The York Plays of Corpus Christi

Lucy Toulmin Smith edited and published a manscript of the York plays for Corpus Christi in 1885 (Smith, 1885). Richard Beadle edited a more recent edition (Beadle, 1982). Beadle produced two other editions of the plays: one used modern spelling , which those of us who are not very good with 15th century English can read (Beadle and King, 1984); the other was a facsimile edition (Beadle and Meredith, 1983). An even more recent publication of the plays is as electronic text (University of Virginia Library, Electronic Text Center). Hypertext links to the Virginia publication are included below.

Smith provides a general description of the plays in a section of her introduction labelled General Remarks. The introduction in Beadle and King is a particularly good updating of information about the plays.

General Remarks

We are not told of how many stages the York pageants were made; no doubt some of the plays would require either two platforms or one stage and the street. But it is quite evident that sometimes two scenes were represented on the stage together; the alternate action of Moses and the Hebrews, Pharaoh and his men, must both have been seen by the audience; the management of the scenes in the 'Enrtry Into Jerusalem' is only to be understood on this supposition; the scenes which took place in the high priest's and Pilate's halls, and before Herod, when Judas was denied by the porter, or when the prisoner was brought, depended for much of their effect on the double action being present together. Even in the later play of the Purification it is probable that the Temple and Bethlehem were seen near together, to say nothing of Simeon's house. In the 'Descent of the Holy Spirit' two distinct scenes must have been apparent to the spectators on the stage at the same time. At Paris, in a MS. of the Mistere de la Passion, played at Valenciennes in 1547, there is a most curious picture of the stage then employed, drawn by one of the actors (H. Caileau) himself, which helps us to realize how double and treble scenes were understood. The scenery was either painted or modeled at the back of the stage, with the name of each place written over it, beginning with Paradise at one end, Nazareth, the Temple, Jerusalem, the Palace, &c., intervening, till we arrive at Limbo and the indispensable Hell-mouth at the other. Towards the front at one side is a green tract for the sea, with a ship upon it. Our York stages, being movable, were by no means so ambitious or so advanced as this great stage where Arnoul Greban's vast drama might be performed, but the germs of dramatic convention must have been well understood, even if the employment of 'le decor simultane' had not begun.

What appear to be indications of a prompter may be noted on pp. 246, 285 [of her edition]. The MS. of the Scriveners' Play is the only separate prompter's book now known. The actors, especially in going off the stage, sometimes addressed the audience directly; see evidences of this on p. 29, l. 15, p. 432, and at the end of XVII, XXI, and XXIV [her edition]. At the beginning, too, of Play XXII the Devil entering with a bluster as usual, seems to be pushing aside some part of the audience as he enters, for there are but three other personages in the play.

As to the dress of the actors at York, we have remarkably little information; that the doctors in the Temple wore furred gowns is the only indication I have noted.

An open-minded perusal of these plays will be enough to rebut the ignorant sneers that have been made (By Oliver, Warton, and others) against the earnestness or the capacity of the original dramatists of this order. Well-read in the bible, especially in the New Testament, and in the dependent legends allowed in those times, the imagination of this author had considerable play within his prescribed limits; a facile versifier (albeit aided by the conventional rules for his craft handed down from old time), he displayed not a little dramatic power in the arrangement of scenes with the means at his command (see especially Play XXV). Observant of human nature and sympathetic, his calls on the domestic affections are well worth notice, in the womanly weakness of Mary and the trustfulness of Joseph in the Flight into Egypt, outraged motherly affection in the Massacre of the Innocents, parental distress between love and duty in Abraham's Sacrifice, in the dutiful relationship of children shown by Isaac, and the sons of Noah and Pilate. The figures of Mary and Jesus stand out with simplicity and dignity, in no way grotesque. These finer touches stand in relief to the brutality of the scenes connected with the Passion which were deemed necessary to heighten the effect of the Saviour's sufferings.

Like a true artist, the dramatist called up mirth over incidents harmless enough; he allowed Noah's wife to flout her husband, the Shepherd to sing with a cracked throat, and Judas to be covered with ridicule and abuse by the Porter. The Porter or Beadle, in fact, plays an important part in several plays (XXV, XXX, &c.). The people must have fun and show, noise and light. The principal personage in a play, whether he is wanted at the beginning or not, generally comes on the stage first, with a long speech, in the case of Noah, Abraham, Deus, and Jesus, with befitting gravity and seriousness; in the case of Satan, Pharaoh, Herod, Pilate, and Caiaphas it is daring, pompous, and blustering, in that of Pilate tempered by a sense of benevolence and justice which runs through his actions. (This writer was surprisingly lenient of Pilate, and cannot have been tainted by the old legend of his gruesome fate.) We can picture the people expectant, listening with eyes and ears for the entry and the rant of the hero of the piece. Nor were the effects of music and light neglected; the Sheperds must have heard singing and sung themselves; the music itself is actually written for Play XLVI, and in several places we have stage directions for singing. The Transfiguration was accomplished by a cloud and a 'noys herede so hydously,' possibly for thunder. Besides the star of Bethlehem bright lights were used at the Birth, Transfiguration, and Betrayal of Jesus, and in the vision of Mary to Thomas.

Touches of current life and usage here and there stand out amid the ancient story; the carpenters' tools and measurement used by Noah, as well as those employed at the Crucifixion; the bitter cold weather at the Nativity, telling a truly northern Christmas; the quaint offerings of the shepherds; the ruin of the poor by murrain in the account of the Ten Plagues; the drinking between Pilate and his wife; the sleeping of Herod; and the excellent representation of a heavy manual job by a set of rough workmen in the Crucifixion. Illustrative too of English custom and forms of justice are the borrowing of the town beast; Judas offering himself as bond-man in his remorse; the trial scenes in Plays XXIX, XXX, XXXII, and XXXIIII, in which Pilate 'in Parlament playne' vindicates the course of law, and puts down the eager malice of the accuser Caiaphas and the sharp pursuer Annas. Even Herod makes proclamation for the accusers to appear, and sympathize with the the oppressed,