Medieval Drama: An Anthology / Edition 1

by Greg Walker

Overview

This comprehensive anthology brings together a diverse collection of dramatic writing from the late fourteenth century to the onset of the Renaissance. The volume presents for the first time the key plays of the period in their entirety, alongside more unusual selections, covering religious narrative, religion and conscience, and politics and morality.

The first section focuses on Biblical plays, including coherent sequences of the narrative Cycle plays from York and N-Town and supporting pageants from Chester and Wakefield. This approach allows a clear narrative line to develop, and permits the comparison of the treatment of key stories between the Cycles. The selected material demonstrates how the drama of the towns and cities of East Anglia and the North of England mediated religious culture to a heterodox urban audience, and explored biblical events in an intensely contemporary setting.

In the second and third sections, the attention turns to secular drama, and the Moral Plays and Interludes. The featured texts illustrate the range of themes and issues covered, from the salvation of the individual human soul to the renovation of the political nation, and the variety of settings and audiences for which the plays were designed. The flexibility of the Interlude form is explored, as are the ways in which it was utilised by playwrights and their patrons to address issues of direct political and social concern to them and their audiences.

Medieval Drama: An Anthology is an indispensable guide to the breadth and depth of dramatic activity in medieval Britain.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780631217275
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	10/03/2000
Series:	Blackwell Anthologies
Pages:	656
Product dimensions:	6.80(w) x 9.70(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Greg Walker is Professor of Early Modern Literature and Culture at the University of Leicester. His previous publications include John Skelton and the Politics of the 1520s (1998), Plays of Persuasion: Drama and Politics at the Court of Henry VIII (1991), Persuasive Fictions: Factions, Faith and Political Culture in the Reign of Henry VIII (1996), and The Politics of Performance in Early-Renaissance Drama (1998).

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

Acknowledgements xi

Chronological Table xii

Places Mentioned in the Text xv

The York Performance Sites xvi

Part I Religious Narrative: The Biblical Plays 1

Introduction 3

York, The Ordo Paginarum 10

York (The Barkers/Tanners), The Fall of the Angels 12

Chester (The Tanners), The Fall of Lucifer 16

York (The Coopers), The Fall of Man 21

Chester (The Drapers), Adam and Eve 25

York (The Pewterers and Founders), Joseph’s Trouble About Mary 32

York (The Tilethatchers), The Nativity 38

Towneley, The Second Shepherds’ Play 42

Chester (The Paynters and Glaziers), The Shepherds 58

York (The Skinners), The Entry into Jerusalem 70

York (The Cutlers), The Conspiracy 80

York (The Bowers and Fletchers), Christ Before Annas and Caiaphas 89

York (The Tapiters and Couchers), Christ Before Pilate I: The Dream of Pilate’s Wife 99

York (The Litsters), Christ Before Herod 112

York (The Tilemakers), Christ Before Pilate II: The Judgement 123

York (The Pinners), The Crucifixion 134

York (The Saddlers), The Harrowing of Hell 143

York (The Carpenters), The Resurrection 150

York (The Mercers), The Last Judgement 159

The Mercers’ Indenture (1433) 159

The Last Judgement 160

N-Town, The Mary Play 167

The Tretise of Miraclis Pleyinge (extracts) 196

Chester, The Post-Reformation Banns 201

Matthew Hutton’s Letter to the Mayor and Council of York (1567) 206

Part II Religion And Conscience: The Moral Plays 207

Introduction 209

Croxton, The Play of the Sacrament 213

Wisdom 235

Mankind 258

Everyman 281

Part III Politics And Morality: The Interludes 299

Introduction 301

Henry Medwall, Fulgens and Lucres 305

John Skelton, Magnyfycence 349

The Enterlude of Godly Queene Hester 409

John Heywood, The Four PP 433

John Heywood, The Play of the Weather 456

John Bale, Johan Baptystes Preachynge 480

John Bale, The Three Laws 493

Sir David Lindsay, Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis 535

The Description of the 1540 Interlude 538

Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis (the 1552–4 text) 541

Textual Variants 624

Glossary of Common Hard Words 627

Editorial Reviews

"Walker offers a thoroughly researched and well-chosen selection of key primary texts and some unusual plays. He also provides short but comprehensive introductions that will be easily accessible to beginning students." Choice

"A marvellous collection of dramatic texts from the late fourteenth century to the beginnings of the Renaissance in the British Isles.
In this remarkably comprehensive collection we have the entire texts of the key plays of the period, including some less usual works.
A few period illustrations, maps and a street plan help set the scene. The whole exemplary apparatus is worn lightly, all helping to encourage reading and acting. Glossaries of terms and notes sit unobtrusively at the foot of the page, immediately available to help the reader.
He [Walker] specifically arranges his anthology to allow, and encourage, the plays to speak for themselves: wide-ranging selection, concise informative introduction to each work, notes and glossaries.
In a single volume a whole range of rich literature is made accessible to the modern reader in what must be just about the star volume in an anyway excellent series. This book will be essential in any undergraduate or senior school collection of English literature, or of drama, and will enhance may other collections besides". Reference Reviews

From the Publisher