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CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
IN ENGLAND
Corpus Christi
Pageants
IN
ENGLAND
By
M. LYLE SPENCER, PH. D.
Professor of Rhetoric
Lawrence College
NEW YORK
THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY
1911
Copyright 1911, by
THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY
Camelot Press, 444-446 Pearl St., New York.
To
LOIS HILL SPENCER
242396
PREFACE
The pleasantest part of an otherwise very-
pleasant task is an opportunity to express my
gratitude to Mr. Samuel Moore of Harvard Uni-
versity, to Mr. T. A. Knott of the University of
Chicago, and to Professor John M. Manly for
their invaluable assistance in the preparation of
this book. Much of the material contained in
chapter five was suggested to me, either wholly
or in part, by Mr. Moore, who was so generous
as to lend me all his notes and a most valuable
paper that he had written on the conventions of
the cyclic drama. To Mr. Knott I am greatly in-
debted for a careful perusal of the entire book
and for much advice and friendly criticism. And
to Professor Manly I am grateful for the first
suggestion of the work, for full discussions of the
book in its various stages, and for a most gen-
erous loan of all his notes on the early drama.
Without the help of Mr. Moore, Mr. Knott, and
Professor Manly this volume would not have
been possible, and I avail myself of this oppor-
tunity to express my deep appreciation to them
for their assistance and friendly counsel.
M. L. S.
Spartanburg, S. C,
June, 1911.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. Introductory i
11. Preparation for the Pageants . . 19
III. The Corpus Christi Procession . 61
IV. The Pageants 83
V. Corpus Christi Staging . . . . 107
VI. Conventions of the Corpus Christi
Stage • 168
VII. The Actors and their Costumes . 209
VIII. The Passing of the Pageants . . 2^8
CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
IN ENGLAND
INTRODUCTORY
The Early Drama. One of the most fruitful
fields of inquiry in early English literature in
recent years has been that concerning the origin
and development of the religious drama. Scholars
have unearthed much about the language of the
plays, about their sources, about dramatic condi-
tions prior to the first regular theatres, and about
the manners and the customs of the people in those
early times. Interesting information of all sorts
has been brought to light during the course of this
continued investigation, information that has
been of value, not only to the special student of
the medieval English stage, but to every Shak-
spere lover and every student of the later drama,
in that it reveals the plays and the pageants in
which his forefathers before the days of the first
regular theatres used to find amusement and reli-
gious instruction. From these early plays we
have learned how the modern stage has grown
out of the old Catholic church service and how
1
2 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
we have developed our modern mixtures of
tragedy in the midst of comedy, of comedy
mingled v^rith tragedy, and that union of pathos
and humor which has been so prominent in our
drama since the days of Shakspere.
Purpose. Some parts of the subject, however,
have not been investigated with as much thor-
oughness and completeness as others. One field
not yet adequately understood is that which in-
cludes the decorations, the management, and the
general stage business of the Corpus Christi
pageants. Everybody has known for a long
time, of course, that the Corpus Christi cars
often consisted of three important parts, an
upper stage, a lower stage, and another indef-
inite part somewhere which was used to repre-
sent hell, but we have not known definitely al-
ways how these stages were relatively situated nor
what their exact relation to each other was. Every-
body has known, too, that the stages were often
gorgeously decorated and were well furnished
with properties and mechanical devices; but the
precise use of these stages, the multiple decora-
tions, the easy shift of scenes, and the exact
methods of representation have never been
definitely disclosed. And while much has been
known about dramatic methods at Chester,
somewhat more, probably, about those at York,
and still more perhaps about those at Coventry,
still the general relation to each other of all the
INTRODUCTORY 3
Corpus Christi stages in the different towns of
England has not yet been determined. It is the
purpose of this study to summarize the work
that has already been done on this subject and
to define more clearly if possible the problems
which have been touched upon but which have
not yet been worked out thoroughly. This
volume, then, will concern itself with the cus-
toms governing the production of the pageants,
I with the relations of the different parts of the
I stage to each other, with the principles of dec-
! oration and the use of propertiets, and with the
general subject of the actors and their costumes.
Hindrances. In beginning a study of the
Corpus Christi pageants in England, however, it
is first and most of all regrettable that no his-
torical account of their development is possible,
because of the loss of so many of the original
! records of this celebrated English festival. Ex-
1 cept for the records contained in Thomas Sharp's
I Dissertation on the Pageants or Dramatic Mys-
teries Anciently performed at Coventry, by the
Trading Companies of that City (1825) and those
in his edition for the Abbotsford Club of The Pre-
sentation in the Temple, A Pageant, as originally
represented by the Corporation of Weavers in
Coventry (1836), the majority of our most im-
portant original documents, and even what copies
may have existed, seem to have been lost. Sharp's
plan in both of these volumes was to publish any
4 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
interesting details that might be illustrative of
*' the vehicle, characters, and dresses of the actors "
in the ** pageants or dramatic mysteries ", a method
which makes his books still a mine of valuable in-
formation to students of the religious drama. But
further than that, for plays other than those at
Coventry, investigators in recent years have been
compelled to rely for all their information on scat-
tered fragments of pieced-together infoimation
gathered from imperfect and incomplete accounts
of the city leet books, of the English trading guilds,
and from other similar sources. And even in the
case of the Coventry plays students of to-day are
hampered by the fact that almost all of Sharp's
sources were lost in the fire which destroyed the
Free Reference Library at Birmingham in 1879,
and that the Coventry play-book itself with all the
cycle of plays has not yet been discovered, though
two of its scenes, the Nativity and Slaughter of the
Innocents and the Presentation in the Temple, have
survived separately.
Sources of Information. On the other hand,
although the loss of so many records has rendered
impossible any chronological study of the plays,
one should add that the work of the student has
been immensely lightened by the many excellent
reprints and studies of earlier investigators in this
field, such as Davies, Morris, Furnivall, Manly,
Smith, Leach, Chambers, Bates, Craig, and others.
Several of these scholars, it is true, did not have
INTRODUCTORY 5
the Corpus Christi pageants particularly in view
in. their work, but their contributions are neverthe-
less most valuable. Davies's Extracts from the
Municipal Records of the City of York (1843), ^^^
example, while purposing particularly " to throw
light upon the condition of the city [of York], and
the manners, customs, language, and domestic
habits and circumstances of its inhabitants ", fur-
nishes us with much valuable material on the
Corpus Christi festival in that city. In the same
way Morris's interest in his Chester during the
Plantagenet and Tudor Reigns was general rather
than specific, and he unfortunately devoted only ten
pages to the " Whitson Plaies ", yet his selections
from the original MSS are remarkably concise and
definite and are peculiarly well adapted to illustrat-
ing the staging of the pageants. In contrast to
these. Dr. Furnivall was always especially inter-
ested in the drama and has put us under many
obligations to him for his reprint of the Rogers
" Breauarye " of Chester and for many other
valuable helps in the study of Corpus Christi stage
presentation. Likewise, Miss L. T. Smith in the
introduction to her edition of the York Mystery
Plays, and elsewhere, has given many helpful sug-
gestions, and by publishing the text of the York
plays has made that cycle accessible for the first
time. More recently Mr. A. F. Leach has made
public many of the records of Beverley in his
Beverley Town Documents and has added much
I
6 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
other new and useful information in his contribu-
tion to the Furnivall Miscellany. Most of all, pos-
sibly, students of the early drama are indebted to
Mr. E. K. Chambers for the exhaustive, scholarly,
and authoritative report of his investigations in the
two volumes of his Mediaeval Stage. The chap-
ters on " Guild Plays and Parish Plays " and
"Moralities, Puppet-plays, Pageants " in the second
volume, and the various appendices, are invaluable
to students of the Corpus Christi drama. Miss
Bates also has given an interesting account of the
pageants in her little volume on the English Reli-
gious Drama, and Dr. Craig in his Two Coventry
Corpus Christi Plays has made the work of Sharp,
Jeaffreson, and others more accessible than before,
besides furnishing in his introduction much new
material about the plays. And so there are others
whom lack of space forbids mentioning here, but
to whom thanks are due for their excellent work
in making the medieval material and records avail-
able and in otherwise removing hindrances from
the path of later students.
Confusion of Terms. In spite of the investi-
gations of these scholars, however, there remains
one serious difficulty that every student must en-
counter in any consistent study of the medieval
stage, the almost bewildering confusion in the use
of terms, a confusion so great that it would seem
as if writers of that time were accustomed to class
as a ** play " anything from a morris dance to a
INTRODUCTORY 7
morality. Thus when one reads in the records of
the corporation of Plymouth that the craft of
tailors " shall make or cause to be made at the cost
and charge of the said crafte a pagent yerely unto
Corpus Christi Ilde for the welthe and profitt of
the said Ilde on Corpus Christi day; and the same
they shall kepe and maynteyn for euer at their
coste and charge, for the which pagent the said
bretherdyn may be prayed for euer in the said
Ilde ", it is by no means clear from such a leet alone
whether a play or a pageant-car in the Corpus
Christi procession was required of the tailors; for
(Sie terms " pageant " and " play " at that time were
used interchangeably. Indeed we find the word
" pageant " in the writings of this time meaning a
playing place, a stage, a character, an episode, a
scene, or even a mechanical device./ Wiclif in his
Ave Maria uses it in the sense of " character "
when he says " he that kan best pleie a pagyn of
the deuyl, syngynge songis of lecherie, of batailis
and of lesyngis ... is holden most merie mon ".
And Chambers^ quotes a passage from a writer
of the early sixteenth century which shows the
absolute confusion of the word : " Alexander
played a payante more worthy to be wondred vpon
for his rasshe aduenture than for his manhede. . . .
There were v coursis in the feest and as many
paiantis in the pley. I wyll haue made v stags o^
bouthis in this playe (scenas). 1 wolde haue a
^Mediaeval Stage, ii. 137 n.
8 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
place in the middyl of the pley (orchestra) that I
myght se euery paiaunt. Of all the crafty and
subtyle paiantis and pecis of warke made by
mannys wyt, to go or moue by them selfe, the
clocke is one of the beste ". Nor does the confu-
sion stop with the word " pageant ". We find
" ministrallis " meaning tumblers and musicians,
histriones meaning jugglers, bear- wards, or musi-
cians, as well as actors, and the same confusion in
the terms ludiis, ludentes, plays, players, etc. The
result is that the student of this period cannot trust
the nomenclature of the early scribes, nor of many
later writers, such as Warton, Collier, or even
Ward, but must slowly and laboriously collect his
own data, make his own classifications, and
formulate his own definitions as his conception of
medieval life becomes clearer.
" Corpus Christi Plays." It was for this
reason, on account of the unscientific tendency of
the medievalists to use terms inexactly and inac-
curately, that the name, Corpus Christi, came to be
so all-inclusive as it did. For example, at Lincoln
the annual pageants were given on St, Anne's day,
July 26, yet they are called Corpus Christi plays;
and at Chester and Norwich they were produced at
Whitsuntide as well as during Corpus Christi week,
and yet were always known as Corpus Christi.
This application of the term " Corpus Christi
plays " to plays produced on other occasions seems
to have been due to the fact that the pageants were
INTRODUCTORY 9
originally given during Corpus Christi week. Be-
cause of the conflict between the holiday and the
spiritual elements in the festival, however, the
plays had to be transferred from Corpus Christi
week to other dates, where, in spite of the change
of time for representation, they still retained their
original name. That this is the most probable ex-
planation may be inferred from the contest which
went on at York in 1426 when Friar William
Melton " recommended the Corpus Xpi play to the
people, afliirming that it was good in itself and
highly praiseworthy; yet he said that the citizens
and others, strangers visiting the city at the festival
not for the play alone, joined in revellings,
drunkenness, clamour, singing, and other impro-
prieties, little regarding the divine offices of the
day; and it was to be lamented that they conse-
quently lost the benefit of the indulgences gra-
ciously conceded by Pope Urban IV. to those who
duly attended the religious services appointed by
the canons : and therefore to the said Friar William
it seemed profitable, and to this he persuaded the
people of the city, that the play should be on one
day and the procession on another, so that the
people might attend divine service at the churches
and receive the benefit of the promised indul-
gences." ^ And as a result of the Friar's exhorta-
tions the plays were presented on Wednesday, the
vigil of the feast, while the procession was kept
2 Davics, York Records, p. 243.
10 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
for the festival itself. It was a similar move, too,
apparently, which was made later at Chester some-
time between 1471 and 1520, when the pageants
were changed from Corpus Christi to Whitsun
week and yet continued to be known by their old
name. Hence it seems fair to say that there were
no material differences among these religious pro-
cessional plays at any of the midsummer festivals ;
and for this reason references for methods of pre-
sentation will be made in this volume alike to
biblical cyclical plays at Whitsuntide, in Corpus
Christi week, on St. Anne's day, or during any of
the regular midsummer festival seasons.
The Corpus Christi Procession. The most
splendid of all the church celebrations in England
was the Corpus Christi festival, which was insti-
tuted by Pope Urban IV in 1264 in honor of the
transubstantiated sacrament of the eucharist. Its
origin, we are told, was in an alleged vision of a
Flemish nun, Juliana, of the city of Liege. The
first Thursday after Trinity Sunday was appointed
for the day of the feast by Pope Urban, but his
death the same year caused the bull to remain in-
operative until the time of Pope Clement V, when
the festival was finally established at the Council of
Vienna as a time of universal celebration. St.
Thomas Aquinas was appointed to draw up the
holy office, which consisted of hymns, antiphons,
etc. taken from the symbolical parts of the Old
Testament. The leading feature of the service was
INTRODUCTORY 11
the great procession in imitation of the solemn
march of the ark under the ancient law. In this
the priests and the people ceremoniously joined
with torches, banners, and music, and in all their
holiday regalia, to escort the host through the
streets of the city and to beseech God " that he
would please to make all the Congregation present
taste efficaciously the Fruits of our Saviour's Re-
surrection, of whose Passion this Sacrament is a
Commemoration ".^
Growth of the Festival. Of the growth and
spread of the Corpus Christi^east on the continent
and in England we have very little authentic in-
formation./ It is not even known when the proces-
sion was first introduced into England.' Thomas
Sprott in his Chronicles records that the festival
was a confirmed institution by the year t3J§» ^^^
it may be that during the interval between 13 ii and
13 18 it had been carried from Rome to other parts
of the Christian world, although of this we have no
authentic record. The earliest mention of the pro-
cession in England which the present writer has
been able to find is in 1325, in a copy of the Guild
charter of Ipswich, still extant in the local Domes-
day Book. < Other dates, more uncertain, can be
judged only approximately from the foundation of
the Corpus Christi guilds in the various towns,
1327 at London, 1348 at Coventry, 1408 at York,
etc. And even then our conclusions are necessa-
^ Picart, Ceremonies and Religious Customs, ii. 43.
12 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
rily little more than inferences, especially in the
case of the later Corpus Christi guilds, which seem
to have been founded to preserve the splendor of
the event after popular interest had turned from
the procession to the plays.
Plays at Corpus Christi. Likewise the same
lack of information exists in regard to the union
of the pageants and the procession. It is not
known when the great cycles of religious plays
came to center around Corpus Christi day in Eng-
land, though they would seem to have got there
within a short time after the procession reached
England. The earliest report of Corpus Christi
plays in any town in England ascribes them to
Chester in 1327. This report, however, cannot be
wholly relied upon. In the first place, it is based
entirely upon tradition. And in the second, it is
first found in a document dated 1544, headed " The
proclamation for the Plaies, newly made by Wil-
liam Newhall, clarke of the Pentice, the first yere of
his entre".^ In this proclamation Newhall states
that there were certain " diverse stories of the bible,
begynnyng with the creacon and fall of Lucifer,
and [ending with the general] jugement of the
World " which were devised into a play by a Sir
" Henry Fraunces, somtyme monk of this dissolved
monastery, who obtayned and gate of Clement,
then beyng [bushop of Rome, a thousand] daies of
pardon, and of the Busshop of Chester at that
time, beyng xlti daies of pardon graunted from
INTRODUCTORY 13
thensforth to every person resortyng in pecible
maner with good devocon to here and se the sayd
[plaies] from tyme to tyme as oft as they shalbe
plaied within this Citie [and that every person dis-
turbing the same plaies in any manner wise to he
accursed by thauctoritie of the said Pope Clement
bulls unto such tyme as he or they be absolved ther-
of {erased)] y which plaies were devised to the hon-
our of God by John Arneway, then maire of this
Citie of Chester, and his brethren, and hoU comin-
alty therof to be brought forthe, declared and plead
at the costs and charges of the craftsmen and occu-
pacons of the said Citie, whiche hitherunto have
frome tyme to tyme used and performed the same
accordingly." * This is the first mention of the
tradition at Chester, though it is repeated from
time to time during the fifteenth, sixteenth, and
seventeenth centuries. And Chambers in his
Mediaeval Stage ^ has shown a considerable degree
of probability that it had a basis in fact.
Earliest Records. But with the exception of
this early fourteenth century tradition of plays at
Chester, it^is only after scores of years, in some
cases hundreds, that one is able to find authentic
record of actual Corpus Christi plays in English
towns. The first authentic reference to plays is in
* Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor
Reigns, pp. 317-18. In other documents of the same and
later dates these plays are definitely called Corpus Christi
plays. Cf. Chambers, ii. 349 ff»
« ii. pp. 348-52.
14 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
1377 at Beverley, where in 1390 they were again
spoken of as an " ancient custom ", when the order
for the crafts to produce their pageants at Corpus
Christi was entered in the Great Guild Book.
York comes next with its first record of the plays
in 1378, when the bakers were fined and a part of
their payment given a la pagine des ditz Pestours
de cor pore cristi. Then come in the order of their
earliest extant records: Coventry, 1392; New-
castle-on-Tyne, 1426-7 ; Salisbury, 1461 ; Chester,
1462; Worcester, 1467; Lincoln, 1471-2; Canter-
bury, 1491 ; Ipswich, 1504; and so on.
Popularity of the Plays. Thus something
may be seen of the fragmentary nature of our
records of the Corpus Christi stage and of the great
difficulty in the way of any connected account of
the plays. Yet, fortunately, in the midst of such
meagre bits of information, the student has as his
aid in gaining a clearer conception of these pageants
the fact that the Corpus Christi plays were popular
for so long and that these bits of existing informa-
tion, fragmentary and disconnected though they be,
are still numerous enough to furnish a compara-
tively adequate view of the plays as a whole. Had
the plays been less favored among the people of
that day we should doubtlessly have been more in
the dark than we are now; but that they were
immensely popular among all classes is attested by
the personnel of the audiences present and by the
more than two hundred years of favored patronage
which they received from the English people.
INTRODUCTORY 15
Yet, rather oddly, the records that have come
down to us do not point with any degree of cer-
tainty to more than about twenty-five towns in
which plays of the Corpus Christi type were cer-
tainly presented. And in all of these where the
texts of the plays have come down to us it has been
shown that the cycles were more or less intimately
connected with each other. For instance, a high
degree of probability has been shown that the Ches-
ter Abraham and Isaac was derived from the same
source as the play of that name in the Brome MS.®
It is certain that they are connected. Likewise it
has been proved that the Chester plays were in-
fluenced by the York cycle,^ which also furnished
some four or five plays to the Towneley series.
And the Coventry pageants have been shown to be
closely connected with those of York, Chester, and
Towneley. And in the same way it may be sup-
posed that similar influences and connections could
be established among the remaining craft cycles if
the plays of Beverley, of Ipswich, of Lincoln, Perth,
Pontefract, Preston, Worcester, and the other
towns were extant. Thus it seems that the Corpus
Christi plays did not have so much a widespread
vogue as an immense popularity and patronage in
• Pollard, English Miracle Plays, Moralities and Inter-
ludes, pp. 184-5; Hohlfeld in Modern Language Notes, v.
222-38. Professor Manly holds that the Brome play was
derived from the Chester pageant.
7 Hohlfeld in Anglic, xi. 260 ff.; Davidson, Studies in the
English Mystery Plays, 130 ff.
16 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
the comparatively small number of towns where
they were presented.
Religious Purposes. The popularity and the
persistence of the Corpus Christi plays in England
was due largely to the fact that they were a direct
exponent of the thought, feeling, and religious atti-
tude of the times ; and their purpose, though often
perhaps not unmingled with definite economic ex-
pectations, was always a serious religious one. The
cutlers and braziers of Beverley, for instance, un-
dertook their pageant in 1475 " ^^ honour of God
the Father Almighty, and the most glorious Virgin
Mary, and to the honour of the glorious confessor
St. John of Beverley, and All Saints ". Even the
fraternities of laboring men claimed to base their
unions " in the honor of the blyssed Trinitie and of
the Feaste of Corporis Christi and of the blyssed
and holy confessor Saynt John of Beverley and of
all saynts in heven ". And because the day was so
sacred and the plays so much to the advancement
of Christian living, therefore in 141 1 the Keepers
of the same town enacted " that every yerr for-
ever . . . the pageant of the play of Corpus Christi
which they were accustomed to play" should be
given. Beverley, too, was not at all by itself; its
neighbor towns throughout England were equally
serious.
Commercial Profit. Such was the early atti-
tude of the towns and their citizens toward the
plays. But little by little as the years went by the
INTRODUCTORY 17
production of the pageants came to be urged more
and more for the sake of personal amusement and
the individual commercial profit of the fortunate
cities that possessed plays. Hence we are not sur-
prised to find the mercers' guild at Shrewsbury
imposing a fine of I2d. on any of their brethren
who might '* happen to ride or goe to Coventre
Faire or elleswhere out of the town of Shrewes-
burye to by or sell".® Other towns were recogniz-
ing the advantages of the pageants from a busi-
ness standpoint. Sir William Dugdale, too, writes
in his History of Warwickshire that he was ' told
by some old people, who in their younger years
were eye-witnesses of these Pageants so acted,
that the yearly confluence of people to see that
shew was extraordinary great, and yielded no
small advantage to this City [Coventry]'.® Hence
by the latter half of the fifteenth century we are
not surprised to find the plays at Worcester given
" to the worshippe of god and profite and encrese
of the seid cite, and also alle the Craftis that ben
contributory to the same ", where the " profite and
encrese of the seid cite, and also alle the Craftis "
is emphasized much more emphatically than " the
worshippe of god ". This was the later attitude,
and in it may be found in great measure the cause
of the ultimate decay of the plays. The religious
interest of the people had changed and the whole
^Transactions of the Shropshire Arch. Soc, viii. 273;
Chambers, Mediaeval Stage, ii. 395.
8 Quoted in Sharp, Coventry Mysteries, p. 5.
18 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
matter of expense for the pageants was on " the
poor commoners ", who, as the mayor of Coventry
wrote to Thomas Cromwell in 1539, "were at
such expense with their plays and pageants that
they fared the worse all the year after ".^* But
more of this part of the subject later.
10 Chambers, Mediaeval Stage, ii. 358.
II
PREPARATION FOR THE PAGEANTS
Introductory. For about two hundred years
after 1325 the Corpus Christi festival was perhaps
the greatest pubHc feast day in England. To those
towns which were fortunate enough to have plays
people flocked from all the neighboring villages,
even from far distant cities. And the day was
passed with more or less pleasure, religion, and
rioting in all the exuberant splendor of a medieval
holiday.
Pageant Control by Religious Guilds. But
for those who had the entertainment of so many
visitors the day was not filled with such unalloyed
enjoyment; for the whole procession and all the
pageants had to be arranged and planned months
in advance. In arranging for the festival the gen-
eral rule was for the religious guilds to take charge
of the church procession alone and the trades crafts
to look after the plays. But such was not always
the case by any means. On the contrary, we find
" a play sett forth by the clergye " advertised in the
19
20 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
banes to the Chester plays, and we hear of scenes
being added to the regular cycles by the clergy and
other minor officials of the parish churches of
Beverley, Bungay, and Salisbury; while at Ip-
swich and Lincoln, and Norwich in its early days,
the whole affair of both the procession and the
pageants was entrusted to the oversight of the relig-
ious guilds. At Ipswich, however, the Guild of
Corpus Christi, which produced the pageants there,
was really a reorganization of the old Guild Mer-
chant, which included all the burgesses of the town
;/ and thus was practically identical with the town
/ corporation. The same might also be said of the
St. Anne's Guild at Lincoln under the supervision
of which the plays were produced ; for there, too, as
at Ipswich, it was "agreed [in 1519] that every
man and woman in the city, being able, shall be
brother and sister in St. Anne's gild, a!\nd pay yearly
\j 4c?., man and wife, at the least ",^ thus making the
guild almost the same as the town corporation.
Control of the Procession by Religious Guilds.
• The usual thing, however, was for some leading
religious guild to take charge of the procession and
to exercise only supervisory control over the sub-
ject matter of the plays. At Beverley and other
places it was the Corpus Christi Guild ; at Coventry
it was the Trinity Guild; at Norwich, St. Luke's;
and at Canterbury, St. Dunstan's. At Beverley,
Coventry, York, and probably in the other towns,
1 Hist. MSS Comm., xiv. App. 8, p. 27.
PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 21
the Corpus Christi guilds were dedicated especially
" to the praise and honour of the most sacred body
of our Lord Jesus Christ ", in other words, to the
proper observance of Corpus Christi day, and the
members " were bound to keep a solempne proces-
sion, the sacrament being in a shryne borne in the
same through the city yerely the Fryday after
Corpus Christi day, and the day after to have a
solempne mass and dirige ".^ In these cities, as
elsewhere, the office of the guilds was to arrange
for the procession, get men to march in it, prepare
the surplices and the decorations, and make all nec-
essary arrangements for the proper celebration of
the feast.'; Such guilds came in time to be power-
ful factors in the civic government of their towns.
We hear of their owning and renting lands, of their
lending money to the lords of the realm, and of
their guild-masters even marching " with the Mair
for the tyme Being yn all maner of Goynges ".
Trades Guilds. When the procession was
supervised by the religious guilds — and this was
by far the more common, in fact, the almost uni-
versal rule, — the presentation of the plays was en-
trusted, under certain conditions, to the trades
guilds, whose chief marks of separate and in-
dividual existence as guilds seem, sometimes at
least, to have been only the individual candle in the
church, a stated position in the procession, and a
separate pageant in the play-cycle. The following
3C)avies, York Records, p. 245. Cf. Smith, English
Gilds, pp. 154 and 232.
22 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
is a concrete example from the corporation MSS
of Beverley:
Of the orders and statutes of the craft of Drapers
newly founded by the consent and request of the said
Drapers, and grant and license of Adam Newcombe [etc.]
the twelve keepers or governors of the town of Bever-
ley, with the consent and assent of all the aldermen of
the same town, present in the Gild Hall on S. Mark the
Evangelist's day (25th April), A. D. 1493, the under-
written statutes and orders were ordered to be registered
and for ever observed, in form following.
First, that there shall be of the same Drapers a brother-
hood for the maintenance of a wooden castle to be erected
on Mondays in Rogation week yearly for ever next the
castle of the Mercers, when the venerable procession with
the shrine of the most holy confessor of Christ, John,
shall be borne to the chapel of the Blessed Mary the
Virgin. . . . And that every master of the aforesaid
craft shall sit in his best clothes and apparel in the same
castle on the coming of the procession aforesaid. . . .
And in the afternoon every brother in the same clothing
and apparel shall on the said Monday ride with his
brethren, as the custom is, next to the Mercers, under the
penalty aforesaid.
Also the said Drapers shall maintain and find among
them a candle of wax before the image of S. Michael the
Archangel in the church or chapel of the Blessed Mary
the Virgin burning on Sundays and other feast-days
throughout the year.
Moreover that the said Drapers shall play or cause to
be played on the feast of Corpus Christi a play called
'Dooming Pilate*, every year when the community of
Beverley consent on S. Mark's day that the plays should
be played, under the penalty therefor specified in the com-
mon register, viz. 40S.3
8 Leach, Beverley Town Documents, p. 99.
PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 23
At other places than Beverley the question of the
plays was not made so prominent, but in the towns
where plays were presented they always had their
weight. And as the separate light, pageant, etc,
was the distinguishing mark of independent guild-
ship, so the condition of membership in a craft,
even of citizenship in the town, came to be a will-
ingness to wear the required livery and to con-
tribute toward the pageant and other expenses. It
is on this basis at Beverley in 1493 that we find it
" ordande and statute that no Gentilman, yeoman
ne craftsman of the towne of Beverley be takyn to
worshyp of the towne: bott allonely that berys
charge of clothyng, castell and pageaunte within
the sayde towne ".*
Contributory Pageants. But, on account of
the heavy expense of the peageant, not all the
guilds were able to produce a separate scene. In
such cases a weaker craft became affiliated with,
or contributory, or assistant, to a stronger one and
paid annually toward the production of the other
craft's plays. Sometimes the poorer company paid
a definite, stipulated, annual amount toward the
other's pageant, as at Coventry, where the butchers
paid annually " xvjj". viijc?."" toward the whittawer's
pageant, and the cappers and fullers " xiij^. iiij^."
toward the girdlers' " priste & pageant ".^ At
other times each member of the contributory craft
* Hist. MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, p. 49.
^ Coventry Leet Book, pp. 559, 565.
24 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
paid a fixed amount, as for instance at York in
15 1 7, when " it was agreed that for a peace to be
hade betwixt the Skynners and the vestment mak-
ers that from hensforth the vestment-makers shall
pay yerly to the bryngyng furth of the Skynners
pageant, euery maister viij^Z. & euery jenaman
injd., & no more, to be paide wt oute denye, yerly,
to the chamberlayne handes affore the fest of Wit-
sonday, and then the skynners to resceyue it atte
chamberlayne handes, and they not to be charged
wt the repparacons of there pageant ".* At other
times still, as with the Coventry tilers and pinners,
who were contributory to the w rights, there was
no stated amount of assessment, but all the mem-
bers were " to pay & here jerely after theire por-
cion as other wrightes doo towardes pe charge of
their pageant "J
Responsibility for the Pageants. In such
cases as these the responsibility for the pageant
seems to have been sometimes removed from the
associate guild or guilds and to have devolved en-
tirely on the independent craft, which alone stood
charged with the play. —
1547.— It is also enacted that the Cowpers of this Citie
shall frome hensfurth be associat wt the Tilers & pynners
and here suche charges as thei have doon in tymes past
And that the Cowpers shalbe the hedd & cheffest of theim
& stand charged wt the pagyaunt.^
« Smith, York Plays, Introd., p. xl.
^ Coventry Leet Book, p. 564.
* Sharp, Coventry Mysteries, p. il.
PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 25
At other times, however, there seems to have
been no direct responsibility on any one craft, but,
rather, they all alike, under the leadership of their
masters, undertook the charge. —
It alsoe appearinge to us that they [the painters and
glaziers] have beene tyme out of minde one brotherhood
for the costs and expenses of the plaie of the Shepperds
Wach with the Angells hyme.®
12 Henry VIII. [1520] *the Stuards of the Founders
and Pewters agree with the Stewards of the Smiths to
here and draw the Whitson Playe and Corpus Christi',
&C.10
Attitude toward the Plays. Such equality of
responsibility, however, was the exception rather
than the rule, and we find the minor crafts con-
tinually chafing under the compulsory assessments
for the plays of other companies. In fact, in the
early days of the pageants it seems to have been
the aim of every guild, if possible, to have its own
livery, produce its own play, and put itself on an
equality with the other crafts.f—
Also it is desyryd by the Drapers that thai shall be in
clothyng by thame selfe; And to have a castell and a
pageante as other occupacyons hafe. Such a pageante as
the xii Governers wyll assigne thame to, upon payne of
forfettour to the comynalte of xU.i^
^ Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor
Reigns, p. 316.
'^^Ibid., p. 317.
i^//«/. MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, p. 49.
26 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
From this it must not be inferred that the pro-
duction of a play was always a pleasure and that
the companies were continually vying with each
other in their zeal to obtain possession of a pageant.
This may have been the early attitude, but in time,
from being an honor, the presentation of a play
became a duty, later even a burden. Hence, in later
years we find numerous petitions, like that of the
Chester cappers in 1523, praying the city council
" to exonerate and discharge theym of and for the
bringinge forthe " ^^ of their plays.
City Council. As in this case at Chester, so
in other cities the council was a necessary adjunct
in settling matters relating to the production of the
pageants. This is what might be expected too;
for from first to last the plays were necessarily a
burden on the crafts, and, especially among the
associate guilds who had no further participation
in the pageants than the payment of their annual
dues, one might expect to find certain companies
attempting to escape their full duties, thus making
some sort of board of arbitration an absolute neces-
sity. In the natural course of change, too, the
wealth and power of the different guilds was con-
tinually varying, making it impossible for a once
wealthy but now impoverished company to con-
tinue producing a play, while perhaps at the same
time a stronger brotherhood was escaping the onus
12 Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor
Reigns, pp. 316-17 «.
PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 27
of a pageant altogether. And in the matter of con-
tributions, with the constant encroachments in
trade of one guild upon another, it often became a
question of serious doubt to what guild the asso-
ciate crafts ought to be contributory. In such
cases the question was taken to the " fuUwurship-
fuU Meir " and his council, who not only decided
such matters as these, but aided in the collection of
the " pagent pencys " and exercised a general
oversight over the presentation of the plays.
Assessments. The pageant expenses, how-
ever, were almost altogether on the guilds, who be-
came responsible for the pageant-wagon, repairing,
cleaning, decorating, and strewing it with rushes,
for the payment of the actors, their costumes and
refreshments, for the play-book and the prompter
— in fact, for practically everything. These ex-
penses were met by different methods: by fines
from the members, by contributions from associate
guilds, by special levies known as " pagent pencys ",
and in various other ways. But the individual as-
sessments were never excessively high. At
Coventry a journeyman weaver paid only four
pence; at Newcastle-on-Tyne a tailor's hireling
paid threepence; and at Beverley a journeyman
smith paid twopence. A master tailor at New-
castle-on-Tyne paid seven pence; a master capper
at Beverley eight pence when there was a play and
sixpence when there was none; a master smith at
the same place four pence when there was a play;
28 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
and a master cardmaker, saddler, mason, or painter
at Coventry, twelve pence. None of these assess-
ments, it will be seen, can be considered very large
when one remembers that the wages of the average
journeyman of the time ranged from three to five
pence a day and those of the master craftsmen
from four to nine. And in the way of total annual
assessments the amount was not usually large.
The total contribution of the Coventry butchers to
the whittawers' pageant in 1495 "v^^s only 16^. Sd.,
while the cappers and fullers in the same year paid
1 3 J. 4d. to the girdlers, and the skinners and bar-
bers only 6s. Sd. to the cardmakers.^^
Pageant Expenses. The cause of such rela-
tively small assessments on the members and their
journeymen was the lessening of actual pageant ex-
penses through money from fines and other similar
sources. At Beverley, for instance, a leet was
passed in 1475-6 that every "cardcobler, cuttiler
vocatus an hawker, plomars, furbiorers, and
pewtrers qui vendunt aliqua bona infra villam per
hawkyng " should contribute 6d. to the pageant of
the cutlers and braziers.^* The bakers also light-
ened their expenses by enacting in 1547 that " every
foreigner that brings bread to Beverley to sell, shall
pay yearly to the Alderman of Bakers toward the
charges of vesture and * pageand ' of the Occupa-
tion 4d ".^^ And in some cities the companies
13 Harris, Coventry Leet Book, pp. 559, 564-5-
^^Hist. MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, p. 102.
^^Ibid., p. 88.
PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 29
got help from their brother guilds in neighboring
towns, as at Coventry, where the tilers in 1501 re-
ceived a contribution of 5^. from the Stoke tilers.
Collection of Fines. The method of collect-
ing these duties and assessments was by the ap-
pointment of a special warden or pageant-master,
as at York, who collected all pageant dues. And
if he failed, then the matter became one for the
ruling of the town council. This council, too,
seems to have been severe in its methods of collec-
tions; for at Chester in 1575 we find an entry that
" Whereas Andrew Tailer of the saide citie tailer
usinge the occupation of Diers within the same
citie was taxed & sessed to beare with the com-
pany of Dyers by the same company for the
charges in the setting furth of their parte & pagent
of the plaies set furth & plaied in this citie at Mid-
somer last past comonly called Whytson plaies &
by the saide company rated & appointed to paie for
that entent iiis. viiid. which he refused to paie and
whereas upon the complainte of the saide compeny
of Diers against the saide Andrew to the right
worshipfull Sir John Savage knight late maior of
the same citie in the tyme of his mairalty wher-
upon the same Andrew beinge called before the
same then maior in that behalf denied to paie the
same & therefore the said Andrew Tailler was then
and ther by the said then maior comytted to warde
where he hetherunto hath remayned ".^®
16 Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor
Reigns, pp. 304-5 w.
30 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
And in the same way that the town council held
the members responsible for their assessments, so
it held the pageant-master for his play, or the craft
through the pageant-master. In 1392, for instance,
a penalty of 40s. was assessed the Beverley smiths
for their failure to present their play of the Ascen-
sion on Corpus Christi day ; but " because they
acted obediently, therefore the 40s. were re-deliv-
ered ".^^ At Coventry in 1460 the fine was higher,
it being " ordeyned pat euery Craft pat hath pagant
to pley In, that pe pagant be made redy & brought
furth to pley, vppon pe peyn of Cs. to be reased of
iiij maistirs of the Craftes pat so offend ".^^
Expenses on the Corporation. The notable
thing about these regulations for the plays is
that, although the production of the pageants was
required by the city councilmen, yet the expenses
as a rule were almost altogether on the crafts.
Exceptions, it is true, are to be found here and
there, but many of them on close examination will
be found to be seeming rather than real. For in-
stance, one would judge on first thought that the
Beverley corporation must have been at considerable
expense in purchasing pageants and stage properties
for their Corpus Christi plays; for we hear of a
certain John of Erghes, " hayrer ", coming before
the Twelve Keepers of the town of Beverley in
1391 and undertaking " for himself and his fellows
1^ Hist. MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, p. 66.
18 Coventry Leet Book, ii. 312.
PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 31
of the same craft to play a certain play called Para-
dise sufficiently, viz., every year on the Feast of
Corpus Christi when other craftsmen of the same
town play, during the life of the said John of
Erghes, at his own cost, willing and granting that
he will pay to the community of the town for every
default in the play aforesaid los., Nicholas Fau-
coner being his surety. And he also undertook to
re-deliver to the twelve Keepers of the town for
the time being, at the end of his life, all necessaries
which he has belonging to the said play under
penality of 20s., viz., one car (' karre '), eight hasps
(* hespis '), eighteen staples (' stapils '), two visors
('visers'), two angels' wings (* winges angeli'),
one pine pole (* fir sparr'), one serpent
(* worme '), two pairs of linen boots, two pairs of
shirts, one sword ".^® One might surmise from
this unique entry that the Beverley corporation had
at some time experienced real sorrow for the crafts-
men and had allowed itself during its moment of
grief to purchase the necessary properties for the
plays ; but later laws of the same town make it seem
far more probable that the pageant and costumes
lent to John of Erghes were once the property of
some poor craft that had been compelled on ac-
count of poverty to surrender its play and to buy
release with its pageant-car and costumes. And in
the same way many other expenses apparently
borne by the corporation in the production of the
^^Hist. MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, p. 66.
32 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
plays may be shown to be seeming rather than real.
Expense of Entertainment. In general, there-
fore, it may be said that the crafts produced the
plays at the will of the councilmen, but at their
own expense, and that the mayor and his men en-
tertained at the expense of the city treasury any
notable visitors who might come to the festival.
For example, at York in 1478 we have a record of
the mayor and aldermen at Corpus Christi. The
details are enumerated as follows :
Expenses at the Feast of Corpus Christi.
And in expenses incurred this year by the mayor, alder-
men, and many others of the council of the chamber at
the Feast of Corpus Christi, seeing and directing the play
in the house of Nicholas Bewyk, according to custom, to-
gether with 40s, 4d. paid for red and white wine, given
and sent to knights, ladies, gentlemen, and nobles then
being within the city; and also gs, paid for the rent of the
chamber, and 3^. 4d. paid to one preaching and delivering
a sermon on the morrow of the said feast, in the cathedral
church of St. Peter of York, after the celebration of the
procession, according to the like custom, £4 iSs. iid.^°
At Coventry in 1457, too, we note that, " On
Corporis Christi yeven at nyght then next suying
came the quene ff-om kelyngworth to Coventre; at
which tyme she wold not be met, but came preuely
to se the play there on the morowe ; ... At which
tyme the Meyre and his brethern send vnto her a
present which was sich as here suyth : That is to
wit, ccc paynemaynes, a pipe of Rede wyne, a
20 Davies, York Records, pp. 75 and 77'
PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 33
dosyn Capons of haut grece, a dosyn of grete fat
Pykes, a grete panyer full of Pescodes and another
panyer full of pipyns and Orynges and ij Cofyns
of Counfetys and a pot of grene Gynger ".^^ And
at Chester in 1575 ** it was ordered, concluded, &
agried upon by the maior, aldermen, sheriffs and
common counsell of the saide city that the plays
commonly called the Whitson plays at Mydsomer
nexte cominge shall be sett furth & plaied in such
orderly manner & sorte as the same have been ac-
customed, with suche correction and amendemente
as shall be thaught conveniente by the saide maior,
& all charges of the saide plays to be supported &
borne by thinhabitaunts of the saide citie as have
been heretofore used ^'P So, on the whole, it
may be safely said that the city authorities, as such,
were at comparatively small expense with the plays,
their chief office being to exercise a general super-
visory control over the pageants as performed by
the guilds.
; In the way of supervision one of the first things
the council had to decide by way of preparation for
the festival was whether the plays were to be pro-
duced at all and what scenes, if any assignments
different from last year were to be made, were to
be given to the different crafts. In most of the
'towns during the fourteenth and fifteenth cen-
turies the pageants were an annual event, but in
21 Coventry Leet Book, ii. 300.
22 Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor
Reigns, p. 321.
rs^
34 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
some places, as at Beverley and Worcester, their
presentation was a subject for annual decision.
