They were performed on the day of the great medieval festival of the Feast of Corpus Christi.

We'll explore guilds, mystery plays, sotties and morality plays. In despair, Everyman realises that he has misspent his life and his account book is almost empty. Guilds were associations of craftsmen or merchants, who were in charge of regulating and teaching their trade; they were often wealthy and wielded considerable power. In this way, the players drew their audience into the playworld, making the mysteries of God and the history of Christianity feel more present and accessible. However, it is certainly presented as a play, with characters and assigned dialogue, and it was successfully updated for a modern audience at the National in London in 2015. It was performed on a large scale throughout the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, with plays in the fourteenth century focusing on the lives of saints. ‘Whanne we pleyin his miraclis’, the Tretise complains, ‘God takith more venjaunce on us than a lord that sodaynly sleeth his servaunt for he pleyide to homely [familiar] with him’.

The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr: sketches and original artwork, Sean's Red Bike by Petronella Breinburg, illustrated by Errol Lloyd, Unfinished Business: The Fight for Women's Rights, The fight for women’s rights is unfinished business, Get 3 for 2 on all British Library Fiction, Why you need to protect your intellectual property, The handwritten text is Public Domain in most countries, other than the UK, Saracens and racial Otherness in Middle English romance, Female ‘soveraynetee’ in Chaucer’s ‘The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale’, Galleries, Reading Rooms, Shop and Catering Opening Times Vary. They could either stay at one station and watch every play, or dip in and out, wandering between the different stations – something more akin to the immersive theatre which has found such popularity in recent years, than a West End show or a play at the National. The mystery plays, usually representing biblical subjects, developed from plays presented in Latin by churchmen on church premises and depicted such During the 1300’s, the performance of the mystery plays was taken over by… We don’t know who wrote these plays, and there is evidence of some that existed and were performed – for example in Clerkenwell, London – but have now unfortunately been lost.

She is currently turning her doctoral thesis into a monograph, examining the role of water as a literary metaphor in devotional prose – with a particular emphasis on works written for and by women. Then, most likely, comes the image of a fixed stage, a darkened room and a reverent hush as the lights go down and the curtains go up. Manuscript of the York Plays, one of the four complete surviving medieval play cycles. Dr. Hetta Elizabeth Howes is a Lecturer in Medieval and Early Modern Literature at City, University of London and a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker. They are most commonly known as the ‘mystery plays’ for two reasons. Mystery plays may have been the most popular form of theatre in the Middle Ages, but they weren’t the only one. However, it is safe to say that for a couple of hundred years they were a sanctioned and celebrated way of telling the story of Christianity. Together with the mystery play and the miracle play, the morality play is one of the three main types of vernacular drama produced during the Middle Ages. Many mystery plays were rich with comedy. They were ordinary people with a taste for drama – so you might well see your friend, neighbour or local butcher in the cast, as Herod, Noah or even Jesus. During Medieval times most plays were religious and were used to teach people about the Bible, the lives of saints, or how to live your life the right way. The mystery plays may be revived in York every other year, but they exist as a novelty and historical artefact rather than an integral part of annual life. God’s creation of living creatures: a scene from the Book of Genesis found in the richly illustrated Holkham Bible. She has published on crying and cleansing in Aelred of Rievaulx's writings for women and the relationship between blood and shame in medieval lyrics. Instead of the latest big name from an HBO series, you may well recognise a number of the actors from your own daily life. Imagine not a fixed stage and a darkened room, but mobile theatre out on the streets. On the title page of the printed edition, Everyman is referred to as a ‘treatise’ as well as a ‘play’, which has led some critics to suggest that it might have been designed for reading rather than performance. Morality plays are allegorical (i.e. Medieval drama took many forms, but the most spectacular of all was the religious drama of towns such as York, Chester, Coventry and Wakefield, known as the ‘mystery plays.’ The York Plays Manuscript of the York Plays , one of the four complete surviving medieval play cycles.

