Invictus - W.E. Henley

This poem gives me goosebumps!

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

W.E. Henley, "Invictus" [1875], in Penguin's Poems By Heart, edited by Laura Barber (London: Penguin, 2009), 18.

Staging the mystery plays

The individual pageants, or plays, of the mystery cycle were played on pageant wagons, which have been conjectured to look something like this:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5y40C-ST1Nks_nVifhKjMV0_mjmMC8hcAmrUvRkc65v0LaARGlt7vfyiJLH9eTTQmEX8RHkDAtbUMAqTNmq3n31iQbTcEE9bW7SQMgGZjq9fEURzUlj9Vp0LEJIyW-LXgyjeAVIwCD_Y/s1600/mpwagonrec.jpg

Each play (there are forty-eight in total, telling the story of salvation history from the Fall of the Angels to the Last Judgement) was taken over by one of York's guilds, who were then responsible for funding, staging, acting and costuming that particular play. Often the function of each guild would be mirrored in their play; thus the Vintners had the Marriage at Cana where Christ turns water into wine, the Pinners (who made iron nails) had the Crucifixion, the Bakers the Last Supper, and so on.

The plays were performed at various stops or 'stations' throughout the city (there were twelve of these). The pageant wagons therefore acted as movable stages and were trundled from station to station. The wagons look top-heavy and unwieldy, but modern productions of the plays have proved that they are both surprisingly stable and easy to manoeuver.  

Nevertheless, with forty-eight guilds each playing their play at each of the twelve performance stations, the production of the play cycle must have required herculean feats of organisation! 

The cycle of plays was performed each year on Corpus Christi, which during the Middle Ages was one of the biggest feasts of the liturgical year - probably due to the fact that it falls very close to midsummer, when people are in the mood for festival and celebration. English weather being what it is, this is also most likely why it was the feast to which the mystery plays (performed outdoors and needing sixteen or more hours of daylight) tended to be attached, both in York and elsewhere. The performance would have begun at around 4:30am and gone on to nearly midnight. Apparently the citizens of the Middle Ages had more stamina than we do today!

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVywBCYSRDL7lRiPyXNXZLaceVkeok6axv_vbxWWa5x_Gb-P6mKANQsxKblDvfl-N2PHgc8X5B59UVijshGIMY7GtlI4zO8pWJMxPGv6QHPHlzytkf-R9sdmflv78wHX4PIyCQMkHcDaRQ/s1600/Judge.jpeg

Trial of Christ play (the caption of the image specifies it as being from the Coventry Cycle, but it would have looked similar at York)

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/resources/images/3592261.jpg?type=article-full

Herod and the Three Kings (York 1973)

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/hHt1xHUPK8c/0.jpg

The Crucifixion (York 2012). Depending on the dynamics of the play, the wagons could be placed end-on or broadside. Most images (including the two above) show the wagon broadside, which makes the proportions of the playing space similar to a modern stage, but this one is end-on.

http://www.visityork.org/img/630/630_big_IMG_5854.jpg

 

 

Wagon on the move!

The Mercers' "Hell Mouth"

The York Mercers Guild was involved in the buying and selling of cloth, in which they were apparently very successful, as the guild became one of the richest and most powerful in York.

Their pageant, or play, in the cycle of mystery plays was Doomsday or the Last Judgement.  This was the very last play to be performed and consequently is the play that would in all likelihood remain most vivid in the minds of the audience as they made their way home afterwards. No doubt the power of the Mercers, which was both economic and civic (members of the guild made up a significant proportion of the city council, which was responsible for the production of the plays) was responsible for this strategic allocation of the play!

The Mercers' pageant documents from 1433 make intriguing reading - they call for, among various other props, "iij deuels vj deuelles faces... ij paire Aungell Wynges with Iren in the endes... A cloud & ij peces of Rainbow... Array for god that ys to say a Sirke Wounded a diademe With a verserne gilted..."
[three devils, six devils' faces (masks), two pairs of angel's wings with iron in the ends, a cloud and two pieces of rainbow, clothing for God (Christ): a shirt, torn and painted red to represent Christ's wounds, a crown and a gilded mask]

But the most striking prop would have been the "hell mouth," which looked something like this:

https://dkiwjlrz0qi5f.cloudfront.net/assets/spotlight/65/pageantwagon-8f1564c817d0ca1b52de97eb1a4d74df.jpg

Unfortunately this artist's image of the hell mouth looks rather more like a hungry pussy cat than the abode of the damned, but never mind. The main action of the play took place on the wagon top above; the bad souls, when condemned by God, would tumble down into "hell."