At Beverley the plays were regularly voted upon
on St. Mark's day ; at Worcester the council had
a leet " that yerly, at the lawday holdyn at hok-
day, that the grete enquest shalle provide and
ordeyn wheper the pageant shuld go that yere or
no. And so yerly for more surete ".^^
A k Assignment of the Plays. When or how often
' "'the individual scenes were assigned to the crafts
if is not known ; nor do we know certainly what the
basis of such assignments was. Some attempt
seems to have been made to adapt the character of
the scene to be performed to the vocation of the
company by which it was acted, — what Chambers
has aptly termed " dramatic appropriateness ". It
cannot be taken as a matter of mere accident, for
instance, that the bakers at Beverley, Chester, and
York were assigned the play of the Last Supper,
that the cooks at Beverley and Chester should have
the Harrowing of Hell, that the watermen at
Beverley and Chester, the shipwrights at York and
Newcastle-on-Tyne, and the fishers and mariners at
York should produce the plays dealing with Noah,
nor that the goldsmiths at Beverley, York, and
Newcastle-on-Tyne should furnish the play of the
Magi. This adaptation of pageant scene to the
trade of the guild, although frequent, could not ot
course be carried out in every case. The reasons
23 Smith. English Gilds, p. 385.
PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 35
for such assignments do not seem to have been al-
together sentimental, but because the practice of a
trade by a craft frequently enabled the members to
act more effectively in certain plays. For example,
the shipwrights would know how to handle the ark
better, more quickly, and more easily than any other
guild; the bakers could furnish the food for the
Last Supper; and the goldsmiths, the jewels and the
ornaments for the Magi.
Patron Saint. j^At other times, however, the
reason for the assignment seems to have been very
different and, at the same time, more reasonable.
This was when the companies were assigned plays
in which their patron saints held a prominent part.
At Beverley, for example, the barbers, whose
candle burnt in St. Mary's Church before the image
of St. John the Baptist, agreed ** that they play or
cause to be played a pageant of the aforesaid S.
John baptising Christ in the Jordan " ; ^^ and the
tanners, whose " Searge " burnt before the image
of Christ on the cross in the high altar of St.
Mary's chapel, played the Takinge of the Crose.
At Coventry also the mercers, whose fraternity was
" in honour of the Assumption " produced the As-
sumption and Appearance of Mary to Thomas,^^
and at Lincoln and Beverley the " Prestes " chose
for their scene " to be played and shown in the pro-
^
2* Leach, Beverley Town Documents, p. 109.
25 Craig, Two Coventry Corpus Christi Plays, Introd.,
pp. xvi-xvii.
36 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
cession to be made by the citizens " the Coronacion
of Our Lady.
Variations in the Assignments. Such seem to
have been the principles which governed the assign-
ment of plays, which, of course, met with many
variations from time to time. The assignment of
more than one pageant to a craft was such a varia-
tion, but one which was made occasionally and
which seems to have been made on the basis of
wealth. At Beverley in 141 1 the bowers and
fletchers presented both the " Fleyng into Egip "
and the " Habraham and Isaak " ; ^^ the merchants
at the same place produced both Blak Herod and
Domesday in 1520; and in 1454 the guild of the
bricklayers and plasterers at Newcastle-on-Tyne
furnished the Creation of Adam and the Flight into
Egypt plays.^^ Other examples of variation in
the regular principle of assignments are to be found
in the play by " the colliges and prestys " at Bever-
ley on "Corpus Xri day", 1544, and the pageant
of the Assumption furnished by the " worshipfuU
wyves " of Chester in 1477. Likewise, plays by
friars, minor clerks, and religious guilds are not
infrequently mentioned; but the unique honor of
having a play promoted by " reverend persons of
the worthier sort " was reserved for Beverley. In
this case it seems that certain well-to-do men of
the city had been accustomed to escape the burdens
28 Hist. MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, p. 99-
27 Waterhouse, Non-Cycle Mystery Plays, pp. xxxix-xl.
PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 37
of a pageant at Corpus Christi tide; whereupon
** moderate dealing was held with William Rolles-
ton, merchant, Nicholas of Ryse, Adam Tirwitt,
John of Holme, William Wilton, Adam Barker,
and other reverend persons of the worthier sort not
having liveries yearly like others of the rest of the
crafts, and not taking part in plays otherwise, that
the said worthies, though they had not before done
so, should on Corpus Christi day erect a pageant,
and support it at their own cost, and cause a play to
be played honourably and fittingly". The result
was that the " twelve Keepers " got together and
** rendered their judgment in this form: That the
aforesaid worthies toward the Feast of Corpus
Christi next following the present year should, by
means of four of them and under the supervision
of the twelve Keepers of the community for the
time being, at their own cost and charges cause to
be made an honest and honourable pageant, and an
honest play to be played in the same, under penalty
of 40s. to be levied from the same worthies to the
use of the community aforesaid ".^®
"The Originalle Booke." Besides looking
after any possible changes in the regular assign-
ment of plays, an additional duty of the council
was the choice of the text of the originalle booke,
the regenall, rygynall, oragynaU, registrum, or
Corpus Christi play-book by whatever name it
might be called ; for, besides allotting the scenes to
28 Hist. MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, p. 67.
38 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
each guild, the aldermen must know what was to
be spoken therein. At Beverley this decision was
made on St. Mark's day (April 25 )2® and at
Coventry probably sometime in the early part of
March ; for on the second of the month we find the
reviser of the two extant Coventry plays writing:
" Tys matter nevly translate be Robert Croo in the
yere of oure Lorde God MV^xxxiiij^® then beyng
meyre Mastur Palmar beddar and Rychard Smythe
an [Herre] Pyxley masturs of the Weywars thys
boke yendide the seycond day of Marche in yere
above seyde ".^^ A new selection of course was
not made every year, since the same list of plays
and the same material would often serve for several
years, possibly for scores of years. Yet changes
in, and hence new selections for, the " originalle
booke " were often a necessity, since this was the
register of all the plays for each town. /This book
remained always in the possession of^ the town
council for safe keeping, and to it the crafts came
to copy their individual scenes. We do not know
what the cost was of making this play-book as a
whole, but it would seem to have been high accord-
ing to the value of money in those days. The
Coventry drapers in 1572 paid ten shillings for
" wryttyng " their scene, a price which would have
made the play-book containing all the scenes
amount to £5. And a corresponding price paid
29 Leach, Beverley Town Documents, p. 99.
30 Sharp, Weaver's Pageant of the Presentation in the
Temple, p. 85.
I
PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 39
for the forty-eight scenes of the York cycle would
have run the whole register up to £24.
The Waits. The pageants having been deter-
mined upon, the plays assigned to the various com-
panies, and the play-books copied, the next thing in
order for the council was the advertisement of the
festival. This) advertising was done by means of
the city waits, "who rode throughout the town and
published the news of the forthcoming plays. At
Beverley in 1423, for example, we find an item of
20c?. paid to " the waits of the town, on the mor-
row of Ascension Day, riding with the said proc-
lamation [the banes] of Corpus Christi through
the whole town '^SP\ And at Chester we learn that
**yarlye before these [plays] were played, there
was a man fitted for ye purpose which did ride, as
I take it vpon St George daye throughe ye Cittie
[of Chester], and there published the tyme and the
matter of ye playes in breif e, which was called * ye
readinge of the banes ' ".^^ In this case, how-
ever, the city crier served as a wait. Chambers
states ^^ that the stewards of each craft rode with
the Chester city crier, and it would seem probable
that the actors themselves sometimes went along;
for in 1 561 we find 2s. paid for " ryding the banes,
our horses and ourselves, of which Symyon was
one ".•''* In other towns than Chester from two to
^^Hist MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, p. 160.
32 Furnivall, Digby Mysteries, p. xix.
S3 Mediaeval Stage, ii. 354.
34 Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor
Reigns, p. 306 n.
40 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
four regular waits served. At York in 1461 there
were three; three at Lincoln in 1514; two at Bever-
ley in 1423, three in 1438 ; and four at Coventry in
1423. In 1439 at Coventry they even organized
themselves into a band and " ordcyned that they
Trumpet schall haue the rule off the whaytes, and
off hem be Cheffe ".^^ In consequence of this or-
ganization we hear of their wearing regular liv-
eries. Numerous entries of expenses " for the
Waits' liveries and badges " are to be found at
Beverley, Coventry, Lincoln, York, and other
cities. At Coventry in 1442 the waits were " to
have their livery on condition that they have a
trumpet, and the escutcheons (badges) on security
being found ; that is to say, they shall have a dozen
of cloth worth 20s. due to them for their livery
from the wardens, against Corpus Christi ".^® At
Lincoln in 1553 the waits were " to have their liv-
eries of red cloth as they had last year ", ^^ and at
York in 146 1-2 there is an expense of 26.?. " paid to
William Chymnay, for twelve ells of Muster-
develers [coarse velvet], bought for three minstrels
of the City ".^® Their badge of office was usually
a shield, which hung from a silver collar about the
minstrel's rieck. It was so costly that at Coventry
it was delivered to the wait only upon security, and
85 Harris, Coventry Leet Book, p. 189.
86 Ibid., p. 200.
37 Hist. MSS Comm., xiv. App. 8, p. 47-
88 Davies, York Records, p. 13.
PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 41
at Beverley was kept by the city and delivered to
the minstrel " on occasions when needed ". —
4 April, for two silver shields Cscutis*) in honour of
the community, to be yearly delivered to the waits at the
pleasure of the Keepers for the time being, under suffi-
cient sureties, the price of the shield 3iJ.«*
At Lincoln, instead of being shields, these badges
took the form of crosses and, as at most places,
were charged with the city arms.
Duties and Decorations of the Minstrels. The
number of the waits, as we have seen above, was
usually three, and their instruments were generally
a fife and a trumpet, to which a drum was often
added. Sharp gives a note of expense from the
Coventry treasurer's accounts which will serve to
give some idea of the decorations carried by the
waits on their instruments : —
1587.— D'd to Goldstone for the Trumpet the 15 of June
doble taffata sarcenet Crimson & grcene viijs Red &
grene strings w'th buttons red frenge & silke ijs jd.*o
This was in 1587, seven years after the regular
Corpus Christi plays were laid down, but it may
be taken as probably differing very slightly from an
earlier custom of appending banners resplendent
with the city arms to the trumpets of the waits as
they rode through their own and their neighbor
cities proclaiming the pageants for the next Corpus
39 Hist. MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, p. 161.
*^ Coventry Mysteries, p. 209.
42 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
Christi festival and attracting attention by means
of their fife, trumpet, and drum.
The Banes.
Lordings Royall and Reverentt
Lovelie ladies that here be lentt
Sovereigne Citizens hether am I sent
A message for to say.
I pray you all that be present
That you will here with good intent
And all your eares to be lent
Hertfull I you pray.
Our worshipfull mair of this Citie
With all his royall cominaltie
Solem pagens ordent hath he
At the fest of Whitsonday tyde.*i
Thus the crier of the Chester banes began his
proclamation on St. George's day before the
festival. This preliminary announcement of the
forthcoming pageants, known as the banes, or
banns, was cried in the market-place, in all
the principal streets of the city, and probably in
the neighboring towns. As seen from the extract
above, the banes were a versified announcement of
what the plays were to be, especially prepared and
written out by the waits before starting on their
ride. At Beverley in 1423 we have a note of 6s.
Sd. paid to " Master Thomas Bynham, Friar
*i Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor
Reigns, p. 307.
PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 43
Preacher, for making and composing the banns
(* les banes') before the Corpus Christi play pro-
claimed through the whole town, 4 May ".*^ And
other notices of payments for the banes and to the
waits for riding are to be found from time to time.
Payment of the Waits. Such were the pre-
liminary duties of the waits with reference to the
Corpus Christi plays, for which they seem to have
been well paid — so well, in fact, that the position
became a most desirable one. At Beverley they
were elected annually by the town council and were
paid twenty shillings a year for their duties,*^ but
were given a fee of ten pence each extra " on the
morrow of Ascension Day, [for] riding with the
said proclamation of Corpus Christi through the
whole town ".** At Chester also, when the city
crier delivered the proclamation of the plays, we
find extra payments made. —
1554. For ryding the banes xiiid. the City Cryer ridd.
1 561. Cost of ryding the bancs, our horses and our-
selves, of which Symyon was one, iis.
1567. For the banes id.; Gloves and drink iiiid. ; Bred
for our horses that day we rod the banes
xiid.*5
And at Coventry and York the waits were regarded
as so important that, in addition to their salary
*2 Hist. MSS Comtn., Beverley MSS, p. 160.
*^ Ibid., p. 105.
^^Ibid., p. 160.
*5 Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor
Reigns, p. 306 n.
44 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
from the city, they were voted an annual tax from
the different classes of citizens according to wealth
and rank. And in order that the waits might be
sure of collecting their legal allowance from the
townspeople it was voted at Coventry [1460] " pat
an honest man in euery ward shuld be assigned
be pe Meir to go with pe waytes to gader thier
wages quarterly etc. at the peticion of pe wates
then beyng".*^ " Allso [1423] pat thai haue of
euery hall place jd., of euery Cottage ob., euery
quarter ; & af tur per beryng bettur to be rewardyd.
And also pai orden pat thei shall haue ij men of
euery ward euery quarter to help them to gathur
per Quarterage." *^
Street Cleaning. The final preparations for
the festival were made by the council when they
" ordeyned " the cleaning of the streets and as-
signed stations where the plays were to be given. —
Whoever lives between the Bear and Smithford-brook
to pay 4d. towards clearing the river or provide a labourer
to do it before the festival.*^
Gardens beyond the walls are to be done away with be-
fore Whitsuntide or 6s. Sd. fine.*^
Every one having lands or tenements lying by the river
from Crow-mill to Gosford-gate, to cleanse it opposite his
tenement before Whitsuntide, or 20s. fine levied by the
mayor for this clearing. And the mayor to see to it that
** Harris, Coventry Leet Book, p. 307.
^"^ Ibid., p. 59.
*8 Ibid., p. 227.
*^ Ibid., p. 220,
PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 45
where the river has been encroached on by any one, that
it shall be put right.^o
It must be remembered that the Corpus Christi
celebration was the greatest public event of the
year, when thousands of people from all the neigh-
boring sections flocked into the city to see the sights
and help celebrate the day ; and the cleaning of the
streets was but one of the many numerous prepara-
tions for the coming event. Other preparations
were the decorations, the banners, the flags, and the
gay pendants.
The streittis war all hung with tapestrie.
Great was the press of peopill dwelt about.
, Station Banners. Then the evening before
tlib-pkyr were to begin the stations where the
pageants were to halt were all marked with banners
bearing the arms of the city. At York we find
among the list of " Expenses necessary " for the
year 1416 4J. " paid for a banner of Thomas Gaunt,
for the Corpus Christi play, at the inn of Henry
Watson " ; and " Margaret the sempstress " was
paid 3^. " for the repair of the banners of the
Corpus Christi play ".^^ There must have been
something like twelve of these banners; for, since
1399, the plays had been regularly given at twelve
stations, and, though the records show that the
exact playing places were changed the following
50 Harris, Coventry Leet Book, p. 227.
51 Davies, York Records, pp. 63 and 65.
46 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
year, 141 7, yet we find that they still continued to
be twelve in number. —
For the convenience of the citizens and of all strangers
coming to the said feast that all the pageants of the play
called Corpus Christi Play should . . . begin to play,
first—
At the gates of the pryory of the Holy Trinity in
Mikel-gate, next
At the door of Robert Harpham, next
At the door of the late John Gyseburn, next
At Skelder-gate-hend and North-strete-hend, next
At the end of Conyng-strete towards Castel-gate, next
At the end of Jubir-gate, next
At the door of Henry Wyman, deceased, in Conyng-
strete. then
At the Common Hall at the end of Conyng-strete,
then
At the door of Adam del Brygs, deceased, in Stayne-
gate, then
At the end of Stayn-gate at the Minster-gates, then
At the end of Girdler-gate in Peter-gate, and lastly
Upon the Pavement.^^
At York the number of stations at which the plays
were given varied between twelve and sixteen; at
Beverley in 1467 there were eight ;^^ and at
Coventry, probably ten.^* At Chester we do not
know the exact number of stations, but only that
^2 Smith, York Plays, Introd., pp. xxxii-xxxiii.
53 Chambers says, Mediaeval Stage, ii. 138, that there
were only six stations at Beverley, but in this he is mani-
festly wrong. Compare Hist. MSS Comm., Beverley MSS,
pp. 135, 143.
8* Craig, Two Coventry Corpus Christi Plays, xiii-xiv.
PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 47
the plays " first beganne at ye Abbaye gates ; &
when the firste pagiente was played at ye Abbaye
gates, then it was wheeled from thence to the pen-
tice at ye highe crosse before ye Mayor ; and before
that was donne, the seconde came, and ye firste
wente in-to the water-gate streete, and from thence
vnto ye Bridge-streete, and soe all, one after an
other, tell all ye pagiantes weare played, appoynted
for ye firste daye, and so likewise for the seconde
& the thirde daye "."
Station Renting. What the earliest reasons
were for assigning the playing stations to particular
locations is not known, but they are conjectured to
have been the places where the host in the proces-
sion halted on its journey through the streets.^®
As the plays and the procession gradually grew
apart from each other, however, the assignment of
stations in certain towns, at least at York, was
influenced by more worldly and more lucrative
motives. In 1399 at York the city council, because
of complaint from the commons of the city that
" the play and pageants of Corpus Christi day,
which put them to great cost and expense, were not
played as they ought to be, because they were ex-
hibited in too many places, to the great loss and
annoyance of the citizens, and of the strangers re-
pairing to the city on that day", determined that
there should be twelve stations; but in 1417 they
^'^ Furnivall, Digby Mysteries, p. xix.
'^^ Cf. Davidson, English Mystery Plays, p. 91 ff.
48 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
decided that * it was inconvenient, and contrary to
the profit of the city, that the play should be played
every year in the same certain places, and no
others'. It was therefore voted 'that those per-
sons should be allowed to have the play before their
houses who would pay the highest price for the
privilege, but that no favour should be shewn, the
public advantage of the whole community being
only considered '.**^ Accordingly we find ** the
mayor and commonalty" in 1478 granting for
twelve years to Henry and Thomas Dawson, pike-
mongers, a lease of * Ludum sive lusum corporis
xp'i annuatim ludendum in alt a strata de use gate
inter tenementa in tenura prefatorum Henrici et
Thome, scilicet, apud finem pontis Use ex parte
orientali '.^^ For this lease the Dawsons paid an
annual rent of twelve shillings, and no doubt were
accustomed to realize considerable profit by accom-
modating spectators for the shows. It seems, how-
ever, that not all the playing places were rented;
for we learn that no rent was ever paid for the sta-
tion before the Trinity gates, or for * the Common
Hall, a place where " my Lady Mayres and her sys-
ters [i. e. wives of the aldermen] lay ", or for the
Pavement, a public place in the midst of the city '.*^®
The Pavement plainly was exempt because it was a
public place ; " my Lady Mayres's " place was free
5^ Davies, York Records, p. 241.
^® Quoted in Davies, York Records, p. 241.
59 Smith, York Plays, Introd., p. xiL
PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 49
because it was there that the nobility and the royal
visitors of the city were entertained; and we shall
see later that the station at Trinity church was not
taxed because from old time the plays were first
viewed there and censored by the clergy.
Stations Sought. At other towns than York
we do not hear of any rental of stations on the part
of the city corporations, though we do find various
lawsuits over rooms and houses from which the
pageants might be viewed. At Chester there is a
well known record of a suit " betwene John Whit-
more, Esquier, upon thon partie and Anne Webster,
widow, tenaunt to George Ireland, Esquier, upon
thother partie for and concerning the claime righte
and title of a mansion, Rowme, or Place for the
Whydson plaies in the Brudg gate strete within the
Cyty of Chester which varyaunce hath bene here
wayed and considered by Ric. Button, Esquier,
Maior of the Cyty of Chester, and Wm. Gerrard,
Esquier, Recorder of the said Cyty, by whom it is
now ordered that forasmuche as the said Mistres
Webster and other the tenants of the said Mr. Ire-
land have had their place and mansyon in the said
place now in varyaunce in quiet sort for ii tymes
past whan the said plaies were plaied. That the
said Anne Webster in quiet sort for this presente
tyme of whydsontide during all the tyme of the said
plaies shall enjoy and have her mansyon, place, and
the said place and Rome now in varyaunce ".•"
«o Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor
Reigns, p. 304 n.
50 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
From these and other instances, as well as from
*'pe request of pe Inhabitaunts [of Coventry,
1494] dwellyng in Gosseford-strete that pe
pageantes gerely frohensfurth be sette & stande at
pe place there of olde tyme vsed [in Gosford
Street], lymyt & appoynted ", it may be judged that
the pageant stations were much sought after by
the residents of the different wards.
Appearance of the Stations. Of the actual ap-
pearance of these stations there is perhaps little to
be said, except that they were made in the ordinary
street, street-corner, or inn-yard, and that the
actual spot where the pageant-wagon was to halt
was marked, as we have seen, with a banner bear-
ing the arms of the city. An examination of the
local maps of the towns where these plays were
given shows that the places selected for the repre-
sentation of the pageants, as nearly as we can iden-
tify them now, were generally in the broadest
streets of the town. For example. Dr. Craig has
identified all the stations in Coventry ^^ as nearly
as it seems possible, and in every case they were
placed in the wide streets of the city. Gosford
Street, Jordan Well, Much Park Street out at New-
gate end, Little Park Street, — all were broad and
ample in space for the pageants and their audiences.
All the houses in the immediate neighborhood of
the pageant stations were required by law to be
decorated with flags, banners, garlands, and other
«i Two Coventry Corpus Christi Plays, pp. xiii-xiv.
PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 51
holiday regalia, and each guild had its own scaf- O
fold on which its members and their friends sat to
watch the pla)^' These scaffolds were variously
known as stages, mansions, rooms, and castles, and
were built by the tradesmen " of tree upon Monday
in the Rogacion weeke, in the honor of Gode and
the glorious confessor Saynt John ". They were
covered and decorated " in an ornamental
fashion " ^^ like the pageant-wagons themselves,
and at Beverley in 1460 the directors of the
pageants had a separate one in which they sat " to
see and govern the pageants ".^^
Pageant-Master. Thus we have seen the
general preparations and ordinances made by the
city council in getting ready for the festival season,
— the assignment of plays and playing-places, the
proclamation of the banes, the clearing of the
streets, and the other minor duties devolving on the
mayor and aldermen. In the meantime, however,
the trades companies were equally busy ; for theirs
was the difficult and the crucial part of the cele-
bration. The organization of their activities as a ^
rule was under the general direction of the pageant-
master, or warden, or alderman of the pageant,
who was elected by the guild and was held gener-
ally responsible for the production of the plays.
Something of his duties at Coventry may be seenlfe;
from the following : '
^2 Leach, Beverley Town Documents, pp. 34-5.
®3 Leach in Furnivall Miscellany, p. 215.
52 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
These men above writen wer acordid & agreed on munday
next befor palme sonday Anno H. (6th) xxxj. [ 1453,] That
Thorn's Colclow skynner ffro this day forth shull have pe
Rewle of pe pajaunt unto pe end of xij yers next folowing
he for to find De pleyers and all t)t longeth perto all \)q
seide time save pe keper of the craft shall let bring forth
pe pajant & find Cloys pt gon abowte pe pajant and find
Russhes perto and every wytson-weke who pt be kepers of
pe crafte shall dyne wt Colclow & every mastr ley down
iiijd and Colclow shall have :jerely ffor his labor xlvjs
viijd & he to bring in to pe mastr on sonday next aftr
corps xpi day pe originall & ffech his vij nobulle;^ and
Colclow must bring in at pe latr end of pe timej all pe
garments pt longen to pe pajant as good as pey wer de-
lyvered to hym.®*
Other examples of such "play lettine" can be
traced at other towns, but the case of Colclow was
an extreme one, the more usual thing being for the
guilds to keep the management of their plays more
directly under their own control. Such a custom
was that at York where each company appointed
two " pageant-masters " whose duty it was to
collect the " pajaunt silver ", account for it and the
playing gear, and train the actors in their parts.
If they failed to produce their pageant, or if their
play was not up to the standard demanded by the
council, then both they and their company were
fined for their neglect. At Beverley we find two
shillings collected from " Richard Trollop, Alder-
man of Payntours, for that his Play of ' Lez 3
Kyngs of Colleyn * was played badly and disor-
derly, in contempt of the whole community, in the
presence of many strangers ", and I2d. from.
«* Sharp, Coventry Mysteries, p. 15.
PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 53
"Richard Gaynstang, Alderman of Talours, for
that his Play of ' Slepyng Pilate ', was badly
played, against the ordinance made in that be-
half ".««
Revision of Plays. At Coventry the pageant-
master was elected "a-pon saynt Thomas day in
Christinmas weke ", and he seems to have begun
his active duties early in the new year; for some-
time in March or April, as we have seen above, the
plays were probably determined upon by the alder-
men and turned over to the pageant-master for safe
keeping, for any necessary revisions, and for copy-
ing the different parts. Considerable care and ef-
fort too, even rivalry, seem to have been spent in
the rewriting and revising of old scenes for the
coming pageants. At Chester in 1575 we find a
record of iSd. " spent at Tyer to heare 2 playes
before the Aldermen to take the best".^^ And
when available plays and writers were not to be
had at home, the councilmen went outside their
town and got what they wanted. Consequently we
find among the " Common Expenses " at Beverley
in 1520 a note of " ys. spent by the 12 Governors
being with Sir William Pyers, poet, at Edmund
Metcalff's house to make an agreement with him
for transposing [* transposicione '] the Corpus
Christi Play ", and " 3^. 4d. given to the said Wil-
liam Pyers for his expenses and labour in coming
^^Hist. MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, p. 172.
•^ Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor
Reigns, p. 305 n.
54 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
from Wresill to Beverley for the alteration of the
same ".®^
Causes of the Revisions. It is the large num-
ber of these alterations and transpositions that has
given modern students so much trouble in under-
standing the texts of the plays and the methods of
presentation. That any of the complete cycles
were ever played just as we have them to-day in
the MSS is extremely doubtful. The York spicers'
scene, for example, would seem never to have been
produced on any stage; for the sixteenth-century
marginal note in the MS, probably written when
the play-book was submitted to Dean Matthew
Hutton in 1579, says: "Doctor, this matter is
newly mayde, wherof we haue no coppy ".®® And
the marshalls', cordwainers', and the sporiers and
lorimers' plays in the same cycle were all rewritten
after the full register was compiled. Likewise, at
Chester the entire cycle seems to be a late copy of
the plays made after the pageants were at an end.
And the Towneley plays, Mr. Pollard tells us, are
the work of three separate hands covering a period
of something like a half-century. These revisions
and alterations, it may be safely said, were made
for one of four chief reasons : ( i ) because some
craft had fallen into poverty and the matter in its
play had to be incorporated with that of one of the
preceding or of the succeeding pageants, like the
<iT Hist. MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, p. 171.
«8 Smith, York Plays, p. 93 n.
PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 55
Chester drapers' Creation, Fall, and Cain's Sin or
the Towneley Conspiracy, Supper, and Arrest of
Christ, each of which seems to be a telescoping of
two plays; (2) because a new craft had been added
to the number of pageant producers since the pre-
ceding year and a separate play had to be secured
for the added company either by developing a new
scene from a former incident, such as Thomas's
vision, or by cutting off a part from one of last
year's plays, as the York goldsmiths' Coming of the
Three Kings to Herod; (3) because perhaps a
company had tired of presenting the same scene
from year to year and wished to add new material
to the play, or to substitute an entirely new scene,
like the Towneley First and Second Shepherds'
Plays, or, possibly, " the matter of pe castell of
emaus " added to the Coventry cappers' roll in
1540; and (4) because change of religious feeling
had made certain scenes unacceptable to the pub-
lic, as when in 1548 at York "certen pagyauntes
[were made] excepte, that is to say, the deyng of
our lady, the assumption of our lady, and the
coronacion of our lady ". The supervision of all
such alterations and copies of the council register
were a part of the pageant-master's preliminary
duties in each guild in getting ready for the plays
later?
Selection of the Actors. The next move of
the pageant-master, after revising the play and
copying the individual parts, was to select his actors
56 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
and begin rehearsals. At Coventry these players
were procured, some of them certainly, from their
own guilds; for in 1444 the council decreed that
" per shall no man of the said iiij Craftes [the
Cardmakers, Masons, Painters, and Sadlers] play in
no pagent on Corpus Christi day save onely in the
pagent of his own Crafte, without he have lycens
of the maiour pat shal-be for the yer '\^^' This
would argue as well, however, that the pageant-
masters were accustomed to get their men from
each other and, in fact, from all sources, — which
was true. We hear of both clerks and laymen,
professionals and amateurs being chosen for the
plays. Some doubtless were actors of exceptional
or unusual ability who had come from the neigh-
boring towns for this special festival of the year;
for we hear of London players and of at least one
from Wakefield being at York in 1446,^° and no
doubt there were other borrowings of especially
good actors from neighboring towns. The tend-
ency, however, must have been to choose local play-
ers as far as possible in order to restrict the guild
expenses to the minimum, a fact which may in a
measure account for the apology in " ye Banes or
Breif e of ye whitson playes in Chester " :
By Craftes men & meane men these Pageauntes are played
and to Commons and Contrye men acustomablye before.
If better men & finer heades now come, what canne be
saide?
«» Harris, Coventry Leet Book, i. 206.
^® Smith, York Plays, p. xxxviii.
PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 57
But of common and contrye playeres take thou the
storye.^^
Care in the Choice of Actors. The plays were
indeed given by craftsmen and common workmen
and were often necessarily crude, yet the law and
the pageant-masters were very careful about pro-
curing as competent men as possible to represent
the proper characters; the occasion was too im-
portant and too solemn a one to allow any excuses
from the players for improper or unskillful acting.
Among the expenses of the Chester smiths one
finds illustrative notices of money spent in 1567,
for instance, " for the chosinge of the little god " ;
4d. " on the Sonday morninge at hearinge of the
Docters and little God " ; and lod. " Spent at her-
inge of the players ".'^^ Likewise at Newcastle-
on-Tyne the company of fullers and dyers spent the
comparatively large sums of 10^. in 1561 " for the
rehersall of the play before ye crafft " and 3d. " to
a mynstrell yt nyght ".^^ And it was ordered at
York in 1476 with the full consent and authority of
the council " pat yerely in pe tyme of lentyn there-
shall be called afore the maire for pe tyme beyng
iiij of pe moste connyng discrete and able players
within this Citie, to serche, here, and examen all pe
plaiers and plaies and pagentes thrughoute all pe
artificers belonging to Corpus Xti Plaie. And all
suche as pay shall fynde sufiiciant in personne and
71 Furnivall, Digby Plays, p. xx.
72 Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor
Reigns, p. 305 n.
78 Brand, History of Newcastle, p. 371 n.
58 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
connyng, to pe honour of pe Citie and worship of
pe saide Craftes, for to admitte and able; and all
oper insufficiant personnes, either in connyng,
voice, or personne to discharge, ammove, and
avoide ".^* And at Chester, as an added precau-
tion against careless work, the companies must re-
hearse before " Mr. Maior " before the appointed
day of celebration ; then if after all this precaution
these actors failed in their parts, the craft that
they represented was promptly fined for the shame
which its company of players had brought upon the
town. —
Rob. Thornskew, aldermannus, tnonitus est hie xvj die
Jun. ad exponendum vjs. viijd. eo quod lusores artis Car-
pentariorum nesciehant ludutn suum die Corporis Christi
contra poenam proclamationis comtnunis campanatorisJ'^
Rehearsals. The rehearsals of the pageant-
master in 1500 were a most serious, and usually a
very thirsty, business. They were regularly and
untiringly held from two to five times before the
festival, and always a necessary accompaniment of
any properly conducted rehearsal was the eating
and drinking, with due emphasis on the latter.
Some of the general rehearsal expenses for meat
and drink are the following from the Chester
smiths' accounts:
1 561. Payed for the 1st reherse at Jo: Huntington's
house, vid; Drink in barkers after the rehearse, xviiid.;
T* Smith, York Plays, p. xxxvii.
f^Hist. MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, p. 136.
PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 59
For beaffe against the generall rehearse, vis. viiid.; 3
ould cheeses, iiiis. ; Spent in Sir Rand. Barnes chamber to
gett singers, iiid. ; Spent at Rob. Jones* at rehearse, xixd. ;
To Wm. Lutter [minstrell] at generall rehearse, iiiid. ob. ;
6 crocks of alle at general rehearse, xs. ; a crocke of small
ale and 2 gallons, xxd. ; A hoppe of wheate to the general
rehearse, iis. iiid.: Bread and cakes for general rehearse,
iis. viid. ; Wine to the said rehearse, iis. viid. ; For another
hoppe of Wheate agayne the Whyttsontidde, iis. iiid.*^^
The proportion of bread and ale was about the
same at Coventry, too, as at Chester. The
Coventry smiths' account for 1490 has the follow-
ing:
Item payd at the Second Reherse in Whyttson-
weke in brede Ale & kechyn . . . . ijs iiijd
Inprimis for drynkynge at the pagent in hav-
inge forthe in Wyne & ale vijd ob.
Item for ix galons of Ale xviijd
Item for a Rybbe of befe & j gose vjd
Item for kechyn to denner & sopper . . . ijs ijd
Item for a Rybbe of befe iijd
Item for a quarte of wyne ijd ob.
Item for an other quarte for heyrynge of proc-
ula is gowne ijd ob.^^
Places for the Rehearsals. The pageant-mas-
ter does not seem to have had any definitely re-
served place or hall for holding his rehearsals, but
rather to have taken his players through their parts
7® Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor
Reigns, p. 305 n.
7^ Sharp, Coventry Mysteries, p. 16.
60 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
at any place where he could most conveniently get
them together. In 1466 the Coventry smiths held
one of their rehearsals " in the parke "; in 1576 at
" sent marye hall "; in 1579 " in the palys " ; and in
1584 "in Seint Nicholas hall". In 1570 the
Coventry weavers held " ij rehersys in pe halle ",
as if referring possibly to their guild-hall. At
Chester, as we have seen above, the rehearsals ap-
pear to have been held usually at the homes of the
players themselves, though at other places as well, —
" at Jo : Huntington's house ", " in barkers ", " at
Rob. Jones' ", " under St. John's ",^« etc.
Other Duties. Nor did the pageant-master's
duties end with the selection of the actors and the
going through with the rehearsals. He must see to
procuring capable singers for his plays, to borrow-
ing or purchasing suitable costumes, to remodeling
and repainting last year's pageant-wagon, to " hav-
ing it out " and guarding it the night before the
celebration, to " horsing " it the next day, and to
various other details too numerous to mention.
These matters are of such a nature, however, that
we may best understand them by postponing the
discussion of them to the following chapters.
78 Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor
Reigns, p. 305 «.
Ill
THE CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION
Procession and Pageants. The Corpus Christi
procession, as we have seen, was first established at
the Council of Vienna in 131 1, but we have no
extant record of the time when the observance of
the day was first introduced into England. There
is the same uncertainty about the time when the
pageants and the plays first became a part of the
Corpus Christi ceremonies. /Whether the cycles of
plays grew up by themselves~'and were then trans-
ferred to Corpus Christi day and thus became more
or less attached to the procession, or whether they
developed from pageant tableaux and dumb-shows
in the annual procession, is not known,' Davies
thinks it " not improbable that the celebration of
the Corpus Christi Festival on its first mtroduction
into this country was accompanied by the exhibi-
tion of pageant plays produced^by the several com-
panies into which the tradesmen and artisans of
cities and towns were then incorporated ".^ But
(jhtve is a strong probability that the later Corpus
1 York Records, p. 229.
61
62 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
Christi cycles began in the procession as dumb-
shows designed by the clergy to impress more forc-
ibly on the people the doctrines of the church, and
that as the " bas-relief of living figures counterfeit-
ing a bas-relief of stone " became more and more
popular, the earlier Christmas, Easter, and other
biblical plays from the church were put into the
mouths of the mimetic actors, and the dramas thus
developed became the later Corpus Christi cycles^
Our records here are unfortunately scrappy, as
usual, but what evidence we have seems to bear out
this theory.
Hour for Starting the Procession. In the
early years of the Corpus Christi festival, when
the procession and the plays were all one, the cere-
monies of the day seem to have begun at an early
hour in the morning. The early beginning was
necessary to make it possible to give the whole pro-
gram in one day, even though a long midsummer
one. What the exact hour was in the earliest years
of the procession we do not know ; but at York in
1415 it was "at the mydhowre betwix iiijth and
vth of the cloke in the mornynge " ; at Coventry it
was after breakfast, whatever time that may have
been; at Lincoln in 15 18 it was at seven o'clock in
the morning; and at Newcastle-on-Tyne the time
was the same. The Newcastle ordinance of the
" Felleship of Marchaunts " in 1480 is so specific
and so exact in its requirements that it is well worth
quoting : — ^
CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION 63
The ackit of the prosescion of Corpus Christe Day.
Also it is asentit, accordit, and agreit, by the said Felle-
ship, in aflfermyng of gwd rewll to be maid and had, the
whilk hath lang tym beyn abused emanks thaym, that
wppon Corpus Christi Day yerly, in honoryng and wor-
shippyng of the solemp procession, every man of the said
Felleship beyng within the franches of this town the said
day as it shall fall, shalle apper in the Beer Marcath by
vij of clok in the mornyng, but he haff laytyng by in-
fyrmyte, other ells he af speciall licanse by the said Mais-
ter of the said Felleship, wppon payn of a fin by the de-
fauters to be paid for every syke defaute, j pond wax to
the Felleshep. Also that thair be a rowll mayd of all the
names of the same Felleship, for the said procession, and
accordyng to that rowll, callyd by the Clark, the lattast
mayd burges to go formest in procession, withoutyn any
contraryyng, wppon [oain] of forfeting wnto the Felle-
shipp, for every sik defawte, xld. Provyded always that
all those of the said Felleship that shalbe Mair, Shereff,
and aldermen, with thaire officers and servandes, than
beyng, attend wppon the holy sacramente. Provydet also,
that all those of the said Felleship that as beyn maires,
shereffs, and aldermen, in yerys by passyt, shall go prin-
cypall in the sayd solemp procession, accordyng as they
war chossen into the sayd officese.2
Attendance upon the Procession. Attention
should be called here to two things in this ordinance
from Newcastle : ( i ) that attendance upon the pro-
cession was by this time, not optional, but required ;
and (2) that the position of each man in the line
was arranged with a nice regard for precedence and
etiquette. In the earliest years of the observance
2Dendy, Newcastle Merchant Adventurers, pp. 4-5.
64 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
of the ceremony it may have been that a person's
presence in the procession was regarded as an evi-
dence of his acceptance of the dogma of transub-
stantiation ; ^ but by this time, 1480, when the
novelty of the ceremony had somewhat worn oif,
when the medieval love of splendor and show in
pageantry had somewhat dimmed the original pur-
pose of the procession, and when men had conse-
quently lost much of their pious interest in the ob-
servance of the feast, every master craftsman of
every trade was required both by guild and by town
ordinance to be present in person at the beginning
of the procession. Later, moreover, when the re-
ligious interest had still further waned and " the
spontaneous expressions of piety " had failed to
satisfy the desire for a brilliant procession, not only
the master craftsmen, but the journeymen trades-
men, and even the hirelings, were enjoined to be
present. And in the last days of the festival
strangers were admitted into the procession in
many of the towns and hirelings allowed to take
one's place, provided the proper livery was worn.
Etiquette in the Procession. In the second
place, it is to be nojted in the Newcastle ordinance
quoted above thatjjhe members of each craft were
required to march in a strict order of precedence
according to seniority, y " the lattast mayd burges
to go formest in procession". And as among the
3 Smith, English Gilds, p. Ixxxv ; Davidson, English
Mystery Plays, p. 92.
CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION 65
craftsmen, so among the guilds, the various com-
panies took rank over each other according to age.
The place of honor was that nearest the host, and
all the craftsmen were jealous in the extreme of
their places, so much so that their order had to be
solemnly regulated by the town council. Even the
aldermen, however, could not always satisfy their
brethren, if we may judge from the frequent repeti-
tions of laws regulating the order of the procession
and imposing heavy fines for failure to compl;^
A remarkable instance of this failure of the city
fathers to satisfy their fellow craftsmen is handed
down to us from York in the reign of Henry VII,
when a dispute on a point of etiquette in the pro-
cession became so serious in the town as to threaten
disastrous results. " The contending parties were
the Company of Weavers and the Company of
Cordwainers ; and the important question to be de-
cided was, whether the weavers or the cordwainers
were entitled to walk on the right hand in the
Corpus Christi procession. The quarrel com-
menced prior to the accession of Henry VII. and
was occasioned by an order of the council requiring
the cordwainers, with their fourteen torches, to go
on the weavers' left hand. The cordwainers re-
garded this as a dishonorable position, and were so
indignant at the preference shewn to the weavers,
that, rather than comply with the order, they re-
fused for several years to take any part at all in the
procession."
66 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
The authorities of the town, however, finally
realized that such a bad example as this could not
be allowed to pass unnoticed; so when the cord-
wainers were again * rebell and disobeaunt' at Cor-
pus Christi day, 1490, the town council with * Mais-
ter Tresorer of the Cathedral Church of York' as-
sembled together in solemn conference " and fully
determined that the penalty of iio incurred by the
cordwainers for their offense, should be paid, * and
all such other punyshment of person of the said
cordwainers for non-payment of the same, should
be as provided/ " The magnitude of the trouble
is shown by the fact that the council further deter-
mined to write for advice to the king, to the lord
chancellor, to the Earl of Derby, and to any others
thought necessary.