The comic nature of Noah’s character in these plays did not detract from the overall importance and significance of their Christian message: it just amused and entertained the audience on the journey to salvation. The mystery plays seem to have been tacitly approved and sanctioned by the Church, even if religious authorities weren’t directly involved in the plays themselves. Mumming, revels, interludes and pageants were all part of medieval theatrical life, and a number of critics have even drawn attention to the performative nature of church rituals, such as the Liturgy and the Eucharist. Please consider the environment before printing, All text is © British Library and is available under Creative Commons Attribution Licence except where otherwise stated. They aimed to show, in the course of a day, the whole history of the universe from the creation of Heaven and Earth to the Last Judgement – the end of the world, when everyone on earth will be judged by God and divided between Heaven and Hell, salvation and damnation. Usage terms © Donald Cooper / Photostage Significantly, these players weren’t usually professionals. In this play, the titular character discovers that he is about to die. This might seem sacrilegious to a modern audience, but it was part and parcel of medieval life and the attitude of medieval Christians to their religion. They were performed in public spaces by ordinary people, and organised and funded by guilds of craftsmen and merchants. Written in Old Scots, David Lindsay’s morality play Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis is a work of searing social satire. The words ‘theatre’ and ‘drama’ conjure a specific set of ideas, writers and images for us today. Woodcut illustrations of allegorical characters, including Everyman, Beauty and Strength, from a rare copy of Everyman (The somonynge of every man), printed c. 1530. Little is known about the circumstances in which Everyman was performed – and, in fact, there is no record of any performance at all until 1901. edieval mystery plays began to be performed in the 1200’s and were performed outdoors. Carol Ann Duffy translated the older text into modern verse and Chiwetel Ejiofor took the lead role, as a rich banker who is visited by Death during his over-extravagant, drug-fuelled birthday party.

However, it’s worth remembering that these are the plays that Shakespeare, Marlowe and their contemporaries would have grown up watching. The Mystery Plays were a great medieval tradition in York, a way of bringing religious messages to the streets of the City and a huge celebration. This play was performed on a raised scaffold, with substantial scenery including a curtain and bed. And instead of a focus on the individual and human relationships, you’re treated to scenes from the Bible, about Christianity and the history of salvation. The play not only teaches the audience some complex Christian doctrine, but more importantly it encourages them to look to their own lives and souls, before it’s too late. Such serious themes are counterpointed by moments of farcical comedy, primarily provided by the vice characters. Shakespeare may well be the first name to spring to mind – followed perhaps by Ibsen or Chekhov. Secondly, these plays were organised, funded and produced by guilds, which were also called ‘mysteries’ in the Middle Ages. The black humour of the York play of the Crucifixion did not risk dampening the awe and glory of Christ rising from the dead, fighting back devils or allocating the saved to Heaven – rather, it amplified his triumph. The wagons would proceed, one after another, and the players would perform on them at various fixed stations around the town or city. Tragedy, often, as well as romance, explorations of the meaning of humanity, or, at the other end of the spectrum, slapstick comedy. The mystery plays are sequences of performances, sometimes referred to as ‘cycle plays’ because they make up a cycle of 48 surviving short playlets. Underlined in red ink, these stage directions for 'Satan and Pilate's wife' (play 31 from the N-Town Plays) give us a sense of how the mystery plays were staged. The mystery plays gave guilds the opportunity to advertise and show off their wares. The plays were written in verse and taught Christian doctrine by presenting biblical characters as if they lived in medieval times. In this kind of religious drama we follow a primary character (representing mankind) as they encounter a cast of personified vices and virtues, before ultimately turning to righteousness and salvation. The printed text is Public Domain. They have, in their own way, inspired those forms of drama which remain popular today, and they speak to an enduring concern not only of contemporary drama, but of literature more generally: what happens when we die, and how do we live a good life until then? The play follows him on a spiritual journey, where allegorical characters such as Friendship and Beauty desert him but others, for example Good Deeds and Confession, instruct and advise him, helping him to turn his life around before his death. However, we do know that they were written for the community, and performed out in the streets and public spaces for the community, rather than in private playhouses for the more elite. Hetta Howes takes us back in time to show how these plays portrayed scenes from the Bible, conveyed religious doctrine and encouraged their audiences to lead Christian lives. Firstly, they took the mysteries of God as their primary theme. Usage terms The handwritten text is Public Domain in most countries, other than the UK. Another popular genre was the morality play, which endured into the Tudor period. He must provide God with a book of accounts, detailing the good deeds he has done, in order to save his soul and gain access to Heaven.

What kind of stories do we expect to be performed for us? The anonymous author of The Tretise of Miraclis Pleyinge, the first work of theatre criticism in English, was concerned that religious drama made a mockery of the work of God and the story of the crucifixion of Jesus. Theatre may be rich in variety, but it nonetheless comes with its own set of associations and expectations attached.