Quotes of Mercers' 1433 Pageant Documents from Records of Early English Drama: York (REED), edited by Alexandra F. Johnston and Margaret Rogerson (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1979), volume i, 55.

Let No Man Steal Your Thyme

http://image.invaluable.com/housePhotos/martelmaides/44/232044/H1117-L10185511.jpg

Come all you fair and tender maids
That flourish in your prime.
Beware, beware keep your garden fair.
Let no man steal your thyme;
Let no man steal your thyme.

For when your thyme is past and gone,
He’ll care no more for you,
And every place where your thyme was waste
Will all spread o’re with rue,
Will all spread o’re with rue.

The gardener’s son was standing by;
Three flowers he gave to me
The pink, the blue, and the violet, too,
And the red, red rosy tree,
The red, red, rosy tree.

But I forsook the red rose bush
and gained the willow tree,
So all the world might plainly see
How my love slighted me,
How my love slighted me.

This old English ballad is sung by Carey Mulligan in Far From the Madding Crowd, out now and well worth seeing!!

The song uses the 'language of flowers' - see if you can work out what each plant stands for!

Here is a link to the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNP9fvStXC4

Bitter Chill

St Agnes' Eve - Ah, bitter chill it was!
The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold;
The hare limp'd trembling through the frozen grass,
And silent was the flock in woolly fold:
Numb were the Beadsman's fingers, while he told
His rosary, and while his frosted breath,
Like pious incense from a censor old,
Seem'd taking flight for heaven, without a death,
Past the sweet Virgin's picture, while his prayer he saith.

John Keats, "The Eve of Saint Agnes," l. 1-9, in John Keats: Everyman's Poetry (London: Orion, 1996).

All right, so it's not quite this cold in Auckland this morning, but it's not far off...

http://victorianweb.org/art/illustration/wehnert/7.jpg

Etymology according to the Telegraph

10 words you didn't know were derived from 'father'

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/ca/33/17/ca33177bb4fd56d139fc73b906ac0972.jpg

Making Paternoster (rosary) beads in the Middle Ages

Countdown to summer

Today is the shortest day of the year in the southern hemisphere; from tomorrow summer will be on its way!

http://acelebrationofwomen.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/wintersolsticoakking.jpg

This fellow looks like something out of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which is chock-full of descriptions of nature in mid-winter... an English winter, of course, not a New Zealand one, but it doesn't matter ;)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Snow_surrounds_the_Desert_Rd_-_Flickr_-_111_Emergency_%284%29.jpg

The Desert Plateau (aka Mordor) in winter.

La Belle Dame Sans Merci

http://www.ichiban1.org/images/labelle_65kb.gif

O what can ail thee knight at arms, Alone and palely loitering? The sedge has withered from the lake, And no birds sing! O what can ail thee knight at arms, So haggard and so woe-begone? The squirrel’s granary is full, And the harvest’s done. I see a lily on thy brow, With anguish moist and fever-dew, And on thy cheeks a fading rose Fast Withereth too. I met a Lady in the Meads, Full beautiful—a faery’s child, Her hair was long, her foot was light, And her eyes were wild - I made a Garland for her head, And bracelets too, and fragrant Zone; She looked at me as she did love, And made sweet moan - I set her on my pacing steed, And nothing else saw all day long, For sidelong would she bend, and sing A faery’s song - She found me roots of relish sweet, And honey wild, and manna-dew, And sure in language strange she said— I love thee true - She took me to her Elfin grot, And there she wept and sighed full sore, And there I shut her wild wild eyes With kisses four. And there she lulled me asleep, And there I dreamed—Ah! Woe betide!— The latest dream I ever dreamt On the cold hill side. I saw pale kings and princes too, Pale warriors, death-pale were they all; They cried—‘La Belle Dame sans Merci Thee hath in thrall!’ I saw their starv'd lips in the gloam, With horrid warning gaped wide, And I awoke and found me here, On the cold hill’s side. And this is why I sojourn here, Alone and palely loitering, Though the sedge is withered from the Lake And no birds sing.
John Keats (1819), in John Keats, Everyman's Poetry series (London: Orion, 1996), 58-9.