This action, however, seems only to have pro-
voked the company of cordwainers " to further re-
sistance, in which they were encouraged by a fac-
tious party in the city. A few days afterwards it
was reported to the council that Sir Thomas Grib-
thorpe, a priest, was overheard by another priest to
say, that ' there shold be two hundred men that
were no shomakers, to tak the part of shomakers,
an thai myght gett a furiouse man to set thame
apon wark,' and that the said shomakers * wold
spend large money or the Maior and his brethern
shold opteigne aganest thame.' Another person
heard the same Sir Thomas say, * that there wold
be three or four hundred men not being sowtors,
CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION 67
that wold name thame self sowtors and tak the
part with the sowtors, as if thai myght get a capi-
tan to set thame apon werk, they shold strike their
adversaries down.' "
For some reason not known to us now the coun-
cil failed to follow up its threat of punishment that
year, and in the latter part of the following
February a letter was had from the king's own
hand advising the council to continue " the olde
usages ". This seems to have settled the question
temporarily; for the minutes of 1491 contain no
reference to the trouble. But the good behavior of
the cordwainers was not of long duration. " On
the first of June, 1492, the council deemed it nec-
essary to re-enact their ancient ordinances, by
which the members of the corporation, and every
gild, fraternity, art and occupation, were required
to bear their accustomed number of torches in the
procession under the penalties formerly imposed;
and they again determined that the cordwainers
should walk on the left hand of the weavers.
Again the cordwainers were disobedient; and on
the 28th of June the council ordered that ' all such
forfetts as be forfett for beryng of torches the
morn aftir Corpus Xpi day last past, accordyng to
old ordinaunces theruppon provided, shuld be
leveed and rased withoute pardon, that is to say, of
Roger Appulby, one of the xxiiijti, xls, of William
Barker, merchaunt, another of the xxiiijti, xls ; and
of the artificers of Cordwaners xli, for nown-
68 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
beryng of their torcheg, accordyng to diverse old
ordinaunceg '.
" Having thus asserted their authority, the coun-
cil showed a disposition to conciliate the parties,
and a few days afterwards they recommended the
cordwainers to go to the weavers, ' to th'entent that
a lovyng communication betwix theym might be
had, and uppon such communication had, if the
said occupations could be agreed of the premissej,
then thay to cume to-fore the maire and his coun-
seil, and gif a awnswere of the said communication
wheder thai be agreid or noo, and if thai cannott
be agreable emonst tham-selffe, than the maire and
the councel for to tak such ordre betwix thame as
tham should be most exspedient in that behalve/
After several months had passed, the cordwainers
submitted, and the searchers with some of the
■principal members of the craft appeared person-
ally in the council chamber, and ' ther laye down
in a purse ensealed x/i, whiche they had forfet for
nown-beryng of theyr torches the morn after
Corpus Xpi day last past, puttyng the said x/i in
the will and discretions of the counseill, besechyng
my lord the maier to be theyr good and tendre
lord, and al my maisters the aldermen and other
of the counseill, good and tendre maisters, and not
to take al that mony of theym, haveing in theyr
discret and tendre consideration that the cause of
their nown-beryng was only in John Crak and John
Smyth, two of ther serssors, and not the defaut of
CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION 69
the hole crafft, as they had shewed diverse and
mony tymes hertofore.' "
Whether the *' good and tendre maisters " took
all the cordwainers' ten pounds is not told us, but
in the minutes of the following year, May, 1493, it
was recorded that the craft of cordwainers * when
the procession were solempnely done the morowe
next after Corpus Xpi day, [were] to here their
torches honestly made and lighted, with the craft
of the weavers and going of the weavers' left
handes, as had been there afore acustomed '.*
Development of the Plays. [^In the earliest
processions the lay societies seem usually to have
preceded the sacrament, while the clergy followed.
Certainly this was the order of the processions at
Coventry and Newcastle, though at York the crafts
were put last. In this shift of the trades com-
panies from the front to the rear may be seen, it is
suggested,* one bit of evidence in favor of the
growth of the Corpus Christi plays from dumb-
show pageants in the procession, since the pageants
were usually presented by the craftsmeiU (_5o"^e"
time shortly after the confirmation of the Corpus
Christi feast in England, it is thought, pageants
representing stories from the Bible were intro-
duced by the trades companies, who had so far
been present in the procession with their guild ban-
ners only. These pageants at first were mimetic
*Davies, York Records, pp. 250-7.
s Davidson, English Mystery Plays, p. 93.
70 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
merely and seem to have been presented in the
procession while moving. In a short time, hoW^
ever, spoken drama, which had already begun in
the church,_was introduced into the Corpus Christi
pageanSJ l^^^^ spoken drama could be successfully
given only during the halts at the stations, and
therefore caused great delay for the clergy and
other members of the procession following. In
order to avoid this extension of the procession to
an unreasonable length of time the plays were
transferred from the front of the procession to the
rear, a move which soon created a division be-
tween the two parts because of the slower progress
of the pageants. Yet, because of the inherited
custom of following the course of the host, the
plays, even after their separation from the proces-
sion proper, continued to follow the traditional
course. " Such," says Davidson, " seems to be a
reasonable interpretation of the facts as presented
by the records ".^
Beverley Mimetic Pageants. Let us look,
however, at some of the scattering records which
bear out this theory of the growth of the Corpus
Christi plays in the procession. One of the
earliest is an entry of a mimetic pageant at
Beverley in 1355. This record states that " every
year, on the feast of the Purification of the blessed
Mary, all the bretheren and sisteren [of the Guild
of St. Mary] shall meet together in a fit and ap-
« Loc. cit., p. 94.
CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION 71
pointed place, away from the church ; and there,
one of the gild shall be clad in comely fashion as
a queen, like to the glorious Virgin Mary, having
what may seem a son in her arms ; and two others
shall be clad like to Joseph and Simeon; and two
shall go as angels, carrying a candle-bearer, on
which. shall be twenty- four thick wax lights. With
these and other great lights borne before them, and
with much music and gladness, the pageant Virgin
with her son, and Joseph and Simeon, shall go in
procession to the church. And all the sisteren of
the gild shall follow the Virgin; and afterwards
all the bretheren; and each of them shall carry a
wax light weighing half a pound. And they shall
go two and two, slowly pacing to the church; and
when they have got there, the pageant Virgin shall
offer her son to Simeon at the high altar; and all
the sisteren and bretheren shall offer their wax
lights, together with a penny each. All this having
been solemnly done, they shall go home again with
gladness." '' This, it is to be noted, is a mimetic
pageant of the feast of the Purification rather than
of Corpus Christi, but it may be taken as resem-
bling very closely similar pageants in the Corpus
Christi procession.
Dundee. LFrom Dundee comes also a record
of dumb-show pageants. This gives " The Grayth
of the Prossession of Corpus Christi, deliverit Sir
Thomas Barbour " as follows : " In primis xxiij
^ Smith, English Gilds, pp. 149-50.
72 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
of crownis, vij Pair of angel reynis, iij Myteris,
Cristi cott of lethyr, with the hosse and gluffis,
Cristis hed, xxxj Suerdis, Thre lang corssis of tre,
Sane Thomas Sper, A cors til Sane Blasis, Sane
Johnnis cott, A credil, & thre barnis maid of cloth,
XX Hedis of hayr. The four evangellistis. Sane
Katrinis quheil. Sane Androwis cros, A saw, a ax,
a rassour, a guly knyff. A' worm of tre, Sane
Barbill castel, Abraamis hat & thre hedis of
hayr.'^
Dublin. (At Dublin, too, in 1478 we hear of a
similar series of pageant-tableaux on Corpus
Christi day. The record is found in the Chain
Book of the city and was apparently entered in
1498:—
The pagentis of Corpus Christi day, made by an olde
law and confermed by a semble befor Thomas Collier,
Maire of the Citte of Divelin, and Juries, Baliffes and
commones, the iiiith Friday next after midsomer, the xiii.
yere of the reign of King Henri the VII th [1498] :
Glovers: Adam and Eve, with an angill followyng
berryng a swerde. Peyn, xl.s.
Corvisers: Caym and Abell, with an auter and the
ofference. Peyn, xl.^.
Maryners, Vynters, Shipcarpynderis, and Samoun-
takers: Noe, with his shipp, apparalid acordyng. Peyn,
xl.^.
Wevers: Abraham [and] Ysack, with ther auter and a
lambe and ther offerance. Peyn, xl.s.
Smythis, Shermen, Bakers, Sclateris, Cokis and
Masonys: Pharo, with his hoste. Peyn, xls,
8 Maxwell, Old Dundee, p. 562. .
CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION 73
Skynners, House-Carpynders, and Tanners, and Browd-
ers: for the body of the camell, and Oure Lady and hir
chil[d]e well aperelid, with Joseph to lede the camell, and
Moyses with the children of Israeli, and the Portors to
berr the camell. Peyn, xl.s. and Steyners and Peyntors
to peynte the hede of the camell. [Peyn,] xl.^.
[Goldsmyjthis: The three kynges of Collynn, ridyng
worshupfully, with the offerance, with a sterr afor them.
Peyn, xls.
[Hoopers]: The shep[er]dis, with an Angill syngyng
Gloria in excelsis Deo. Peyn, x\.s.
Corpus Christi yild : Criste in his Passioun, with three
Maries, and angilis berring serges of wex in ther hands.
[Peyn,] xl.^.
Taylors: Pilate, with his fellaship, and his lady and
his knyghtes, well beseyne. Peyn, xl.s.
Barbors: An[nas] and Caiphas, well araied acordyng.
[Peyn,] xl.^.
Courteours: Arthure, with [his] knightes. Peyn, xl.s.
Fisshers : The Twelve Apostelis. Peyn, xl..f.
Marchauntes: The Prophetis. Peyn, xl.s.
Bouchers: tormentours, with ther garmentis well and
clenly peynted. [Peyn,] xl.s.
The Maire of the Bulring and bachelers of the same:
The Nine Worthies ridyng worshupfully, with ther fol-
lowers accordyng. Peyn, xl.s.
The Hagardmen and the husbandmen to berr the
dragoun and to repaire the dragoun a Seint Georges day
and Corpus Christi day. Peyn, xl.s^j
Development from the Dumb-Shows. In all
of these cases, it is to be noted, the actors were in
the procession in character, and it is to be supposed
that they conveyed the message of their pageants
^Chambers, Mediaeval Stage, ii. 363-4.
74 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS'
by action only; L e., without words, something in
the manner of the Canterbury Watch, where the
martyrdom of St. Thomas a Becket was repre-
sented annually in mute drama.^° That this was
the custom at Dublin may be conjectured with
some degree of certainty, since, in the case of the
hoopers, the one representing the angel was re-
quired to sing the Gloria during the course of the
procession. But whether or not any attempt was
made to talk while walking seems impossible to
tell ; possibly so. But no English record has come
down to us, though at Draguignan, France, we
learn of such a custom in the Corpus Christi pro-
cession : —
Le dit Jeu Jora avec la procession comme auparadvant
et le plus d'istoeres et plus brieves que puront estre seront
et se dira tout en cheminant sans ce que personne du jeu
s'areste pour eviter prolixite et confusion tant de ladite
prosession que jeu, et que les estrangiers le voient aise-
ment.ii
[TAny such attempt to talk, or even to carry on con-
nected pantomimic action, while' in motion must
necessarily have been accomplished only with great
difficulty and must have resulted in the station
halts. These halts in turn prolonged the proces-
sion too much for some of the members and neces-
sitated the transference of the embryonic cycle of
plays to the rear. Yet the mere act of shifting the
plays to the rear gave the actors more time for
10 Compare Hist. MSS Comm., ix. i, 148.
11 Petit de Julleville, Les Mysthes, ii. 209.
CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION 75
their scenes and possibly resulted in developing
and perfecting the cycje^
Spirit of the Festival. Of course the author
does not claim that either this theory thus ad-
vanced or the records cited to support it prove the
development of the Corpus Christi cycles from
tableaux in the procession, but only that the prob-
ability of such an origin is strong. Probably this
theory can never be either proved or disproved;
for none of our extant records give more than the
merest hints as to the growth of the plays. In
one year they are unknown; in the next we find
them full-fledged dramas and the principal part of
the Corpus Christi celebration. For by the time
our first records mention the plays in connection
with the procession the festival has lost most of its
significance as a religious celebration and has be-
come a day for feasting and eating as well as for
psalm singing ; men have come to seek^ not only the
thousand days of pardon, but a holiday as well.
It is a feast that " shall be held on the festival of
Corpus Christi ; and, on each day of the feast, they
shall have three flagons, and four or six tankards;
and ale shall be given to the poor; and prayers
shall be said over the flagons ".^^ And " every
householder that dwellith in the hye way ther as
the procession procedith, shall hang before ther
doores and forefrontes beddes and coverynges of
beddes of the best that thay can gytt, and strewe
1- Records of the Tiler's Gild, Lincoln, in Smith's Eitg^
lish Gilds, p. 184.
76 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
before ther doores resshes and other suche flowers
and strewing as they thynke honeste and clenly for
the honour of Godd and worship of this citie ".^^
Separation of the Plays from the Procession.
Such regulations as these imply that the festal
spirit was uppermost ; and it was this holiday spirit
that caused the final separation of procession and
plays. Already, no doubt, a division had arisen
between the two sections of the procession because
of the slower progress of the pageants, but it re-
mained for the secular element to effect the com-
plete separation; for as the festival grew in im-
portance and the holiday spirit began to prevail,
there gradually developed a wider and wider
divergence between the purely spiritual and the
secular elements in the celebration. The result
was that; the plays and the procession had to be
separated entirely. At Newcastle-on-Tyne the
procession took place in the morning and the plays
were given in the afternoon. At Beverley they
were both on the same day, but apparently at dif-
ferent times. At Chester the procession was at the
regular Corpus Christi feast, the plays at Whit-
suntide. And at York, where we have our fullest
accounts of the clash between procession and plays,
the former had to be postponed until the day after
Corpus Christi J on account of the " revellings,
drunkenness, clamour, singing, and other impro-
prieties " which caused the people to lose " the
18 Davies, York Records, p. 247 n.
CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION 17
benefit of the indulgences graciously conceded by
Pope Urban IV. to those who duly attended the
religious services appointed by the canons ".^*
Order of the Procession. To return, however,
to the procession proper : The line was formed, as
we have seen above, at an early hour in the morn-
ing, the time varying in the different towns. Each
man had his individual position in the procession
assigned according to his rank. In the earliest
days the craftsmen led the procession and the
ecclesiastics followed, but later this order was re-
versed. After this change in the early order, we
are told of the procession at York that a boy
usually led the line, bearing in his hands a great
cross. He was dressed " al in Whyte " and was
followed immediately by the town clergy in white
surplices. The ecclesiastics were followed in turn
by the master of the Corpus Christi guild, who
was supported on each side by a former guild-mas-
ter and was followed by the six wardens of the
guild, each carrying a white wand and wearing a
silken stole around his neck. Next came the costly
shrine, or pyx, of the Corpus Christi guild, which,
with all its contents, was valued in 1547 at £210
1 8.?. 2d.
The Shrine. This shrine, probably one of the
most attractive features of the procession, was a
gift to the guild in 1449 from the Bishop of Here-
ford. It acquired its wealth from the donations of
1* Davies, York Records, p. 243.
78 CORPUS CHRISTl PAGEANTS
pious members of the guild and the parish. Of
this shrine the following minute description was
given in 1547 when it came to be sold:
First, the said shryne is all gilte, havyng 6 ymagcs
gylded, with an ymage of the birthe of our Lord, of
mother of perle, sylver and gylt, and 33 small ymages
ennamyled stondyng aboute same, and a tablett of golde;
2 golde rynges, one with a safure, and the other with a
perle, and 8 other little ymages, and a great tablett of
golde havyng in yt the ymage of our Lady, of mother of
perle; which shryne conteyneth in lenght 3 quarters of a
yerd and a nayle, and in brede a quarter di. and more,
and in height di. yerd, over and besides the steple stond-
yng upon the same, . . .
The said steple havyng a whether cokke thereuppon, all
gylte, and a ryall of golde, 4 olde nobles, 2 gylted grootes
hangyng upon the said steple, and also beyng within the
same steple a berall, wheryn the sacrament is borne,
havyng in the said berall 2 ymages or angells of sylver and
gylt, bcryng up the said sacrament, the foote and coveryng
of whiche saide berall is sylver and gylte, weyng togeder,
with the golde and berall, besides the said shryne, 181
onzes. . . .
A sylver bell hangyng in the said steple, weyng 3 onzes
and di.15
This shrine was borne by two of the guild-
wardens, two others of whom kept the crowd in
order. At Coventry it was sheltered with " A
canope of silk brodured with gold with ij side^ of
the same " carried by " iiij burgesses ". At Coven-
^^ Skaiie, Guild of the Corpus Christi, York, pp. 296-7.
CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION 79
try^ too, six children were paid by the St. Nicholas
and Corpus Christi guilds one year " for beryng vj
torches by the Sacrament " and four men were
employed " to here the iiij gret torches ".^* Then
came the choristers in white surplices, chanting the
services assigned for the day.
City Officials. After the host came on horse-
back the Lord Mayor, who at Coventry wore " a
Crown of sylver & gyld ". " Mr. Maior " was fol-
lowed by the aldermen and other city officers, " too
and too together ", all fittingly arrayed in their
most splendid ceremonial robes and bearing their
required number of wax torches. In 1572 the
splendor of the pageantry was increased by an
order for the sheriffs " to ryde with harnessed men
accordyng to the ancient custome, and every alder-
man to fynde sex men, wherof iiij to be in white
armour, and ij in coates of plate, and every of the
xxiiijor to fynd iiij men, wherof ij to be in white
armour, and ij with calevers, towerds the said
rydyng ".^^
Craftsmen. The city officials were succeeded
by@e craftsmen)] who, as stated above,ffobk their
places according to a legally prescribeciorder of
precedence, which, by the time our earliest extant
records reach us, seems to have been fixed accord-
ing to the date of the guild formation. At Bever-
ley the order was as follows :
i« Sharp, Coventry Mysteries, p. 162.
^"^ Davies, york Records, pp. 269-70.
80 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
In primis the xij Governors. Item, Alderman of Wevers
Item, Alderman of Merchants " Walkers
" Drapers " Glovers
" Bowchers " Bowers
" Baxters " Cowpers
" Wryghts and
" Smyths Fletchers
" Taylors ** Wattermen
" Tylers " Potters
" Shomakers " Barbors
** Lyttsters " Cappers
** Barkers and
Hattera,
Sadyllers(g!
It is noticeable here that only the aldermen of
the guilds were allowed in the procession and that
the merchants' alderman came first in the line.
At Coventry, however, where the laity preceded
the shrine, we find the order reversed and the
mercers, the oldest company in that city too, coming
last:—
Pur le Ridyng on Corpus Christi day and for Watche
on Midsomer even.
The furst craft, ffyshers and Cokes. Baxsters and
Milners. Bochers. Whittawers and Glouers. Pynners,
Tylers and Wrightes. Skynners. Barkers. Coruisers.
Smythes. Weuers. Wirdrawers. Cardmakers, Sadelers,
Peyntours and Mason[s]. Gurdeiers. Taylours, Walkers
and Sherman. Deysters. Drapers. Mercers^
At Coventry the tradesmen followed their torches,
the bearers of which wore white surplices. Here,
as everywhere else, the craftsmen were dressed in
their guild Hvery ; and it is suggested by Mr. A. F.
Leach ^° that the origin of such liveries, which
were compulsory — as, for that matter, were the
^tJist MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, p. 69.
^'Harris, Coventry Leet Book, p. 220.
^Beverley Town Documents, p. Iviii.
CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION 81
banners and torches which the craftsmen carried, —
may perhaps have been connected with these rehg-
ious functions.
Players in the Procession. Along with each
company of craftsmen, of course, went their
pageants and their actors, both of whom continued
to hold their accustomed places in the rear of the
procession even after the complete separation of
the plays and their postponement to other dates.
Indeed, this preliminary parade of the players and
the pageant-cars in later times seems to have
served often as an advance advertisement of what
was to be found in the plays of the afternoon, or
the next day, or the following Whitson week. At
Lincoln in 15 15 the players not only were required
to go in character in the procession, but constables
were stationed " to wait upon the array in proces-
sion, both to keep the people from the array, and
also to take heed of such as wear garments in the
same ".^^ (At Coventry, too, though the pageant-
wagons do not seem to have passed in procession,
the actors themselves were present. Herod was
there on horseback and in painted garments.
Mary, " Katryne & Margaret ", and " viij virgyns "
were represented; Gabriel was paid 4d. for
" beryng the lilly " ; and James, Thomas of India,
and " X other apostells " were paid for bearing
torches^^And the great gilded pageant-wagons
21 Hist. MSS Comm., xiv. 8, 25.
22)Sharo, Coventry Mysteries, pp. 162 ff.
82 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
enriched the procession with their flags, garlands,
and banners. But these are of so much importance
to the present study that it will be necessary to
take them up separately in the next chapter.
IV
THE PAGEANTS
The Pageant- Wagon. The general appearance
and characteristic features of the Corpus Christi
pageant-cars have been familiar for scores of
years through the accounts of Dugdale, Rogers,
and others. Perhaps the best description is that
of Rogers, who says of the Whitsun plays at
Chester that they were presented on " a high
scaffolde with two rowmes, a higher and a lower,
upon four wheeles [in another MS. six wheeles].
In the lower they apparelled themselves, and in the
higher rowme they played, beinge all open on the
tope, that all behoulders might heare and see them.
The places where they played them was in every
streete. They begane first at the abay gates, and
when the firste pagiante was played, it was wheeled
to the highe crosse before the maior, and so to
every streete [i. e., the four principal streets, the
order being ist Watergate, 2nd Bridge Street], and
soe every streete had a pagiante playinge before
them at one time, till all the pagiantes for the day
83
84 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
appointed weare played. And when one pagiant
was neere ended, worde was broughte from streete
to streete, that soe they mighte come in place
thereof, exceedinge orderlye, and all the streetes
have theire pagiantes afore them all at one time
playeinge together; to see which playes was greate
resorte, and also scafoldes and stages made in
those places where they determined to playe theire^
pagiantes."^
Dugdale's Statement. Dugdale, too, says of
the plays at Coventry : " Before the suppression
of the monasteries, this city of Coventry was very
famous for the pageants that were played therein
upon Corpus Christi day, which occasioning very
great confluence of people to it from far and near,
were of no gmall benefit thereto; which pageants
being acted with mighty state and reverence by the
friers of this house, had theatres for the several
scenes, very large and high, placed upon wheeles,
and drawn to all the eminent parts of the city, for
the better advantage of the spectators ".^
Strutt's Description. Strutt, however, in his
Manners and Customs (1776) gives a very differ-
ent description of these stages. " In the early
dawn of literature ", says he, " and when the
sacred mysteries were the only theatrical perform-
ances, what is now called the stage did then con-
sist of three several platforms, or stages raised one
1 Quoted in Morris, Chester during the Plan tag enet and
Tudor Reigns, pp. 303-4.
2 Dugdale, Monastic on Anglicanum, vi. 3. 1534-
THE PAGEANTS 85
above another; on the uppermost sat the pater
coelestis, surrounded with his angels; on the sec-
ond appeared the holy saints and glorified men;
and the last and lowest was occupied by mere men,
who had not yet passed from this transitory life
to the regions of eternity. On one side of this
lowest platform was the resemblance of a dark
pitchy cavern, from whence issued appearance of
fire and flames; and when it was necessary, the
audience were treated with hideous yellings and
noises, as imitative of the bowlings and cries of
the wretched souls tormented by the relentless
daemons. From this yawning cave the devils them-
selves constantly ascended, to delight and to in-
struct the spectators; to delight, because they were
usually the greatest jesters and buffoons that then
appeared; and to instruct, for that they treated
the wretched mortals who were delivered to them
with the utmost cruelty, warning thereby all men
carefully to avoid the falling into the clutches of
such hardened and remorseless spirits. — But in the
more improved state of the theatre, and when
regular plays were introduced, all this mummery
was abolished, and the whole cavern and devils, to-
gether with the highest platform before mentioned,
entirely taken away, two platforms only then re-
maining; and these continued a considerable time
in use, the upper stage serving them for chambers,
or any elevated situations."^ This description has
3iii. 130.
86 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
been thought to refer to the Corpus Christi stage;
but since Strutt gives no authority for his state-
ment of the three platforms, and since such a
stage would not conform to " the varied subjects
of the Corpus Christi plays ", Sharp long ago con-
jectured/ and rightly, too, that Strutt must have
had reference to a fixed stage such as was cus-
tomarily used for the French Passion plays.^
Thus, one may readily see, we are dependent for
our direct information about the Corpus Christi
stage on the brief statements of Rogers and Dug-
dale. The modern student who wants specific in-
formation, however, finds these descriptions defect-
ive. From them he learns only that the pageant-
wagon was movable, that it was placed on four, or
six, wheels, that it was composed of two stories,
the lower of which was used for dressing, the
upper for acting, and that it was very large and
high. Further inferences can not be drawn from
these descriptions, and any more detailed informa-
tion must be obtained from indirect sources.
Other Sources of Information. Fortunately,
* Coventry Mysteries, p. 24.
^ Compare the colored drawing of the sta?e used for
playing the Passion at Valenciennes in 1547, printed in
Petit de Julleville's Histoire de la Lqngue et de la Littira-
ture francaise, ii. 416. Similarly, M. Jusserand has repro-
duced in the Furnivall Miscellany, pp. 192 and 194, two
miniatures of what he regards, or once regarded, as Cor-
pus Christi stages of the fourteenth century, but Professor
Manly has pointed out that these are probably no more
than pictures of puppet-booths. Cf. Nation, Ixxiv. p. 465.
THE PAGEANTS 87
from the extant remnants of old guild accounts and
town records and from the MSS of the play-cycles
that have come down to modern times, materials
can be collected piecemeal and then assembled, so
as to furnish us with a fairly definite idea of the
construction and appearance of a Corpus Christi
pageant.
Norwich Grocers' Pageant. One source full
of such details is the ** Inventory of ye p'ticulars
appartaynyng to ye Company of ye Grocers "
found among some extracts made in the eighteenth
century from the books of the Norwich grocers*
company. From this inventory we learn that their
pageant-car was " a Howse of Waynskott, paynted
and buylded on a Carte, with fowre whelys ", that
it had a " square topp to sett over ye sayde Howse ",
" A Gryffon, gylte, with a fane to sette on ye sayde
toppe ", " A bygger Iron fane to sett on ye ende of
ye Pageante", " iiij^^ iij small Fanes" encircling
the top, and " 3 paynted clothes to hang abowte
ye Pageant ". We learn also that the stage of this
pageant contained a tree, possibly the Tree of
Knowledge of Good and Evil, to which flowers
were bound with " collerd thryd " and which was
laden with " orenges, fyges, allmondes, dates,
Reysens, preumes, & aples ".^
To this somewhat indefinite, generalized descrip-
tion of the Norwich grocers' pageant-car it may be
® Waterhouse, Non-Cycle Mystery Plays, p. xxxii and n.;
Chambers, Mediaeval Stage, ii. 388.
88 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
added that the wagon contained double stages, both
of which were used for acting — the upper repre-
senting heaven, the lower paradise and the earth, —
and that the paradise platform was raised a step or
so above that of the earth.'^ Other stages, we find,
customarily had one or more of these individual
raised platforms, called sedes, locus, or domus,
which were separate, elevated stages set on the
regular pageant stage and used to represent special
towns, houses, or temples.^ All these stages were
covered with rushes, and, if we may judge from
the Coventry cappers' pageant-car,^ ledges were put
around the outside of the main stages to keep the
actors from accidentally stepping off.
Hell-mouth. Perhaps at this point, in connec-
tion with the stages of the processional pageant,
the famous medieval hell-mouth ought to be men-
tioned. Hell, to the medieval type of mind, was a
fearful thing, and in the religious plays of the
Corpus Christi class the authors are fond of re-
presenting it as often and in as awful a way as
possible, perhaps as a judicious warning of the
wrath to come.
Mr. V. E. Albright in a neatly drawn, imaginary
picture of the Mary Magdalene stage ^^ has por-
trayed the hell sedes in that play as a plain, ordi-
nary, covered platform with two devils on the
f Cf. Chapter V.
8 Cf. Chapter V.
» Sharp, Coventry Mysteries, p. 47.
10 The Shaksperian Stage, p. 16.
THE PAGEANTS 89
boards and several other demons peeping out from
curtains beneath the stage. This misconception of
the scene would seem to have had as its basis a
misunderstanding of the stage-direction after line
357 of the play : " Here xal entyr pe prynse of
dylles In a stage, and Helle ondyr-neth pat stage ".^^
Mr. Albright may be right in his general concep-
tion of the staging of the Mary Magdalene play —
in fact, he probably is correct, — ^but all the v^^eight
of existing evidence is against the probability of
such a hell-stage as he has pictured.
Perhaps we can best visualize the hell of the
Corpus Christi stage by considering several scenes
in which it was presented — scenes, too, which show
how the dramatists of that day were themselves
lacking in a definite conception of hell-mouth. For
example, the writer of the Chester plays makes the
devil in the drapers' Creation and Fall " Come vp
ovt of a hole " to tempt Adam and Eve, thus sug-
gesting the conventional dragon's-mouth entrance;
and yet in the cook's Harrowing of Hell later in the
same cycle Christ speaks of the entrance to hell as
if it were a pair of gates. In the latter pageant,
which contains one of the scenes where the method
of presenting hell-mouth is most difficult to ex-
plain, the play is prefaced with a stage-direction
that primo fiat lux in inferno materialis aliqua
subtilitate machinata. Because of this light, com-
motion is immediately raised among the inhabitants
^^Furnivall, Digby Plays, p. 67.
90 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
on the inside, Adam, Isaiah, David, John the Bap-
tist, and the rest, all of whom offer various sugges-
tions as to v^hat the light means. Then follows :—
Tunc . , . dicat Jesus, Attolite port as, prin-
cipes, vestras, et elevamini porte eternales, et in-
troibit rex glorie,
Jesus.
Open up hell gates anon,
You princes of pyne every e eichone,
That Codes sonne maie in gone.
And the kinge of blesse.
And if we should wish to complicate still further
the method of representing hell-mouth on the
Corpus Christi stage, we might add the speeches of
Christ and Belial in the York saddlers' Harrowing
of Hell:—
Jesus. Attolite portas principes,
'Oppen vppe ge princes of paynes sere,
Et eleuamini eternales,
Youre yendles jatis pat ^e haue here.
Belliall. We ! spere oure ^ates, all ill mot
pou spede.
And sette furthe watches on pe wall. —
11. 121-40.
THE PAGEANTS 91
These speeches and directions, if taken by them-
selves, would imply hells with battlemented walls
and with gates for entrances — in fact, little more
than a conventional reproduction of the picture im-
plied in a part of the twenty-fourth Psalm. And
yet we have seen that the author, or authors, of the
Chester plays speaks of hell-mouth earlier in the
cycle as a hole from which the devil shall enter
paradise. It is also known that the almost uni-
versal medieval conception of hell-mouth, for some
reason, was that of a dragon's head with wide-gap-
ing jaws, long, sharp, exaggerated teeth, and gleam-
ing eyes. How, then, were hell-mouth and the
gates and battlements of hell represented in the
York and Chester plays?
The answer to this somewhat vexing problem is
to be found in a hypothetical composite of two pic-
tures printed by Sharp in his famous Disserta-
tion.'^^ In one of these the artist, if we may call
him such, has represented hell-mouth as a great
dragon's gaping jaws, between which is set a door,
or gate, which an angel is unlocking. And inside
are discernible various men, women, devils, priests,
kings, and other unfortunates.
A mere glance at this reprint shows that such
a hell-mouth as the one depicted here might well
12 Plates 5 and 6, opposite p. 62. One of these is a copy
of an eleventh century drawing in the Cotton library of
the British Museum, the other an engraving from a fresco
painting over the arch v^rhich separates the nave and chan-
cel in the Chapel of the Holy Cross at Stratford-on-Avon.
92 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
have served as the hell-gates of the Chester plays,
and, had the entire picture with all its surrounding
walls been given us, it might possibly have fur-
nished the battlements demanded by the York Har-
rowing of Hell. The only thing lacking is the wall
about the dragon's mouth, which is just the feature
given in the other picture. In this we have a view
chiefly of the exterior of hell (though we are al-
lowed to get a glimpse through one of the walls
into the depths of the place). Hell as represented
here is a walled and battlemented furnace filled
with flame and entered through the jaws of a big-
eyed, yawning dragon. On the walls are two
demons blowing horns, one sitting, the other lean-
ing over, and inside the place of torment are seen
Envy, Gluttony, and one other, all of whom a
devil is chastising with a rope scourge. Wrath
and three others are just v\^alking into the jaws of
hell ; a demon off to the rif/ht is bringing in Pride
on his shoulders; one to the left, with a pitchfork
in his hand, is dragging a man by the left leg;
while immediately in front another devil is drag-
ging by a chain Avarice and his companions, who
are being driven from behind by a bigger devil
with an enormous club. In the background is still
another horned, long-tailed, and crooked-snouted
demon carrying a pitch-fork.^*
^3 Beneath this picture as given by Sharp is another
representing an interior view of hell. This, however,
shows nothing of the exterior nor of the mode of entrance
and is of no service here.
THE PAGEANTS 93
From these two engravings one may understand
how the York and Chester plays might easily have
been staged with walls and gates and the conven-
tional dragon's head. The important thing to note,
however, is that the hell-head was probably there.
It is to be found in both of the pictures; it is
referred to in the earlier Chester scene; and we
know that it was the accepted symbol of a hell-
scene. Sharp prints two other hell-pictures, both
of which show the customary gaping dragon's head,
and he takes it as the regularly recognized symbol
of hell on the stage.
The representation of walls along with the
dragon's head was of course common in the pic-
tures of this time, but it is not therefore neces-
sarily to be argued that the gates were always, or
indeed often, set between the jaws. In fact the
illustration given by Sharp is the only one the pres-
ent writer has found which puts the gates into the
conventional, medieval hell-mouth. This picture
seems to represent an attempt to reconcile the com-
mon conception of hell-mouth with the passage in
Psalm xxiv. But numerous other examples of the
representation of hell-mouth as a dragon's head
are at hand. In the beautiful colored drawing of
the stage used for playing the Passion at Valen-
ciennes in 1547 hell-mouth was a dragon's head
with red, cavernous jaws and green eyes.^* The
miserere in Ludlow church, England, represents a
1'* Cf. Petit de Julleville, Histoire de la Langue et de la
Litterature francaise, ii. 416.
94 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
demon carrying off a fraudulent ale-wife with her
gay head-dress and false measure toward hell-
mouth, which is a dragon's gaping, long-toothed
jaws.^^ At Lincoln among the list of appurten-
ances and properties for the play of the " storye of
Tobias in the Old Testament" in 1564 there is re-
corded " First, hell mouth, with a neither chap ",^®
as if the mouth were made to open and shut. In
the Coventry drapers' accounts for 1537, 1538,
1542, 1554, 1556, 1565, and 1567 items are found
for payntyng & makyng newe hell hede ", *' for
/mendyng of hell hede ", " for kepynge hell hede ",
'and " for makyng hell mowth and cloth for hyt "."
In 1557 the Coventry drapers paid 4d. " for kepyng
of fyer at hell mothe ".^® On one occasion at
Coventry hell itself caught fire and almost burnt
up.^^ And in Sackville's Induction to the Mirrour
for Magistrates we find a description of hell so
closely resembling the hell-mouth of the stage that
one might almost say the author of the poem was
describing some Corpus Christi play he had seen:
An hideous hole, all vaste, withouten shape,
Of en dies depth, orewhelmde with ragged stone,
With ougly mouth, and griesly iawes doth gape,
And to our sight confounds it selfe in one.^o
15 Booklover's Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, p.
126; Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor
Reigns, p. 314 n.
16 Hist. MSS Comm., Lincoln MSS, p. 58.
17 Sharp, Coventry Mysteries, p. 61.
18 Ibid., p. 73.
1^ Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor
Reigns, p. 315.
20 Haslewood, Mirror for Magistrates, ii. 1. 31 7-
THE PAGEANTS 95
Size of the Pageant-Car. Of the actual size of
the Corpus Christi pageant-cars, and hence of the
stages, very Httle is known. Dugdale describes the
wagons as large and high; and the fact that they
were sometimes placed on six wheels would in-
dicate pageants of considerable size. The fact
that they were sometimes placed on four wheels
would also indicate that they were not all of the
same size. At Coventry in 1435 there is a record
that ** a parcel of land in Mill Lane, adjoining the
* Tailour paiont ' [house] being 303^ feet wide and
703^ long, was granted and let for 80 years to John
Hampton and 7 others, paying 3s. 8d. rent, and
covenanting to erect thereupon during that term
* unam domum vocatum a Paiont hows ', and to
keep the same in good repair during the said
term ".^^ From this entry some vague idea of the
size of one of these wagons might be gained, were
it not for the fact that, as we shall see later, more
than one pageant was often stored in the same
house. On such a plot of ground, at any rate, a
pageant-house might be built big enough to con-
tain a very large wagon.
Gaudy Decorations. As may readily be sur-
mised from the extravagant tastes of the pageant-
loving medievalists, as well as from the description
of the Norwich grocers' pageant given above, all
the play-wagons were gaily and profusely, even
gaudily, ornamented. As an example may be cited
21 Weavers' Pageant of the Presentation in the Temple,
p. 25.
96 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
the Chester mercers, whose pageant-wagon pre-
senting Christ in the manger ought to have been a
simple one; yet theirs was most gorgeously dec-
orated : —
The mercers worshipfull of degre
The presentation that have yee
Of caryage I have no doubt
Both within and without
It shall be deckyd yt all the Rowte
Full gladly on it shall be to loke.
With sundry cullors it shall glime
Of velvit satten and damaske fine
Taffyta sersnett of poppyngee grene.22
The Chester wrights, in like manner, furnished a
" well decked carriage ", and the " Drawers of
Dee " had their ship painted round with beasts
and fowls of all kinds to represent, or symbolize,
the " two of a kind " taken into the ark. In time
these decorations came to be required, so that by
1520 we find the town council of Beverley fining
the alderman of the drapers " because his pageant
was not covered with decent dresses ".^^ The
stage floors were always covered with rushes, and
and somewhere on the wagon was hung a banner
bearing the arms of the city. At York the regula-
tion about the banners was so strict that the com-
panies were forbidden to place aliqua signa, arma,
22 Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor
Reigns, p. 307.
23 Hist. MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, p. 172.
THE PAGEANTS 97
vel insignia super paginam predictam nisi tantum
arma cujus hon. civitatis.^* These decorations
seem usually to have been provided under the gen-
eral supervision of the pageant-master, except at
Coventry, where there was a decorator, or
" dresser ", who was regularly paid " for swep-
yng the pagent & dressyng ".^^
Cost of a Pageant. The cost of a pageant-car
and the general expenses for the production of a
play have been found at various times in the ac-
count books of the guilds. 7^. yd. was paid by the
Coventry drapers in 1520 for the timber to make
their pageant for the Doomsday play, and the total
cost of a new ship for the Hull Noah's Ark play ^^
was i5 Ss. 4d. in 1421 and £5 8^. in 1494. The
Chester smiths, however, paid something less than
half this amount in 1561 for their carriage for the
scene of the Purification of Mary. The full entry
is as follows :
1561. Tymber (for the Carriage), 8/4; to carter and
men to get it out, 7d. ob.; Wed to make welles, 3/4;
Cartwright making the wheles, 7/4; Bords and other
tymber, 5/-; The wright making the Carriage and for
berrage [drink-money] 8/5, nayls 6d.; Wrightes setting
the wheles, viiid. ; A pound of grey sope for the wheles,
iiid.; Nayles to dresse the Carriage, iiid. ob.; Makyng a
fayre paynting and dressynge the pillers gere and a
2* Smith, York Plays, p. xxv n.
25 Sharp, Coventry Mysteries, pp. 21 and 48.
28 This was probably not a regular Corpus Christi play,
but from the entry one may gather something of the cost
of a pageant-wagon.
98 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
crowne for Mary; 3 Curten cowerds [cords], iiid.; pynnes,
iiid.27
Cost of the Production of a Play. But the
expense of the pageant-car was not annual, as was
that of the production of the play. A pageant-
wagon might with judicious repairs be made to
last indefinitely, but the cost of a play was an
annual burden, which, however, varied with the
different guilds and in different years. The cause
of this variation is not hard to find when we come
to examine the plays and the circumstances under
which they were produced. For example, a simple
scene like the York plasterers' Creation to the
Fifth Day with only one character and one short
scene, or the wine-drawers' Appearance to Mary
Magdalene with two characters, could not be ex-
pected, other things being equal, to cost nearly as
much as, for example, the mercers' Doomsday
with thirteen characters, or the goldsmiths' Adora-
tion with ten persons and two scenes. There were
also natural economic changes in the prices of
materials; and some years, of course, more prop-
erties were to be bought and more repairs to be
made on the carriages. Thus the charges for per-
forming the Coventry drapers' play, Sharp tells
us,^® varied from 21s. to £4 Ss. 6d.; and from the
same source we learn that the annual costs of the
cappers' pageant was about 35^. until 1550, and be-
27 Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor
Reigns, p. 305 n.
