Medieval Mystery Plays

Prof. Dr. Margaret Bridges,
Berne, October 2000

Source:
The Medieval (Re)Cycle Project website
(English Department, Berne University Switzerland, 2000)

What's in a name? The late medieval mystery plays were probably named after the "mestiers" or professions of the craft and trade guilds that were responsible (upon pain of fine!) for the maintenance of the scripts, pageant wagons and props as well as for the regular performance of individual pageants, or "playlets", comprising the cycles.

These cycles were also known as miracle plays, since they staged events from biblical and salvation history, many of which were miraculous in that they involved supernatural events (such as the withering of the hand of the incredulous midwife who wanted to test the virginity of Mary after she had given birth), and all of which were miraculous in the wider sense that they represented divine intervention in human history, from the Creation to Judgment Day.

Finally, these cycles are also often referred to as Corpus Christi plays, after the summer feast day on which they were usually performed; Corpus Christi Day was a Church festival instituted at the beginning of the 14th century in order to celebrate the mystery of the Eucharist, which was displayed during the civic and religious processions that may have provided the first occasions for the staging of this processional form of drama.

This variety of names is highly suggestive of the social, commercial and ritual functions of a dramatic tradition that flourished in England's major urban centres for over two centuries until, in the sixteenth century, they became obsolescent, economically unviable and theologically suspect.

The episodes staged by the individual pageants were biblical, yes. To a certain extent at least. For the plays developed the parts of the villains, especially of the archvillain Lucifer, but also of Cain Caiphas and Herod, far beyond anything to be found in the Bible. They also introduced many new characters, most of them socially oppressed or marginal figures, like the cheeky boy Garcio, in attendance upon the farmer Cain, or Mak the hungry shepherd's help who has difficulty providing for his ever-increasing brood of children and his cantankerous wife.

These developments and innovations are indicative of the fact that this dramatic tradition was an occasion for much slapstick comedy, it was rough-and-tumble theatre, strong on "special effects" - its contemporary critics especially disapproved of all that hell-fire and those cardboard angels' wings. It was also theatre in the carnavalesque spirit, providing plenty of opportunity for the marginalized an oppressed to voice their grievances and pursue their complaints in the presence of their social superiors.

It was, in a word, a popular dramatic tradition, involving vast numbers and sectors of the urban communities concerned: intense, innocent, compassionate, boastful, noisy, rumbustious, parodic, satiric, hilarious. Aristotle would not have been amused.

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Secrets of the Coventry Mystery Plays

Source:
IC Coventry.co.uk

ON June 18, 1384, King Richard II visited Coventry and during his stay at Coventry’s Priory he watched Coventry’s famed Mystery Plays. He is but one of many monarchs to have witnessed these marathon events. Many others viewed the spectacle as this anonymous verse attests:

The state and reverence and show,
Were so attractive, folks would go
From all parts, every year to see
These pageant-plays at Coventry.

There were three main centres for the mystery play cycle in England – Coventry, York and Chester. The plays began life as church dramas performed by the clergy, but the idea was soon taken over by various craft guilds, who each held pageant houses (store rooms) in various parts of the city. The earliest mention of one is that of the drapers guild in Little Park Street in 1392.

The Mystery Plays were usually played on Corpus Christi Day, beginning at the break of day with Creation followed by the Deluge and birth of Christ. At this point a Mary held the infant in her arms a chorus of Luly Lulay, thou little tiny child, the Coventry Carol, was sung, a carol in the original sense meaning simply a song.

The plays would be performed by Coventry’s various craft guilds on their own pageant wagons, huge mobile stages on wheels, the top being the stage with the dressing and prop room below. These were dragged around the city to different locations such as Gosford Street, the corner of Much Park Street, by New Gate, Broadgate, Cross Cheaping, near Greyfriar Gate, Bishop and Spon Gates and St Michael’s churchyard.

The last play occurred around nightfall. This was Doomsday, the end of the world, when all would be judged. In this there was a huge monstrous head with a massive gaping mouth from which bellowed smoke and flames. Occasionally the devil would leap out and grab someone and, amid the roars of the crowd, drag them screaming through the mouth and into hell. Doomsday ended spectacularly with a huge model of the world bursting into flames.

One important character in the pageants was Herod, whose character was outrageous, running around the stage and among the crowds like a madman, brandishing his falchion (sword), crying:

For I am even he that made both heaven and hell,
And of my might power holdeth up this world round,
Magog and Mandroke, both them did I confound!

Herod surely confounded many with his ranting and raving. He also left an impression on all who saw him, including a young Will Shakespeare who later wrote “It out-Herods, Herod” with reference to over-acting.

Each of the city’s craft guilds produced its own section of the Mystery Play, providing costumes and props at their own expense. The trial and execution of Christ and the death of Judas were performed by the Smiths, and the Resurrection and the Harrowing of Hell was performed by the Cardmakers and Cappers.

One favourite place for rehearsal was in the acoustically perfect Saint Mary’s Guildhall, a place which would become a Mecca for actors from the mid 16th century.

Not all those who acted in the plays were craftsmen, for as the mysteries began to get more popular, actors got more involved. It is said that these actors painted their faces to enhance their expression to the crowds.

Christ and St Peter wore golden wigs and those who whipped Christ wore leather Buckram jerkins decorated with nails and dice. The saved in the Doomsday play wore pure white leather and the doomed wore blackened faces and yellow clothes painted with flames – each soon found his or her way into the smoking, flaming Hell’s Mouth assisted by a devil with a wool-filled leather club.

Expenses incurred each year mounted up and some records do survive, including:

• Paid for five sheepskins for god’s coat and for making . . . three shillings.

• Paid for John Croo for mending of Herod’s head (vizored mask) and a mitre and other things . . . two shillings.

• Paid to Wattis for dressing of the devil’s head . . . eight pence.

• Paid for mending Pilate’s hat . . . four pence.

The Mystery Plays were one of the greatest events in the Coventry calendar, bringing thousands into the city.

In 1584, as England became more anti-papist puritanical, many began to call for the end of the Mystery Plays which smacked of popery. Others, such as the city’s traders, did not wish to lose the event as it brought in vast profits. It was decided by some to create a more politically correct play to replace the mysteries. This was written by John Smythe of Oxford and called the Destruction of Jerusalem. It was a complete failure, being sombre and lacking the humour of the old mysteries.

The last performance allowed of the Mystery cycle was in 1589, but in 1591 the city leet (council) ordered the Destruction of Jerusalem to be played again. The Smiths Guild paid 20 shillings to excuse themselves from taking part. Again the play was a failure and it, with the Mysteries it had replaced, disappeared along with Coventry’s long tradition as a centre of the Mystery plays.

All was not lost, however. Mystery Plays are still performed occasionally in the Cathedral ruins. These are not the original Coventry plays as they are lost; the text called the Ludus Coventriae, once thought to belong to the Coventry cycle, is now thought to have probably originated in the north.