Shakespearen Spinach

Link to "Shakespearean Spinach" lecture, given by Professor Peter Holland (University of Notre Dame) at the University of Auckland as part of the 2015 Writers Festival:

http://www.arts.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/news/2015/06/shakespearean-spinach.html

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1234163/images/o-SHAKESPEARE-STAR-WARS-facebook.jpg

Frodo's song to Goldberry

http://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/tumblr_lpitk71FqW1r0b241o1_1280.jpg

O slender as a willow wand! O clearer than clear water!
O reed by the living pool! Fair river daughter!
O spring time and summer time, and spring again after
O wind on the waterfall, and the leaves' laughter!

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (London: Harper Collins, 1996), 139.

Der Erlkönig

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Erlkoenig_Schwind.jpg

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1782

Wer reitet so spät durch Nacht und Wind?
Es ist der Vater mit seinem Kind;
Er hat den Knaben wohl in dem Arm,
Er faßt ihn sicher, er hält ihn warm.

"Mein Sohn, was birgst du so bang dein Gesicht?" –
"Siehst, Vater, du den Erlkönig nicht?
Den Erlenkönig mit Kron und Schweif?" –
"Mein Sohn, es ist ein Nebelstreif."

"Du liebes Kind, komm, geh mit mir!
Gar schöne Spiele spiel' ich mit dir;
Manch' bunte Blumen sind an dem Strand,
Meine Mutter hat manch gülden Gewand." –

"Mein Vater, mein Vater, und hörest du nicht,
Was Erlenkönig mir leise verspricht?" –
"Sei ruhig, bleibe ruhig, mein Kind;
In dürren Blättern säuselt der Wind." –

"Willst, feiner Knabe, du mit mir gehn?
Meine Töchter sollen dich warten schön;
Meine Töchter führen den nächtlichen Reihn,
Und wiegen und tanzen und singen dich ein." –

"Mein Vater, mein Vater, und siehst du nicht dort
Erlkönigs Töchter am düstern Ort?" –
"Mein Sohn, mein Sohn, ich seh' es genau:
Es scheinen die alten Weiden so grau. –"

"Ich liebe dich, mich reizt deine schöne Gestalt;
Und bist du nicht willig, so brauch' ich Gewalt." –
"Mein Vater, mein Vater, jetzt faßt er mich an!
Erlkönig hat mir ein Leids getan!" –

Dem Vater grauset's, er reitet geschwind,
Er hält in Armen das ächzende Kind,
Erreicht den Hof mit Müh' und Not;
In seinen Armen das Kind war tot.

English translation here

Shakespearean Tragedy

https://shakespeare365.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/bj559elqxtqeigfk7llp.jpg

The Middle Ages got there first

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--Ef6b_DjD--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/194xav24gqvx2jpg.jpg

http://www.councilofelrond.com/members/smeagol2jf/gollumring.jpg

One ring to rule them all,
One ring to find them,
One ring to bring them all
And in the darkness bind them.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Eggsies, precioussss

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/a7/04/f2/a704f27539f25ffb1d59b5b24df9d8f6.jpg

 Carved Ostrich Egg

Did you know?

In the Middle Ages ostrich eggs were sometimes placed in churches as adornment or decoration.

William Durand of Mende (c.1230 - 1296) says:

"In some churches two eggs of ostriches and other things which cause admiration, and which are rarely seen, are accustomed to be suspended: that their means people may be drawn to church, and have their minds the more affected."

A novel way of boosting church attendance! Durand goes on to say:

"Again, some say that the ostrich, as being a forgetful bird, 'leaveth her eggs in the dust' (Job 34:14): and at length, when she beholdeth a certain star, returneth unto them, and cheereth them by her presence. There fore the eggs of ostriches are hung in churches to signify that man, being left of God on account of his sins, if at length he may be illuminated by the Divine Light, remembereth his faults and returneth to Him, who by looking on him with His Mercy cherisheth him."