28 Coventry Mysteries, p. 68.
THE PAGEANTS 99
tween 45^. and 50J. afterwards. In 1490 the total
cost of the smiths' pageant was £2 14^. 9j/^f/.-^ In
I534» the first time the cappers produced their
recently acquired play, 31J. 5J^c/. was spent in
* Reparacions made of the Pageant & players ger*
and 30J. 4d. for rehearsals and the regular ex-
penses on Corpus Christi day.^° In 1523 the weav-
ers spent 27jr..8j^c?. on their play^and^o^. SYzd. in
1524.^^ And as an example of lh"e~ usuaTchiirges
ttTeTollowing* from the weavers' records for 1565
may be examined :
In primis for ij rehersys ijs
Item payd for the dryving of the pagente . . . . vd
Item paid to Symeon iijs iiijd
Item paid to Josephe ijs iiijd/
Item paid to Jesus xx(
Item paid to Mary xx<
Item paid to Anne xx(
Item paid to Symeon's clarke xxc
Item paid to the ij angells viijd^
Item paid to the chylde iiijd
Item paid for russhes, packthryd & nayls . . . iiijd
Item paid to James Hewete for his rygoles . . . xxd
Item paid for syngyng xvjd^
Item paid for gloves ijs ii<
Item paid for meate in the bocherye . . . . xs ix(
Item paid for bread & ale vijs viijdj
Summe xliiijs iijd.-^^
29 Sharp, pp. 15-17. But note that the sum as given in
Sharp is not correctly added. Chambers, Med. Stage, ii.
116, mcorrectly puts the sum at £3 Js. sVid.
80 Ihid., p. 45-
31 Presentation in the Temple, p. 19.
S2 Ibid., p. 24.
V
100 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
Pageant-Houses. Another thing that added
to the annual expenses of the play-producing com-
panies was the yearly charge for the storage of the
pageant- wagons. Many of the guilds, of course,
owned their own houses, known as pageant-houses,
where they stored their pageant-cars. Others,
however, rented space for their pageants. At
York in 1503, for instance, the cooks were granted
" sufficient and convenient roome for theyr pag-
iaunt within the pagiaunt house of the baxters ",^*
and at Lincoln all the wagons were stored in " the
late school-house " and a charge made " for ware-
housing of 4d. for every pageant, * and Noy schippe
Often, however, each guild, or each union of two
or more guilds, had its own pageant-house, which
was built and maintained at the expense of the
company. Our fullest accounts of a pageant-house
are to be had from the records of the Coventry
weavers, who m 1587 tore down their old house
and built a new one on its site. The following
records of " paymentes for bulding of the paygente
house in the Myl lane " will give us some idea of
what it was:
Item in prymis, payd at taklnge doune of the
house and the tilles, for hieryng of a rope,
and caryinge the leade to the store house, &
for drynk to the worke men that same day . ijs xd
68 Davies, York Records, p. 240 n.
8* Leach in Furnivall Miscellany, p. 224. Mr. Leach puts
this date at "Nov. 12, 31 Henry VII." C I)
THE PAGEANTS 101
Item payd to carpteners for ther wages . iijli iiijs iiijd
Item payd to the masones for ther wages . viijs iiijd
Item payd to the tilers for tiling and daubing xvijs viijd
Item payd for stone and for carying of stone . . xijs
Item payd for sand and claye vs ijd
Item payd for lyme and for heare, to make mortar
ixs vlijd
Tiles 9s. 6d., timber 30 [25] s. 8d., spars and
stoods IIS. 8d.
Item payd for a hundred & halfe of bryckes . ijs ijd
Item payd at the rearyng of the house and on the
nyght befor xs vjd
Summe is xjli xvijs xd.^^
To these 1587-^ntries may be added an earlier one,
1 53 1, that of a payment " for mendyng of pe [old]
pagent howse wyndo ".
From these accounts we learn that the earlier
house had a window, that the later one had a tile
roof and probably a stone foundation, that it was
possibly sealed inside, and that the total cost was
in lys. lod. But since Sharp tells us (without
giving his authority, however) that the new one
was also " suitable for a dwelling ", it is not pos-
sible to state just what or how many of these char-
acteristics were to be found in a regular pageant-
house.
Joint Use of the Pageants. The carriage-
houses, as stated above, were often the joint prop-
erty of two or more guilds, as were the pageants
stored in them. This joint ownership, of course,
«5 Weavers' Pageant of the Presentation in the Temple,
p. 26.
102 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
was for the purpose of lessening expenses, and in
such cases the same wagon was used for more than
one play in the same festival. For example, at
Chester in 1532 we find the vintners and dyers, who
played the Adoration of the Magi, the next to the
last play on Monday, agreeing with the goldsmiths
and masons, who produced the Slaughter of the
Innocents, the first one on Tuesday, for both to use
the same pageant-car, the vintners and dyers to pay
a stated amount toward the cost of the wagon and
a third of the expenses for repairs and carriage-
house rent.
Preliminary Preparations. It was from these
pageant-houses that the wagons at the beginning
of the festival season were " had f urthe " for " re-
parellynge ", " for payntyng of the vane ", for
" making the wheles ", for " dressynge with
resshes ", for lubrication with " grey sope "-, and for
the general preliminary preparations, all of which
must be completed by the evening before the fes-
tival. And in order to get an early start the next
morning the carriages were removed from their
pageant-houses the evening before, and watchmen,
usually the journeymen of the guilds, were sta-
tioned and paid to protect them from vandals dur-
ing the night.
"Horsing" the Pageants. The cars were
drawn sometimes by men, sometimes by horses.
The Norwich grocers' pageant in 1565 was drawn
by six horses decorated with " Horsse Clothes,
THE PAGEANTS 103
stayned, w* knopps & tassels ".^^ The Coventry \ jjj
weavers.paid their journeyrnen 3^. 2d. in 1555 " for /^
dryving the pagent ", and Chambers' states that the
cappers expected their journeymen to do the " hors-
ing " of their pageant, a service which they do not
always seems to have rendered, since Sharp quotes
the company as paying i6d. one year " for four
whit harnesse ".^^ In 1584 the York bakers paid
2s. "to Yjd. laborers for puttinge the padgion";
the Chester smiths had theirs drawn by ten in 1567
and by nine in 1575 ; the Coventry drapers had ten
in 1 56 1 ; and the cappers in 1490, twelve.
Promptness. The wagons were drawn in a
regular stated order and absolute promptness was
demanded. At York a schedule of the pageants \y\
had to be written by the town-clerk and officially
delivered to the crafts yearly in the first or second
week of Lent so that no excusable mistake might
be made. And, in addition, the bailiffs and the
councilmen assumed the government and general
oversight over the pageants on play-day so that
word might be "broughte how euery place was
neere done " and no time be given " to tarye, till y®
last was played ". In 1423 " the Twelve Keepers "
of Beverley were given their expenses for work
" on Corpus Christi day governing all the pageants
passing through the whole town ", and in 1459 one
Thomas Law, alderman of butchers in the same
3* Chambers, Mediaeval Stage, ii. 388.
37 Coventry Mysteries, p. 49.
104 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
town, was fined for coming late to the station at
the North Gates.
Number of the Plays. The number of
pageants varied, of course, in proportion to the
number of plays, from less than a half-dozen scenes
at Worcester to as many as fifty-seven at York.
This variation in the number of the cars and the
pageant scenes furnishes a striking testimony to
the elasticity of the plays, which could be divided
from or merged into each other according to the
changing conditions of social life and the varying
wealth and prosperity of the guilds enjoying the
feast. At Worcester in 1467 the town-council
ordained " that v. pageunts be hadd amonge the
craftes " ^^ that year, an ordinance which would
suggest that the number of scenes varied from year
to year. At Beverley there were thirty-eight in
1390 against thirty-six in 1520; thirty-two are ex-
tant from Wakefield, and there probably were
others; and Coventry probably had forty-five, or
nine, according as the count is made ^* (none of
which, it is rather remarkable, presented any scenes
from the Old Testament).
Time Required. The length of time required
for the plays varied from one day, the time at most
of the towns, to three days at Chester. At York
the whole cycle of from forty-eight to fifty-seven
scenes was gone through within one day, though, in
order to accomplish this, the actors had to be ready
«8 Smith, English Gilds, p. 372.
»• Craig, Two Coventry Corpus Christi Plays, p. xv.
THE PAGEANTS 105
for beginning " at the mydhowre betwix iiij*^ and
v*^ of the cloke in the mornynge ". At Coventry^
too, the whole series was meant for completion in,
one day ; but this was not always accomplished, for
in 1457 we learn that on " Corporis Christi yeven
at nyght . . . came the quene [Margaret] from
Kelyngworth to Coventre . . .= to se the play there
on the morowe ; and she sygh then alle the Pagentes
pleyde save Domes-day, which myght not be pleyde
for lak of day "/^ In such cases it appears tha;
the remaining scenes were given the following
day; for in 1544 among the entries of the Coventry
cappers, whose scene was third from the last, we
find Sd. " payd for drynk in pe pageant for pe
plears for bothe days ", from which one might sur-
mise that the whole series was not completed the
first day, as the program called for, and that the
last three acts were left for the second. At other
places, however, the pageants were purposely dis-
tributed over several days; as, for example, at
Chester, where they " were played vpon monday,
tuseday, and wenseday in witson weeke ".
ffor three dayes together, begynninge one mondaye,
see these pagentes played to the beste of theire skill,
wher to supply all wantes, shalbe noe wantes of good will.^i
Summary. In conclusion, then, it may be
said of the pageant-cars on which the Corpus
Christi plays were presented that they were big,
ponderous wagons employing one or two stages.
*o Harris, Coventry Leet Book, p. 300.
*i Deimling, Chester Plays, i. p. 3.
106 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
When the plays were simple in scene, only one
stage was used. In such cases a lower room, pro-
tected by curtains, was sometimes fitted up under
the stage for a dressing-room. When the plays de-
manded the representation of heaven and earth, or
of heaven and paradise, double stages, one above
the other, were used, the upper representing
heaven, the lower earth or paradise. On the
stages were raised platforms, which were made to
represent different towns and places. Hell was a
favorite subject in the religious drama and was
represented by a dragon's head with gaping mouth
and long teeth.
For the representation of the plays the pageant-
cars were gaudily decorated. These wagons were
a great expense upon the craftsmen, as was the cost
of the production of their plays. An additional
expense was the annual storage charge for the
wagons, which were stored in regular pageant-
houses. Often two companies owned a pageant-
house or a pageant- wagon jointly. In such cases
the same car was frequently used for the repre-
sentation of two or more plays in the same cycle.
The number of these scenes in a cycle, and hence
the number of pageant-wagons required, varied
greatly, from five scenes at Worcester to fifty-
seven at York. And, finally, the time required for
the representation of these pageants varied from
one day at most of the towns to as many as three
at Chester.
CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING
Introductory. In the preceding chapters of
this volume our study has been devoted largely to
the purely mechanical features of the pageants,
though some attention was given in chapter III to
the Corpus Christi procession as a determining
factor in grouping the Old and New Testament
plays into cycles. It now remains for us to con-
sider the relations between these mechanical fea-
tures and the plays themselves, together with some
of the principles of staging that resulted from
the conditions under which the cycles developed
and continued to be produced.
Incongruities in the Plays. The conditions
under which the plays developed resulted in the
presence in the complete cycles of various contra-
dictions and inconsistencies. Some of these are
very striking, the most notable, perhaps, being the
large number of incongruities in the plays, incon-
gruities which any dramatist ought to have been
able to detect and remove. These incongruous ele-
107
108 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
ments comprise inconsistencies within single
scenes; inconsistencies and contradictions between
scenes in more or less close proximity to each
other ; great inequality in the treatment, tone, style,
and metre of the different plays of the same cycle ;
the narration of incidents in one play which have
just been acted a few scenes back; and various
other irregularities.
Some of these incongruities may well have
existed in the cycles as originally composed; for it
is very probable that the original cycles were pro-
duced by collaboration. And unless such col-
laboration was planned and executed with the ut-
most care, many such incongruities would almost
inevitably occur. But we know both from the
records and from the kinds of inequalities which
we find in the plays, that the scenes were being con-
tinually revised. And hence we are able to find
what seems to have been one of the principal
causes of the inconsistencies; for in the revisions
little or no care seems to have been taken to elim-
inate or to prevent contradictions and irregular-
ities.
Development of New Scenes. One of the chief
causes of these revisions and of the consequent
incongruities was the normal expansion of the
cycles, which came as a result of the natural
increase in the number of play-producing com-
panies. Whenever a new scene was needed, it
was obtained either by dividing an original play,
CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 109
by the development into a scene of what had
formerly been an incident only, or by the creation
of a new play from biblical, apochryphal, or
legendary sources. Thus we find the York Com-
ing of the Three Kings a divisible play, one which
might be given as two separate scenes when the
masons and goldsmiths were both playing, or as a
single scene when the former were not able to
support a pageant. Likewise the Appearance of
Our Lady to Thomas in the same cycle seems to
be one of those that was developed from what was
earlier only an incident in an apochryphal biblical
story. And in the Coventry cycle, though the play-
book has not come down to us, " the matter of the
Castell of Emaus " seems to have been an incident
added to the cappers' play in 1540.^
Merging of Old Scenes. The cycles were not
always growing, however, and the number of play- /
producing guilds was not always on the increase. [;'
On the contrary, the make-up of the list of com- •
panics was continually changing, one, or sometimes
more, dropping out of the lists and making it nec-
essary to telescope two or more scenes into onei li
Illustrations of the results of this process are to be '■
found in the twentieth play of the Wakefield cycle,
which represents the conspiracy, the Last Supper^i\j
1 Craig, Two Coventry Corpus Christi Plays, p. 94.
Since this scene was one of the features of the early-
liturgical drama, however, it may be possible that the
record implies only the composition of a new version of
the old scene.
110 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
and the arrest of Christ; and in the sixth of the
Chester series, presenting the annunciation, the
visit of Mary to Elizabeth, and the nativity. The
latter is an excellent example of an unskilful merg-
ing of at least two, or possibly three, plays.
All this " telescoping " and dividing of the plays
and the expansion of minor incidents into new
scenes, was the cause of numerous incongruities,
inequalities, and inconsistencies in the stage repre-
sentation of the plays, all of which will be taken up
for discussion in their proper place in the succeed-
ing chapters. In the same place, too, will be con-
sidered some of the other similar characteristics of
the plays which were the result, not of their
method of development, but of the circumstances
under which they were produced. For the pres-
ent, it is sufficient merely to call attention to these
traits and to point out that they were a direct re-
sult of the open-air stages on which it was neces-
sary to present the plays. Such are the use of
sedes in the scenes, the reliance of the dramatists
on the imagination of the hearers, the lack of per-
spective in staging, the symbolic treatment of
space, time, and numbers, etc.
Influence of the Liturgical Sources. Mean-
while, at the same time that we are considering the
various influences exercised upon the Corpus
Christi stage, it may be well to examine one of the
pre-cyclic influences, the liturgical drama ; although
the present writer is much opposed to the modern
CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 111
tendency toward tracing every form, device, and
method of literature back to some preceding form,
device, or method — foreign preferred, native ac-
cepted. In other words — to be more specific, and
to draw an illustration from the subject under con-
sideration, — it seems that criticism is entirely and
undoubtedly within the limits of safety in tracing
the religious drama and many of its customs back
to the early church ; but when the attempt is made
to derive all the stagecraft and the devices of the
Corpus Christi plays, even the shape and arrange-
ment of the stages and the sedes, from a direct and
precise imitation of the church stage, then the de-
velopmental theory has been wholly misapplied. It
is not fair to the managers and directors of the
processional pageants of the fourteenth, fifteenth,
and sixteenth centuries ; it attributes to them flabby
brains and minds without the power of initiative.
In their plays, for instance, they did not put heaven
on the upper stage and hell below merely because
the liturgical drama had been staged in the church
with heaven in the rood-loft and hell in the crypt,
but because the almost universal idea was that
these two places had definite geographical posi-
tions, heaven above us and hell below us. And
the managers of the pageants did not build their
stages on wheels and put their sedes or I oca
thereon to resemble the plans as used in the church,
but for the better advantage of the spectators, that
all might be able to see and hear.
Atl.^)
#-f\
A \ . fil
112 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
Changes. On the contrary, however, it would
not be at all just to say that the players and man-
agers in the Corpus Christi days were consciously
and purposely making their plans different from
those of the church. The liturgical drama had
been an interesting, spiritual, and stimulating
power for good, and it was undoubtedly originally
their intention merely to reproduce it in the open,
with whatever modifications might be necessary, as
a continued influence for good upon all persons
viewing the performances. And this idea seems
to have been carried out, but with so many and
such varied modifications that, so far as the present
writer has been able to perceive, the only practice
which was not altered — an important one by the
way — was that of using a separate sedes, locus, or
domus for each important scene or character.
'Sedes" and "Plateae". The terms, sedes,\
oca, or domus, were used indiscriminately to
mean either the seats of the actors where they
remained when not participating in the play, or
places to which on some occasions the action of
the scene was transferred. These sedes, loca, or
domus, so far as we can learn, were always defi-
nitely localized by means of appropriate decora-
tions and properties and were in distinct contrast
to the platea, which was the space in between the
sedes and not definitely localized. M. Petit de
Julleville has described at some length the sys-
tem of staging employed for the representation of
(¥
CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 113
the medieval French plays, and his description
may well be applied here : —
Le moyen age avait congu tout differemment la multipli-
cite dcs lieux dans la representation dramatique. Pour
jouer un mystere, on disposait d'avance, ensemble, a la
fois, sur une scene unique, les lieux divers, si nombreux
qu'ils fussent, 6u Taction devait successivement se passer. y
. . . mais au cours d'une meme journee la scene etait /
immuable et devait renfermer la representation, ou I'indi- '*
cation tout au moins, des lieux, souvent tort nombreux,
ou se passait Taction dans cette journee. En un mot, la
scene etait permanente, a la fois unique et multiple, le ?
decor ne changeait jamais; c'est Taction qui voyageait dans
Tenceinte de cette vaste scene et se transportait successive-
ment aux divers endroits representes: allait de Rome a
Constantinople, de Jerusalem en Espagne, traversait la
mer ou les deserts, et feignait un long voyage entre deux
pays figures sur la scene a dix pieds Tun de Tautre. Les
cnfants dans leurs jeux ont des fictions analogues; mais
toutefois ce systeme theatral, qui nous parait pueril, a
suffi a Shakespeare.2
As M. Petit de Julleville suggests, there is a \'\
naive resemblance between these domus on thei]
primitive stage and the " homes " of the make-be-! - J
lieve world in the children's nursery, where eachl i
little would-be woman has her house in a corner'
of the room and receives her friends when they
come to visit her. Shakspere on two occasions 'j //y
employed the same system of staging, as M. Petit
de Julleville intimates, and many striking resem-
blances are to be found between the medieval stage
and our theatre of to-day. We have miniature
houses on our stages, imitative forests, pretended
2 Histoire de la Langue et de la LittSrature francaise, il
415-16.
p
114 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
city streets, etc., which we are willing, for the sake
of the enjoyment, to make ourselves feel are real.
Our stage houses and our stage streets, for in-
stance, we know are unreal, yet we allow an actor
to enter the street from one of the houses, meet a
friend perhaps at his doorway, and go up and sit
on the verandah of a neighbor's house. Or per-
haps the friends at another time meet at no special
place, a field, a forest, or maybe in front of a bare,
front drop-curtain — in other words, just some-
where.
Method of Staging. In the same way the
actors on the Corpus Christi stage were attempting
to reproduce a similar imaginary, imitative, and
symbolical world. Nor was it an altogether crude
and fanciful one. They had their seats, their
homes, which by a temporary suspense of realism
both they and their audience were able to convert
into real ones. If they needed a castle in their
little world, they built a miniature imitation at one
side of the stage with fanes and battlements on the
top, and the lord of the castle sat there with his
soldiers and subjects around him. If they wanted
a temple, they said " let's play like " this shelter or
canopy is a temple, and Annas and Caiaphas shall
be here. Or if Herod's palace was to be presented,
they set a throne at his sedes^ and any one who
wanted to speak to the king must come to that
specific place to see him. And when the action
was such as might happen anywhere, the players
CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 115
walked away from their places into the open
platea, the unlocated part of the stage, and there
the conversation was carried on.
Wakefield " Shepherds' Play, II." Thus in the
Wakefield Second Shepherds' Play the action be-
gins on the open platea^ which is not a definitely
localized place, but any spot where shepherds guard
their sheep. One by one the herdsmen enter, Mak
coming last, and all lie down and apparently go to
sleep. Mak's sleep is not so deep as he pretends,
however, and while the others are resting, he jumps
up, steals a sheep, and carries it to his house, a de-
finitely localized place, where he knocks and calls
to his wife :
"how, gyll, art thou In? gett vs som lyght".
To which Gyll replies:
" Who makys sich dyn this tyme of the nyght?
I am sett for to spyn ", etc. — 11. 296-98.
She lets him in and takes the sheep, however, and
he returns to the sleeping shepherds in time to
wake up with them. Their sheep is missed, of
course; Mak's house is searched; and the sheep is
found in the cradle. The shepherds have justj
finished "blanketing" Mak when the Gloria inl
Excelsis is begun at the other end of the stage, at
Bethlehem, another definitely localized sedes^ and
the shepherds all journey there to worship the new4
born King.
116 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
" Purification of Mary ". Or, if the scene be the
Purification of Mary on a stage at Chester, we find
the pageant-car with two floors; the upper one is
heaven, the lower one Bethlehem and Jerusalem,
At the extreme right and on a raised part of the
lower stage is an altar-like representation of the in-
terior of the temple at Jerusalem. On the extreme
left is Joseph's home in Bethlehem ; and two apple-
trees are clamped to the floor of the pageant to
represent the country between Bethlehem and
Jerusalem.® The scene opens with Simeon in the
temple reading the prophecy of Isaiah about the
coming of the Christ. He reads that a virgin shall
bear a son. But he objects to the word " virgin ";
so he erases it and writes "A good woman" in-
stead. Anna and he join in conversation at this
point; and an angel descends from Heaven, the
floor above, and writes the original word " virgm ".
Again Simeon erases the objectionable word, and
again the angel descends and restores the original
reading; but this time the priest sees the angel,
who tells him that he shall not die before he has
seen the Christ. Simeon blesses God for his
mercies, then goes outside the temple, de alio loco
procull a templo, and seats himself in expectation
of the coming of Christ. At this point Joseph and
Mary in their house in Bethlehem at the other end
of the stage begin talking and decide to go up to
\V * ^f' Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor
'. Reigns, p. 305. This will be discussed more fully later,
pp. 178-79.
CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 117
the temple at Jerusalem for her purification. They
start out, pass by the two apple-trees representing
the country between the two cities, and in a half-
minute's time have gone the whole distance.
Simeon receives the Christ in his arms and ac-
knowledges him as his Lord. Anna does the same.
But while the group are conversing, the child
crawls down and goes into the temple. Joseph and
Mary now start on their way home and, a little
later, miss him; and while they are seeking him
the child is disputing with the doctors in the temple,
where they finally return and find him.
Interest in the Action. There is no confusion in
such a stage-system as this. Nor in a certain sense
can there be said to be any great amount of crudity.
According to our ideas of stage-craft to-day such
scenes would seem to indicate on the part of the
dramatists of the time a lack of knowledge of the
fitness, proportion, and possibilities of the stages
which they were using; but, as the audience of
that day saw it, there was no crudity at all. Their
interest was centered almost wholly in the action,
almost none at all in the setting, or background.
It mattered not to them whether Christ was in a
real stable, or a real manger, or whether the setting
was one from Bethlehem or London; what they
cared for were the antics of the rustic shepherds,
the splendid robes of the three kings, the glorious
gifts which these kings presented, and the adora-
tion shown the Christ. It was the action of the
118 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
play, the movement of the characters in the scenes,
not the backgrounds to these scenes, to which the
audiences devoted their attention; and so long as
the pageants and the sedes were decorated " costely
and fyne", their dramatic and esthetic taste was
sufficiently satisfied.
The Pageant-Car as a " Sedes ". The relation of
these pageant-cars to each other, however, and the
relation of the sedes to the pageant-cars has been
the cause of much discussion about Corpus Christi
staging. For example, it has been held by many
scholars that, though the stationary plays — such
as the so-called Ludus Coventrice, the Digby, or
the Cornish plays — used the system of simulta-
neous scenery, of exposing two or more separate
scenes on the same stage at the same time, yet the
processional plays, such as those at Beverley,
Chester, and York, were simple in scene, — in other
words, that the pageant-wagons in the latter plays
never represented more than one place at a time,
and that, if additional sedes were needed, they were
supplied by extra stages in the streets. Or, to put
it another way, it has been maintained that the
pageant-wagon in the processional play was not re-
garded as a stage at all, but as a single sedes, or
locus, representing a fixed locality, and that the
ground about the wagon was felt to be the stage.
The purpose of this chapter is to show that the
pageant-wagon was the stage, that the separate
sedes were placed on this stage, and that none of
CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 119
our extant processional plays demand a larger ;
stage than may be met with on the pageant-wagoni J
Collier's Account. The apparent originator of /
this thus-far uncontradicted theory of Corpus
Christi staging was J. Payne Collier, whose state-
ment of his belief was as follows :
They [the plays] were acted on temporary erections of
timber, indifferently called scaffolds, stages and pageants;
and there is no doubt that in some instances they were
placed upon wheels, in order that they might be removed
to various quarters of large towns or cities, and the plays
exhibited in succession. The testimony of Archdeacon
Rogers, who wrote his account of Chester prior to the
death of Elizabeth, seems decisive upon this point, as far
as the performances there are concerned. . . . The
same authority would lead to the conclusion, that only one
scaffold, stage, or pageant, was present at the same time
in the same place, and doubtless such was the fact, ac-
cording to the arrangement of the plays to which Arch-
deacon Rogers refers. It is indisputable, however, that
the Chester Miracle-plays, as they exist in the British
Museum, could not have been so represented. Some of
the pieces require the employment of two, and even of
three scaffolds, independent of other contrivances: the
street also must have been used, as several of the char-
acters enter and go out on horseback.*
Matthews*s Account. This idea was adopted
by Mr. Brander Matthews and crystallized as
follows : —
Thus we see that in France the stations used inside the
church were set up side by side on the open-air stage out-
* History of English Dramatic Poetry, ii. 77-9.
120 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
side of the church, where they were known as mansions.
In England the stations were separated and each was
shown by itself, being called a "pageant". Sometimes
these were stationary, and sometimes they were ambula-
tory. . . . For certain of the episodes, such as the
Trial of Christ, for example, two floats were required,
and the performers passed from one to the other as the
incidents of the narrative might require.^
Chambers's Account. Mr. E. K. Chambers, in
turn, accepted the same idea: —
It [the stage on the pageant- wagon] is simply the raised
locus, sedes, or domus of the stationary play put upon
wheels. Just as the action of the stationary play took
place partly on the various sedes, partly in the platea, so
Coventry actors come and go to and from the pageant in
the street. * Here Erode ragis in the pagond & in the
strete also*, says a stage direction. It should be observed
that the plays at Coventry were exceptionally long, and
that scaffolds seem to have been attached to the pageant
proper in order to get sufficient space.®
Albright's Summary. And, finally, Mr. V. E.
Albright has accepted and summarized the com-
bined theory of the preceding writers as follows :
There are, however, certain plays in the cycles which
require two or three distinct locations with characters
travelling from one location to another. We can con-
ceive of a very spacious wagon with two or three raised
platforms on it, and the characters making a circle out in
the street when they are supposed to pass from one place
to another; or we can conceive of certain actors taking
^Modern Philology, i. 87-8.
« Mediaeval Stage, ii. 138.
CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 121
their stand in the street as though they were on raised
platforms, and passing from these spots to and from the
pageant wagon as the action requires. But there is some
evidence of another and a far more reasonable way. The
quotation from Rogers ends with the sentence, " And also
scafolds and stages [were] made in the streetes in those
places where they determined to play theire pagiantes".
Mr. Sharp, while searching " the ancient Books and Docu-
ments belonging to the Corporation [of Coventry], and
the remaining Account Books and other writings of the
Trading Companies", was constantly meeting with items
for extra scaffolds on wheels, and eventually came to the
following conclusion: "Various charges in the Pageant
Accounts demonstrate that at Coventry, as at Chester, it
^as customary to have scaffolds or stages for the accom-
modation of the spectators: a few instances will suffice: —
making of a new post to the scaffold; — a tryndyll and a
theal to ditto; — two new scaffold wheels 6s. 8d. ; — iron
pins and colters to the scaffold wheels; — boards about the
scaffold; — three boards and a ledge for the scaffold; —
clamps and iron works; — setting in of the Pageant and
scaffolds; — driving the Pageant and scaffolds. From
these items it is evident that the * scaffolds * were placed
upon wheels, and moved with the Pageant, to which it
probably was attached, as the usual charges are for * hav-
ing out of the Pageant, setting in the scaffolds: and set-
ting in of the Pageant and scaffolds' to the Pageant-
house after the performance was over". . . .
A more useful and necessary place for these Incon-
spicuous scaffolds, inconspicuous both in the processions
and in the accounts of the guilds, would be in the staging-
apparatus. One or two of these "stages" could accom-
pany the pageant that was playing a double- or treble-
scene play, and could be used in the performance in the
same way as the scaffolds around the castle in The Castle
of Perseverance. In this way a difficulty would be re-
122 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
moved in the staging of some of the more complex plays
in the processional cycles. . . .
My idea, therefore, is that the pageant wagons sufficed
in some of the plays in the processional cycles, while in
others, one or two plain scaffolds with few or no proper-
ties accompanied each pageant carriage. In certain cities,
as at Coventry, these scaffolds were placed on wheels and
drawn along with the pageants that needed them; in
others, as at Chester, they were "made in the streetes in
those places where they determined to play theire
pagiantes". In both cases they were arranged at a dis-
tance of fifty to seventy-five feet from the main carriage.
The spectacular scene took place on the pageant wagon,
and the unscenic one or two on the scaffold or scaffolds
near by; and the characters passed freely from one to the
other, doing part of the acting on the plateae, just as in
the stationary play.^
In other words, if the present writer has cor-
rectly interpreted the four authors quoted, they
regard the pageant-wagon of the processional play
as equivalent to a single sedes, or to the platea, in
the church or on the stationary stage, rather than
to the stage itself. A pageant-wagon, for instance,
that corresponded to a sedes would be used for
what Mr. Albright terms a " spectacular ", or
propertied, scene, and one that corresponded to a
platea would be used for unpropertied and un-
located scenes. The same stage would always
represent one and the same fixed locality and could
never be used at the same time for two distinct and
definitely located places; and if any play required
f Shaksperian Stage, pp. 25-7.
CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 123
two or more propertied sedes, then extra pageants
or extra scaffolds were procured to supply the need
for keeping the locations separate. Oddly enough
there is no evidence that the processional plays
were ever so staged...
Basis of the Theory. The only apparently
genuine evidence substantiating this view consists
of the two passages cited by Mr. Albright from.
Sharp and the Rogers Breviary of Chester. But,
as a matter of fact, the testimony which these pas-
sages have been supposed to contain can not be found
when the passages are subjected to a critical exam-
ination. Sharp's account, to be sure, is just as
Mr. Albright has given it, but, as Professor Manly
has pointed out to the present writer, Mr. Albright
has failed to notice that Sharp does not distinguish
between the earlier Coventry pageants and the new
play of the Destruction of Jerusalem in 1584, or
that, without exception, every reference to a scaf-
fold in the accounts as given by Sharp in his Cov-
entry Mysteries occurs after 1580, the last year
in which the ancient Corpus Christi pageants
were presented. There are items before 1581,
plenty of them, " for drynkynge at the pagent
in havinge forthe ", for " the reparellynge of
the pagantte and the expences of havyng it in
and f urthe ", for bringing the pageant " in to gos-
ford-stret ", " for the horssyng of the padgeant ",
" for swepyng the pagent & dressyng ", for " pe
havynge out & settynge in of the pageand ", and for
124 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
numerous other expenses of a similar nature. But
in not a single case is there any mention of an
additional scaffold before 1584, when the Destruc-
tion of Jerusalem was given. As soon as that year
is reached, however, we find immediately payments
made " to Cookeson for makynge of a whele to the
skaffolde ", " for the settinge & drivinge off the
pagyn & skaffoldes ", " for mendynge off the skaf-
folds ", and for other items of the same kind.
" Destruction of Jerusalem ". On the other hand
an examination of the accounts for the Destruction
of Jerusalem discloses the fact that a huge stage
must have been needed, a much larger one than
could be carried through the streets on wheels.
Hence the use of the scaffolds, — to lengthen or
widen the old stage and to allow room for more
sedes on the same platform. For instance, in the
expense accounts for the Destruction of Jerusalem
we find that the smiths' musicians accompanied
their wagon and played " on theyre instruments in
the Pagent ". Of these musicians there were a
trumpeter, a flute-player, " ij drumme players ",
and a chorus of we know not how many voices.
In addition, there were twelve characters, besides
the soldiers, — six of the actors, however, playing
double parts. Some of the players were arrayed
in Irish mantles; there was a storm and thunder;
and a temple, probably Solomon's, was somewhere
on the stage. The cappers, too, had a temple,
twelve soldiers in red coats, six musicians besides
CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 125
a trumpeter, and probably other things in propor-
tion. So one may justly say that the Destruction J
of Jerusalem was a play with far more " business " /
than the simple Corpus Christi pageants and mu^
consequetatly have necessitated far more playiiig
space. And it seems fair to conclude that the y
extra scaffolds, of which numerous mentions are [
found in 1584 and later, but not before, must have \
been to afford this extra space.
Rogers's Statement. Again: Mr. Albright
has cited the supposed statement of Archdeacon
Rogers of Chester that "scafoldes and stages
[were] made in the streetes in those places where
they determined to playe theire pagiantes ". /
Ordish, too, called attention to the same statement \
in his Early London Theatres^ some years ago.
But here again a careful examination of the evi-
dence will show not only that its authenticity is
questionable, but that probability is overwhelmingly
against its evidence being accepted as reliable for
matters of detail connected with the staging of the
Corpus Christi plays. And there are three definite
reasons why it cannot be entirely relied upon : (i)
we cannot be certain whether Robert Rogers or his
son wrote the material about " ye whitson playes " ;
(2) we cannot be sure that either father or son ever
saw a Corpus Christi play presented; and (3) if the
father was writing about the cycles as he saw them,
the probability is that he was describing them as
8 p. 10.
126 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
he last saw them, which was the last time they
were presented at Chester, 1574, when they were
given, not regularly, but all in " on part of the
Citty".
(i) The authority of the Rogers's Breviary
cannot be trusted for minute details with regard to
the staging of the Whitson plays, because we can
not tell what part was the work of the Archdeacon
and what of his son. For example, Harl. MS 1948
tells us that the collections in the " breauarye " of
Chester were " collected by the Reuerend : mr Rob-
ert Rogers, Batchlor in Diuinitye, Archdeacon of
Chester, and Prebunde in the Cathedrall Church
of Chester " and were written " per Dauid
Rogers: 1609: July: 3". Now the Archdeacon
died in 1595, and it is noteworthy that the Breviary,
written by his son in 1609, fourteen years after
his father's death, certainly contains matter sub-
sequent to 1595. Hence one cannot say what or
how much of the matter in the MSS was " col-
lected " by the father. Hence, too, it is possible
that the matter concerning the pageants may not
have been collected by the father, but that it may
have been written by the son from mere traditions
of old Corpus Christi days. And hence, finally,
we certainly cannot "rely entirely on the material
about the Whitson plays for matters of minute de-
tail, such as the exact use of the stages on the
Corpus Christi stage.
(2) We cannot be sure that either the father or
CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 127
the son ever saw a Corpus Christi play presented.
For example, their Breviary says of the plays in
1574, the last year they were given: —
These 7 pagiantes weare played vpon ye third dayc,
beinge wensedaye; & these whitson playes weare played
in Chester anno domini : 1574: Sr lohn Sauage, knight,
beinge Mayor of Chester, which was the laste tyme'they
weare played. And we haue all cause to power out our
prayeres before God, that neither we nor oure posterities
after us, maye neuer see ye like abomination of desolation,
with such a Clowde of Ignorance to defyle with so highe
a hand ye sacred scriptures of God: But of ye mercye
of oure God for ye tyme of oure Ignorance he regardes it
not: and thus much in briefe of ye whitson playes.®
Here then we find the writer of this document
violently and religiously opposed to the pageants;
and, having such scruples, it is more than doubtful
whether he could ever have allowed himself to be
present at an actual presentation of any of the
plays. If it were the Archdeacon writing, he prob-
ably had seen the scaffolds in the streets in 1574,
whether for spectators, musicians, or what, he did
not know, — but it is very probable that he had not
been at the plays ; and to him the platforms in the
streets were both " scafoldes and stages ", though
their exact use he did not know.
(3) If Archdeacon Rogers was the writer, it
would seem probable that he must have had in
mind the last presentation of the Corpus Christi
® Furnivall, Digby Mysteries, pp. xxii-iii.
128 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
plays at Chester in 1574; for in that year, we learn
, from Randle Holme's collections, '' The whitson
^ playes [were] played in pageantes in the Cittye: at
midsomer, to the great dislike of many, because the
playe was in on part of the Citty ".^^ And if the
pageants were given in one place in the city, being,
moreover, a revival after a lapse of three years and
\ on that account probably presented with greater
i eclat than ever before, it is not impossible that
extra scaffolds and stages were really built in the
streets for the spectators, the musicians, etc., and
hence that Rogers in referring to the pageants was
/ thinking of them on this one occasion of twenty
/ or twenty-five years before and writing of them as
/ they had appeared in all the splendor of prepara-
f tion for what had proved to be their final perform-
j ance.
/ To state the case quite fairly, then : it seems that
/ any evidence drawn from the Rogers document,
V even if there were no other grounds to the contrary
j — as there are, — is entirely too flimsy to be the basis
of a whole theory on Corpus Christi staging.
i Sharp's account at Coventry has been shown to
\ apply only to a special non-Corpus Christi play,
\ the Destruction of Jerusalem, and the Rogers
I Breviary, if written by the elder man, would seem
I to refer, not only to pageants which the writer of
I the document had probably not seen, but to the ir-
\ regular revived pageants of a particular year, 1574,
\ 10 Furnivall, Digby Mysteries, p. xxvi n.
\
CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 129
when all the scenes, after an interval of three years,
during which no plays had been produced, were
presented '* in on part of the Citty ".
This evidence seems all the more untrustworthy,
too, when we come to consider that in all the exist-
ing records and accounts of the plays, records and
accounts which extend over two hundred years of
time, no other mention whatever, so far as the
present writer has been able to discover, is to be
found of extra stages and scaffolds. And it seems
both inconceivable that a thory of any con-
sequence could have been built on so slight a basis
and, hence, fortunate that a large amount of other
evidence is at hand to prove conclusively that extra
stages were not needed, that more than one located
scene was to be found on a single stage, and,
therefore, that the processional wagon was re-
garded as the stage itself rather than as a simple
sedes.
The Wakefield Plays. In discussing this
phase of the staging of the Corpus Christi plays
references will be made freely to those of the
Wakefield cycle, even though they seem, from the
MS that has come down to us, undoubtedly to have
been produced on stationary platforms. For
example, in the Killing of Ah el the Garcio says:
Now old and yong, or that ye weynd.
The same blissyng withoutten end,
All sam then shall ye haue.^^ — 11. 443-5.
11 Cf. Ebert, Die englischen Mysterien, p. 66 n.
130 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
From this speech of Cain's servant it seems clear
that the plays of the Towneley cycle, like those of
the Digby Conversion of St. Paul, were produced
on a fixed stage and that the audience moved from
one scaffold to another as the scenes succeeded each
other.
On the other hand, however, it seems fair to
refer to the plays of the Towneley cycle for
methods of presentation because they were pro-
duced by the craftsmen of Wakefield just as in
other towns, because several of the scenes have
been shown by Miss Smith and Mr. Pollard to be
practically identical with the corresponding scenes
in the York cycle, and because in other points of
technique, conventions, etc., these plays show that
they are of the regular Corpus Christi type. There-
fore it may be fairly assumed that the Wakefield
plays developed regularly, just as the other Corpus
Christi cycles did, but that they have gone one step
in advance of the other plays and have become
stationary in order to accommodate themselves to
the necessities of the annual Wakefield fair.^*
Hence we may be entirely justified in referring to
the Wakefield plays for evidence as to methods of
presentation.
Stationary and Processional Stages. Like-
wise evidence as to methods of presentation will
be adduced from the Norwich pageants and other
plays given on movable stages, whether those stages
1* Cf. Chambers, Mediaeval Stage, ii. 416.
CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 131
during the action were placed on a street corner,
or in the market-place, or in a play-field, " play-
stool ", or any definite playing-place where the
crowds of people might be shut off and money
collected for entrance. This distinction is to be
made, because some, like Mr. Osborn Water-
house,^^ have been confused through failure to dis-
tinguish between the two. For example, Mr.
Waterhouse says of the Norwich grocers' pag-
eant-wagon : " The pageant itself was * a Howse
of Waynskott, paynted and buylded on a
Carte, with fowre whelys', which latter, on stub-
born occasions, were lubricated with soap ".^*
And yet he says of the playing-place : " In 1489,
a Corpus Christi procession was held, and the
pageants were taken in procession ad capell in
Campis Norwici; but we are not definitely in-
formed whether the plays were actually performed
at that time and at that place: it is however very
probable. . . . The only reference to a place of
performance known to us is the somewhat vague
one mentioned above in connection with the proces-
sion, and, so far as we know, there is no authority
for believing that the plays at Norwich went in
circuit and were played at * stations ' in different
parts of the town. Probability is in favour of a
stationary place of performance, as was the case
with the Coventry plays, the Cornish plays, and the
^3 Non-Cycle Mystery Plays, pp. xxxi-xxxii.
^*Ibid., p. xxxii. Cf. the description in this volume, p.
87.
