The mediaeval stage, volume 2 (of 2)Chambers, E. K. (Edmund Kerchever)
History
The mediaeval stage, volume 2 (of 2)
Chambers, E. K. (Edmund Kerchever)
Drama, Medieval -- History and criticism; Theater -- History -- Medieval, 500-1500
The Cornish plays, although in many respects they are parallel to those
of the north, have yet some very marked features of their own. They have
episodes of the miraculous Release of Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea
from Prison, and of the Death of Pilate and the Interview of Veronica
with Tiberius[380]. But their most remarkable legendary addition is an
elaborate treatment of the history of the Holy Rood, which provides
the motives for the scenes dealing with Seth, Moses, David, Solomon,
Maximilla, and the Bridge upon Cedron[381]. On the other hand the
Cornish plays close with the Ascension and entirely omit the sub-cycle
of the Nativity, passing direct, but for the Holy Rood matter, from the
Sacrifice of Isaac to the Temptation.
It is not improbable that the majority of the Corpus Christi and other
greater English plays reached the dimensions of a cosmic cycle. But
in only a few cases is any definite evidence on the point available.
Complete lists are preserved from Beverley and Norwich. The Beverley
series seems to have been much on the scale of the four extant cycles.
It extended in thirty-six pageants from the Fall of Lucifer to Doomsday.
Like the Cornish cycle, it included the episode of Adam and Seth; and
it presented an exceptional feature in the insertion of a play of the
Children of Israel after the Flight into Egypt. The Norwich cycle, which
began with the Creation and ended with Pentecost, was a short one of
twelve pageants[382]. The small number is due, partly to the grouping of
several episodes in a single play, partly to the omission of the Passion
proper. The Resurrection followed immediately upon the Baptism. Of other
plays, the chroniclers record that in 1391 the London performance covered
both the Old and New Testament, that in 1409 it went from the Creation
to the Day of Judgement, and that in 1411 it was ‘from the begynnyng of
the worlde.’ The fragmentary indications of the records preserved show
that the Chelmsford play stretched at least from the Creation to the
Crucifixion, the Newcastle play at least from the Creation to the Burial
of the Virgin[383], the Lincoln play at least from the Deluge to the
Coronation of the Virgin. On the other hand the range of the Coventry
plays can only be shown to have been from the Annunciation to Doomsday,
although it may be by a mere accident that no Old Testament scenes are
here to be identified[384].
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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