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.