132 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
plays at Reading, Shrewsbury and Edinburgh ".^*
Now Mr. Waterhouse's trouble comes from a
failure to recognize clearly the difference between
a processional stage and a stationary one; for,
while the underlying principle of the two kinds of
staging was the same, the viewpoint and the stages
themselves were very different. He failed to
notice, however, that if a pageant-car were used
and the play given at a definite station on a street
corner, the action must necessarily be the same
as if the wagon were taken to a play-field and
the scene presented from the same stage there.
The only difference was that the crowd could be
shut off and admission prices charged in the one
case, whereas in the other, on the street corner, this
could not be done.
Simultaneous Scenery. In the following pages
of this chapter, then, the plan will be to cite in
detail evidence from the plays of Wakefield, Nor-
wich, Coventry, and other cycles of processional
plays and to show that the presentation of these
plays cannot be explained on any other principle
than that of simultaneous scenery, with the
pageant-car as a stage rather than as a sedes. The
term " simultaneous scenery ", too, will be used to
mean the presence on the pageant-stage of two
distinct and separately located scenes, both of
which are visible and present to the audience at
the same time. And by " multiple representation "
^^ Non-Cycle Mystery Plays, pp. xxxi-xxxii.
CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 133
will be meant the simultaneous presence on the
stage of actors in simultaneously decorated scenes
that are supposed to be more or less distant from
each other.
Pageant Large Enough. First of all, it must
be recognized that the regular pageant stages, with
the help of the street in some exceptional cases,
were large enough to present any of the plays that
have come down to us. We have heard always
that the pageant-cars were big and spacious, and
Archdeacon Rogers's, or his son's, statement that
the carriages " stoode vpon 6 wheeles " would in-
dicate that they must have been very large, so large
that an extra pair of wheels was needed to support
the weight of the wagon in the center. To this
may be added the evidence, slight though it be, of
the " parcel of land in Mill Lane ", Coventry,
" 30j^ feet wide and yoy^ long ", on which the
weavers' pageant-house was erected. Such evi-
dence, it is true, can be regarded only as negative,
but it is worth noting that a space of ground of
this size would offer ample room for a pageant-
wagon large enough to stage any of the cyclic
plays.
" Sedes " on the Stages. In the second place, at-
tention should be called to the fact that we have
positive evidence of sedes on the Corpus Christi
stages. Sharp prints the following record of
boards bought for the angels' sedes ("pulpits"
they are called here) in the Coventry drapers' play
of Doomsday:
\
134 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
1565. — payd for iiij yards of boorde to make
pulpytts for the angells viijd
payd for a pece of wode to make feete
for them iiijd
payd to the carpenters for makyng ij
pulpytts &c iiij si®
Too much stress cannot be laid on this entry; for
we have here a definite reference to the two
separate sedes for the good and the bad angels at
Doomsday. " iiij yards of boorde " could not have
made scaffolds for these angels; therefore we may
suppose that this lumber must have been meant for
the regular pageant sedes.
Coventry " Purification ". The Coventry Puri-
fication of Mary also furnishes indisputable evi-
dence of the use of both raised sedes and simul-
taneous scenery in its presentation. As there is
nothing in the first part of the play that necessitates
the use of sedes, we may pass over that and take up
the action at the point where Simeon goes from
his home to that of his clerks, to inform them of
the coming of Christ. In the course of the conver-
sation which ensues at the clerks' sedes, Simeon
and one of the clerks make the following remarks
about decorating the temple for the visit of Christ :
Clarecus. Then hast we this alter to araye
And clothis off onowre theron to laye
Ande the grownde straw we with flowris gay
Thatt of oddur swetely smellis.
"^^ Coventry Mysteries, p. 71,
CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 135
Semeon. And when he aprochis nere this
place,
Syng then with me thatt conyng hasse
And the othur the meyne space
for joie rynge ye the belHs. — 11. 359-66.
There Semeon and his Clarks gothe vp to the tempull
and Gaberell cumyth to the tempull dore and seyth [that
Mary must come now and make her offering,]
Here we have Simeon and his clerk referring to
the altar as if it were plainly visible and im-
mediately at hand (" this alter ", " when he
aprochis nere this place"), whereas they are both
supposedly some distance away and ought not to be
able to see the altar inside the temple. And that
the temple and altar — they are both spoken of as
one and the same thing — are on a raised sedes, is
evidenced by the fact that "Semeon and his
Clarks gothe vp to the tempull ". If the temple
were on the pageant- wagon and the clerks' locus
on a scaffold across the street, as Mr. Albright
would have us believe, the direction would be
" gothe over ", not " gothe vp ".
But there are still other references to the eleva-
tion of this sedes above the rest of the stage.
When Joseph and Mary approach the temple, the
direction reads: Here the [Simeon and his clerks]
cum downe with presession to mete them. And
other stage-directions are: There Mare and
Josoff de partis owt of the vpper parte of the
pagand (after 1. 704) ; There the all goo vp to the
136 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
awter and lesus before (after 1. 805) ; There the
goo done into the for pagond and lesus steylyth
awey (after 1. 814). Likewise the speech of
Mary after 1. 1028 shows the elevation of the
temple sedes: —
[Mary.] See, husebond, where he syttyth
aloft
Amonge yondur masturs soo moche off myght.
— 11. 1029-30.
The definiteness of these references led Sharp
to the following conclusions : " The preceding di-
rections, and extract from Mary's speech to her
husband, evidently show that there were two floors
or stages in the Pageant vehicle, one somewhat
higher than the other, and representing an interior
view of the Temple, as it should seem, and whereon
a considerable portion of the play was performed.
It must not, however, be understood that one of
these floors was above, i. e. over the other, but that
when the scene lay in the Temple, the performers
ascended by one or more steps to the back division
of the stage, which . . . was probably fitted up so
as to favour this supposed change of place ".^^
Another reference to the raised sedes on the
stage is to be found in the Towneley Caesar Au-
gustus, where, when Sirinus comes to visit Caesar,
the latter says: —
1^ iVeavers' Pageant, p. 14.
CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 137
Imperator. Welcom, sir syrynne, to this hall,
Besyde my self here sytt thou shall,
Come vp belyf to me. — 11. 154-6.
And the " selldall for god " mentioned in the
Coventry smiths' accounts for 1560,^® although
Sharp thought it " perhaps the settle or seat on
which Christ was placed in mock dignity, in the
interval between his condemnation and cruci-
fixion ", may have been a special sedes for Christ.
Crucifixion Scenes. And, finally, attention
may be called to the fact that crucifixion scenes
were customarily represented on a raised sedes.
In the York shearmen's Christ Led up to Calvary
John and Maria Sancta go up to Calvary, but are
run " doune pe hill " by the soldiers.^® Likewise
in the butchers' Death and Burial of Christ we find
Pilate going to visit the body of the crucified Christ
and referring to him on " gone hill ". And the
robber crucified on Christ's left asks him.
If pou be Goddis sone so free.
Why hyng pou pus on pis hille? — 11. 196-7.
In the Chester Passion Christ is led versus montem
Calvariae; and in the ironmongers' Crucifixion,
when Symon of Syrrye is found on the way to
Calvary, he is bidden to come
18 Sharp, Coventry Mysteries, pp. 26-7.
i» Smith, York Plays, p. 344, 1. 210.
138 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
And take this crosse anon in hye,
Unto the mounte of Calverye.^^
These crucifixion scenes probably were trebly
influenced in being thus placed on a raised locus
always. The convention of elevated sedes, as
Chambers has shown, had been inherited from the
church liturgical plays, in which the crucifix cus-
tomarily stood above the altar. But, in addition to
this influence, the Englishmen of the fifteenth cen-
tury, almost all of whom were Catholic, were ac-
customed to seeing the crucifix regularly in an
exalted place above the high altar of the church.
And, finally, when we remember the common tradi-
tion that the crucifixion took place on a hill, it
seems reasonable to suppose that this treble influ-
ence must have had its weight in putting the cruci-
fixion -scenes on raised sedes in the pageant-wagons.
Thus we have found what seems incontrovert-
ible evidence of the use of individual, raised sedes
on the Corpus Christi stages and, hence, evidence
that the wagons were regarded as stages rather
than as separate sedes. Our evidence so far, how-
ever, does not prove that simultaneous representa-
tion was used. It remains now, therefore, to
prove, not only that individual sedes were used on
the Corpus Christi wagons, but that two or more
20 Wright, Chester Plays, ii. 51. The phrase, "in hye"
(in haste), of course has nothing to do with the point in
question.
CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 139
of these sedes were to be found decorated and
visible on one pageant-wagon at the same time.
York " Purification of Mary ". Let us look first
at the York Purification of Mary, where two sedes,
one for the temple at Jerusalem and one for
Joseph's house at Bethlehem, were so close together
on the same stage as to cause actual confusion in
the MS. The play opens with the Prisbeter in the
temple at Jerusalem telling us that he is there to
receive all offerings brought into the temple.
Anna, too, abides in the temple day and night, and
she prophesies that Christ will soon be brought into
the temple. The scene then shifts to Simeon's
house in Jerusalem, where the old man is bewailing
his age and feebleness and praying God that he
may see the Christ before he dies. At this point
an angel enters and promises him that he shall see
Jesus. Then the scene shifts to the house of Mary
and Joseph at Bethlehem, beginning as follows :
Mary. Joseph, my husbonde and my feer,
Ye take to me grathely entent,
I wyll you showe in this manere,
What I wyll do, thus haue I ment.
Full xl days is comme and went
Sens that my babb Jesu was borne,
Therefore I wolde he were present,
As Moyses lawes sais hus beforne.
Here in this temple before Goddes sight. —
11. 187-95.
140 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
After some debate and hesitation they decide to
go, and at line 270, to show that they have not yet
started, we find: —
Mar. Joseph, my spowse, ye say full trewe,
Than lett vs dresse hus furth our way.
To which Joseph replies :
Jos. Go we than Mary, and do oure dewe.
And make meekly offerand this day.
11. 272-3.
But immediately in the next line, he says, " Lo,
here is the temple ", etc.; and they enter and offer
their two doves. Then the scene changes again
and shows us Simeon's house, or sedes, with an
angel bidding him get ready and come to the
temple, where he shall see Christ ; and he goes and
receives the child.
According to Mr. Albright's theory, the temple
in this scene must have been on one stage, probably
the pageant-wagon because that was certainly
propertied, while Simeon's and Joseph's houses
must have been represented by separate scaffolds
" at a distance of fifty to seventy-five feet from
the main carriage ".^^ But this theory is proved to
be absolutely untenable by line 195, where Mary,
while still in her house in Bethlehem, refers to the
21 Albright, Shaksperian Stage, p. 27.
CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 141
temple in Jerusalem as " Here in this temple before
Goddes sight ". Miss L. T. Smith observed this
incongruity in the staging and characterized it as
" probably a slip due to the fact that Bethlehem
and the temple were near together on the stage 'V'
which must have been the case. For, in addition
to the indication in Mary's speech that the temple
is " here ", immediately on their leaving their home
in Bethlehem we find them at the temple and pre-
paring to enter, thus showing that the two sedes
must have been immediately adjacent to each other
on the same stage. Certainly Mr. Albright's
theory of a distance of fifty or seventy-five feet
cannot be held for a moment ; for they could never
have left one stage, walked a distance of twenty
yards or more, and yet have confused the two
sedes with each other.
Likewise, it cannot be doubted for a moment that
the scenes in this play of the Purification of Mary
were decorated and represented simultaneously.
One instance only will suffice. When Joseph and
Mary have entered the 4:emple, offered their doves,
and Anna has welcomed the blessed babe " here
in this hall ", she suddenly breaks off in her speech
of welcome and the action begins in Simeon's house
with the angel bidding Simeon come to the temple
to see Jesus. Here, then, we have two simul-
taneous scenes, the angel and Simeon at one sedes
and the Prisbeter, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus at
22 York Plays, p. 439 n.
142 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
(/another; and the temple scene has to wait till
j I Simeon can get there to hail the babe and the
I mother.
York " Adoration ". The York Adoration begins
with the three Magi meeting on their way to
Bethlehem. Jerusalem comes first in their journey,
however ; so they decide to stop at Herod's court in
Jerusalem to get his permission to pass through
the land. The three kings are here dropped in the
midst of their journey and the scene shifts to
Herod's seat, where a nuntius announces the pres-
ence of the Magi in the land and their coming to
the court. At this Herod exclaims :
Herod. Haue done; dresse vs in riche array,
And ilke man make tham mery chere. —
11. 91-2.
The Magi now arrive and beg Herod's permission
to seek the Christ. He at first refuses, but on the
advice of one of his counsellors changes his mind
and decides to let them go, but with the promise
that they will report to him when they have found
Jesus, he thinking that he himself may thus find
out the Christ and put him to death. Then Herod
says:
Sir kyngis, I halde me paide
Of all youre purpose playne.
Wendis furth, youre forward to fulfill,
To Bedlem, it is but here at hande. — 11. 191 -4.
CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 143
Herod, let it be noted, is in Jerusalem at his court,
and yet he speaks of Bethlehem as " here at hande ",
— not over yonder on the other platform, but here
on the other end of this stage. Then the three
kings depart and Herod begins rejoicing over the
trap he has laid, concluding his speech as follows :
Go we nowe, till pei come agayne,
To playe vs in som othir place.
This halde I gud counsaill,
Yitt wolde I no man wist;
For sertis, we shall not faill
To loyse pam as vs list. — 11. 211-16.
Then occurs the direction: " Nota, the Harrod
passeth, and the iij kynges comyth agayn to make
there offerynges ". Accordingly they enter, ex-
claiming that they have lost their sign, the star;
but on finding it immediately, they go to the other
end of the stage and make their offerings to the
child in the manger. Then the scene closes with
an angel warning them to go home by another route
and not to see Herod any more.
The point of chief interest to us about this scene
is that Herod's court in Jerusalem and the stable in
Bethlehem must both have been on the same stage
and visible at the same time. Why else should it
be necessary for Herod to retire before the three
kings enter again ? That Jerusalem and Bethlehem
were both on the same stage is shown both by the
144 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
fact that Herod retires before the three kings come
again and by Herod's reference to Bethlehem as
" here at hande " ; and that they were presented
simultaneously must be admitted from the speech
of the first king: —
i Rex. Sir, of felashippe are we fayne,
Now sail we wende forth all in feere,
God graunte vs or we come agayne
Som gode hartyng per-of to here.
Sir, here is Jerusalem,
To wisse vs als we goo,
And be-yonde is Bedleem,
per schall we seke alsoo. — 11 53-60.
These lines indicate clearly three places, two of
them simultaneously decorated: Jerusalem, Beth-
lehem, and the meeting-place of the Magi. The
evidence, however, as to how these loca were repre-
sented is less clear. It seems probable that Beth-
lehem was a house in which were Joseph, Mary, a
maid, and the child in a manger. This much may
be surmised from the popular conception of the
scene, as well as from the speeches of the maid and
the three kings at the door of the stable. —
i Rex. A! siris! I se it [the star] stande
A-boven where he is borne,
Lo ! here is pe house at hande.
We haue nojt myste pis morne.
CORPUS CHRISTl STAGING 145
[Maid comes to the door.]
Anc. Whame seke ge syrs, be wayes wilde,
With talkyng, trauelyng to and froo?
Her wonnes a woman with her childe,
And hir husband; her ar no moo. — 11. 225-32.
This house scene would be unintelligible without
decorations of some kind, especially since the Magi
do not come at once upon the holy family, but meet
the maid first, probably at the door of the house.
And as to the localization of the Jerusalem, or
Herod, sedcs, there is even less definite evidence;
but we may suppose that at least a throne for
Herod was used and that this was placed between
the Bethlehem locus and the platea where the three
kings come together; for the first king when they
meet speaks of Jerusalem as " here " and Beth-
lehem " be-yonde ". This would locate the platea
at one end, Herod's throne in the middle, and
Joseph's stable at the other end of the wagon.
There is another question raised by this play:
Were the holy family and Herod and his followers
on the stage from the beginning? If they were,
the matter of simultaneous scenery is settled at
once; and it seems more than probable that they
were; for no mention of an entrance is made any-
where — none is needed after the beginning of the
play, provided they were all already in their seats,
— and the only exit made is that of Herod.
146 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
Herod's exit is entirely understandable, however,
since he has no further part in the play and since
the three kings must pass by his sedes, even if they
go home " be other waies ". And since, too, his
exit is noted in the directions, it is entirely con-
sistent vi^ith his having been on the stage from the
beginning of the scene.
Entrances and Exits. And while we are on
the subject of exits, mention may be made of the
system of entrances and exits in the Coventry
shearmen and tailors' play. Some of the stage-
directions are as follows: Here the angell de-
partyth, and Joseff cumyth in (after 1. 99) ; There
the scheppardis syngith ageyne and goth fori he of
the place; and the ij profettis cumyth in (after 1.
331); There the profettis gothe furthe and Erod
cumyth in, and the messenger (after 1. 474) ; Here
Erod goth awey and the iij kyngis speykyth in the
strete (after 1. 539) ; Here Erode cumyth in ageyne
(after 1. 602) ; etc. The question may be legiti-
mately asked again here: If Mr. Albright's
adopted theory is correct and there were extra
stages and scaffolds for the representation of the
scenes, why should entrances and exits be found
necessary ? The answer plainly is not to be found
in such a theory as that advanced by Mr. Albright.
On the contrary, the answer is to be found only in
the fact that there was a single pageant-stage,
which the dramatists found too small to contain all
the sedes necessary for a proper representation of
CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 147
their plays. The result was that they were com-
pelled to remove the actors from their limited
stage, in order to present adequately this play of
the annunciation, the visit to Elizabeth, Joseph's
trouble about Mary, the nativity, etc.
Chester " Entry into Jerusalem ". But our evi-
dence does not stop here. The Chester cycle has
many indications o! simultaneous scenery and of
the pageant-wagon as a stage rather than as a
sedes. The fourteenth play, Christ's Entry into
Jerusalem, begins with Christ telling his disciples
that they will go to Bethany, whither they have
been invited by Simon the Leper. Peter and
Philip reply, and then comes the stage-direction:
Tunc ibunt versus domum Simonis Leprosi.
Simon, Lazarus, and Martha welcome Christ and
Tunc Jesus sedehit, et omnes cum eo, et veniet
Maria Magdelena, cum albastro unguenti, et
lamentando die at Maria Magdelena. Mary washes
the feet of her Lord, Judas objects to the waste of
the ointment, and Tunc surget Jesu, et stando dicat
discipulis suis ut sequitur.
Jesus.
Petter and Phillipe, my brethren free
Before you a castill you maie see:
Goe you theider, and feche anon to me
An asse and her fole also. . . .
Tunc ibunt in civitatem, et dicat primuz
janitor.
148 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
Peter and Philip get the donkey and return to
Jesus, and the Janitor announces the coming of
Christ to the citizens, who go to meet him, singing
" Hosanna ", etc. Tunc Jesus equitabit versus
civitatem, et omnes cives pannos suos in via pro-
sternent, et cum venerit ad templum descendens de
asina dicat vendentibus cum flagello:
Doe awaye, and use not this thinge,
For it is not my likinge ;
You make my fathers dwellinge
A place of merchandise.
Primus marcator.
What frecke is this that makes fare.
And casteth downe all our ware?
Come no man heither full yare,
That did us suche anoye.
Secundus marcator,
Owte ! out I woes me !
My table with my moneye
Is spread abrode.
The rest of the play does not serve our present
purpose, but this much is sufficient to show the use
of simultaneous scenery on the pageant-stage.
And it shows itself, too, in direct contradiction to
CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 149
Mr. Albright's theory of one propertied locus and
all the others bare ; for in this play two of the sedes
were certainly propertied. The house of Simon,
for instance, had seats for Jesus and his disciples
and must therefore have been a permanently dec-
orated sedes. Likewise, the temple must have been
propertied; for the first seller speaks of having all
his " ware " cast down, and the second seller refers
to the table on which his money was spread. Fur-
thermore, the temple as a whole must have been
indicated by a definite enclosure from which the
sellers could be driven. In fact, it would be dififi-
cult to find a play showing clearer evidence of the
necessity of simultaneous scenery, or one more
directly in opposition to Mr. Albright's theory.
The Chester "Passion". The evidence for
simultaneous scenery in the Chester Passion is de-
finite and clear, although Mr. Albright has included
this play among those which he thinks would
illustrate his theory. Of this scene he says :
Chester, Passion of Christ. Christ is sent from the
Bishops (one scaffold) to Pilate (on the pageant wagon,
because most of the action takes place there), who in turn
sends him to Herod (another scaffold). He is soon re-
turned to Pilate (pageant), where the trial, final judg-
ment, and long scenes of torture follow.^s
On the contrary, all the actual evidence as to the
staging of this pageant is opposed to Mr. Albright's
view, as is clear from an analysis of the play.
^^ Shakes per ian Stage, p. 28.
150 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
The scene opens with Christ and the Jews at the
hall of Annas and Caiaphas, where Christ is accused
and tortured. The stage-direction states: Tunc
Judei statuent Jesum in cathedram; et dicat tor-
quendo Primus Judeus. Christ is next led to
Pilate's hall {Tunc Cayphas et Annas et Judei ad-
ducant Jesum ad Py latum) ; then to Herod {ad
Herodem) ; and finally back to Pilate {ad Pilatum),
where he is despoiled of his clothing and tied to a
column {Tunc spoliabunt ipsum et ligabunt ad
columnam) .
These stage-directions point clearly to three dif-
ferent sedes in this play, the halls of Annas and
Caiaphas, Pilate, and Herod. It would seem prob-
able that these places were represented by chairs,
or thrones, or some such property as would fittingly
symbolize the rank and dignity of the rulers. It is
certain, however, that Annas and Caiaphas's and
Pilate's sedes must have been decorated and visible
at the same time; for Christ is made to sit in a
chair {in cathedram) at the Annas-and-Caiaphas
sedes and is bound to a column of some kind {ad
columnam) at Pilate's. And since Pilate had to
remain in his seat, in order to be there when the
Jews and Christ returned from Herod, it cannot be
doubted that the play was multiple and simulta-
neous in both scenery and representation.
The Chester "Ascension". Play XXI of the
Chester cycle presents the Ascension and affords
clear evidence of the simultaneous representation
CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 151
of two propertied scenes. The play begins with a
speech by Christ : —
My brethren that sitten in companye.
With peace I greete you hartelye. — 11. 1-2.
Christ eats with his disciples later at this sedes
(comedit Jesus cum discipulis suis), and we may
believe that he, too, sits with them, probably about
a table. Then, after the meal is finished, the stage-
direction reads: Tunc adducit discipulos in Beth-
aniam, et cum pervenerit ad locum ascendens dicat
Jesus, stans in loco ubi ascendit. Data est michi
omnis potestas in celo et in terra. From here he
ascends into heaven, but while in mid-air he stops
and speaks to his disciples: Cum autem imple-
verit Jesus canticum, stet in medio quasi supra
nubes. . . . Jesus autem pausans eodem loco dicat.
This outline and these directions afford con-
clusive proof of the multiple representation of two
propertied scenes. In the first scene a table and
some chairs must certainly have been present; and
in the second some device, probably a windlass,^*
was used, so that Christ could ascend to heaven
and yet stop midway {supra nubes) for a final ex-
hortation to his disciples. And since both the
sedes were furnished with permanent properties,
the play was multiple throughout.
Towneley Cycle. A sufficient number of
2* Cf. Sharp, Coventry Mysteries, pp. 47 and 72.
152 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
examples has probably been given already to prove
conclusively that more than one simultaneous, dec-
orated scene v^as to be found on a single Corpus
Christi stage and that the pageant- wagon was itself
the whole stage. But for the sake of showing the
uniform principles of representation in all the
cycles it is necessary to consider the Towneley
series as well.
Towneley " Creation '* . The Towneley Creation
begins with the narration and symbolical represen-
tation by God of the events of the first five days of
the world. At the end of the fifth day God halts
in his narration sufficiently to allow the Cherubyn
to praise him at length for his wondrous works.
Then occurs the stage-direction : hie deus recedit a
suo solio & lucifer sedebit in eodem solio. Next
follow Lucifer's growing pride and ambition and
the overthrow of him and his hosts into hell.
Then, after their fall, the first angel exclaims :
Alas, alas, and wele-wo!
lucifer, whi fell thou so?
We, that were angels so fare,
and sat so hie aboue the ayere.
Now ar we waxen blak as any coyll.
—11. 132-6.
God now proceeds to the creation of man, which
he accomplishes by the mere act of touching
him. —
CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 153
[Deus.] now make we man to oure liknes,
that shall be keper of more & les,
of fowles, and fysh in flood. Et tanget eutn.
spreyte of life I in the blaw,
good and ill both shall thou knaw ;
rise vp, and stand bi me. — 11. 165-70.
Then God creates woman and decides to put the
pair into paradise. So he says to his angel, who
has not been concerned in the action involving the
creation of man and woman :
[Deus.] Ryse vp, myn angell cherubyn,
Take and leyd theym both in,
And leyf them there in peasse. — 11. 195-7.
Tunc capit cherubyn adam per manum, etc.
The man and the woman are then led into paradise
and the play ends with a hell-scene which explains
that man was made to take the place of the fallen
angels.
This play has been cited because of the passage
showing the custom of the actors remaining on the
stage when not in action, as well as for its evi-
dence of the use of multiple scenery. When God
has need of the angel, there is no direction, " Enter
Angel ", thereby indicating that the actor has been
off the stage ; but God commands, " Ryse vp, myn
angell cherubyn ", showing that the character has
been sitting in his locus waiting for his time to play.
154 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
From this play we may see also that multiple dec-
oration must have been used on the Wakefield
stage. Hell was represented; the angel had a
locus; God had a throne into which Lucifer climbed
while the Father was away; and Paradise was at
least decorated with a tree and some sort of en-
closure from which the man and woman might be
driven. The whole is a clear example of the use
of multiple decorations.
The Towneley " Conspiracy ". One other scene
from this cycle will suffice. The Conspiracy is a
long play including the Last Supper, the agony
in the garden of Gethsemane, and the betrayal of
Christ. It begins in Pilate's hall, where Judas
enters and bargains to betray his master. Then
Pilate says :
Pilatus. we shall hym haue, and that in hy,
ffull hastely here in this hall.
Sir knyghtys, that ar of dede dughty,
stynt neuer in stede ne stall,
Bot looke ye bryng hym hastely,
that fatur fals, what so befall. — 11. 306-11.
Then the action at this sedes, Pilate's hall, ceases,
and Pilate and his group remain silent for a space
of about two hundred lines. The question im-
mediately arises: Do they remain in their places,
histrionically invisible, or do they actually leave the
stage? We have found in the play just discussed
CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 155
that the actors kept their seats, and we shall see
later in this volume ^^ that they regularly kept their
places when not in action. Therefore it may be
supposed with a reasonable degree of certainty that
Pilate and his men merely remained silent at their
sedes while the action was going on at the other
side of the stage.
At 1. 314 the disciples and Christ take up the
action, the latter bidding John and Peter go into
the city, where they will meet a man who will lend
a room in which the Passover may be eaten. John
and Peter go into the city, meet the man, and he
lends them a chamber. Then occurs the direction :
Tunc parent lohannes & petrus mensam. Here,
then, we must have two places visible at the same
time, the place where Christ and his disciples are
(probably the platea) and the chamber where John
and Peter are (a definitely located sedes), even if
we leave out of account the probability that Pilate's
hall, either with or without its actors, is still visible
to the audience.
Then, after the Passover has been eaten and the
disciples' feet have been washed, Christ says to
his followers :
Ryse ye vp, ilkon,
and weynd we on oure way,
As fast as we may gone,
to olyuete, to pray.
" Cf. pp. 160-67.
156 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
Peter, laniys, and lohn,
ryse vp and folow me!
My tyme it commys anone ;
Abyde styll here, ye thre.
Say youre prayers here by-neth. — 11. 488-96,
This passage indicates a third located sedes, Mt.
Olivet, which must have been distinguished by an
elevation of at least a few feet, because the dis-
ciples are bidden to remain "here by-neth" until
Christ returns.
In this play, then, it is perfectly clear that at
least three, and possibly four, places were distin-
guished on the stage at one time : Pilate's hall, Mt.
Olivet, the chamber in which the Passover was
eaten, and possibly the " city " as distinguished
from the chamber. The room was localized cer-
tainly by a table and chairs, Pilate's hall perhaps by
a throne, and Mt. Olivet by an elevation of a few
feet above the rest of the stage.
Illustrations Chosen by Mr. Albright. In our
argument, however, we need not confine ourselves
to plays that may have escaped the notice of those
who regard the pageant-wagon as a sedes rather
than as a stage. Let us look for a moment at the
plays which Mr. Albright himself has chosen to
stage according to his theory, remembering, how-
ever, that he has no basis for his method other than
a mere opinion — one which we have already found
to be without foundation. For lack of space only
CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 157
two of these, in addition to the Chester Passion al-
ready discussed/® will be taken up, but the hastiest
adequate study possible will show that Mr. Al-
bright's view, even in his own chosen plays, is far
less probable than that of a single stage for each
complete scene.
York " Angels and Shepherds ". One of those
that Mr. Albright mentions is the York Angels
and Shepherds, the staging of which he sketches
as follows:
York, The Angels and the Shepherds. The shepherds
have met and are in the midst of a discussion (scaffold),
when the star appears and directs them to the place where
Christ is born (pageant). ^^
But there is another and, with what we now know
of Corpus Christi staging, a far more plausible
view of the method of presenting this play. The
scene is supposed to center around Bethlehem and
the fields near by, and a big moveable pageant-
wagon with double stages is used to represent the
whole. The upper stage is heaven, where the
angels sit; the lower one is Bethlehem and the
fields near by. The part of the lower stage repre-
senting Bethlehem is decorated to represent a house
or stable, in which an old man with a long white
beard sits with a young woman and a child in a
crib. The rest of the stage represents the fields
2« Cf. pp. 149-50.
27 Shaksperian Stage, p. 27.
158 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
outside Bethlehem, where three shepherds are walk-
ing. The First Shepherd is talking: —
[i Past.] Oure forme-fadres, faythfull in
fere,
Bothe Osye and Isaye,
Preued pat a prins with-outen pere
Shulde descende doune in a lady,
And to make mankynde clerly.
To leche pam pat are lorne.
And in Bedlem here-by
Sail pat same barne be borne. — 11. 5-12.
The Second Shepherd replies :
a Past. Or he be borne in burgh hereby,
Balaham, brothir, me haue herde say,
A Sterne shulde schyne and signifie.
With light full lemes like any day. — 11. 13-16.
The Third Shepherd speaks; then the angels in
heaven above begin singing, and a star is hung out
from the top of the stage. The shepherds gaze in
wonder at the vision of the angels and at the star ;
they discuss the whole and attempt to imitate the
music; and then they go into the house and adore
the child.
It is very noticeable here that Bethlehem is
spoken of as " here-by " and that, after the vision
of the angels in the sky at line 36 of the play, the
CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 159
three shepherds discuss the music and the angels
and their prophecy for forty-five lines, but they
make no attempt whatever toward going to Beth-
lehem before line 82 ; and yet at line 86, in the time
taken to repeat four lines, they are there. The
whole passage, beginning with the speech of the
Third Shepherd at line 79, is as follows :
Hi Pas. Hym for to fynde has we no drede, (79)
I sail you telle a-chesonne why,
5one Sterne to pat lorde sail vs lede.
a Pas. 5a ! J)ou sais soth, go we for-thy (82)
hym to honnour.
And make myrthe and melody,
with sange to seke oure savyour.
Et tunc cantant.
i Pas. Breder, bees all blythe and glad, (86)
Here is the burght per we shulde be.
And yet this is one of the plays which Mr. Albright
thinks is a sure indication of his view of separate
stages for each scene !
The Towneley " Purification ". The Towneley
Purification is another play that Mr. Albright has
chosen to illustrate his theory of Corpus Christi
staging. Of this scene he says :
Towneley, Purification. Simeon praying that he may
see the Christ and die (one scaffold) is directed to the
temple, where the bells are ringing (pageant). Mary and
160 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
Joseph (on another scaffold) think it time for the purifi-
cation, and start for the temple. There (at the pageant)
they are all supposed to meet.28
Mr. Albright has given a correct, brief outline of
the play, but there is no evidence whatever for his
method of staging. In the first place, the play, as
we have it, was not given on a pageant-wagon,^^ a
fact which Mr. Albright failed to notice, but on a
fixed stage ; and the present writer can see no need
whatever for requiring three separate stages for
this one scene. On the contrary, Simeon had his
sedes, Joseph and Mary theirs, and there was a
separately decorated one for the temple, — all on the
same stage. Simeon's and Joseph's may or may
not have been decorated; the MS offers no evi-
dence whatever. Then the angel came and sum-
moned Simeon to the temple sedes, where Joseph
and Mary met him a few minutes later.
Multiple Representation. In the same way
the rest of the plays cited by Mr. Albright might
be analyzed — likewise any other play in any other
cycle, — but these seem sufficient to show the use of
simultaneous scenery on the pageant-wagon. Seven
plays in all have now been noticed from the
Chester, Coventry, Towneley, and York cycles, all
of them, it seems to the author, showing the same
use of simultaneous scenery, with the pageant-
wagon as the stage rather than as a sedes. And
28 Loc. cit., p. 28.
29 C/. p. 129.
CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 161
the argument would now be complete ^° if it were
not for the fact that some one might raise the ob-
jection that the scenes enacted in the plays above
cited may have been successive rather than simul-
taneous. In other words, it might be objected that
after the creation of the nine orders of angels in
the York Creation, while Lucifer was making his
plans against the heavenly hosts, Deus did not
withdraw to a separate part of the stage, but left
the platform entirely, as the custom was in Eliza-
beth's day, thus giving another scene; or, after
the fall of Lucifer, while the demons were raging
and reproaching each other, that Deus and the rest
of the angels were not visible on the upper stage,
but had withdrawn and made the scene successive
rather than multiple; and after Lucifer and his
companions had ceased their wrangling and Deus
had taken up his cue on the upper platform, that
the demons had withdrawn etitirely and were no
longer visible; — in other words, that the scenery
was simultaneous and the representation successive
rather than multiple. This is a view hardly tenable
in view of what is now known of the Corpus Christi
stage; for we have already seen in the Wakefield
cycle that the custom was for the actors to keep
80 To the argument already advanced for all the sedes
on a single pageant-wagon the author would like to add a
further argument that the platea, as well as the sedes,
was sometimes propertied and decorated. A propertied
platea would be an impossibility according to Mr. Al-
bright's theory. Proof for this argument of a propertied
platea is reserved for the next chapter. Cf, pp. 170-86,
162 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
their positions when not engaged in action.^^ The
same convention might therefore be reasonably ex-
pected to have existed in the other cycles; and a
few examples are given here to show that such was
the case.
York "Dream of Pilate's Wife". The York
Dream of Pilate's Wife and Jesus before Pilate
opens with a scene in Pilate's judgment-hall, where
Pilate receives a visit from his wife, Dame Per-
cula, who brings with her their son and a maid.
After a rather lengthy visit, during which the
family all drink wine together. Dame Percula and
her son and maid all go home to the other end of
the stage and Pilate goes to bed. —
Pil. I comaunde pe to come nere, for I will
kare to my couche,
Haue in thy handes hendely and heue me fro
hyne,
But loke pat pou tene me not with pi tastyng,
but tendirly me touche.
Bed. A! sir, yhe whe wele!
Pil. Yha, I haue wette with me wyne.
Yhit helde doune and lappe me even [here],
For I will slelye slepe vnto synne.
Loke pat no man nor no myron of myne
With no noyse be neghand me nere. . . .
Bed. Whe ! so sir, slepe ye, and saies nomore.
11. I33-49-
81 C/. pp. 152-4.
CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 163
In the meantime, however, Dame Percula has got to
her sedes, where she goes to bed. —
Dom. Nowe are we at home, do helpe yf ye
may.
For I will make me redye and rayke to my
reste.
Anc. Yhe are werie, madame, for-wente of
youre way,
Do boune you to bedde, for pat holde I beste.
Fil, Here is a bedde arayed of pe beste.
Dom. Do happe me, and faste hense ye hye.
Anc. Madame, anone all dewly is dressid.
Fil. With no stalkyng nor no striffe be ye
stressed.
Dom. Nowe be yhe in pese, both youre
carpyng and crye. — ^11. 150-8.
After she has gone to rest, her son and, supposedly,
the maid lie down and go to sleep; for, when the
devil has come to her in a dream and told her, that,
if Jesus is unjustly doomed, Pilate and she will be
destroyed, she bids the boy get up in a hurry and
run to her lord with the news of her dream. The
boy complains sorely at being awakened at mid-
night, promises to go however, but decides to take
a nap before doing so. Then the soldiers come
forward with their prisoner, awaken Pilate, and the
trial, which is not useful for our purpose here,
begins. ^
164 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
In this play we have Pilate, Dame Percula, her
son, and possibly her maid, all asleep on the stage
at the same time. Dame Percula can not have
gone off the stage, because the devil immediately
comes to her in her dream; her son cannot have
left after putting her to sleep, because she bids him
get up and carry the news to Pilate; and Pilate
cannot have gone, because the soldiers come and
awaken him to get his judgment on Christ. Dame
Percula may or may not have left the stage after
her dream — we do not hear from her any more, — ■
but certainly when the soldiers enter the platea,
wherever they may have come from — whether from
a separate sedes or from the dressing-room below,
— we have Pilate and his boy asleep on the stage
and each in a different locus.
And, in addition to the actual fact that these
characters were all asleep on the stage at the same
time, there is a definite reason why they were each
made to go to sleep during the process of action at
another sedes. The reason for Dame Percula's
sleep is evident at a glance : it is that the devil may
come to her in a dream ; but the reason for the boy's
is not, especially since the Dame sends him in great
haste to Pilate. According to Mr. Albright's
theory there is no solution to this question at all;
in fact, the mere presence of two propertied bed-
room scenes in the same play is contrary to his
theory. But if we allow Pilate's hall and Dame
Percula's chamber both on the same pageant-stage,
CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 165
an easy solution is offered : that, on account of the
close proximity of the sedes on a necessarily limited
stage, the author of the play was compelled to re-
sort to some such expedient as this to make the
scene seem as real as possible. Stage curtains
were unknown, shift of scenery impossible; and
since the two scenes must of necessity be presented
close to each other, then the easiest way around this
crudity, which the author of this scene seems to
have recognized, perhaps unconsciously, was to put
each actor to sleep while the other one was playing.
Chester " Lot and Abraham ". So far as the
stage-directions go, however, the most definite and
specific evidence of the actors remaining on the
stage and in their separate sedes comes from the
Chester Lot and Ahraham,^^ which immediately
follows the Noah's Flood. The play begins with a
prologue by a messenger, who says:
All lordinges that be heare presente,
And harcken me with good intente,
Howe Noye awaie from us he wente,
And all his companye;
And Abraham, through Codes grace,
He is comen into this place,
And ye will geve us rombe and space
To tell you of storye. — p. 57. ,
Then Abraham and Lot come into their places and
82 C/. Wright's edition, printed for the Shakespeare So-
ciety, London, 1843, pp. 57-76.
166 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
the stage-direction reads: Heare Abraham, hav-
inge restored his brother Lote into his owne place,
doth firste of al begine the playe. Abraham now
thanks God for the victory over the four heathen
kings and vows a tenth of all the spoil received
from the fight. Then occurs the stage-direction:
Heare Lote, torninge hym to his brother Abraham,
dothe saye. . . . There is no need for further
analysis of this play. Lot in ** his owne place "
" torninge hym to his brother Abraham " is suffi-
cient to show the custom of each actor keeping his
own sedes.
Other Illustrations. In like manner, numer-
ous other examples of an actor's remaining on the
stage when not in action may be noted at much less
length. In the York Purification cited above the
scene in the temple (1. 339) is made to wait while
an angel tells Simeon of Christ's presence there
(11. 340-53). Likewise, Simeon in the Chester
Purification is bidden to sit expectans consolationem ^
(1. 120) while Mary and Joseph are deciding the
question of coming to the temple. And in the
Nativity play of the same cycle Joseph must have
been in his sedes and waiting for Mary before her
arrival from Elizabeth's house (1. 120). And,
finally, in the Coventry shearmen and tailors' play
Mary must have remained in her locus while
Joseph wandered away from home (11. 136-55).
The author does not claim, of course, that an actor
who kept his seat once remained in it always, nor
CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 167
that all actors kept their sedes all the time, but that
the convention of the players remaining on the
stage when not in action was a common one.
Summary. In conclusion, then, and by way
of summarizing some of the principles of Corpus
Christi staging, the author seems justified in say-
ing: (i) that the circumstances under which the
processional plays developed and continued to be
presented resulted in many incongruities; (2) that
one of these incongruous elements was the use of
the p^gea.nt-sedes ; (3) that the attempt which has
been made in recent years to regard the pageant-
wagon as the mere equivalent of a sedes or a locus,
rather than as a stage, is founded on statements
and records which have been misinterpreted; (4)
that a careful examination of the plays of the pro-
cessional cycles proves conclusively that they cannot
have been staged according to this theory; and (5)
that they show undoubted evidence on the contrary
of simultaneous scenery and multiple representa-
tion, with the pageant-car as a stage rather than as
a sedes.
VI
CONVENTIONS OF THE CORPUS
CHRISTI STAGE
Introductory. In the preceding chapter some-
thing has been shown of the use of simultaneous
scenery on the Corpus Christi stage. That is to
say, when the action of a play required different
scenes, these scenes were located on pulpits, or
sedes, set on the stage and raised somewhat above
it, a separate sedes being employed for each place
or house. Bethlehem, the temple at Jerusalem, and
Simeon's home were all near to each other on the
same platform, even though in the actual world they
might be miles apart. The consciousness of the
audience, however, kept these places separate and
distinct, and for all the purposes of the dramatist
these sedes sufficed to give a semblance of reality to
the chief feature of the plays, the action. Scenery
in the modern sense was unknown and undesired,
since the purpose of the plays was not to make men
see where an event in biblical history had happened,
but to make them know intellectually and feel emo-
168
CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 169
tionally what had occurred. The audience was not
especially interested in the places or the scenery
centering around Christ's life, but rather in the rep-
resentation of his passion, his suffering, and his
death.