A handy footnote to this passage says: "Perhaps this custom [of putting ostrich eggs in churches] was introduced by the Crusaders. 'As the ostrich is good for food, so it seems, are its eggs: to say nothing of their being objects of attention, as being used much in the East by way of ornament: for they are hung up in their places of public worship, along with many lamps.'"

William Durand, Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, Book I: The Symbolism of Churches and Church Ornaments, trans. John Mason Neale and Benjamin Webb (London: Gibbings, 1906), 62-3.

Heading for Canterbury

Whan that Aprill with his shoures sote
The droght of Marche hath perced to the rote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne;
And smale fowles maken melodye,
That slepen al the night with open yë -
So pricketh hem Nature in hir corages -
And palmeres for to seken in straunge strondes,
To ferne halwes, couthe in sondry londes;
And specially, from every shires ende
Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende,
The holy blisful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seke.

Geoffrey Chaucer, General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, l.1-18. In The Canterbury Tales: Fifteen Tales and the General Prologue, edited by V.A. Kolve and Glending Olson. New York, London: W.N. Norton, 2005.

Learn to recite this in Middle English and you have quite an impressive party trick!
(There is a recording in the original pronunciation here)

Translated into modern English, the lines read

When April with its sweet showers
Has pierced the drought of March to the root,
And bathed every vein with such wetness
That has power to bring the flowers
When the west wind with his sweet breath
Has breathed into every wood and heath
The tender buds, and the young sun
Has in the sign of Aries run half its course;
And the small birds sing,
Then those who sleep all the night with open eye - 
So Nature inspires them in their hearts -
Then folk long to go on pilgrimage,
And pilgrims seek foreign shores,
For distant shrines, well known in many lands;
And especially, from every county in England
To Canterbury they come,
To seek the holy blissful martyr [Thomas a Beckett]
Who has helped them when they were sick.

But it just doesn't sound the same... 

Saying your prayers, Middle English style

Which important prayer is this?

http://www.sgsgashtead.com/Images/content/712/428013.jpg

Fader oure, that is in heuen,
blessid be thi name to neuen.
Come to us thi kyngdome.
In heuen & erthe thi wille be done.
Oure ilk day bred graunt vs to day.
and oure mysdedes forgyve vs ay,
als we do hom that trespas us,
right so haue meri vp-on us.
and lede vs in no foundynge,
bot shild vs fro al wicked thinge. Amen.

from The Lay Folks Mass Book; or The Manner of Hearing Mass, With Rubrics and Devotions for the People (London: N. Trübner & Co., for the Early English Text Society, 1879), Text B, l.496-505

Shakespeare's Globe coming to Auckland

Strange, but true: Dr Miles Gregory (originally an Aucklander, now living and working in England) is bringing a full-size, pop-up replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre to Auckland some time next year.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Hollar_Long_View_detail.png

See http://popupglobe.co.nz/ for more details!

York Hours of the Cross

(translation from original Middle English)

Matins (before dawn)

Lord Jesus Christ, I pray you hear my voice,
For Thy sweet mother’s sake, who is Queen of Heaven;
For the wisdom of Thy father, the God of righteousness.
God and Man, at morning tide, taken He is,
Forsaken by His friends and abandoned -
Betrayed to the Jews and damned without cause.
Lord, for that same pain Thou suffered at morning tide,
Never let my soul on Doomsday be forlorn.

Prime (6 a.m.)

At Prime led was Jesus unto Pilate;
They bound Him as a thief, and sore Him smote;
Of false witness they accused Him many ways,
They spat in Jesus’ face, the light of  Heaven’s gate.
Lord, for that same shame Thou suffered at Prime,
Let my soul never come unready to Doomsday.

Tierce (9 a.m.)

At the hour of Tierce they began to cry and call out,
For mockery they clad Him in a purple robe,
They set on His head a crown of thorns,
And caused him to carry on His bare back the Cross to the place of execution.
Lord, for that same shame Thou suffered in that place,
Shrive me of deadly sin, Thou giver of grace.

Sext (noon)

At the time of midday they raised him on the Cross
Between two thieves who had spilt men’s blood;
For the pain of terrible thirst they gave Him acrid drink,
Bitter gall [missing in MS]; He wanted nothing of food.
Lord, for that same shame that was done to Thy Body,
Shield me from my evil foes, the world, fiends and the flesh.

Nones (3 p.m.)

