York Plays Criticism
The York Plays are a collection of approximately fifty medieval mystery plays that were integral to the celebration of the Feast of Corpus Christi in York from around 1375 to 1569. These plays vividly dramatize biblical stories from the Creation to Judgment Day, encapsulating themes of sin and redemption. As E. Hamilton Moore notes, the performances were eventually separated from the religious procession due to their popularity and the revelry they attracted. The plays were true processional events, performed on wagons across various city stations and involving a multitude of craft guilds, as detailed by Richard Beadle and Martin Stevens. Each guild was responsible for specific plays, leading to rich spectacles that reflected the city's prosperity.
The plays underwent numerous revisions over the centuries, with a variety of authors contributing to their evolution. The Reformation led to periods of suppression, with ecclesiastical authorities eventually halting the performances. The surviving text, known as the "York Register," offers insights into medieval dramaturgy and society. Scholars like Lucy Toulmin Smith have highlighted the plays' alliterative verse and complex characterizations.
Critics such as Charles Mills Gayley and Eleanor Prosser identify distinct authorship styles within the cycle, exploring themes like Joseph's struggles with Mary's virtue. The plays' use of language and vernacular style, as discussed by Richard J. Collier, enhances their communal appeal. Modern revivals and research continue to deepen understanding of the plays' historical and cultural significance, as noted by Meg Twycross and Christine Richardson. These investigations underscore the plays as vital expressions of public devotion and artistic achievement in medieval England.
Contents
- The Plays
- Principal Editions
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Essays
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An introduction to York Plays
(summary)
An authority on medieval English literature, Smith was the first modern editor of the York plays (1885). In the following excerpt from her introduction to that edition, she remarks on the skillfulness of the unknown author of the York plays and alludes to the influence of these and other religious cycles on later English dramatic literature. Smith calls attention to the deft use of alliterative verse, keen understanding of human nature, and thorough knowledge of the Bible and the legends associated with it.
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The York Schools of Humour and Realism
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Gayley identifies a core of six plays that, he suggests, are probably the work of a single author—to whom he refers as "the York realist." Gayley discusses the versification, style, and dramatic techniques of these plays, and postulates three distinct composition periods for the cycle.
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The Great Cycle
(summary)
In the excerpt below, Moore discusses the connection between the York pageant plays and the celebration of the annual Feast of Corpus Christi. By 1426, Moore notes, the festival was characterized by crowds and boisterous revelry—inappropriate for the observance of a sacramental feast—and in that year the religious procession itself was formally separated from the staged production of pageants.
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York-Wakefield Plays
(summary)
In the excerpt below, Craig contends that the York and Wakefield cycles were once identical. In his estimation, the York plays were earlier and provided the initial molds for Wakefield.
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Joseph
(summary)
In the excerpt below, Prosser examines York XIII, Joseph's Trouble about Mary, finding in it an innovative and vigorous portrayal of Joseph's doubts about his wife's virtue. Whereas the Chester treatment of this episode is sketchy, Prosser points out, the York play includes extended dialogues between the couple in which Joseph passionately scorns Mary and expresses his personal shame.
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The Passion
(summary)
In the excerpt below, Woolf remarks on the characterization of Judas and Pilate in the York plays. Judas's dialogue with the porter is a rare and effective dramatic device, she notes, while the role of Pilate is unusually elaborate and—by modern standards—inconsistent.
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The Poetry of the Play
(summary)
In the following excerpt, first published in 1977, Collier analyzes the language and versification of the York plays, emphasizing the flexibility, effectiveness, and appropriateness of both. More than twenty different stanzaic forms appear in the York cycle, he points out, with different forms used for different kinds of episodes, characters, and dramatic action. Collier discerns three levels of style or language in these plays—ornate, formulaic, and colloquial. The use of vernacular language and the prevalence of the formulaic style are wholly in keeping, he remarks, with 'a drama which is the most popular and communal we know.'
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Playing the Resurrection
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Twycross describes the reconstruction of the production of the Resurrection of Christ, focusing on 'what happens to the play in performance.' Emphasizing the active involvement of the audience in the performance and the physical closeness of audience and actors, Twycross maintains that the Resurrection playwright made his audience aware of the part they played in the drama, engaging them directly in the emotional dynamics of the pageant.
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After the Fall
(summary)
In the following essay, Davidson calls attention to the traditional dialectical pattern of hope and despair in the York plays that are based on episodes from the Old Testament. He also traces this pattern in medieval English pictorial art, including windows in York Minster and other churches, ecclesiastical sculpture, and illuminated manuscripts.
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An introduction to York Mystery Plays: A Selection in Modern Spelling
(summary)
In the excerpt that follows, Beadle provides an outline of the narrative scope of the plays and an overview of several issues connected with the York plays: the historical context of the Corpus Christi festival; the evidence of the manuscript, the Register, and other relevant documents; the role of the York craft guilds; the processional presentation of the plays; and stagecraft and dramatic technique in the cycle.
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The York Cycle: City as Stage
(summary)
In the excerpt below, Stevens contends that the unity of the York cycle is based on the medieval view of the plays as a mirror image of the city of York and its inhabitants. He argues that the processional staging of the cycles—especially in the pageant depicting Jesus' entry into Jerusalem—reflects York's use of the Corpus Christi festival as an opportunity for self-celebration that particularly emphasizes the tradition of royal entries into the city.
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York Crucifixion Play
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Richardson examines the staging of the York Crucifixion play—in her judgment, "the central climactic point of the Mystery Cycle"—and demonstrates how it draws the spectators into the responsibility for Christ's suffering and death. She maintains that the vivid portrayal of Christ's sacrifice leads the audience, first, to understand its personal relevance and, second, to acknowledge it as the route to redemption for humanity.
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The York Cycle
(summary)
In the excerpt below, Beadle evaluates the variety of alliterative verse in the York cycle. Focusing in particular on the Crucifixion pageant and the second Christ Before Pilate play, he remarks on the verbal subtleties and structural details that are carefully woven into the twelve-line stanza throughout the play.
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An introduction to York Plays
(summary)
- Further Rerading