Symbolism. And yet, in order to present the
events of the biblical narrative with any degree of
clearness, a certain kind or amount of scenery was
necessary. Heaven and hell, Bethlehem and
Jerusalem, Calvary and the Mount of Olives must
all be represented and yet be kept distinct from
each other; and the only way to accomplish this,
as the fifteenth and sixteenth century dramatists saw
it, was through a continuation of the symbolic stage
of the church and the cathedral, with one end of the
platform for Bethlehem, the other for Jerusalem.
Such a system of staging is in direct contradiction
to the twentieth-century ideal of complete illusion
in a staged scene, and to us of to-day seems in-
congruous in the extreme, even absurd, since it is
evident that no stage picture could have been at-
tempted at all. And yet these elementary attempts
at scenery seem to have been perfectly appropriate
to the medieval mind. Medieval thought reveled in
symbolism, and any symbolical technique in the
drama was therefore in perfect conformity to the
medieval habit of thinking. There was no inten-
tion to make heaven and earth seem actually on the
upper and lower stages ; there was only an attempt
to furnish the audience with symbols of these two
170 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
worlds. The customary habits of imagination on
the part of the audience did the rest. Likewise,
the green eyes, the gaping jaws, and the fiery
smoke issuing from the dragon's head were sup-
posed to be, not so much a representation as a
symbol, of hell. And, similarly, the whole stage
was incongruous but symbolical; but, with the in-
terest of the audience centered in the action rather
than in the scenery, this system of staging was en-
tirely adequate for successful representation.
Propertied " Plateae ", Another question pres-
ents itself, however: If the representation of the
temple in Jerusalem at one end of the stage and
the home of Joseph at the other was symbolical,
was the passage in between, the platea, the country,
necessarily completely bare of scenery? Mr. Al-
bright, in consequence of his theory that the
pageant-wagon was only one of the sedes and that
the platea was a fixed scafifold in the street, or else
the street itself, finds himself driven to the infer-
ence that the platea was entirely bare.^ But if the
present writer has been able to interpret the plays
and the guild account-books correctly, not only were
both platea and sedes situated on the pageant-
wagon, but the platea, as well as the sedes, was fur-
nished with symbolical properties.
Unlocated Elizabethan Scenes. Mr. G. F.
Reynolds in an admirably sane and convincing
paper on *' Trees " on the Stage of Shakespeare
1 A Typical Shakesperian Stage, p. iv.
CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 171
has shown that forests, wildernesses, and waste
places generally were customarily represented on
the Elizabethan stage by trees, only two or three
being required. Mr. Reynolds says: "It [a for-
est] was, of course, not so difficult to arrange as a
forest-setting similarly constituted would be upon
our modern stage. A few trees — one, two, three,
five — were enough, for the convention of * sym-
bolic ' scenery, by which one property suggested
many, saved the Elizabethans much expense and
trouble. It is therefore quite unnecessary to sup-
pose that in a wood scene the * trees ' covered any
large part of the stage. Orlando Furioso, with half
its action laid in the woods, must have had some
open space for the other half. No one, indeed,
could imagine the whole stage covered with trees.
Two or three would have been quite sufficient."^
These trees, Mr. Reynolds shows, were also used
in the representation of the usual unlocated scenes;
that is, scenes that were not assigned to any definite
place but which might have occurred anywhere.
And in another paper ^ Mr. Reynolds has proved
with equal conclusiveness that other properties than
trees were to be found in these unlocated scenes,
properties which, though present because needed in
some other scene, were often really incongruous to
the scene in progress and, consequently, were neces-
sarily thought of as absent.
2 Modern Philology, v. 162.
^Some Principles of Elizabethan Staging, Modern
Philology, June, 1905.
172 CORPUS CHRIST! PAGEANTS
Hegge Plays. Likewise, it may be shown
very easily that trees were uesd on the platea of
the contemporary non-processional stage. For in-
stance, in that part of the Hegge plays which rep-
resents the journey of Joseph and Mary to
Bethlehem, after they have started on their jour-
ney, Mary stops and asks :
Maria. A! my swete husbond, wolde je telle
to me,
What tre is ^on standynge upon jon hylle?
Josephe. fforsothe, Mary, it is clepyd a chery
tre;
In tyme of gere je myght ffede 30W theron
gour ffylle.
Maria. Turne ageyn, husbond, and behold
gon tre.
How that it blomyght now so swetly.
Joseph. Cum on, Mary, that we worn at jon
cyte;
Or ellys we may be blamyd, I telle 30W
lythly.
Maria. Now, my spowse, I pray gow to
behold,
How the cheryes growyn upon jon tre ;
ffor to have therof ryght ffayn I wold.
And it plesyd 30W to labore so meche for
me.*
Mary ends by getting her cherries, and the pair
go on into the city.
*HalliweIl, Ludus Coventricp, pp. 14S-6.
CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 173
The incident, as may be seen, is unlocated; it
occurred somewhere, anywhere between Jerusalem
and Bethlehem; and yet a tree of some sort must
have been on the platea; for the scer|e could not
have been given without it.
Likewise, later in the same play, in the part rep-
resenting the adoration of the Magi, we have
what seems to be this same tree used to symbolize
a country scene again. Herod is boasting in his
court and is sending out his steward to learn of any
trouble in the land. —
[Herod.] Sty ward bolde,
Walke thou on mowlde.
And wysely beholde
Alle abowte;
Iff any thynge
Shuld greve the kynge,
Brynge me tydydge [sic].
If there be ony dowte.
Senescallus. Lord, kynge in crowne,
I go fro towne.
By bankys browne
I wylle abyde ;
And with erys lyste,
Est and west,
If any geste
On grownde gynnyth glyde.
Tunc ibit senescallus et ohviahit
tribus regibus et dicit eis
174 CORPUS CHRIStI PAGEANTS
Kynges iij.,
Undyr this tre,
In this countre
Why wylle je abyde?*
The Hegge plays, one ought possibly to be re-
minded, were not originally cut into the short,
separate scenes as given by Halliwell, but the en-
tire cycle was intended for presentation, apparently,
in three successive days, or years. Hence the play
of which this forms a part is to be taken as the
same as the preceding one. So we apparently have
the same tree for the country scene. And here
again, it is noticeable, the scene is specifically in
the country, anywhere, and hence unlocated; and
the symbol of the country seems unquestionably to
be this cherry tree.
If, then, as Mr. Reynolds has conclusively
shown, properties were used in unlocated scenes on
the Elizabethan stage, and if they were required
for similar scenes on the plateae of the non-proces-
sional stage, does it not seem probable that such a
convention might well have existed on the Corpus
Christi stage? And since the located scenes on the
Corpus Christi stage were propertied and symbolic-
ally represented, does it not seem that we have
double reasons for expecting a similar propertied,
symbolical representation of the unlocated scenes in
the same plays? The answer cannot be otherwise
than in the affirmative.
^ Loc. cit., p. 164.
CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 175
York " Joseph's Trouble ". But, to turn from
probabilities to facts, let us look at one or two of
the Corpus Christi plays in which a propertied
platea was actually needed. The York Joseph's
Trouble about Mary is one of these. In this play,
when Joseph finds his wife with child, he leaves
her and goes off into the wilderness. And while
wandering he falls into a monologue: —
Jos. Nowe, lord God ! pat all ping may
At thine owne will bothe do and dresse,
Wisse me now som redy way
To walk here in pis wildirnesse. — 11. 237-40.
Tlien he falls asleep, and an angel tells him to re-
turn to his wife. —
Ang. Waken, Joseph ! and take bettir kepe
To Marie, pat is pi felawe fest.
Jos. A ! I am full werie, lefe late me slepe,
For- wandered and walked in pis forest.
—11. 247-50.
In this case we need some sort of representation
of a wilderness for a proper understanding of the
scene; and yet the scene, because of its being un-
located, must have been presented on the platea.
In like manner, in the corresponding play at
Coventry, the weavers' pageant, when Joseph
" gothe from Mare ", he says :
176 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
[Josoff,] I wandur abowt myself alone,
Turtulis or dowis can I non see. . . .
Lord, henedissete ! Whatt make I here
Among these heggis myself alone?
For-were I ma no lengur stond ;
These buskis the teyre me on eyuere syde.
-11. 506-17.
How are we to suppose that this field scene was
presented ? Is it likely that the platea was bare and
the wilderness only supposed to be there? Or is
it more probable that a small bush or so, as on the
Elizabethan stage, was used to symbolize this coun-
try scene ?
Paradise. A discussion of paradise does not
properly belong here among the unlocated scenes,
but, before going to the concluding and conclusive
argument for the use of trees in country scenes, it
may be well to look for a moment at a slight bit of
evidence, the contemporary method of representing
paradise scenes, which may cast some light on the
problem before us.
In the later Cornish Creation of the World the
stage-directions state that paradise shall be indi-
cated on the stage by having " ii fayre trees in yt ",
a " fowntaine ", and some "fyne flowers ". Note
that only two trees are to be used in symbolizing
paradise. At Norwich the grocers seem to have
had only a single tree to represent their paradise
scene.® And at Beverley, if we may trust the list
« Waterhouse, Non-Cycle Mystery Plays, p. xxxii.
CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 177
of what seem to have been all the properties for the
Paradise play, we find paradise symbolized by a
single tree. In 1391, the entry from Beverley
states, all the properties were handed over to one
" John of Erghes, hayrer ", who promised " to re-
deliver to the twelve Keepers of the town for the
time being, at the end of his life, all necessaries
which he has belonging to the said play under
penalty of 20s., viz., one car (' karre '), eight hasps
(* hespis '), eighteen staples (* stapils '), two visors
('visers'), two angels' wings (' winges angeli'),
one pine pole (* fir sparr '), one serpent (* worme '),
two pairs of linen boots, two pairs of shirts, one
sword "."^ The car was, presumably, the pageant-
car itself ; the hasps and the staples were to fasten
the gate of paradise when Adam and Eve were
driven out; the visors, two pairs of shirts, and the
linen boots were for them; the angel wore the
wings and carried the sword to keep them out ; the
* worme ' was Satan's garb ; and the * fir sparr '
was very probably decorated for the forbidden
tree and used to symbolize paradise.
As said above, a discussion of the method of
representing paradise does not strictly belong here,
but the fact that one or two trees symbolized the
scenery in paradise shows clearly that one or two
trees or bushes might just as well have symbolized
the wilderness or the country scenes at York and
Coventry.
7 Hist. MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, p. 66.
178 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
The Chester " Purification ". All the scenes so
far noted require some sort of forest, or country,
or garden scenery for a proper presentation and
understanding of the play. The incidents could not
have been clearly understood without such symbols,
even in the unscenic Corpus Christi days. But in
the Chester smiths' Purification play we have the
use of trees for a country scene when there were
none actually needed in the play. In the smiths'
accounts for 1554 the following entry is found:
1554- We gave for an apeyll tree to Ric. Bel founder,
vid.; For another apell tre to Ric. Hankey, iiiid.; For
Ropes, nelles, pyns, and thred, xd.; We gave to the
porters of the Caryeg, iis.^
An examination of the smiths' Purification, how-
ever, shows that no possible use could have been
made of these trees except to represent the country
between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. There are
only two definitely located places in the play, the
temple and Joseph's home, the one at Bethlehem,
the other at Jerusalem ; and yet we have two trees
bought and paid for by the company for use in the
play. A cherry tree, probably not more than one,
was needed to symbolize a country scene in the
Hegge plays, as we have seen, and one or two trees
were often used in unlocated scenes on the almost
contemporary Elizabethan stage to symbolize the
8 Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor
Reigns, p. 305 n.
CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 179
country. What more probable use, then, could be
made of the two trees bought by the smiths in 1554
than for the unlocated country scene in their play
of the Purification?
Coventry " Harrowing of Hell ". But there is
yet another use of an apple tree which has so far
been unexplained. Sharp makes the following
statement in his Dissertation on the Coventry
Mysteries:
Amongst the various items of Pageant expenditure by
this Company [the cappers, who represented the events
from the harrowing of hell through the Peregrinus play]
are the following: —
Item pd for a pece of tymber for an Apeltrie . ijs iijd
Item pd for ij cloutes a clasp & other yron worke
about pe Apeltre xijd
which at first sight might lead to a conjecture that the
history of the Fall was sometimes exhibited by them; but
the ensuing stage direction and extract from the same
subject in the Ludus Coventrise, will shew that Adam and
Eve, though not particularized in the list of performers
in the Cappers' Pageant (in consequence probably of these
short and subordinate parts being taken by persons who
had played other characters in an earlier portion of the
Pageant) were nevertheless indispensable requisites, and
the introduction of this appropriate and distinguishing
symbol is thus readily accounted for.
" Tunc dormyent milites & ueniet Anima Christi de
inferno cum Adam et Euam. Abraham John baptist
& Alijs.
180 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
Anima Christi. Come forthe Adam & Eue wt the
And all my fryndys pt. her in be
to paradys come forthe wt. me
In blysse for to dwellc
pe fende of helle pt is jor ffoo
he xal be wrappyd & woundy' in woo
Fro wo to welthe now xul je go
Wt. myrthe evyr mor to melle.»
But such an interpretation of the use of the
" Apeltrie " is exceedingly lame, especially when
we notice that clouts and a clamp were bought to
hold the tree in place on the stage. For if the tree
were to symbolize Adam and Eve, which is itself
very improbable, it would naturally be carried with
them when they went out of hell, which could not
have been done with the tree clamped to the floor
of the stage.
On the contrary, there is possible another and a
far more likely use for the tree. The account
given by Sharp is not dated, but it is noticeable that
the next entry that he mentions is " the payment
of 13d. in 1540 * for the matter of pe castell of
emaus ' ". But this scene involving the castle of
Emmaus is the well-known Peregrinus play, in
which Christ appears to Luke and Cleophas on the
road to Emmaus. Hence a country scene is needed,
and from the mere matter of the relative arrange-
ment of the material as given in Sharp it would seem
that the tree must have been used for this incident
•p. 46.
CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 181
in the Peregrinus part of the play. We have not
yet found the Coventry cappers' play, of course,
but in all the other cycles from Chester, Wakefield,
York, and in the so-called Ludus Coventrice, the
Peregrinus play begins with the country scene on
the road to the castle of Emmaus. Hence it seems
fair to infer that this " Apeltrie " was intended to
be used on the platea as a symbol of the country
near Emmaus.
Unlocated Scenes. Such a theory as this of
properties in the unlocated scenes does not seem
improbable or unreal. On the contrary, it seems
that some such staging as this would be the natural
thing. If the located scenes were symbolically rep-
resented and decorated, why should the unlocated
ones, simply because they were on the platea, stand
bare of all ornamentation? The author is not
aware of any further examples of trees specifically
mentioned in unlocated scenes, but numerous other
instances are to be found of properties on the
platea. One or two citations will perhaps suffice.
Towneley " Jacob ". The Towneley Jacob con-
cerns itself with the meeting of Jacob and Esau, and
begins with Jacob on the way home and praying
God to be his guide "in the right way to mesopo-
tameam ". Then he says :
The son is downe, what is best ?
her purpose I all nyght to rest;
Vnder my hede this ston shall ly;
A nyghtis rest take will I. — 11. 9-12.
182 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
God appears to him in his sleep and blesses him,
and he awakes and sets up the stone in praise of
God.—
lord, how dredfull is this stede!
Ther I layde downe my hede,
In godis lovyng I rayse this stone,
And oyll wil I putt theron. — 11. 41-44.
Here then we have a stone, which could not have
been an imaginary one, used in a scene that was
supposed to occur anywhere between Padan-aran
and Mesopotamia. This scene was unlocated, too,
and yet had at least one property in it.
In the same way the burning bush in the York
and Towneley Children of Israel plays must have
been on the platea; in the Second Shepherds' Play
at Wakefield there must have been a real represen-
tation of sheep, so that Mak might steal one and
run away; and in the Offering of the Magi at
Wakefield a litter of some kind was on the platea
between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. This last is so
clearly a use of a property in an unlocated scene
that it may be well to explain it a little more fully.
The three Magi have just come from making their
offerings at Bethlehem : —
primus rex. A, lordyngys dere! the sothe to
say,
we haue made a good lornay; . . .
CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 183
ijus rex. lordyngys, we haue traueld lang,
And restyd haue we lytyll emang,
ifor-thi I red now, or we gang,
with all oure mayn
et vs fownde a slepe to fang;
Then were I fayn ;
ffor in greatt stowres we haue ben sted.
lo, here a lytter redy cled.
a jus rex. I loue my lord ! we haue well sped,
To rest with wyn ;
lordyngys, syn we shall go to bed,
ye shall begyn. — 11. 577-594.
Here we have a litter, an entirely incongruous prop-
erty, on the road between Bethlehem and Jerusalem.
The reason for its presence is entirely clear: the
Magi could not lie down by the roadside and see
visions as the ordinary actor could; their clothes
were too costly and could not be soiled with dirt
and dust ; so a litter had to be prepared, incongruous
as it was, on which they might rest while hearing
the angel tell them not to go back to Herod.
Summary. Here then are the facts. The Eliza-
bethan theatre and the non-processional stages,
both of which were contemporary with the Cor-
pus Christi plays, used trees, one or two, to rep-
resent forests and the country in unlocated scenes,
and the Elizabethan stage used many other heavy
properties in unlocated scenes, properties which
were not only incongruous, but often impeding to
184 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
the action of the play. There is no reason for be-
lieving this incongruous convention an innovation
on the part of the Elizabethans. Likewise, on the
Corpus Christi stage many scenes are to be found
which are unlocated and yet which demand, abso-
lutely necessitate, trees and other properties on the
platea; and there are unlocated country scenes in
which trees are not absolutely needed, but for
which the guild account-books seem to show that
trees were bought. Then, since symbolism was a
characteristic of the Corpus Christi stage, since the
regular sedes were decorated to symbolize certain
places, since the Garden of Eden scenes were sym-
bolized by one or two trees, since trees and other
properties were used in unlocated scenes on the
Elizabethan stage, since trees and other properties
were necessitated in unlocated scenes on the Corpus
Christi stage, and since trees were bought for plays
in which we can find no other use than for un-
located country scenes, it seems conclusive that the
platea as well as the sedes on the Corpus Christi
stage was sometimes decorated, that the platea
decorations were symbolical like the others, and
that in country scenes trees were a part of the
symbolical decorations.
Symbolical Distance. The symbolism, how-
ever, did not cease here. Just as definite houses
and temples were symbolized by the sedes, so by
means of a similar exercise of the imagination great
distances and large spaces were symbolized by these
CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 185
country scenes on the platea, or, indeed, by the
mere platea itself. In the York Abrahams Sac-
rifice of Isaac, for instance, the distance from
Abraham's home to the Land of Vision is so great
that it will take three days to make the journey;
and yet the party arrive there in the time taken to
repeat thirty-five lines. Similarly, in the Coventry
shearmen and tailors' pageant Joseph speaks of the
distance between Nazareth and Bethlehem as being
three leagues; and yet he arrives in twelve lines'
time.
And in the Chester Resurrection, when the three
Maries have visited the tomb of Christ, the stage-
direction states: Tunc discedent et paulisper cir-
cumambulabunt, et tunc obvient disciptdis Petro
et Johanni. And after the disciples have been in-
formed of the supposed theft of Christ's body,
Peter says:
Abyde, brother, sweete John,
Leste we meete with anye fonne ;
But nowe I se no other wonne,
To ronne I will assaye.
Tunc ambo simul concurrent, sed Johannes
procurret citius Petro, et non intrant sep-
ulchrum.
These plateae, then, it should be remembered,
though representing unlocated scenes and being per-
haps often undecorated, were symbolical of great
186 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
distances and were just as important in the stage
presentation as were the sedes.
Symbolical Numbers. Another notable sym-
boHc convention on the Corpus Christi stage was
that of making a few persons represent many. This
custom would probably not seem so absurd to us
of to-day if it had not been carried to such an ex-
treme length at the time. For example, in the
Chester Slaughter of the Innocents only two chil-
dren are actually represented as slain on the stage,
whereas Herod tells the two soldiers they will
have " a thowsand and yet moe " to kill. And in
the Wakefield Herod the Great, which corresponds
to the Chester Slaughter of the Innocents, only
three children are killed by as many soldiers, who
return to Herod and boast of having slain many
thousands. —
We haue mayde rydyng thrugh outt lure:
well wytt ye oone thyng that mordered haue we
Many thowsandys. — 11. 417-19.
And a little later Herod states that the number slain
was 144,000. —
A hundreth thowsand, I watt and fourty ar
slayn,
And four thowsand; ther-at me aght to be
fayn.— 11. 487-8.
Likewise two demons represent the host of fallen
angels in the Towneley Creation and Fall and two
CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 187
persons the entire tribe of Israel in the subsequent
Pharaoh play. And at Chester three saved souls
and six damned ones represented all the world come
to judgment in the Doomsday play, while at York
there were only two of each kind.
Time Symbolism. In both of the preceding
conventions, where a distance of a few feet is used
to represent as many miles and where one person
may symbolize a hundred or a thousand, the usage
would seem to have been due, partly at least, to the
necessary limitations of space on the meagre Cor-
pus Christi stage; but in the next convention, time
symbolism, the usage can be attributed only to a
lack of realization on the part of the authors of the
requirements and limitations of their stages. In
the Chester Creation, for instance, we can forgive
the dramatist for allowing an upper stage to repre-
sent heaven and a lower one paradise and the world
at large, since each sedes is kept distinct and
separate and there seems a reason for the methods
employed, but it seems the height of crudity and in-
congruity to represent the creation of Adam and
Eve, the expulsion from the garden of Eden, and
Cain and Abel at the age of *' XXX yeare ", all
within the compass of one continuous scene. To
us of to-day the custom would seem more reason-
able if there were any break in the scenes to in-
dicate the passage of time ; but there is none.
In the same way it is difficult for us of to-day to
conceive of the Chester dramatist's daring in repre-
188 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
senting the forty days in the wilderness by a single
continuous scene of perhaps ten minutes length.
The same crudity, however, is to be found in the
plays of all the cycles. In the Wakefield Noah and
the Ark, for instance, a space of " thre hundreth
dayes and fyfty " is supposed to elapse within the
time taken to quote forty-five lines, and in the cor-
responding play of the York cycle Noah says, " A
hundereth wyntres away is wente, sen I began pis
werk ", when the audience in almost as many sec-
onds has lived through the whole performance.
And at Chester the incongruity is even more care-
fully presented. Here Noah says,
A loo wynters and 20
this shipp making taried haue I,
where the audience has sat through the whole per-
formance and seen that the ark has not been erected
on the stage at all, but that he has only been tinker-
ing with a ready-built boat, pretending he was mak-
ing it.^° The stage-direction now reads: Then
10 Perhaps attention may be called here to the corre-
sponding York play, where the ark may have been put to-
gether by Noah in the presence of the audience. Some-
thing of his method is indicated by his measuring his
board, hewing it even, and joining it to the other parts of
the boat "with a gynn", that is, a catch. In other words,
the various parts of the ark were all made ready ahead of
time and fixed with catches so that the actor must merely
lay the boards together and by means of catches, " gynns ,
put the ark together in a few minutes. And no doubt at
the rehearsals one of the chief things this actor had to be
sure of was that of being able to put these parts together
CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 189
Noah shall enter the ark, and his family shall name
and recite all the animals whose pictures are drawn
on the hoards. And after each one has spoken his
part he shall go into the ark, the wife of Noah ex-
cepted. And the animals depicted must agree with
the names given them. Then a little further on the
direction is given : Then Noah shall shut the win-
dow of the ark and for a little while in the house
they shall sing the psalm, " Save mee o God ". And
opening the window and looking ahout,'^^ Noah
shall say, " Now 40 days are fullie gone ", etc. He
even emphasizes his forty days by saying they are
" fullie " gone. Such crudities are commonly in-
cluded among the symbolical elements in the Corpus
Christi drama, but to the present writer, after a
rather extended study of the plays, they seem
rather to indicate ignorance of the possibilities and
limitations of the processional pageants. These
crudities, however, are their worst ; and from these
we may continue looking at some of their other
conventions, comic, symbolic, and otherwise.
Anachronisms. Along with their crudities it
may not be uninteresting to note some of the
easily. Then when the play was over, and while the
pageant was moving to the next station, Noah busied him-
self with taking down the ark he had just put up, arrang-
ing the boards carefully in their places, and getting ready
to erect the ark again at the next station. If this was the
case, however, it was the exception rather than the rule;
for the general custom, as at Chester, was to bring a
ready-made ark and only seem to work on it.
11 The author's translation from the Latin following 11.
160 and 256.
190 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
anachronisms so common in these plays. It is
rather comic, for instance, to find Noah's wife at
Chester swearing " Be Christe ! " and old Noah
himself " by Sante John ! " In the Wakefield
Killing of Abel, too, Cain has a servant, a garcio,
whom he orders about with considerable fierceness ;
but it never seems to have occurred to the author of
the play that this boy, historically, must have been
a very near relative of Cain's. There are also
bailies, who, Cain fears, will catch him if they hear
of his murder of Abel. And a little later in the
same cycle we find Pharaoh recommending prayer
to Mahowne, Augustus Caesar and Pilate swear-
ing by Mahowne, Herod calling him a saint;
Caiaphas singing mass, and Pilate bribing his
soldiers with English money, £10,000, to say that
" Ten thowsand men of good aray " came and
stole the body of Jesus away from them. Like-
wise, in none of the cycles does it appear to have
been out of place, for instance in the Wakefield
Prophet play, to make Moses, David, Daniel, and
probably others, all appear on the same stage to-
gether.^2 The whole object seems to have been
to represent the scenes as the dramatist saw them,
and it seems never to have occurred to the players
that their view might be anachronistic in any way
whatever.
Rotation Speeches. A further evidence of the
crudity of the Corpus Christi stage may be seen in
^2 The subject of anachronisms in costuming will be dis-
cussed later, p. 219.
CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 191
the rotation speeches of the actors. In other words,
when there were several characters in a scene and all
were on the stage at once, it was the rule rather than
the exception that each actor should speak in regular
order, no matter whether his speech was necessary
to the thought or the action or not. An excellent
illustration of this convention is to be seen in the
seventh Chester play, the Adoration of the Shep-
herds, where the three shepherds and the boy talk
together. Before the boy comes on the stage the
rotation is regularly: first shepherd, second shep-
herd, third shepherd, first shepherd, second shep-
herd, third shepherd, and so on ; but after the boy
enters he breaks into the conversation and the rota-
tion now becomes: first shepherd, second shep-
herd, third shepherd, boy, etc. Nor is this crude
stiff convention common to the Chester plays
only ; it is to be found in those of all the cycles.
Monologues. Another convention equally
crude is to be found in the constant use of the
monologue. This usage seems to have been for
various purposes: as an aid to the scenery, to give
the setting of the play, to tell its purpose, and some-
times for the sole reason of theological moralizing.
Very seldom does it seem like the natural and un-
forced soliloquy that a player would naturally
think to himself. On the contrary, it usually has all
the ear-marks of didacticism, of being composed
for the enlightenment of the audience along some
particular line. John the Baptist's soliloquy at the
192 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
beginning of the York Baptism of Jesus is such a
one, its purpose being not only to give the setting
of the play, but to preach the need of baptism and a
holy life. And it is noticeable in this preliminary
speech of John the Baptist's that he soon forgets he
is an impersonator of the forerunner of Christ ; he
becomes a preacher of the fourteenth century, giv-
ing up his part as an actor for the moment and
addressing himself to " bothe wiffe and man " in
the audience before him, in a purposed attempt to
make them " be clene in levyng ".
Direct Address to the Audience. This use of
the direct address always v^eakens the dramatic
force of the play, since it throws the listener sud-
denly from the world of fancy to that of reality;
but it is found very commonly among the Corpus
Christi plays. Usually it is in the form of an ex-
hortation to the audience, as in the case of John the
Baptist's sermon; but often it takes the form of a
prayer in which the audience is addressed directly
and is warned of the wrath to come. On the other
hand, its purpose is often purely structural, as a
sort of prologue or epilogue to the play. The
demon who comes to carry off Herod's soul to hell
in the Chester Slaughter of the Innocents is a good
example of the address of warning. He addresses
himself to the audience in general and to all tap-
sters in particular: —
No more shall you, Tapstars, by my lewty,
that fills ther measures falcly,
CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 193
shall bear this lord Company;
The gett none other grace.
I will bringe this [Herod's body] into woe,
And come agayne and fetch moe,
as fast as ever I may goe.
farewell and haue good day ! — 11. 449-456.
Direct addresses to the audiences at the close of
plays, good-byes so to speak, were usually spoken
by one of the actors, though occasionally the parts
were given to regular epilogues, as in the Chester
Balaam and Balak, or the Brome Abraham and
Isaac. When such addresses came at the begin-
ning of the scenes they were usually spoken by the
principal actor and served a treble purpose, to pres-
ent the actor, to furnish the setting, and to tell the
purpose of the play. In this way Abraham comes
in at the beginning of the Wakefield play of that
name and for a space of fifty lines soliloquizes on
Adam's sin, Cain's crime, Noah and Lot, and,
finally, on himself, his age, etc. And by the time
his monologue is finished he has given us the whole
setting and purpose of the play and has introduced
himself, the main actor. And in the Temptation of
Jesus at York the part of the Devil in the first fifty
lines is plainly to give the setting and the motif of
the play, though the Devil in this case does not
happen to be the main actor.
Prayers. Another similar device for opening
the play and for giving the setting, etc, was in the
194 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
use of formal prayers at the beginning of scenes.
Simeon's opening speech in the Chester Purifica-
tion is one instance of this convention, and Noah's
at the beginning of the Wakefield Noah and the
Ark another. In the latter, Noah begins by prais-
ing God for his work of creation, by recalling the
creation of the angels, the fall of Lucifer, and the
creation of Adam and Eve and their fall. By this
time, how^ever, he has forgotten that he is praying
to God and now speaks of Him in the third per-
son. He tells how everybody now living sins
boldly, how he dreads God's vengeance, and how
he himself is growing old ; then he falls back into
his original prayer to God, calling on him for
mercy, and so ends his praying. But it is evident
that the whole has been given purely for the sake
of introducing the play and the principal actor.
Actors Kneeling in Prayer. It would be in-
teresting to know whether Noah and the other
actors in these prayer incidents were regularly on
their knees or not. The stage-directions give no
evidence in these cases, but it is probable that they
were, since in other instances the players are def-
initely bidden to kneel. For example, in the
Chester Adoration of the Magi, when the three
kings pray for the fulfillment of Balaam's prophecy
of a Savior to come, the direction states: Tunc
Reges iterum genua flectunt}^ Yet in the first
prayer no direction at all has been given for the
13 Deimling. Chester Plays, p. 163.
CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 195
kneeling of the actors. And in the Emission of the
Holy Ghost in the same cycle a similar direction is
given to the apostles: Tunc omnes apostoli genu
flectent}^ Such examples, no matter how many-
might be given, would not prove the usage a uni-
versal one, but they show at least that the custom
of actors kneeling in prayer on the stage was pos-
sibly a common one.
Prologue. Another method still of introduc-
ing a scene or play was through the usual prologue
so well known to audiences in later Elizabethan
days. The Chester barbers in their play of Abra-
ham and Melchisedech and Lot had a prologue in
the guise of a nuntius named " Gobet on the grene ".
Apparently he called the audience to order, an-
nounced the play and its purpose, and retired as
Abraham came forward. In the Towneley Killing
of Abel a Garcio served as the prologue and intro-
duced the audience to his master Cain; and in the
Herod the Great of the same cycle the prologue
was a nuncius, who performed the same office for
his master Herod and gave at the same time the
setting of the play. And at Norwich in the Fall
of Man scene the prologue had two different
speeches to say, one to be used when no pageants
preceded that scene and another when the custom-
ary Creation and Fall play went first. The part
seems to have been regarded as of minor import-
ance, however, since the speaker's fee for his serv-
1* Wright, Chester Plays, p. 124.
196 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
ices was small in proportion to what the better
actors received. At Coventry Sharp notes '2c?.
" paid to Jorge loe for spekynge pe prologe " and
4c?. on two other occasions.
'' Music with the Plays. Along with the pro-
logues and epilogues may be noted the, employment
of professional minstrels, who are often bidden to
strike up at the conclusion or in the midst of the
scenes. There is no evidence of any regular
" musical accompaniment to the dialogue of the
existing plays, which was spoken, and not, like that
of their liturgical forerunners, chanted "}^ Music,
however, seems to have been a frequent accom-
paniment and to have been employed with no little
dramatic effect in all the plays, its function being
to, heighten the action and to add a touch of^
drama tic seriousness to the exa lted portiaa&«p^or
example, in the CTTester drapers' Creation and Fall
the stage-/iirections require the minstrels to play
when God brings Adam into Paradise, while He
is talking to the guilty pair after they have eaten
of the forbidden fruit, while they are being driven
out of Eden, and during Adam's following lament.
It is noticeable in all these instances that the addi-
tion of the music is made at just the dramatic mo-
ment and when the softened strains from the in-
struments would tend to throw a glamor of serious-
ness over the crucial action. A very similar use of
the violin and other stringed instruments is to be
seen in the drama of to-day.
1^ Chambers, Mediaeval Stage, ii. 140.
CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 197
Songs and Antiphons. Not always, however,
was the music Hmited to the instrumental entirely.
On the contrary, vocal selections were given with
equal frequency, and choristers from the neighbor-
ing churches engaged to sing them. Numerous en-
tries of payments to the " clarkys for syngyng "
are to be found from time to time in the guild ac-
counts, and their songs and antiphons seem to have
been introduced and used much in the same way as
the instrumental selections. Oftentimes they were
newly written for the occasion and were sung by
the actors, assisted at times by outsiders, at some
special point in the play. One of the most beauti-
ful and effective of these must have been the lullaby
of the two mothers in the pageant of the shearmen
and tailors at Coventry. This is the one intro-
duced into the play just before the killing of the
children. Herod has ordered the slaughter of all
children under two years of age ; Mary and Joseph
have escaped into Egypt with their child; and the
two mothers come in singing: —
Lully, lulla, thow littell tine child,
By by, lully lullay, thow littell tyne child.
By by, lully lullay!
O sisters too.
How may we do
For to preserve this day
This pore yongling
For whom we do singe
By by, lully lullay?
198 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
Herod, the king,
In his raging,
Chargid he hath this day
His men of might
In his owne sight
All yonge children to slay, —
That wo is me,
Pore child, for thee,
And ever morne and may
For thi parting
Nether say nor singe.
By by, lully lullay.^«
One can imagine how effective this song must
have been, with the slaughter of the two children to
come next. It must have been a late addition,
however, as were the others in this and the weavers'
plays. All of them smack of the Elizabethan days
and are in striking contrast to the soberer ritualistic
antiphons more frequent in the other cycles. The
songs of the angel before and after the annunciation
to Mary in the York spicers' scene is an example of
the usual antiphonal music in these plays. The
Dignus Dei noted in the margin of the Chester Fall
of Lucifer, ^^ the Gloria in Excelsis sung by the
angels in the Coventry and Chester plays of the
Adoration of the Shepherds,^^ and numerous other
^^ Craig, Two Coventry Corpus Christi Plays, p. 32.
17 Deimling, Chester Plays, p. 12 n.
isDeimling, Chester Plays, p. 147; Craig, Two Coventry
Corpus Christi Plays, p. 9.
CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 199
such responses scattered at intervals through the
plays were evidently taken from the offices of the
church ; and one would like to think that all the
sequences sung by the choir boys in the plays were
of the same origin, though a careful examination
of the responses shows that this was not so. Often-
times they came directly from the offices of the
church, but almost as frequently they seem to be
only faint echoes of musical and biblical themes
well known in the church services. ^^ They were
rendered by singers from the neighboring monas-
teries and cathedrals, even though these choristers
had no further connection with the plays. A note
in the Chester Adoration of the Shepherds directs :
Tunc omnes pasiores cum aliis adiuvantibus canta-
hunt hilare carmen. And numerous entries of pay-
ments to church choristers for aiding in the plays
are to be found from time to time in the guild
account-books.
Non-Speaking Characters. Where the choris-
ters and musicians sat and how they were regarded
in the scenes it seems impossible to tell. In some
cases they seem to have been one and the same
with the angels, and as such would probably sit on
the upper stage of the processional pageant-
wagons; but where they were outside characters
entirely, and, as at Chester, merely aiding the
angels in their songs, it seems impossible to say
what disposition was made of them when not sing-
i» Smith, York Plays, p. 525.
t
200 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
ing. The same problem arises with regard to other
non-speaking characters in the scenes. In the
Towneley Jacob, for instance, there were evidently
characters in the play who did not speak ; for in the
MS as it has come down to us Jacob in going to
meet Esau divides his household into three divi-
sions, putting Rachel, Joseph, and Benjamin in
the last division, himself bringing up the rear.
Joseph and Benjamin never speak, however: and
Esua addresses his men, bidding them hold their
hands and refrain from fighting; yet they never
reply in any way nor give any evidence of their
presence on the stage.
Exits. On the contrary, it may be possible
that these singers and silent characters boldly and
openly walked off the stage when not needed in the
scenes, and on when wanted, and that they were
loafing through the audience and being eyed by
every small boy in the crowd when not engaged in
the action. Almost no evidence at all is to be had
from the MSS of the processional plays, but it
would seem that some much arrangement as this
might well be implied from the speech of the
epilogue after the killing of the children in the
Digby Slaughter of the Innocents: —
wherfor now, ye virgynes, er we go hens,
with all your cumpany, you goodly avaunce,
Also ye menstralles doth your diligens,
A-fore our departyng geve vs a daunce. — 11.
563-66.
CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 201
From this one might infer that the dancers and the
musicians on the stationary stage were regarded as
entirely separate from the play and that they now
came forward, possibly from somewhere in the
crowd, to entertain the audience for a few moments
before it dispersed. And it may be that some such
disposition as this was made of the regular players
on the processional stage. We have seen above
that actors very often kept their seats in their
respective stages when not occupied in a scene, but
it is also true that they frequently left the stage al-
together. In the Coventry pageant of the Nativity
and Slaughter of the Innocents, after the annuncia-
tion to Mary by the angel, we have the stage-direc-
tion, Here the angell departyth, and Joseff cumyth
in, indicating plainly that Gabriel has gone off the
stage entirely. And so later the direction states
that Mare and Josoff goth awey cleyne. In such
cases, if there were a lower platform used as a
dressing room, these actors might easily exit there,
but in those pageants where the upper stage was
used as heaven and the lower one for earth, it
seems that players must of necessity have gone
either among the audience or else under the wagon.
Means of Exit. These exits were apparently
made by means of ladders. At least in the Coven-
try drapers' accounts for the production of their
Doomsday play we have notices of payments for a
ladder and for " fetchyng and kepyng ".^° In the
20 Sharp, Coventry Mysteries, p. 74.
202 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
case, however, of the exits of Christ, God, angels,
etc, from the upper stage to the lower, or vice
versa, the descending and ascending seems to have
been accomplished by means of a windlass. Sharp
\ prints accounts for windlasses, windlass ropes, a
] locker for the windlass, and for men to keep the
\ windlasses ; and he remarks that this was a " cus-
|tomary and necessary appendage to the Pageant
I vehicles, and that it was placed in the lower room
) or floor ".^^ It was by this method no doubt that
I Christ in the York tailors' pageant of the Ascen-
jsion was swept up to heaven when he prayed : —
Send doune a clowde, f adir ! f or-thy
I come to pe, my f adir deere.^^
Feigned Sleep. What seems to have been a
definite attempt, however, on the part of the Corpus
Christi dramatists to avoid the necessity of exits
on the one hand and, on the other, to supply the
need of curtains of which they were as yet ignorant,
was the use of the device of putting an actor to
sleep when he must necessarily drop out of the ac-
tion. That is, while one scene in a play was being
enacted, it was often customary for the actors in
the preceding one, instead of leaving the stage, to
pretend to be asleep. An example is to be had in
the York bowers and fietchers' play of Peter's
21 Loc. cit., p. 72. Compare also pp. 47 and 68.
22 Smith, York Plays, p. 461, 11. 175-6.
CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 203
Denial of Jesus. The play opens with a dialogue
between Annas and Caiaphas, who are awaiting the
arrival of the soldiers that have been sent to arrest
Christ. Night comes, however, before they arrive ;
Annas apparently returns to his own sedes; and
Caiaphas goes to sleep, leaving two of his soldiers
on guard. At this point the scene shifts to the other
end of the stage, where Peter denies his Lord to two
women and where Christ enters between two
soldiers a moment later to remind the guilty dis-
ciple of his broken vow. The soldiers carry Jesus
to Caiaphas's house, but have to wait outside for
him to be wakened before the trial can begin.
When he is finally aroused, however, he calls Annas
over, they take their seats in court, the guardsmen
announce to the captors of Christ that they may
enter, and the trial begins. It is evident, however,
that the whole matter of Caiaphas's feigned sleep
has been only a slender device for shifting the scene
from his sedes to that where Peter denies Christ.
Visions. Another device very similar to that
of feigning sleep for the sake of shifting the scenes
is that of pretending sleep for the sake of some
vision necessary to the plot of the play. In com-
pliance with this custom it is amusing to watch
the crude excuses devised by the players, usually
the principal actors, for lying down to rest or to
sleep in order that an angel or a vision may appear.