At the hour of None Jesus cried out;
He commended his soul to His Father.
A knight smote Him to the heart, he had no mercy;

http://gointotheworld.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/crucifixion-icon07.jpg

The sun began to darken to mark when Jesus died.
Lord, out of Thy side ran a full fair flood,
As clear as well water, our ransom by Thy blood.


Evensong (sunset)

At the time of evensong they took Him from the cross
His might was in His Godhead, so gracious and good,
The medicine of His pains, the shedding of His blood,
Be nourishing to us, our spiritual food.
Lord, for that same shame that was done to You,
Let my soul never by deadly sin be slain.

Compline (before retiring)

At the hour of compline, they laid Him in the grave,
The noble body of Jesus, which shall save mankind:
With spices he was buried, Holy Writ to fulfill,
Think we sadly on His death, that shall save us from Hell.



O blessed Christ, I offer to Thee
With meek devotion these canonical hours:
For us Thou has suffered all those pains;
Thy grievous agony for the same reason;
So by the remembrance of Thy Passion,
Make me, according to my purpose,
Partaker of Thy crown and endless glory.

Arthur: The Once and Future King - Documentary

Documentary exploring the legend of King Arthur, with the inimitable Michael Wood:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQaI4yzGeRw

http://uploads4.wikiart.org/images/george-frederick-watts/sir-galahad.jpg

Yet some men say in many parts of England that King Arthur is not dead, but had by the will of our Lord Jesus gone into another place: and men say that he shall come again and shall win the Holy Cross. Yet I will not say that it shall be so, but rather I would say: here in this world he changed his life. And many men say that there is written upon the tomb this:

HIC IACET ARTHURUS REX QUONDAM REXQUE FUTURUS.

Thomas Mallory, Le Morte d'Arthur, in The Legend of Arthur (London, Brockhampton Press, 1997), 14.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Documentary

BBC Documentary on the Middle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, with Simon Armitage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74glI1lg1CQ

 

http://sitemaker.umich.edu/religiousobjects/files/greenknight.jpg

Great wonder grew in hall
At his hue most strange to see,
For man and gear and all
Were green as green could be.

Marie Borroff, ed. and trans., Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (New York, London: W.W. Norton, 2010), l.147-50

York Mystery Plays: Timeline

John 1199 - 1216
 1210 Clergy banned from acting onstage (under Innocent III)
1212 York granted self governance by King John
1215 Magna Carter; Fourth Lateran Council

Henry III 1216 - 1272

Edward I 1272 - 1307
1298 Edward I moves government to York (until 1304; Parliament continued to gather there until 1335)

Edward II 1307 - 1327
1318 Feast of Corpus Christi arrives in England
1319 Scottish attack
1323 Truce with Robert the Bruce

Edward III 1327 - 1377
1330 Black Death
1337-1453 Hundred Years' War
1349 Black Death recurs
1376 Early mention of plays
1381 Peasants' Revolt (uprising in York)
1376 Early mention of plays

Richard II 1377 - 1399
1396 Chapter of Richard II (he promotes York to a county in its own right; visits York)

Henry IV 1399 - 1413
1412 Nicholas Blackburn is Lord Mayor of York

Henry V 1413 - 1422

Henry VI 1422 - 1461, 1470 - 1471

Edward IV 1461 - 1470, 1471 - 1483 
1463-77 Compilation of York Register
1472 York Minster is (finally) completed and consecrated
1455-85 Wars of the Roses
1476 Plays separated from Corpus Christi feast

Richard III 1483 - 1485

Henry VII 1485 - 1509
1486 & 87 Henry VII visits York

Henry VIII 1509 - 1547
1533 Henry VII marries Anne Boleyn 
1536 Pilgrimage of Grace
1539 York's Abbey dissolved
1545 Council of Trent
1547 Religious guilds/chantries dissolved

Edward VI 1547 - 1553
1548 Corpus Christi abolished
1549 Book of Common Prayer 

Mary 1553 - 1558

Elizabeth I 1558 - 1603
1564 Shakespeare born
1569 Mystery plays finally suppressed
1586 Margaret Clitherow ('the pearl of York') executed

Useful links

http://www.myaudioschool.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/SMA-1-Charlemagne-et-Louis-le-Pieux.jpg

