect] on this morne’ applies equally to the audience as to the shepherds. The concluding song from the shepherds symbolises miraculously restored harmony. After all the jangling and violence, the final scene establishes a new mood of hope and beauty.
Activity
Further study might take account of the other plays written by this dramatist, comparing his techniques there with those we have analysed in this chapter.
Having completed this chapter, and the relevant reading and activities, you should be able to:
1. ‘Playwrights never quite overcome the problem of making a well-known biblical story new and unexpected’. Discuss.
2. Discuss the role of typology in relation to any two medieval plays.
3. ‘Christian drama must embrace sin dramatically while rejecting it doctrinally. The second is an infinitely harder task than the first’. Discuss.
4. To what extent would you agree that comedy is an effective vehicle for moral instruction?