Joseph becomes so worried over his trouble about
Mary that he must of necessity lie down to sleep
204 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
in the wilderness, where an angel tells him the
child is of the Holy Ghost; the three kings on
their way to Jerusalem become strangely sleepy all
at once and lie down upon a ready prepared litter
by the roadside, where an angel from heaven tells
them not to return to Herod; and Thomas rests
himself on a bank in the Vale of Jehoshaphat,
where he sees the Virgin in a vision and hears her
angels singing before her. Such were the com-
monly accepted methods, crude though they be, of
representing visions, — by having one actor feign
sleep and another in the garb of an angel come to
him and deliver some message from God.
The Crucifixion. Perhaps other devices which
ought to be mentioned before closing this chapter
are those used in the famous crucifixion scenes.
Something of an idea of the jugglery made use of
in the would-be realistic representation of the
wound in Christ's side may be had from Christ's
words in the Chester Doomsday pageant. The
scene is doomsday and Christ is talking. He has
died for the world and has shed his blood for man-
kind, but he will go further and shed still more. —
Nowe that you shall appeartlye see,
Freshe blood blede for thee,
Good to joye and full greate lee,
Evill to damnacion,
Behoulde nowe all men on me
And se my blood freshe out flye.
CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 205
That I blede on roode tree
For your salvacion.
Then let him spout blood from his sideP
In the crucifixion scenes as well the blood was
made to flow from the Savior's side, a piece of
jugglery which was accomplished probably by
pricking some kind of small leather bag concealed
on the person of the player. We have no references
to this precise scene for the use of this device, but
from two other certain instances of the same usage
we are able to learn the method with a fair degree
of certainty. For instance, in Preston's Cambises
(licensed 1569), when Cruelty and Murder catch
Lord Smirdis and " Strike him in divers places ",
the stage-direction is added: A little bladder of
vineger prickt. Then Cruelty says : " Beholde,
now his blood springs out on the ground ! " Like-
wise, in the Canterbury Marching Watch (July
11), the townsmen used to enact the murder of St.
Thomas h Becket, the patron saint of the city ; and
the semblance of blood on the martyr's body was
made there by means of real blood carried in little
leather bags, as may be seen from the following
entries in the town documents:
[1504.] It. paied for ij baggs of leder to Gylliam xviijd
[1507.] Pro le gettyng sanguynem iiijd
[1512.] For a payer of new gloues for Seynt Thomas jd
[1529.] For a new leder bag for the blode 2* . . vjd
23 Wright. Chester Plays, ii. 191.
2* Sheppard in Archaeologia Cantiana, xii. 36-7.
206 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
From these entries and from the fact that a
semblance of blood was necessitated in the cruci-
fixion scenes one may readily conceive of the de-
vice that was employed. The actual crucifixion,
the suspension on the cross, must of course have
been represented by tying Christ to the cross, as we
are frankly told in the stage-directions was the
method in the Chester play of that name. Judas
probably was hanged as in some of the melo-
dramatic theatrical performances of to-day, by
running straps under his shoulders and fastening
the gallows rope to these. Sharp prints the follow-
ing entries with reference to the execution of these
two characters:
[I573-] — pd. to Fawston for hangyng Judas . . iiijd
pd. to Fawston for Coc croyng . . . iiijd
1576. — ffor the gybbyt of Jegie xviijd
1577. — ffor a lase [beam(?)] for Judas & a
corde iijd
1578. — pd for a trwse for Judas . . . . ijs viijd
pd for a newe hoke to hange Judas -^ . . vjd
These two characters, Christ and Judas, were
important ones in the early religious drama and
their execution marked perhaps the climax of each
cycle. The strain on them nervously and physic-
ally must have been terrific, so terrific that some- .
times they were completely overcome. We hear J
from an old French writer, for instance, of actors •.
2* Coventry Mysteries, pp. 36-7.
CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 207
in the Passion at Veximiel, France, almost dying
under the exertion. " In the year 1437, on the 3rd
of July ", the chronicler relates, " was represented
the game or play, de la Passion, N. S. in the plain
of Veximiel, when the park was arranged in a
very noble manner, for there were nine ranges of
seats in height rising by degrees; all around and
behind were great and long seats for the lords and
ladies. To represent God was the Lord Nicolle,
Lord of Neufchatel, in Lorraine, who was curate
of St. Victor of Metz ; he was nigh dead upon the
cross if he had not been assisted, and it was deter-
mined that another priest should be placed on the
cross to counterfeit the personage of the crucifixion
for that day; but on the following day the said
curate St. Victor counterfeited the resurrection,
and performed his part very highly during the
play. Another priest , who was called Messire
Jean de Nicey, and was chaplain of Metrange,
played Judas, and was nearly dead while hanging,
for his heart failed him, wherefore he was very
quickly unhung and carried off: and there the
Mouth of Hell was very well done; for it opened
and shut when the devils required to enter and
come out, and had two large eyes of steel." ^®
Conclusion. In conclusion, it may be said of
the dramatic conventions of the Corpus Christi
stage that they were symbolical in many respects,
but crude and incongruous on the whole. In the
2«vHone, Ancient Mysteries, pp. 172-3.
208 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
same way that the sedes were symbolical representa-
tions of houses, temples, and towns, so the plateae
were decorated to represent country scenes and were
at the same time symbolical of greater or less dis-
tances. Nor did the symbolism cease here. One or
two people were often used to represent hundreds
and thousands, and a few moments of time sym-
bolized days and years. Similarly the customs
and conventions governing the actors on the stage
were crude, stiff, and incongruous. The audience
was often addressed and preached to by an actor ;
prayers were used as crude devices for introduc-
ing and explaining scenes; characters were put to
sleep in all sorts of impossible places and under
most unfavorable circumstances for the sake of
advancing the plots; the actors sat on the stage
during action or left it if not needed, exiting by
means of ladders; ascensions and descents be-
tween earth and heaven were accomplished by
means of windlasses; and other crude customs
and devices were prevalent in the plays of all the
cycles. The large number of incongruous con-
ventions so apparent to a man of to-day, however,
did not dampen the enthusiasm of the audiences
of that day, and the plays continued in popularity
until their death from other causes.
VII
THE ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES
Introductory. In spite of the extraordinarily
great number of incongruities evident to the
twentieth-century student of the Corpus Christi
stage, it is very probable that the actors and the
audiences of the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth
centuries were not aware of the presence of any
such inconsistencies at all. Had they been aware
of the crudities in, for instance, their crucifixion
scenes, they could not have sat entranced and in
tears at the representation of Christ's passion and
his death on the cross; and, moreover, they would
have removed any such evident incongruous ele-
ments; for we know from their town- and guild-
accounts that they took great pride in a proper rep-
resentation of their plays.
In the preceding chapters we have seep some-
thing of the care taken in the mechanical features
of the pageants, in the symbolic scenery, and the
general principles of staging. And we have ob-
served how incongruous and inconsistent, in spite
of the care taken in preparation, were many of the
209
210 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
conventions connected with the production of the
cycles. We have not so far, however, considered
in detail the actors in these plays, their costumes,
and the general conventions governing them. It
will be the purpose of this chapter, then, to study
more fully the actors themselves, their methods
of costuming, and their preparations for the
pageants.
Requirements of the Players. As has been
said already, great care was taken by both the
townspeople and the players in making preparations
for the pageants. " Good speech, fyne players with
Apparill comelye ", the Chester banes advertised of
their actors ; and that this was generally so may be
seen from the care taken by the towns in selecting
these players, together with the frequent fines for
poor playing and costuming. For instance, it was
required by law at York, " pat yerely in pe tyme
of lentyn there shall be called afore the maire for
pe tyme beyng iiij of pe moste connyng discrete and
able players within this Citie, to serche, here, and
examen all pe plaiers and plaies and pagentes
thrughoute all pe artificers belonging to Corpus Xti
Plaie. And all suche as pay shall fynde sufficiant
in personne and connyng, to pe honour of pe Citie
and worship of pe saide Craftes, for to admitte
and able ; and all oper insufficiant personnes, either
in connyng, voice, or personne to discharge,
ammove, and avoide. ^ And pat no plaier pat shall
plaie in pe saide Corpus Xti plaie be conducte and
ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 211
reteyned to plaie but twise on pe day of pe saide
playe; and pat he or thay so plaing plaie not
ouere twise pe saide day, vpon payne of x\s, to
forfet vnto pe chaumbre as often tymes as he or
pay shall be founden defautie in pe same ".^
Miss Smith thought the meaning of this last
order not clear and suggested that it might refer to
a player undertaking more than one part in the
same scene; but Mr. Joseph HalP has suggested
with greater probability that the prohibition was
against actors playing in more than two pageants.
For when this ruling was made at York in 1418,
there were no less than forty-eight plays and twelve
stations at which pageants were accustomed to be
represented ; and since a popular actor, for instance
one in the first pageant, might be especially desired
for another character in the thirteenth scene, con-
siderable delay might necessarily be occasioned the
thirteenth pageant before this popular actor could
get back to the first station, change his costume, and
get ready for his part. Mr. Hall thinks it was for
this reason, " to prevent possible delay ", that the
enactment was made, and not to forbid one actor
playing double parts in the same scene. And no
doubt he is right : the law forbade any player from
performing more than twenty-four times in one
day; not an unfair leet by any means.
Double Parts. Miss Smith was right, how-
1 Quoted in Smith, York Mystery Plays, Introd., p.
xxxvii.
2 Englische Siudien, ix. 448-9.
212 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
ever, in her suggestion that actors probably under-
took more than one part in the same play. She has
called attention to the contemporary Play of the
Sacrament, for which twelve characters were re-
quired, and to the note at the end that " IX may
play yt at ease ", and also to Bale's Kynge Johan
and Preston's Cambises, in both of which several
parts might be performed by one actor. But for-
tunately there is other and more direct evidence
in the plays themselves, a part of which Miss Smith
herself called attention to elsewhere, though she
failed to mention it in connection with the above
suggestion. This evidence occurs in the York Tile-
makers' Second Trial before Pilate. In the be-
ginning of the play Christ is brought for the second
time before Pilate by two soldiers, who apparently
retire after turning their captive over to their chief.
After Christ has been brought into the hall, how-
ever, it is remarked "pat per [the standard-bear-
ers'] schaftes schuke. And thej baneres to this
brothell pai bowde all on brede ". Pilate becomes
angry with the standard-bearers, but they declare
that they could not help their, banners bowing; so
Pilate bids his beadle bring the strongest men in
the country to hold the lances. —
pou bedell, pis bodworde pou here
Thurgh pis towne ; —
pe wyghtest men vn-to were.
And pe strangest per standerdis to stere,
ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 213
Hider blithely bid pam be bownc. — 11.
212-16.
Then the beadle says:
A company of keuellis in this contre I knawe
That grete ere and grill, to pe gomes will I
gange. — 11. 219-20.
According to the rubric he now goes to the first and
second soldiers and says:
Say, ye ledis botht lusty and lange,
je most passe to sir Pilate a pace.
i Mil. If we wirke not his wille it wer wrang,
We are redy to renne on a race,
And rayke. — 11. 221-5.
As Miss Smith says : " If we take this rubric as
correct, the beadle goes out and fetches in the same
soldiers (ist and 2nd) who had brought Jesus back
from Herod to Pilate, and we may suppose had
then retired. . . . They as well as Pilate are, how-
ever, quite unconscious of the identity, . . . and
we should probably name them seventh and eighth
soldiers".* In other words, we have two actors
playing double parts in this scene.
Again: Sharp makes the statement that in 1540
" the matter of pe castell of emaus " was added to
* York Plays, p. 327 n.
214 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
the Coventry cappers' pageant. " But ", he says,
" no further particulars are discoverable in the Ac-
counts of the Company, and as Cleophas and Luke
are the only characters introduced, besides that of
our Saviour; it seems reasonable to conclude that
they were represented by performers who had
personated other characters in the former part of
the Pageant ".* Likewise, in the Coventry smiths'
accounts for 1490, among other payments to God,
Caiaphas, Herod, Pilate, Annas, and others — each
singly, — we find iSd. paid " to the devyll & to
Judas " and i6d. " to Petur & malkus ",^ showing
that these four parts must have been represented
by only two men. This economical method of em-
ploying one actor for several parts was also cer-
tainly used in the smiths' later Destruction of Jeru-
salem. And since it became very popular, as we
know, in the Elizabethan period, we may not doubt
that at this time too, when the plays were given
over to the pageant-masters who agreed to bring
them forth for certain fixed sums, these men were
quick and willing to economize in every way pos-
sible.
Entertainment of the Players. These players,
as said before, were selected with the greatest of
care and were most hospitably entertained at the
expense of the companies. In fact, the actors seem
to have been employed with the understanding that
meals and drink were to be supplied them. At any
* Coventry Mysteries, p. 46.
^Ibid,, p. 16.
ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 215
rate, the guild-accounts are full of memoranda for
" drinke to the plaiers ", ** dennares ", " stoopes for
dreanke ", " mete and drenk ", " wyne ", " drencke
to them that plaied ", " expenc on pe pleares for
makyng them to drynke & hete at ev'y reste ",
" drynking for the playars betwen the play
tymes ", and for numerous other convivial ex-
penses.
Requirements of the Players. In return for
such large hospitality, however, the actors were ex-
pected to render their parts in the pageants care-
fully and well. In all cases apparently they were
required to commit their parts to memory, and a
special prompter was paid " for beryng of pe
Orygynall " and correcting them in case they for-
got their speeches. But if they forgot too often or
acted too poorly, both they and their companies
were promptly fined for the dishonor which they
had brought on the town, — they by their pageant-
masters, and their companies by the town council.
Accounts are extant showing that companies at
Beverley and Coventry were fined because their
players did not know their parts; and in the Cov-
entry weavers' accounts for 1450 and 1523 we learn
that fines varying from 6d. to lod. were collected
from the players.^
Women's Parts. These actors, it is to be re-
marked, seem to have been men only, as on the
Elizabethan stage. Here again our records are un-
fortunately defective, and we are able to speak posi-
^ Sharp, Weavers* Pageant, p. 22.
216 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
lively of the custom at Coventry only. But there
certainly the players seem to have been men only.
For instance, in the case of the Coventry weavers
in 1450 we find three of their players deficient in
their parts in some way and being fined accordingly.
Among these fines we notice sixpence " Received of
Hew Heyns, pleynge Anne, for hys fyne ".^ Like-
wise, Dame Procula, Pilate's wife in the Coventry
smiths' play, was a man; for in 1495 we hear of
money being paid to '* Ryngolds man Thomas pt
playtt pylatts wyfif ". In 1498, too, we find 2d.
" paid to pylatts wyffe for his wag's ", and in 1490
2j^rf. " for a quarte of wyne for heyrynge of proc-
ula is gowne ".^ Perhaps it would not be wholly
safe to generalize too broadly from so few records
as we have; but since women's parts were custom-
arily taken by men and boys on the later Eliza-
bethan stage, and since we have indisputable proof
of the same custom in the above records of the
Coventry plays, it seems fair to conclude that the
female parts on the Corpus Christi stage were prob-
ably always taken by men.
Costumes. Costumes for the players were
procured from all sorts of sources. Sometimes
they were bought ; at other times they were rented ;
but most frequently they were merely borrowed
from the clergy and the neighboring gentry. At
Lincoln the Guild of St. Anne was accustomed to
7 Sharp, Coventry Weavers' Pageant, p. 22.
* Sharp, Coventry Mysteries, p. 30 and m.
ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 217
procure costumes for the players and regularly ap-
pointed one of their number as ** graceman ", the
officer who was responsible for getting the gar-
ments together. To this guild *' every man and
woman in the city, being able ", was required to be-
long at an expense of " yearly 4^., man and wife, at
the least ".* The whole story of the Lincoln cus-
tom of borrowing costumes is told in a note for the
year 15 15, when it was " agreed that whereas divers
garments and other ' heriorments ' are yearly bor-
rowed in the country for the arraying of the
pageants of St. Anne's guild, but now the knights
and gentlemen are afraid with the plague so that
the * graceman ' cannot borrow such garments,
every alderman shall prepare and set forth in the
said array two good gowns, and every sheriff and
every chamberlain a gown, and the persons with
them shall wear the same. And the constables are
ordered to wait upon the array in the procession,
both to keep the people from the array, and also to
take heed of such as wear garments in the same ".^**
And six years later we find the players borrowing a
" gown of my lady ' Powes ' for one of the Maries,
and the other Mary [was] to be arrayed in the
crimson gown of velvet that belongeth to the gild ;
and the prior of St. Katherine's to be spoken with
to have such * honourments ' as we have had afore-
time "."
9 Hist. MSS Comm., Lincoln MSS. p. 27.
10 Hist. MSS Comm., xiv, App. 8, p. 25.
11 Ihid., p. 29.
218 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
Church Vestments. The note of assurance in
the borrowing of '' honourments " from the prior
of St. Katherine's should not be missed, however;
for it was from the parish churches that the choic-
est gold embroidered vestments often came. And
in some places, where the churches were fortunate
enough to possess a stock of '* game gear ", the
thrifty clergy were accustomed to let the regular
players' costumes at a good profit. An instance of
this rental of church vestments is to be found
among the smiths' accounts at Chester: —
1569. To the Clarke for the lone of a Cope, an
Altar Cloth and Tunicle xd.
1575. For Copes and Clothe xiid.
To John Shawe for lone of a Doctor's
gowne and a bode for our eldest Doctor xiid.
1566. Gloves for the Doctors and little God on
Midsomer eve vid.^^
Purchase of Costumes. But in many places,
where perhaps the parish churches could not fur-
nish all the vestments needed, or where possibly the
clergy, like the Rogers at Chester, were more
opposed to the "abomination of desolation [defil-
ing] with so highe a hand ye sacred scriptures of
God ", the costumes had to be furnished by the
guilds themselves and preserved from year to year,
with possible supplements from outside sources.
In such cases the playing gear seems to have been
turned over to the pageant-master for safe keeping
12 Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor
Reigns, p. 311 n.
ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 219
and to have been preserved by him in the guild-
room of the company. The fullest records of these
" plaing garmands " come from Coventry, and it is
interesting in the extreme to note the varied pur-
chases and the great care and money expended for
blue silks and velvet stockings, for darning Christ's
hose, for scouring Mary's crown, mending the
devil's head, gilding Judas's beard, and for pur-
chases of white leather for God's coat.
Character of the Costumes. On the whole
the costumes were rich, gaudy, splendid, and ana-
chronistic. Medieval Englishmen cared or knew
nothing about historical setting and costuming, and
what was good enough for an English nobleman or
canon was considered entirely sufficient for Abra-
ham, Annas and Caiaphas, or Herod. Besides, the
audiences were interested in the splendor of the
spectacles, not in the historical accuracy. For this
reason the pageant-masters could require their play-
ers always to wear gloves, no matter whether the
occasion was a ceremonial one or the play of the
rustic shepherds in the fields around Bethlehem, or
whether it was Pilate on his throne in Jerusalem
or Cain plowing in the field with his oxen. For
this reason, too, the Coventry smiths could borrow
Lady Powes's red velvet gown for Mary Mag-
dalene. The richer the gown, the more splendid
the show, no matter whether the costume was fitting
to the particular rank of the personage represented
or not.
220 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
Adam and Eve. Perhaps of all the costumes
used in the Corpus Christi plays those of Adam
and of Eve have been most discussed. Warton
thought these characters were represented on the
stage in absolute nudity. " In these Mysteries ", he
says, " I have sometimes seen gross and open ob-
scenities. In a play of the Old and New Testa-
ment, Adam and Eve are both exhibited on the
stage naked, and conversing about their nakedness ;
this very pertinently introduces the next scene, in
w^hich they have coverings of fig-leaves. This
extraordinary spectacle was beheld by a numerous
assembly of both sexes with great composure : they
had the authority of scripture for such a represen-
tation, and they gave matters just as they found
them in the third chapter of Genesis. It would
have been absolute heresy to have departed from
the sacred text in personating the primitive appear-
ance of our first parents, whom the spectators so
nearly resembled in simplicity." ^^
Warton evidently thought the character of Eve
impersonated by a woman. It was not, however;
and in addition to, what Chambers calls " a fine a
priori improbability " against her nakedness, Mr.
R. B. McKerrow has shown with almost certainty
that the players must have used " breeks " in order
to (if we may so term it) " symbolize " their nudity.
Mr. McKerrow cites first a passage of two lines
from the well-known moral treatise of Dominicu§
^^ History of English Poetry, i. 243-4.
ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 221
Mancinus, De Quatuor Viirtutihus, first printed in
1484.—
* Histrio, qui in scaenam vadit, sibi subligar aptat
Ne prodat quidquid lex verecunda tegit.'
Mancinus' book was translated three times into English
in the course of the sixteenth century — once into prose by
an unknown translator [The englysshe of Mancyne apon
the foure cardynale verities, c. 1520], and twice into verse
by Alexander Barclay [Myrrour of good maners, c. 1523]
and George Turberville [A plaine Path to perfect Vertue,
1568] respectively. Two of these translations are not
without interest. The first renders the two lines in
question as follows:
*A disgyser yt goeth into a secret corner callyd a sene
of the pleyinge place to chaunge his rayment : ordenyth
hymselfe a breche: the whiche at ye lest wyse he kepith
styll apon hym : whatsomeuer pagent he pleyith/
This translation is interesting for the use of the word
'scene' apparently in the sense of tiring-room, but Bar-
clay's is perhaps rather more to the point.
Expanding his original somewhat and saying that even
*a dysgysed lougler or vyle iester vnpure' observes a
certain amount of decency, he continues:
*And therfore apperyng all naked in a play
If his parte so requyre presented for to be
He kepeth his foule partes hyd in a brake alway
Nat shewyng what nature hath set in pryuete.'
I presume that by * brake' he means *breeks': in the
reprint of the Myrrour, which was appended to the edi-
tion of Barclay's translation of Stultifera Navis in 1570,
222 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
the word appears as 'breech'. It seems clear that the
translator must have been thinking of the Adam and Eve
plays, for few, if any, of the other characters would re-
quire to be represented as naked.
Turberville's version is only of interest in that he
seems to have missed the point of the original, suggesting
at least that he had never seen a play of this sort at all.
He has:
* When so a Player comes on stage
he ties his trinkets harde,
For feare if ought should fal, the plays
Decorum should be marde.' i*
It may be added that the " 2 cotes & a payre hosen
for Eve, stayned " and " A cote & hosen for Adam,
Steyned " at Norwich were probably for their cos-
tumes after being clothed by God and driven out of
Eden. The " 2 hearys for Adam & Eve ", how-
ever, would seem to indicate that they had worn
wigs throughout the play.
God. Another character closely associated
with those of Adam and of Eve was God, although
comparatively little is known of the actual costum-
ing of this personage. At Norwich in the grocers'
Fall of Man God wore a mask and artificial hair,
and at Newcastle in the slaters' Abraham and Isaac
he and his angel both wore crowns. And from the
Rogers Breauarye it would seem that at Chester he
probably had his face gilded. The Rogers quota-
tion from the banes of the plays is as follows :
^* Modern Language Quarterly, vi. 145-6.
ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 223
For no man can proportion that Godhead, I
saye,
To the shape of man face, nose, and eyne ;
But sethence ye face gilte doth disfigure ye
man that deme
A Clowdy Coueringe of ye man a voyce only
to heare,
And not God in shape or person to appeare.^*^
As we shall see later, Christ, who was also called
God, had his costume of white leather, and it may
be possible that God was also apparelled in this
way.
Noah. Noah and his wife were two other im-
portant personages in the Old Testament scenes,
but practically no information as to their costumes
has survived. In the Wakefield play we are told
that Noah wore some sort of coat which he cast off
before beginning work on the ark. And in the
Hull mariners' scene, which, however, seems not to
have been of the regular Corpus Christi type of
play, he was furnished with " a payr of new
mytens " and a coat made of three skins. How
Noah's wife, " Uxor Noe ", was arrayed we do not
know ; but that she must have been a popular char-
acter may be judged from the speeches given her in
the plays. Indeed, in several of the plays she seems
to have been little more than a clown, and, being a
man as she was, boxing her husband's ears, refus-
es Furnivall, Digby Mysteries, p. xx.
224 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
ing to enter the ark of her own accord, and requir-
ing her husband and sons to force her in — all this
before a crowd of gaping, ale-drinking, and apple-
eating commons, — she must have created an im-
mense amount of fun. That she was thus looked
upon as a clown is very forcibly emphasized in the
York play when she inquires of her husband:
But Noye, where are nowe all oure kynne,
And company e we knewe be- fore?
Noe. Dame, all ar drowned, late be thy dyne.
— 11. 269-71.
In other words, shut your mouth !
The Devil. Possibly the most popular char-
acter on the Corpus Christi stage, however, was the
Devil ; certainly he was so if we except Christ. In
fact, the Devil and his lively troop of under-demons
seem to have furnished most of the comedy in many
of the plays. And no doubt their various noises,
strange gestures, unnatural contortions, and queer
costumes must have been the cause of much excited
laughter among the vulgar spectators. A good
example of this comical side of the Devil's char-
acter in the Corpus Christi plays is to be seen at
the beginning of the York smiths' Temptation of
Jesus, where Diabolus in the midst of the throng
about the pageant-wagon suddenly gains the atten-
tion of the audience by exclaiming :
Diab. Make rome be-lyve, and late me gang,
Who makis here all pis prang?
ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 225
High you hense ! high myght 50U hang
right with a roppe.
I drede me pat I dwelle to lang
to do a jape. — 11. 1-6.
In other words, we may imagine that the pageant-
wagon has just moved into its place at the station
and that the Devil, as a clever device for gaining the
attention of the audience, has purposely dropped
off the wagon among the crowd, where he has been
chasing timid small boys and pretending to catch
them and take them off to hell. Then when all is
ready on the wagon and Christ is in his place on the
mountain, Diabolus suddenly rushes toward the
wagon, climbs in, and takes his place beside Christ.
The " Adam " Play. Such a custom of making
excursions through the audience would be strictly
in accordance with the traditional stage habits of
the Devil, an example of which is to be seen in the
Anglo-Norman Adam, where the devils carry Adam
and Eve to hell. The stage-direction there reads:
"Then shall come the devil and three or four devils
with him, carrying in their hands chains and iron
fetters, which they shall put on the necks of Adam
and Eve. And some shall push and others pull
them to hell ; and hard by hell shall be other devils
ready to meet them, who shall hold high revel at
their fall. And certain other devils shall point
them out as they come, and shall snatch them up
and carry them into hell ; and there shall they make
226 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
a great smoke arise, and call aloud to each other
with glee in their hell, and clash their pots and
kettles, that they may be heard without. And after
a little delay the devils shall come out and run
about the stage ; but some shall remain in hell ".^®
Costumes of the Devil. Numerous pictures of
the Devil have come down to us from medieval
times, generally picturing him with horns on his
head, a long crooked snout, and a tail. He is
usually clad in black and carries a horn, a great
club, or some kind of staff with curved hooks on
the end. In the Newcastle shipwrights' Noah's
Ark the Devil swears by his crooked snout,^^ which
indicates that some kind of mask must have been
worn ; and in Gammer Gtirton's Needle Hodge gives
an excellent description of what one may suppose to
have been the old Corpus Christi devil : —
[Hodge] By the masse, ich saw him of late
cal vp a great blacke deuill !
O, the knaue cryed " ho ! ho ! " He roared, and
he thundred.
And yead bene here, cham sure yould murrenly
ha wondred! . . .
Gammer. But, Hodge, had he no homes, to
pushe ?
18 Chambers's translation from the Latin stage-direc-
tions after 1. 590. Compare Grass, Das Adamsspiel, pp.
31-2.
17 Compare Waterhouse, Non-Cycle Mystery Plays, p.
23, 1. 127.
ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 227
Hodge. As long as your two armes ! Saw ye
neuer Fryer Rushe
Painted on a cloth, with a side long cowes
tayle,
And crooked clouen feete, and many a hoked
nayle?
For al the world, if I shuld iudg, chould
recken him his brother.
Loke, euen what face Frier Rush had, the deuil
had such another ! ^®
All this evidence is corroborated by entries in the
Coventry accounts as given by Sharp. Some of
the items to be noted are as follows: " 145 1. — Itm
payd for pe demons garment makyng & p[e] stof
. , . vs. \\]d. ob. ; Itm payd for collyryng of pe
same garment . . . viijrf.; 1494. — Itm paid to
Wattis for dressyng of the devells hede . . . viijd.;
1498. — It' paid for peynttyng of the demones hede;
1567. — Itm payd for a stafe for the demon . . .
iiijrf.;^® Itm payde for mendynge pe devells cote
and makyng the devells heade . . . iiij^. vjd.; Itm
payd for a yard of canvas for pe devells malle & for
makyng . . . \\\]d. ; Itm payd for payntyng pe dev-
ells clubbe;^° 1540. — It' for peyntyng & makyng
new ij damons beds; 1556. — payd for a demons
face . . . ij.y.; 1560. — payd to Cro for mendyng
the devells cottes . . . xxd.; 1568. — payd for mak-
18 III. 2: 12-22.
1^ Coventry Mysteries, p. 31.
2o/&,d., p. 56.
228 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
yng the de veils hose . . . vnjd.; payd for canvas
for one of the devells hose . . . xjrf.; payd for
makyng the ij devells facys . . . xs.; payd for
makyng a pay re of hose w^t. heare . . . xxijrf.;
payd for iij/f. of heare . . . ij^. v'jd.; 1572. — It*
pd for ij pound of heare for the demons cotts &
hose and mending ".^^
From these entries we see that the Devil in one
instance had a club made of canvas, painted and
possibly stuffed w^ith v^^ool, as was Pilate's (which
we shall notice later) ; and Sharp remarks that from
the many entries made for painting and repairing
the Devil's mall, " we may presume that by way of
exciting merriment, he laid about him during the
time of performance on such persons as were within
his reach, as well as in those instances where it was
required in the play ". In the other instance we
notice that the Devil had a " staf e ", which probably
was the hooked staff referred to above. From
these citations it is also certain that the Devil in
some cases wore a false face; in others, an entire
false head. This was of course the easiest method
of presenting the crooked snout and the well-known
horns. Likewise, several pounds of hair were
bought for his coat and hose, with the intent prob-
ably of representing him as fearfully as possible.
At Norwich, too, where " a cote wt hosen & tayle
for ye serpente, steyned, wt a wt heare ", was found
among the properties of the grocers' company in
21 Loc. cit., p. 69.
ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 229
1565, he seems to have been adorned with hair; but
in this case he seems to have been habited, not in his
usual costume, but in one especially made to repre-
sent the snake in the garden of Eden. Sharp, how-
ever, prints a cut picturing a hairy horned devil and
two feathered fellows in one of his various hell-
pictures, but the present writer has not met with any
other references which indicate that the Devil was
hairy. The reference in the banes to the Chester
plays of " the devill in his fethers, all ragger and
rente " is too well known to need comment.
Souls. Other characters often closely asso-
ciated with the devils were the souls of those sup-
posed to be dead, of whom there were usually six,
three " savyd " and three " dampnyd ". From
various references here and there in the plays, as
well as from the Coventry account-books, it seems
that the damned souls were dressed in black and the
saved ones in white. Lucifer's expression noted
above, " Now I am a devyl ful derke, that was an
aungelle bryht ", would indicate this difference, as
would the cry of the fallen angels in the Wakefield
Creation: —
Now ar we waxen blak as any coyll,
and vgly, tatyrd as a foyll. — 11. 136-7.
In Henry V (11. 3: 42-4), too, the Boy seems to
refer to the same custom of the damned souls being
clothed in black when he says : "Do you not re-
230 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
member, a' saw a flea stick upon Bardolph's nose,
and a' said it was a black soul burning in hell-fire " ?
And the evidence from the drapers' accounts at
Coventry leaves no doubt that this was the custom
in that city. Sharp prints the following from their
accounts: " 1536. — Itm for mendyng the white &
the blake soules cotes . . . viijaf; 1537. — Itm for v
elnes of Canvas for shyrts & hose for the blakke
soules, at \d. the elne . . . V]s. ]d; Itm for coloryng
and makyng the same cots . . . ixo?; Itm for mak-
yng & mendynge of the blakke soules hose . . . v]d;
Itm for a payre of newe hose & mendyng of olde
for the whyte soules . . . xviijc?; 1543. — It' p'd if or
the mendyng of the whytt soils kotts wt the ij skyns
pt. went to them . . . xvjc?; 1556. — p'd for canvas
for the sollys cottys xix ellys . . . xiiijj n]d; p'd
for ix elys of canvas made yellow . . . xijc?; p'd
for X elys of canvas made blacke . . . xc?; payd
for ij pessys of yallow bokeram . . . vij^ w]d; payd
for iiij yards of Rede bokaram . . . \]s viijc?; payd
for makyng the sollys cotts . . . y]s viijJ; p'd for
blakyng the sollys fassys; 1565. — p'd for ix yards
& a halfe of bukram for the Sowles coates . . .
vijj; 1567. — p'd for iij elnes of yelloo Canvas . . .
ij^ X(i; It' for cohering the solles cotts yelloo . . .
■KV]d'\^^ From which it appears that the white or
saved souls were habited in white coats and hose
and that these coats were made of skins. In the
case of the black or damned souls, they were
22 Lor. cit., p. 70.
ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 231
dressed in coats and hose of black buckram or can-
vas and had their faces blackened. In later years,
however, their costumes came to be black, yellow,
and red parti-colored, a device used possibly to im-
press the spectators all the more forcibly with the
horror of their abode. The saved and lost souls
were probably never more than minor characters in
any of the plays. Certainly this was true in the
Coventry drapers' play, if we may judge from the
amounts paid them, their fees usually being about
half those of the principal characters.
Angels. The costumes for angels seem to
have been as various as were the personages who
represented these characters. One purpose, how-
ever, may be said to have governed the designing of
their apparel: to make it emblematical of the
heavenly kingdom, to have it represent purity and
meekness. This was Mary's statement, rather
crudely expressed, to the angel in the Digby Mary
Magdalene: —
[ijus angelus.]
In a mentyll of whyte xall be ower araye ;
The dores xall opyn a-jens vs be ryth.
Mary.
O, gracyus god, now I vndyrstond !
thys clothyng of whyte is tokenyng of meke-
ness.2*
23Furnivall, Digby Mysteries, p. 115.
2Z2 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
In the cappers' play at Coventry the angels* cos-
tumes seem to have come from one of the churches ;
for we find entries " for vv^aschyng pe angells albs "
and " for mendynge pe angells surplisses & v^assh-
yng".^* In the Beverley Fall of Man the angel
wore wings; in the Norwich grocers' pageant he
wore a *' Cote & over hoses of Apis Skynns " ; and
in the weavers' play at Coventry and in the Abra-
ham and Isaac at Newcastle the angels, like God,
wore crowns. Sharp's records of the angels' cos-
tumes in the Coventry drapers' play, where there
were four angels, is as follows: " 1538. — Itm for
makyng an angells, scytte [suit?] . . .xijc?. ;i540. —
Itm for peyntyng & makyng new iiij peire of angells
wyngs ; 1556. — payd for iiij pere of angyllys wyngys
. . . i]s. Y\i]d.; payd for iiij dyadymes . . . ij^.
vijc?.; payd for vj goldyn skynnes . . . \s}^ Here
again it is noticeable that the angels wore wings and
diadems, and Sharp thinks that the golden skins
were for the coats. " No other personages ", he
says, " seem to have so strong a claim to the six
Golden skins : they were certainly not used for any
part of God's dress; and in the original entry this
item immediately follows that of the four Diadems."
Christ. The most important personage in the
Corpus Christi plays as a whole undoubtedly was
Christ, called also God. The importance of this
character is shown by the amounts paid the actors
24 Sharp, Coventry Mysteries, pp. 55-6.
26 Ibid., p. 71.
ACTORS AxND THEIR COSTUMES 233
who impersonated him, by the stories that have
come down to us about the scenes in which he took
part, and by a study of the plays themselves. In
the Chester blacksmiths' Purification of Mary,
where Christ is only a child, we find sixteen pence
paid " the lytell God " in 1551, twelve pence in 1554,
and sixteen pence again in 1567. By the Coventry
weavers, where he is also a child, we find four pence
paid in 155 1 " to the woman for her chyld ", and in
1553 the same amount again " to the letell chylde".^^
But in the Coventry drapers' Doomsday, where
Christ is a man and is the most important personage
in the play, his fee in 1538 was 3^. 4d. against i.y. 6d.
to the next highest paid actor.
Of the importance and the power of this character
on his audiences Sharp relates an interesting story
from Disraeli's MS. Life of John Shaw, Vicar of
Rotherham, inserted in his Curiosities of Literature.
Says the Vicar, who was preaching on one occasion
at a place called Cartmel in Lancashire : " I found
a very large spacious church, scarce any seats in it ;
a people very ignorant, and yet willing to learn ; so
I had frequently some thousands of hearers. I
catechised in season and out of season. The
churches were so thronged at nine in the morning,
that I had much ado to get to the pulpit. One day,
an old man of sixty, sensible enough in other things,
and living in the parish of Cartmel, coming to me on
some business, I told him that he belonged to my
'• Sharp, Weavers' Pageant, p. 22.
234 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
care and charge, and I desired him to be informed
in his knowledge of religion. I asked him how-
many Gods there were? He said he knew not. I
informing him, asked again how he thought to be
saved? He answered he could not tell. Yet
thought that was a harder question than the other.
I told him that the way to salvation was by Jesus
Christ; God-man, who, as he was man, shed his
blood for us on the cross, &c. Oh Sir, said he, I
think I heard of that man you speak of once in a
play at Kendall, called Corpus Christ's play, where
there was a man on a tree, and blood run down, &c.
And afterwards he professed he could not remem-
ber that he ever heard of salvation by Jesus, but in
that play."
Christ's Costumes. Christ's costume seems to
have been more or less uniform. In the York pin-
ners' Crucifixion we have a " kirtill ", a " coote ",
and a " mantell " referred to as his apparel, and in
the corresponding play at Chester, a coat, a kirtle,
and a " paulle ". In the Coventry weavers' accounts
for 1564 payments were made for " payntyng of
Jesus heade ", probably gilt, and for darning Christ's
hose ; and Sharp adds the following items relative to
his costume in the Coventry smiths' and cappers'
plays: " 145 1. — It' payed for vj skynnys of whit-
leder to godds garment . . . xviijc?.; It' payed for
makyng of the same garment . . . xd.; 1553. — It'
payd for v schepskens for gods coot & for makyng
. . . iij^.; 1498. — It' payd for mendyng a cheverel
ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 235
for god and for sowyng of gods kote of leddur and
for makyng of the hands to the same kote . . .
xijd.; 1490. — It' a cheverel gyld for Ihesus; 1565. —
pd for payntyng & gyldyng gods cote; pd for a
gyrdyll for god . . . iijfl^.; 1501. — It' pd if or a
newe sudere for god . . . vijd.;^^ 1556. — payde
for vij skynnes for godys cote; 1557. — paid for a
peyre of gloves for god . . . i']d.; 1562. — payd for
a Cote for God and for a pay re of gloves . . . iij^. ;
1565. — p'd for iij yards of Redde Sendall for God
, . . xxd "}^ The use of the " Redde Sendall " is
not clear, but from the other entries it is evident
that Christ's hair was gilded and that he w^ore a
coat of sheepskin leather w^hich w^as sometimes
white, sometimes gilded, and to which the hands
were attached. The " sudere " was probably the
legendary veronica on which his image was painted
and may or may not have been carried by him.
"Anima Christi." Another, and yet the same,
character comes up for discussion next, the Spirit
of Christ, Anima Christi, or Spirit of God, about
which Sharp was strangely confused in his Dis-
sertation, The four items which he prints are as
follows : " Itm payd for pe spret of Gods cote
. . . ij^; Itm payd for pe makyng of pe same
cote . . . viijJ; Itm payd for ij yardes and halfe
off bockram to make the spirits cote . . . \]s ]d;
Itm payd for makynge the same cote . . . viijrf ".^'
27 Loc. cit., p. 26.
28 Ihid., p. 69.
29 Ibid., p. 54.
236 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
With regard to this character Sharp says : " No
article of dress explicitly intended for this char-
acter [Christ, or God] appears in the Accounts.
There is a charge for painting, inter alia, p[e]
Rattel, pe Spade & ij crossys & hell mowythe "
and also an item of expences for boards used about
the Sepulchre side of the Pageant .... I once
hesitated in determining whether this character [the
Spirit of God] represented God the Father, or was
meant for our Saviour after his resurrection; but
a very ingenious friend says : — ' I suspect the
" Spirit of God " to mean the Holy Ghost. This
third person in the Trinity was not always repre-
sented as a dove, but occasionally as a human figure,
as some old prints demonstrate '." Sharp's friend,
however, seems to have been more ingenious than
reasonable in his suggestion; for a study of the
Coventry account-books shows that the scenes rep-
resented by the cappers were the descent into hell,
the setting of the watch, the resurrection, and the
appearance to Mary Magdalene and the travelers,
in none of which is any spirit of God the Father
needed. On the contrary, the Spirit of Christ,
Anima Christi, is certainly needed in the harrowing
of hell, and would be perfectly appropriate in the
others. Moreover, in none of the plays that have
come down to us do we have any use of the spirit of
God the Father, the Holy Ghost, while in the De-
scent into Hell of the so-called Ludus Coventrics
we do have an Anima Christi. Hence it seems
ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 237
reasonable to suppose that the buckram garments
referred to above were meant for the Spirit of
Christ; and since no other article of dress was
purchased for Christ himself, it may not be im-
possible that the Anima Christi appeared instead
of the living Christ in all the cappers' scenes.