British Library: The Middle Ages

Catholic Encylopedia

Discovering York

Early English Books Online

England and English History

Explore York - Libraries and Archives

Geoffrey Chaucer Website

History of York

Luminarium (Anthology of English Literature)

Map of Early Modern London

Medieval Art and Architecture

Medieval Imaginations: literature and visual culture in the middle ages

Medieval Resources Online (UofLeeds)

Metro (Middle English Teaching Resources Online)

Middle English Dictionary

ORB: The Medieval Mass and Its Music

Robin Hood - The Facts and the Fiction

Royal Shakespeare Company

The Medieval Page 

The Shakespeare Blog

York Minster

York Mystery Plays

York plays manuscript page

http://img1.photographersdirect.com/img/262/wm/pd2790363.jpg

Mapping London Story on Radio NZ

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/tudorhackney/images/agas1559sh.jpg

'Ello my dearly beloved 'earers!

See this link for a Radio NZ story about a research project I was working on last year in Tom Bishop's English 783 (Studies in English Renaissance Drama) at the University of Auckland: http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/standing-room-only/audio/201757413/shakespeare-era-london

The link to the Agas Map referred to in the story is http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/index.htm

Going to Mass, Middle English style

This prayer is from the Lay Folks Mass Book.

 Can you guess which prayer it is?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Pontifical_Mass_-_15th_Century_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_16531.jpg

I know to god ful of myght,
And to his moder, mayde bright,
And to alle his halwes dere,
In many synnes of diuerse manere,
And to the fader gosteley,
That I haw synned largely.
In thought, in speche, in delite,
In worde, in werke, I am to wite,
And worthi I am to blame,
For falsly I haw take goddys name.
There-fore I pray seynte mari
And alle halwes specialy,
And the preste to pray for me,
That god haw merci and pitte
Of mi mysdede that mochel is,
For his manhode and his godnys,
And of me wreche that synful is,
And yew me grace of for-yeuenys.

from The Lay Folks Mass Book; or The Manner of Hearing Mass, With Rubrics and Devotions for the People (London: N. Trübner & Co., for the Early English Text Society, 1879), Text F, l.44-60

Overview of my master's research

Late medieval England was a time characterised by faith, and by the colourful, extravagant and exuberant expression of that faith. My research explores the ‘performativity of faith’ in this perod, focusing primarily on the city of York. As such its broad timespan is roughly the period from the late fourteenth century (the date of the first mention of the York cycle plays) through to the mid-sixteenth (with the  Reformation’s banning of the plays and alteration of the liturgy).

    My chief interest is the relationship between piety and the public demonstration, or performance, of that piety. I am examining in particular how the rite of the Mass can be viewed as a drama of faith and how the dramaturgy of this Latin ritual links to that of the vernacular mystery plays (specifically the York cycle). In so doing I aim to determine the relationship between plays and liturgy and the ways in which the drama of each is both influenced by and differs from the other. This involves considering the different motivations for the performance of piety - devotion, worship, edification, instruction, entertainment, social inclusion, social exclusion - and how they intersect and overlap. I believe that this will lead to a fuller and more detailed understanding of how different modes of performing faith situated themselves within, and interacted with, the wider culture of the late Middle Ages.

    The thesis will be constructed around the Passion and notions of sacrifice. As the Mass was regarded by the medieval populace as a literal re-enactment of Christ’s death on Calvary, and as the Crucifixion sequence - the visual representation of that sacrifice - forms the climax of the York cycle, it seems logical to take the Passion as a centrepoint for comparing and contrasting the two genres. Using the Passion as a base allows linking into the medieval preoccupation with the Body of Christ and examination of the differing function this has in the Mass and the plays. Furthermore, it  encourages consideration of other kinds of Passion literature, including Passion poetry (The Northern Passion, for example) and para-liturgical material such as the York Hours of the Cross and the Lay Folks Mass Book. Such literature, in common with the plays’ Passion sequence and to some extent the liturgy of the Mass, displays an overarching concern with the depiction of Christ’s suffering and is clearly intended to generate an affective response on the part of the audience. Consequently, reading this material alongside the plays and Mass allows comparison of the treatment of the Christ figure across a wide range of genres, and will provide insight into how and why the presentation of the  suffering Body of Christ was used for the generation of pious emotion in medieval audiences.