Herod. The Corpus Christi Herod is known
to all of us from Hamlet's description of his ranting
manner : " O, it offends me to the soul to hear
a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion
to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the
groundlings, who, for the most part, are capable
of nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows and noise :
I would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing
Termagant ; it out-herods Herod ". And that Ham-
let's description is not overdrawn let the following
from the Chester Adoration of the Magi bear wit-
ness : —
For I am king of all mankinde,
I byd, I beat, I loose, I bynde,
I maister the Moone ; take this in mynde
that I am most of mighte.
I am the greatest aboue degree,
that is or was or euer shall be.
the Sonne it dare not shyne on me
if I byd hym goe downe. — 11. 169-76.
238 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
The importance of Herod's character in the plays
is shown by the large amount spent on his costumes
and by the sums he received for his work, the per-
former receiving as much as 35. Sd. for his services.
Some of the garments bought for him by the Coven-
try smiths are as follows : " 1477. — It' to a peynter
for peyntyng the ffauchon & herods face . . .
xd; 1490. — A ' fawchon' a * septur ' and ' a Creste
for heroude'; 1501. — Itm ffor vj jards satten iij
quatrs .... xvj^ xc? ; Itm for v jardus off blowe
bokeram . . . ij^ xjc?; It' pd ffor makyng off
herodus gone . . . xvrf; 1547. — Pd to John Croo
for mendyng of herrods hed and a myter and other
thyngs . . . 'i]s; 1489. — It' paid ffor a gowen to
Arrode .... vijs injd; It' paid ffor peyntyng
& steynyng ther off . , . vj^ iiijc?/ It' payd ffor
Aroddes garment peynttyng pt he went a prossayon
in ... . xxd; 1494. — It' payd for iij platis to
Heroddis Crest of Iron . . . vjd; It' payd for
a paper of Aresdyke [tinsel] . . . xijd ; It' payd to
Hatfeld for dressyng of Herods Creste ....
xiiijrf; 1499. — It' payd to John Hatfelde for colours
and gold foyle & sylver foyle for pe crest and for
pe fawchon '\^°
Little comment is needed on these entries. Herod
in one year, it is evident, wore a satin gown, prob-
ably blue. Sharp tells us, for which the sum of
nearly a pound was paid ; in other years his gown
was painted or stained ; he also wore a false face
80 Sharp, Coventry Mysteries, pp. 28-9.
ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 239
and hair and a crest adorned with gold foil ; and he
carried a falchion which was also gilt. Leach adds
that at Beverley Herod always appeared with a
black face,^^ but for this assertion the present
writer has not been able to find any further justifi-
cation than that the mercers in that town played
" Black Herod ".
Pilate. A character of equal or even greater im-
portance than Herod was Pilate, whom Mr. C. M.
Gayley has chosen to interpret as something of a
clown^^, though there seems to be no justification
in the plays for this view. The grounds for Mr.
Gayley's suggestion seem to be that Pilate carried
a mall, or club, and that some sort of leather balls,
the use of which we do not certainly know, were
bought for him. Let us observe the entries which
refer to Pilate in the Coventry smiths' and cappers'
accounts : " 1480. — pd for mendyng of pilats hat
. . . iiijc?; 1494. — It' paid for braband to pylatts
hate wd & for canvas . . . \]d ob. ; 1490. — It' a
Cloke for pilatte [and] Itm a hatt for pilatte re-
paired ;^^ [A green(?) cloak for Pilate and] a
skeane of grene silke [to mend it] ; Makyng of
pylatts malle . . . xxijc?. ; A new malle . . . xxc?;
pd Richard Hall for makyng pylates clubbe . . .
xiijrf; pd ffor ij pounde & halfe off woole ffor the
same clubbe . . . xf/ ; pd for balles for pylatt . . .
81 In Furnivall Miscellany, pp. 213-14.
82 Plays of Our Forefathers, p. 106.
*8 Sharp, Loc. cit., p. 32.
240 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
Hid; lether for balles . . . ijd; pd for makyng of
xvj balls & for ij skyns of lether . . . vrf; pd for a
skyn for balls, for makyng & sowyng . . . vd; pd
for balls & for mendyng of pylatts cloobe . . .
iiijrf; p'd for a payre of gloves for pylate . . . mjd;
p'd for assyden for pilat head . . . i'jd; p'd for
canvas . . . vjc?; & the makyng of pylats doblet
. . . xvjd^V*
From these items we see that Pilate at various
times wore a cloak, which was probably green
(since green silk thread was bought for mending
it), a doublet, gloves, and a gilded wig, and that he
carried a mall, the head of which was made of
leather stuffed with wool and fixed on a wooden
handle. This leather head was seventeen inches
long. Sharp tells us, and Mr. Gayley adds of its use :
" His [Pilate's] mall . . . served partly for a sign
of authority but more for beating his companions
and the public. The balls were perhaps the insignia
of office; but more likely, since they, too, were of
leather, they served for interludes of juggling. The
margin of the Chester plays is studded with stage
directions such as * fluryshe ', * cast up ', ' sworde ',
when ranting kings like Balaak and Herod are on
the boards. The * caste-up ' is hardly of anything
internal: it may be of the staff (sceptre) or of the
balls. Such nonsense seemed requisite to offset the
intense and unfamiliar strain of gazing upon royalty
even though illusionary^** ". This, however, seems
3* Sharp, Loc. cit., pp. 501.
^^ Loc. cit., p. 106.
ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 241
rather a strained delineation of Pilate's character,
especially since none of the plays show Pilate to
be of the ranting Herod type. Moreover, a study
of the Chester plays, to which Mr. Gayley refers,
shows that none of the stage-directions which sug-
gested jugglery to him, refer to Pilate at all; and
it might easily be admitted that the club was made
of leather and stuffed with wool for the purpose
of striking those under Pilate's authority without
requiring us to regard him as a clown; for real
kings and queens in even later times are known to
have shown even more violent manifestations of
temper than merely striking their courtiers. The
present writer, to be sure, would like to hold this
view of Pilate's character, for it adds a new trait
to his nature; but the facts seem against it. The
Chester stage-directions implying jugglery do not
refer to Pilate at all; the mall of itself would not
give him the character of a clown, especially since
the whole tenor of the play is against this view;
and the balls of which so much has been made seem
to have been nothing more than the little leather
balls sewed on the leather club. In the picture
which Sharp has given us of this mall only three
of these balls are left; but the club was then in a
very dilapidated condition, as a glance at the picture
will show, and it may be supposed that the rest of
them were lost off in the plays and in the course
of the centuries of decay.
Annas and Caiaphas. Annas and Caiaphas in
242 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
the Corpus Christi plays seem to have been in im-
portance almost equal to Pilate. At Coventry in
1490 the payment to Pilate was 4s., to Annas 2s. 2d.,
and to Caiaphas 3^. 4c?., and in other years the rela-
tive differences were about the same. Excellent
descriptions of the costumes of both these char-
acters have survived, fortunately enough, in the
Coventry records. The smiths' accounts are as fol-
lows: " i486. — It' for a tabarde & an hoode [the
hire of] . . . iiijc?.; 1487. — It' paid ffor hyryng off
a skarlet wood [hood] and a raygete [rochet] ffor
on off the bisshopis . . . yd.; 1499. — It' payde for
colours and gold foyle & sylver foyle for ij myt-
tyrs; 1544. — payd for a bysschops taberd of scarlet
that we bowght in the trente church . . . x.y. ; ^®
Itm paide for makyng pe ij byschoppes gownse
. . . xx]d; Itm p'd for furryng pe sayd gownse
. . . ij^ iujd ; Itm an ell of bockram for one of the
bysshoppes . . . xiijd; Itm payd for furrynge of
the hoodes . . . viij[(i] ".^^ And in the smiths*
Purification at Chester the doctors in the temple,
though a different set of doctors from those men-
tioned above, seem to have worn very similar cos-
tumes. In 1575, for instance, I2d. was paid " To
John Shawe for lone of a Doctor's gowne and a
hode for our eldest Doctor ".^^ And Joseph in both
this play and in the corresponding scene at Wake-
86 Sharp, Loc. cit., pp. 27-8.
^T Ibid., p. 55.
88 Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor
Reigns, p. 311 n.
ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 243
field refers to the doctor as " so gay in furres fyne ".
Simeon, likewise, puts on his vestments before Mary
and Joseph come with the Christ child. It will
thus be seen that no special care seems to have been
taken to distinguish the doctors and Annas and
Caiaphas. All were richly dressed ; but beyond this
the esthetic tastes of the players and the people did
not extend. Hence the following descriptions of
the " honourments " of Annas and Caiaphas in the
stage-directions of the so-called Ludus Coventrice,
though they do not come under the strict head of
Corpus Christi costumes, seem nevertheless good
summaries of the usual dresses of these characters.
Annas's gown is thus minutely described : —
Here xal Annas shewyn hymself in his stage, be seyn
after a busshop of the hoold lawe, in a skarlet gowne, and
over that a blew tabbard furryd with whyte, and a
mytere on his hed, after the hoold lawe; ij. doctorys
stondyng by hym in furryd hodys, and on beforn hem with
his staff of astat, and eche of hem on here hedys a furryd
cappe, with a gret knop in the crowne, and on stondyng
beforn as a Sarajyn, the wiche xal be his masangere.^a
And Caiaphas's apparel is made to vary only
slightly from Annas's: —
Here goth the masangere forth, and in the mene tyme
Cayphas shewyth himself in his skafhald arayd lyche to
Annas, savyng his tabbard xal be red furryd with white:
89 Halliwell, Coventry Mysteries, pp. 244-5.
244 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
ij. doctorys with him arayd with pellys aftyr the old gyse,
and furryd cappys on here hedys.^o
The Three Marys. The three Marys may all
be considered together; for, with the exception of
the crown always worn by the Virgin, their cos-
tumes seem to have been alike. Attention has
already been called to the note at Lincoln which
mentions " a gown [borrowed] of my lady ' Powes '
for one of the Maries, and the other Mary to be
arrayed in the crimson gown of velvet that be-
longeth to the gild ". Likewise, from the Coventry
smiths' accounts we have the following references
to the clothes of Mary Magdalene and the "two
side Maries " : " Itm p'd for mendynge maudlyns
cote . . . injd; Itm payd for skowryng of maryes
crowns . . . ]d; Itm for payntynge pe maries
roUes*^ .... iiijrf; Itm p'd for a yard of bokeram
. . . xi]d; Itm p'd for makynge pe roles . . . .ijrf;
Itm p'd for mendyng pe maries relies . . . i]d;
paid for mendyng the maries heare . . . viijc?'".^^
Tormentors. Before passing to the other
minor or less-known characters it may be well to
notice the costumes of the tormentors, who, at
Coventry at least, seem to have been the most gaily
*^Loc. ciL, p. 246.
*iThe use of these "rolles" is not known. A friend
has suggested to the author that they may refer to the rolls
of hair, — not buckram over which the hair was rolled, but
to the actual rolls of artificial hair as worn by the players,
who were men and had to have their headgear rolled and
painted in advance.
*2 Sharp, Loc. cit., p. 56.
ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 245
and gorgeously appareled of the lesser personages.
In the Coventry Crucifixion, for example, there
were " iiij Jakkets of blake bokeram for pe tor-
mentors wt nayles & dysse upon pem ", and " other
iiij for tormentors of an other suett wythe damaske
fflowers ' ', and yet " ij party Jakketts of Rede and
blake " and " ij of bokeram wt hamers
crowned ".*^ Three hammers crowned, it is to be
noted, were the arms of the smiths' company; and
the fact that the large sum of twenty-four shillings
was paid for four gowns and the four hoods that
went with them may be accounted for on the ground
that these tormentors bore the arms of the company
and were in a measure the guild's representatives.
" Ye Pendon bearer " at Norwich also wore " a
cote of yellow buckram wt ye Grocers' arms " ; and
one might infer, since the companies were not al-
lowed to show their arms on the pageant-wagon,
that they were thus accustomed to display their
insignia on one of the minor characters.
Minor Characters. Of the costumes of the
other characters in the Corpus Christi plays little is
known, and their apparel may be passed over more
hastily. St. Thomas of India in the Wakefield play
of that name wore a hat, a mantle, a coat, a gay
girdle, and carried a silk purse and a staff.** Peter
in the Coventry smiths' Crucifixion wore a " chev-
erel gyld" and probably an artificial beard and a
*3 Sharp, Loc. cit., p. i6.
<* Cf. 11. 319 ff.
246 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
gown of some kind. Judas seems to have had the
traditional red beard and hair ; and in the Coventry
Crucifixion an expenditure of two shillings was
made " for Canvys for Judas Coote ". Joseph, the
foster father of Christ, is always referred to as
an old man. In the Chester Nativity he is men-
tioned as having a beard " like a buske of breyers,
with a pound of heaire about his mouth and
more ". The Magi in the Chester Magi's Oblation
are spoken of as " in rich Aray ", but nothing fur-
ther is known of their " arayment ". In the Coven-
try smiths' Crucifixion, Pilate's wife, Dame Proc-
ula, wore a gown borrowed of one " Maisturres
grymesby " ; and again in 1490 " a quarte of wyne
[was given] for heyrynge of procula is gowne ".
In 1477 it would seem that she wore a white gown
of some kind, since what seems to have been white
sleeves*^ were put into one of her garments.
Pilate's son in the same play in 1490 wore a hat
and a gown of some kind and carried a poll-axe
and a sceptre. And, lastly, the knights in the
Coventry cappers ', and possibly in the smiths ', play
were arrayed in suits of white armor. A similar
dress for the knights is thus described in the stage-
directions to the Hegge plays, when Judas comes
with his rabble to betray Christ at Olivet : " Here
Jhesus with his dyscipulis goth into the place, and
ther xal come in a x. personys weyl be-seen in white
arneys, and breganderes, and some dysgysed in odyr
*** Compare Sharp, Loc. cit., p. 30.
ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 247
garmentes, with swerdys, gleyvys, and other
straunge wepons, as cressettys, with feyr and lan-
ternys and torchis lyth ".*®
Summary. We have thus reviewed what
little is known of the actors and their costumes on
the Corpus Christi stage. From this little, however,
is discernible something of the richness and the
splendor with which the players decorated them-
selves, without care for the appropriateness, his-
torical or otherwise, of the costumes selected. From
this, too, we have seen how the appeal of the actors
and their apparel was made to the eye and to the
emotions rather than to the educated mind, and,
hence, how the pageant-masters could be content to
dress their players in incongruous, anachronistic
costumes. Symbolism of a vague and uncertain
kind was used, but the fundamental appeal to the
eye and the esthetic tastes of the people was made
through the richness and the bright coloring of the
costumes.
*« Compare Halliwell, Coventry Mysteries, p. 283.
VIII
THE PASSING OF THE PAGEANTS
Introductory. To one living in the palmy
days of the Corpus Christi festival in the last quar-
ter of the fifteenth century it would probably have
seemed impossible that the glory of the day could
ever pass away ; and yet a century later the pageants
were a thing of the past. The death of the plays
had been slow and perhaps imperceptible, but never-
theless sure. Nor was this death due, as many have
thought, either to the expense incident to the pro-
duction of the plays or to the varying wealth,
growth, or decline of the guilds, but rather to an
entire change of thought and religious feeling in the
English nation. That this is true may be seen
from a cursory glance at the plays and their audi-
ences in the earlier and later years of the Corpus
Christi festival.
Popularity of the Pageants. In the institution
and gradual spread of the Corpus Christi plays in
England shortly after 131 1 there is no doubt that
the serious interest of the people was involved
spiritually, or religiously, as well as for the sake
of recreation. One cannot understand these plays
otherwise ; this is the note that stands out from all
248
PASSING OF THE PAGEANTS 249
the rest in the thousand days of pardon granted by
Pope Clement to " euery person that resorted peace-
ably to see the same playes ", in the wills of dying
men leaving money and garments for the pageants,
in the by-laws of the guilds that their plays should
be " in honour of God the Father Almighty, and the
most glorious Virgin Mary, and to the honor of
the glorious confessor St. John of Beverley, and All
Saints ", and in the enactments of the towns that
" every yerr forever " their plays should be pro-
duced. Then when one adds to the religious motive
the other one, that the festival was the great holiday
for the representation of the " pageants of delight ",
one may understand what a hold the plays had on
the people. This was the season for the religious
and the fun-maker, for the priest and the people,
and for the nobleman and the artisan. Its annual
return was hailed with delight and unbounded
pleasure by persons of every rank and station, and
the personal interest of every patriotic citizen in the
success of the pageants was felt in every prepara-
tion and every leet. And it was only after a long
and protracted struggle that the people of Eng-
land were finally willing to relinquish the holiday
which for three centuries had been the greatest
religious and public celebration of the year.
Cause of their Death. The real cause of the
death of the Corpus Christi plays, however, is not
far to seek. It was not the expense or the changes
in the formation of the trades guilds — these mat-
250 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
ters had been successfully battled with in the early
days of the pageants, — but a gradual revulsion of
feeling on the part of the people, due to the work
of religious reformers and the changing spirit of the
age. The dean of York, Dr. Matthew Hutton, ex-
pressed this in his letter to the mayor and city coun-
cil of York in 1568 on their asking him for his ad-
vice as to the suitableness of the plays for repre-
sentation. Dr. Hutton's reply was as follows :
Sal. in Chrlsto. My most humble dewtie vouched. I
have perused the bokes that your lordshipp with your
brethren sent me, and as I finde manie thinges that I
muche like because of th'antiquities, so see I manie
thinges that I can not allowe because they be disagreinge
from the senceritie of the gospell, the which thinges, yf
they shuld either be altogether cancelled or altered into
other matters, the wholle drift of the play shuld be altered,
and therefore I dare not put my pen unto it, because I
want both skill and leasure to amende it, thoghe in good
will I assure you yf I were worthie to geve your lord-
shipp ^nd your right worshipfull brethren consell, suerlic
mine advise shuld be that it shuld not be plaid, ffor thoghe
it was plawsible to yeares agoe, and wold now also of the
ignorant sort be well liked, yet now in this happie time
of the gospell, I knowc the learned will mislike it, and
how the state will beare with it, I know not. Thus bc-
inge bold to utter mine opinion unto your lordshippe, I
committ you and your brethren to the tuition of God's
spirit. From Thorneton the 27 of Marche, 1568.
Your Lordshipps in Christ to comaunde.
Math. Hutton.
To the right honorable my Lorde Mayor
of York and the right worshipfull his
brethren, geve this.^
iDavies, York Records, pp. 267-8.
PASSING OF THE PAGEANTS 251
This is the same spirit, too, or air of superior
knowledge, that was expressed in the banes to the
Chester plays at the time of the attempted revival
of the plays in 1600. —
As all that shall see them, shall most welcome
be,
soe all that here them, wee most humble praye
not to compare this matter or Storie
with the age or tyme wherin we presentlye
staye,
but in the tyme of Ignorance wherin we did
straye ;
Then doe I compare that this land throughout
non had the like nor the like dose sett out.
If the same be likeinge to the comons all,
then our desier is to satisfie — for that is all our
game —
yf noe matter or shewe therof speciall
doe not please, but misslike the most of the
trayne,
goe backe I saye to the firste tyme againe,
then shall you finde : the f yne witt, at this day
aboundinge,
at that day and that age had verye small be-
inge.2
2 Deimling, Chester Plays, p. 3.
252 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
Change of Feeling Gradual. The abandon-
ment of the plays, however, had not been accom-
plished without a protracted struggle and with the
utmost reluctance, a reluctance which had extended
over an entire century. But the change was as cer-
tain and as sure as it was gradual, and may perhaps
be first noticed in the guilds evading their pageant
duties, in their complaining at the expense of the
plays, and in their petitions to the city councils to
" exonerate and discharge theym of and for
the bringinge forthe " of their scenes. In their
earlier days the pageants had been an honor and
a pleasure to be sought after; later they were a
burden and an expense. Then came the variation
of the plays and the substitution of new ones, the
Corpus Christi cycles giving place to the Pater
Noster and the Creed plays, allegorical productions,
which were substituted for the regular pageants.
Within the Corpus Christi cycle, too, changes
gradually became evident and " certen pagyauntes
[were made] excepte, that is to say, the deyng of
our lady, the assumption of our lady, and the cor-
onacion of our lady". Then came the temporary
suspension of the plays for certain years, because
the king had visited the city earlier in the season
and pageants had been given on that occasion, or be-
cause the plague had broken out in the midst of the
people. In their earlier years the plays had gone
forward in spite of the plague, and the mayor and
aldermen, as for instance at Lincoln, had even fur-
PASSING OF THE PAGEANTS 253
nished the costumes in order that the holiday might
not be lacking. But by the middle of the sixteenth
century we find the council at York suspending the
performances in consideration of the plague then
raging and devoting half of their pageant silver
to those " visited with the syknesse which is nowe
dangerouse in the citie ". Only half of the play
money was given, however; the rest was so much
saved. And finally came the royal opposition, which
was first evident in the last years of the reign of
Henry VHI, when the religious guilds and fraterni-
ties were placed at the disposal of the crown. The
plays were continued with some degree of regu-
larity, however, during the reign of his successors,
Edward VI and Mary, but on the accession of
Elizabeth the opposition of the civic authorities
became directly apparent, although they were com-
pelled occasionally to comply with the demands of
the people of " the lesser sort ". From now on,
however, the plays were produced only by a special
leet of the city, where heretofore they had been
omitted only by a special leet. And while from the
accession of Elizabeth on to the close of the cen-
tury sporadic revivals of interest in the plays are
to be noticed in the towns throughout the kingdom,
the principles of the Reformation had worked with
telling effect and every outburst of interest was
little more than a spark of the old-time splendor.
In the Separate Towns. This passing of the
pageants had not progressed with equal uniformity
254 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
of course in all the towns. At Ipswich, for instance,
the plays are reported under date of Jan. 30, 1531,
as " laide for ever aside by order ", though as late
as 1542 " every householder, wth their family " was
required to follow the pageants in the procession
and " every Warden and Master of the Trade " was
assessed id. for " their Pageants uppon the day of
Corp' Chr'i ". At Chester, however, the pageants
continued until 1574, and at Coventry until 1580.
The fate of most of the pageant-wagons is probably
told in the story of the grocers' car at Norwich. —
Item, yt is to be noted that for asmuch as for pe space
of 8 yeris ther was neyther Semblye nor metynge, in pe
meane season pe Pageante remaynynge 6 yeris in pe Gate
bowse of Mr. John Sotherton, of London, untyll pe ferme
came to 20s ; and bycause pe Surveiors in Mr. Sotherton's
tyme would not dysburs ani moni ther for, pe Pageante
was sett oute in pe Strete & so remayned at pe Black
fryers brydge in open strete, when bothe yt was so
weather beaten, pat pe cheife parte ^s rotton; wher-
upon Mr. John Oldrich, then Maior pe yer 1570, together
with Mr. Tho. Whall, Alderman, offred yt to pe Com-
pany to sell for the some of 20. s. [sic], and when no per-
son wold buy yt for pat price and pat yt styll remayned, &
nowe one pece therof rent of & now another as was lyke
all to come to nothinge, Nicholas Sotherton, then offycer
to Mr. Maior, was requested to take yt in peces for the
dept dewe to hym for pe seyd howse ferm therof for 6
yeres aforesayde, at 3s 4d- a yer, who accordinglye dyd
take downe pe same & howsed yt accordinglye.^
Such was the disposition made of the grocers'
wagon at Norwich and such was that, no doubt,
^Waterhouse, Non-Cycle Mystery Plays, pp. xxxii-iii.
PASSING OF THE PAGEANTS 255
of many another one in England, if the history of
all could be known.
Coventry. At Coventry complaint was made
of the expense of the plays as early as 1539. In
that year the mayor of the city in a letter to Crom-
well declared the poor commoners were put to such
expense with their plays that they fared the worse
all the year after. But the festival had such vogue
among the citizens that the plays held out until 1580
when they seem to have been '' laid down " for all
time. In 1584, a new pageant, the Destruction of
Jerusalem, was given, and the songs to the shearmen
and tailors' play, which are dated 1591, rather sug-
gest that an attempt probably was made to revive
the regular cycle in that year, but of the plays after
1580 we have no further proof or mention. Cer-
tainly all the crafts could not have taken part in
the attempted revival in 1591 ; for some of the
pageants had been sold in 1586 and 1587. In 1596,
however, the cappers were disposing of their " bysh-
opps hodds " and the " furrs of players gowns ",
and the weavers had " players aparell " to rent as
late as 1607. The last heard of the pageants is
in a note from the city annals in 1628 that, " On
the 1st daye of August 1628 being Lamas daye,
certaine of or poore Com'oners rose, and pulled
downe the hedges of a peece of the Comon ground
at whitley at the hether end next to Barnes
[Barons] close wch in former tyme was inclosed
and taken out of the Comons their, to defraye some
256 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
charges for the Pageants playing here in this Cytty,
and Midsummer watch, wch said Pageants and
watch have bine put downe many yeares since, and
yett the said peece of Com'on ground has remayned
severall and inclosed until! now ".*
Minor Cycles. /At Bungajvk similar destruc-
tion of the pageantH:ars had been made more than
a century before, when somebody the night after
Corpus Christi in 15 14 "brake and threw down
five pageants of the said inhabitants, that is to saye,
hevyn pagent, the pagent of all the world, Paradyse
pagent, Bethlehem pagent, and helle pagent, the
whyche wer ever wont to fore to be caryed abowt
the seyd town upon the seyd daye in the honor of
the blissyd SacremenVV) The plays continued,
however, until sometime in the last quarter of the
century, the last note we have of them being in 1591.
At Beverley it is known that the " comon place "
were in existence as late as 1555, but no trace has
been found of them at a later date. \M Hereford
the pageants disappeared sooner. " At a law-day
holden at the cytey of Hereford before John
Warnecombe, esquyer, mayor, the tenth day of De-
cember, the second yere of our sovereign lord Ed-
ward the Syxt ", 1548, it was agreed that the " cor-
poracions of artificers, craftes, and occupacions in
the cytey, who were bound by the grauntes of their
corporacions yerely to bring forthe and set forward
dyvers pageaunttes of ancient history in the proces-
* Sharp, Coventry Mysteries, p. 12.
PASSING OF THE PAGEANTS 257
sions of the cytey upon the day and feast of Corpus
Xpi, which now is and are omitted and surceased "
should pay an annual sum toward the expenses of
"the ruynous and decayed causeys, pavements,
streets, and walls^ cleansing the town ditch or such
like reparations^*^ /
Chester. At Chester the plays lasted until -
1574, but the last thirty years of their career was /
a checkered one. In 1546, 1551, 1554, 1561, 1567,/
1568, 1569, 1 57 1 and 1574 the pageants had been
produced, but the performances of 1571 and 1574 ;
had aroused all the virile enmity of an awakened/
church. In 1571, the Rogers's tell us in their
Breauarye, " the Maior [John Hankey] would
needs have the Playes (commonly called Chester
Playes) to go forward, against the wills of the
Bishops of Canterbury, York, and Chester ". A
special inhibition even " was sent from the Arch-
bishop to stay them, but it came too late ". And
again in 1574 Sir John Savage "caused the Popish
Plays of Chester, to be played the Sunday, Munday,
Tuesday and Wednesday after Mid-sommer-day, in
contempt of an Inhibition and the Primats Letters
from York, and from the Earl of Huntington'*.
Some of the plays were omitted, however, those
" which were thought might not be justified, for the
superstition th^t was in them ". The Breauary
tells us, too, that 1574 was the last year of the
pageants in Chester.
(5 Johnson, Ancient Customs of Hereford, pp. 119-20.
258 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
York. As at Chester, so at York, the same
losing battle was fought for the plays. In the early
fifties the plays had been suspended on account of
the plague, and again in 1564, 1565, and 1566 they
were dropped for similar reasons. When they
came to be resumed in 1568 serious doubts were
entertained as to the suitability of the old plays
for public representation; and it was on this occa-
sion that Dr. Hutton wrote the letter quoted above
about the changed spirit of the times. Because of
this letter the city council voted " to have no play
this yere, and the booke of the Creyde play to be
delyveryd in agayn " ; and, though the " dyverse
comoners of the citie were muche desyreous to have
Corpuscrysty play this yere ", the festival seems
to have gone by without any pageants. In 1569 the
pageants were produced on Whit-Tuesday, and in
1572 the Pater Noster play was given "on the
Thursday next after Trynitie Sonday"; but the
regular Corpus Christi pageants do not seem to have
been seriously agitated again until 1575, when a
committee was sent from the city council to the
archbishop to see about correcting the plays and
having them ready " before Lammas next ". Noth-
ing further was heard from the committee, however,
and we may suppose that their application to the
archbishop was not successful. Thus the matter
lay dormant until 1579, when it was agreed by the
council that the plays should be given again, but
" first the booke shalbe caried to my Lord Arche-
PASSING OF THE PAGEANTS 259
bisshop [Sandys] and Mr. Deane [Hutton] to cor-
recte, if that my Lord Archebisshop doo well like
theron ". Apparently he did not " well like ther-
on ", however ; for the plays were not given that
summer and the subject was again dropped until
the following year, 1580, when the citizens made
a final effort to revive the pageants and " did
earnestly request of my Lord Mayor and others
the worshipful assemblee that Corpus Xpi play
might be played this yere ". A new mayor was
now in office, however, and he coldly replied that
" he and his brethren would consider of their re-
quest ".^ This is the last mention of the plays at
York, although the bakers were still choosing
pageant-masters as late as 1656.
Substituted Plays. At Lincoln the same in-
terest in and reaction against the plays is to be found
in the course of the centuries. Here, however, the
interest of the citizens seem never to have been so
much centered in plays of the strictly biblical type ;
for from before the close of the fourteenth century
their pageants were varying between the Pater
Noster, St. Laurence, St. Susanna, King Robert of
Cecily, Santa Clara, and Corpus Christi plays. And
even as early as 1564 their " Popish Plays " had
already been replaced by a semi-religious " standing
play of some story of the Bible". The subject
chosen was " the story of Toby ", and the citizens
seem to have attempted to supplant the zeal and
* Davies York Records, pp. 268-72.
260 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
earnestness of the Corpus Christi plays with the
show and ornamentation of the new subject. Other
towns, too, were constrained to gratify the wishes
of their citizens with substituted pageants. At
Coventry, where the regular plays were shelved, as
we have seen, in 1580, the Destruction of Jeru-
salem, a semi-religious, semi-historical play had to
be substituted four years later; and again in the
nineties the History of King Edward the Confessor
and the Conquest of the Danes were offered as al-
ternatives for the Destruction of Jerusalem.
Conclusion. Thus we have seen that long be-
fore the beginning of the seventeenth century all
the regular Corpus Christi plays had come to an end
and their places had either been taken by semi-
religious, semi-historical scenes, or else had been
left vacant. It is fair to say, however, that none
of the substituted plays seem to have given the
same keen delight or to have been undertaken with
the old time religious zeal that had attended the
representation of the regular Corpus Christi plays.
This was natural, too. In the earlier plays the pro-
duction of the pageants had been attended with a
sense of religious duty as well as of pleasure, and
the actors and the citizens had felt that they were
doing themselves and their visitors a spiritual
service in thus portraying the scenes of the Bible.
The plays were a duty as well as a pleasure. But
in the new semi-historical plays the spiritual ele-
ment was absent and the whole motive was on a
PASSING OF THE PAGEANTS 261
lower plane. Thus the richness and the splendor
of the pageants was kept up after the biblical scenes
were gone, but there was never again the spiritual
and religious fervor of the earlier days. The Cor-
pus Christi plays had fulfilled their mission; they
were creatures of a single age killed by the sophis-
tication of a new era.
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INDEX
Actors:
addressing their audi-
ences, 192-93
costumes, 216-19
entertainment, 214
feigning sleep, 202
female, 215
in the procession, 81
kneeling in prayer, 193-95
non-speaking, 199
personnel, 55-57
playing double parts, 211-
14
requirements of, 210, 215
selection of, 55. 57
sitting on stage, 153, 201
traveling, 56
Adam, costume, 220-22
Adam, play, 225
Addresses, direct, to audi-
ence, 192
Albright, V. E., 88, 89, 120-
22, 123, 140, 141, 146,
149, 156-60, 161 », 164,
170
Anachronisms, 189-90, 219
Angels, costumes, 231
Anima Christi, 235
Annas, costume, 242
Antiphons, 197
Aquinas, St. Thomas, 10
Arneway, John, 13
Assessments for pageants,
Assignments of plays, 34-37
Banes, 42
Bates, K. L., 4, 6
Beverley :
earliest record of plays,
^3 • . . .
Corpus Christi guild, 20-
21
mimetic pageants, 70
Paradise, play, 176-77
play by the " worthies,"
36-37
Bibliography, 262
Birmingham Free Refer-
ence Library burned, 4
Brome plays, 15
Caiaphas, costume, 242
Camhises, 205
Canterbury Marching
Watch, 205
Chambers, E. K. :
mentioned, 4, 6, 13, 39,
138, 220
quoted, 46W, 120, 225-26
Characters :
minor, 245
non-speaking, 199
Chester :
earliest record of plays, 12
plays, 15, 49
plays discussed, 89-93.
116, 147-51. 165-66,
178-79. 257
plays quoted, 90, 96, 138,
185, 188-89, 192-93. 204,
227, 251
Choristers, 199
271
272 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
Christ :
character, 206, 232
costumes, 234
spirit, 235
City council, supervision
over pageants, 26, 29,
33, 37
Clement V, Pope, 10
Colclow, Thorn's, 52
Collier, J. Payne, 8, 119
Confusion of terms, medie-
val, 6
Cornish plays, 176
Corpus Christi cycle of
plays:
incongruities, 107, no
influence of the liturgical
drama, 1 10-12
merging of old scenes,
109
new scenes, 108
Corpus Christi festival :
entertainment of visitors,
32
expenses on the city, 30,
32
growth, II
length, 104
origin, 10, 61
plays at, 12, 76
spirit, 75
street cleaning for, 44
Corpus Christi guilds, 11-
12, 20-21
Corpus Christi plays:
annual production, 3;^
assessments for, 27
assignment of, 34, 36
attitude toward, 25, 75,
117, 249-53, 260-61
changes, 108, 109, 112
commercial profit, 16-17
conflict with procession,
9-10, 76-77
control by religious
guilds, 19
control by trades guilds,
19-20, 21-23
cost, 97, 98
death, 248-61
defined, 8-10
development, 69, 73, 108,
IIO-III
earliest mention, 12, 13
establishment, 12
expenses, 28, 30
geographical extent, 15
historical study impos-
sible, 3
hostility toward, 250-53
incongruities, 107, no,
209
influence of the liturgical
drama, 110-12
meaning, 8-9
merging of, 109
music with, 196-99
new scenes, 108
number, 104
order, 45-47
playing-places, 45-51
popularity, 14, 248-49
procession and, 12, 61, 76
register, 37
rehearsals, 58
religious purpose, 16, 75,
248-49
responsibility for, 24
revision, 53-55, 108
selection of, 37-38
sources of information
concerning, 4-6
stations for, 45-51
substitution of other
plays, _ 259
supervision by city coun-
cil, 26
INDEX
273
time required for presen-
tation, 104
varying dates for pre-
sentation, 8
Corpus Christi procession :
attendance, 63, 80
city officials, 79
control by religious
guilds, 19-21
• craftsmen, 79-80
dumb-shows in, 62, 69, 73
earliest record in Eng-
land, II
establishment, 10, 61
etiquette, 64
halts, 47
hour for starting, 62
mimetic pageants in, 69
order, 69, 77-81
players in, 81
plays and, 9-10, 61, 69, 76
Corpus Christi shrine, 77
Corpus Christi stage:
conventions, 168-208
crudities, 187-89
hindrances in studying, 3
historical study impos-
sible, 3
problems, 2
scenery, 168-69
symbolism, 169
women on, 215
Corpus Christi staging,
114, 117, 118, 122-23,
168-70
Costumes :
character of, 219, 247
church vestments, 218
how procured, 216-19
purchased, 218
Coventry plays, 14, 134-36,
166, 175-76, 179-81,
197-98, 255
Craig, H., 4, 6, 50
Cromwell, Thomas, 18
Croo, Robert, 38
Crucifixion scenes, 137-39,
204-207
Davidson, C., 69-70
Davies, R., 4, 5, 61
Destruction of Jerusalem,
123, 124-25, 255, 260
Devil, the, 224, 226-29
Digby Mysteries, 200
Disraeli, Curiosities of
Literature, 233
Distance, symbolical, 184-86
Doctors, costumes, 243
Dublin pageant tableaux, 72
Dugdale, Sir William, 17,
84
Dumb-show pageants, 62
69-73
Dundee, dumb-show pag-
eants, 71
English Miscellany, An, 6
Entrances, discussed, 146
Erghes, John of, 30-31, 177
Eve, costume, 220-22
Exits, discussed, 146, 200-
202
Fines, 29, 52
Furnivall, F. J., 4 5
Furnivall Miscellany, 6
Gammer Gurton's Needle,
226-27
Gayley, C M., 239-41
God, character, 222
Hall, Joseph, 211
Hegge plays, 172-74. 178
Hell-mouth, 88-94
Herod, costume, 237
Holme, R., 128
Hone, W., 207
Hutton, Dean Matthew of
York, 250, 258
274 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
Ipswich, city, ii
Joseph, costume, 246
Judas, character, 206, 246
JuHana, Flemish nun, 10
Jusserand, J. J., 86w
Knights, costumes, 246
Ladders used for exits, 201
Leach, A. F., 4, 5-6, 80^
lOOM
Lincoln, St. Anne's Guild,
20
Ludlow church miserere, 93
Ludus Cov entries, iy2-y4,
17S
Magi, costumes, 246
Manly, John M., 4, 15M,
86m, 123
Mary, character, 244
Matthews, B., 119-20
McKerrow, R. B., 220-22
Melton, Friar William, 9
Mirrour for Magistrates,
94
Monologues, 191
Morris, R. H., 4, 5
Multiple representation,
132-33. 160-62
Musicians, 199
Music with the plays, 196
Newhall, William, 12
New plays, development,
108
Noah, costume, 223
Non-speaking characters,
199.
Norwich :
grocers* pageant, 87, 131,
176, 254
plays, 130-31
Numbers, symbolical, 186-
87
Ordish, T. F., 125
"Original Book," The Z7
Pageants :
assessments for, 27
attitude toward, 25
confusion of meaning, 6-7
contributory. 23
control, 19-20
death, 248-61
expenses, 28
popularity, 248-49
responsibility for, 24
supervision by city coun-
cil, 26
Pageant-houses, loo-ioi
Pageant-master :
duties, 29, 51, 52, 55, 60
fines, 52, 96
Pageant- wagons :
cost, 97
decorations, 95
description, 83
"horsing," 102
houses for, 100
joint use, loi
number, 104
promptness required, 103
sedes on, 133
size, 95, 133
used for sedes, 118
Paradise, 176-77
Peter, costume, 245
Petit de Julleville, L., 74,
86», 112-13
Picart, B., 11
Pilate :
character of, 239
son of, 246
wife of, 246
Platea:
defined, 112
properties on, 170-84
symbolizing distance, 184-
85
INDEX
275
Play, confusion of mean-
ing, 6-7
Play-book, The, 37
Players in the procession, 81
Playing-places, 46, 49-51
banners for, 45
rental, 47
Play letting, 52
Plymouth, records, 7
Pollard, A. W., I5«, 54, I30
Prayers by actors, 193
Prologues, 195
Quarrel between weavers
and cordwainers, York,
65-69
Register of plays, 37
Rehearsals :
expenses, 58-59
places, 59
Revision of plays, 53, 54
Reynolds, G. F., 170-71, 174
Rogers Breviary of Chester:
mentioned, 5, 123, 125-
128, 222
quoted, 47. 83, 127, I33.
218, 223
Rotation speeches, 190-91
Sackville, Mirrour for
Magistrates, 94
Scenery, 132, 168-69
Scenes :
merging of old, 109
new, 108
unlocated Corpus Christi,
170-84
unlocated Elizabethan,
170, 178, 183
unlocated, on the station-
ary stage, 172
Sedes:
defined, 112
discussed, 118
on the pageant-wagon,
I33» 168
Shakspere, William, i, 113,
229-30, 237
Sharp, Thomas:
Dissertation, 3, 91, 92, 93,
123, 179-80, 213-14, 228,
229, 233, 236
mentioned, 3-4, 6, 86
Weaver's Pageant, 136
Shrine, Corpus Christi, 77
Simultaneous scenery, 132,
160
Sleep, feigned, 202
Smith, L. T., 4, 5, 130, 141,
211, 213
Songs and antiphons, 197
Souls, costumes, 229-31
Sources of information
concerning Corpus
Christi plays, 4
Sprott, Thomas, 11
Stage conventions, 168-208
Station banners, 45
Station renting, 47
Street cleaning, 44
Strutt, J., 84
Substituted plays, 259
Symbolical distance, 184-86
Symbolical numbers, 186-
Symbolism, 169
"Telescoping" of scenes,
109
Thomas of India, costume,
245
Time symbolism, 187
Tormentors, costumes, 244
1 owneley plays :
discussed, 115. 129-30,
151-56, 159-60. 181-83
mentioned, 15
quoted, 115, 129, 137, 186,
229
276 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS
Trades guilds:
adaptation of plays to,
34-36
assessments, 27
associate, 23
attitude toward the plays,
25
distinguishing marks, 23
fines, 29, 30
livery, 23
pageant control by. 21
patron saint, 35
Unlocated scenes, 170-84
Urban IV, Pope, 10
Valenciennes Passion,
Veximiel Passion, 207
86n,
Visions, 203
Waits, 39-44
Ward, A. W., 8
Warton, T., 8, 220
Waterhouse, O., 131-32
Wiclif, John, 7
York:
Corpus Christi Guild, 20-
21
plays discussed, 15, 90-
93, 139-46, 157-59, 162-
165, 166, 175-76, 18811,
258
plays quoted, 90, 137, 202,
212-13, 224-25
quarrel between weavers
and cordwainers, 65-69
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