Overview

This comprehensive anthology brings together a diverse collection of dramatic writing from the late fourteenth century to the onset of the Renaissance. The volume presents for the first time the key plays of the period in their entirety, alongside more unusual selections, covering religious narrative, religion and conscience, and politics and morality. The first section focuses on Biblical plays, including coherent sequences of the narrative Cycle plays from York and N-Town and supporting pageants from Chester and Wakefield. This approach allows a clear narrative line to develop, and permits the comparison of the treatment of key stories between the Cycles. The selected material demonstrates how the drama of the towns and cities of East Anglia and the North of England mediated religious culture to a heterodox urban audience, and explored biblical events in an intensely contemporary setting. In the second and third sections, the attention turns to secular drama, and the Moral Plays and Interludes. The featured texts illustrate the range of themes and issues covered, from the salvation of the individual human soul to the renovation of the political nation, and the variety of settings and audiences for which the plays were designed. The flexibility of the Interlude form is explored, as are the ways in which it was utilised by playwrights and their patrons to address issues of direct political and social concern to them and their audiences. Medieval Drama: An Anthology is an indispensable guide to the breadth and depth of dramatic activity in medieval Britain.

Full Product Details

Author:   Greg Walker (University of Leicester)
Publisher:   John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Imprint:   Wiley-Blackwell
Dimensions:   Width: 17.30cm , Height: 3.80cm , Length: 24.60cm
Weight:   1.084kg
ISBN:  

9780631217275

ISBN 10:   0631217274
Pages:   656
Publication Date:   22 July 2000
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock  
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.

Table of Contents

Introduction vii Acknowledgements xi Chronological Table xii Places Mentioned in the Text xv The York Performance Sites xvi Part I Religious Narrative: The Biblical Plays 1 Introduction 3 York, The Ordo Paginarum 10 York (The Barkers/Tanners), The Fall of the Angels 12 Chester (The Tanners), The Fall of Lucifer 16 York (The Coopers), The Fall of Man 21 Chester (The Drapers), Adam and Eve 25 York (The Pewterers and Founders), Joseph’s Trouble About Mary 32 York (The Tilethatchers), The Nativity 38 Towneley, The Second Shepherds’ Play 42 Chester (The Paynters and Glaziers), The Shepherds 58 York (The Skinners), The Entry into Jerusalem 70 York (The Cutlers), The Conspiracy 80 York (The Bowers and Fletchers), Christ Before Annas and Caiaphas 89 York (The Tapiters and Couchers), Christ Before Pilate I: The Dream of Pilate’s Wife 99 York (The Litsters), Christ Before Herod 112 York (The Tilemakers), Christ Before Pilate II: The Judgement 123 York (The Pinners), The Crucifixion 134 York (The Saddlers), The Harrowing of Hell 143 York (The Carpenters), The Resurrection 150 York (The Mercers), The Last Judgement 159 The Mercers’ Indenture (1433) 159 The Last Judgement 160 N-Town, The Mary Play 167 The Tretise of Miraclis Pleyinge (extracts) 196 Chester, The Post-Reformation Banns 201 Matthew Hutton’s Letter to the Mayor and Council of York (1567) 206 Part II Religion And Conscience: The Moral Plays 207 Introduction 209 Croxton, The Play of the Sacrament 213 Wisdom 235 Mankind 258 Everyman 281 Part III Politics And Morality: The Interludes 299 Introduction 301 Henry Medwall, Fulgens and Lucres 305 John Skelton, Magnyfycence 349 The Enterlude of Godly Queene Hester 409 John Heywood, The Four PP 433 John Heywood, The Play of the Weather 456 John Bale, Johan Baptystes Preachynge 480 John Bale, The Three Laws 493 Sir David Lindsay, Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis 535 The Description of the 1540 Interlude 538 Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis (the 1552–4 text) 541 Textual Variants 624 Glossary of Common Hard Words 627

Reviews

"Walker offers a thoroughly researched and well-chosen selection of key primary texts and some unusual plays. He also provides short but comprehensive introductions that will be easily accessible to beginning students." Choice "A marvellous collection of dramatic texts from the late fourteenth century to the beginnings of the Renaissance in the British Isles. In this remarkably comprehensive collection we have the entire texts of the key plays of the period, including some less usual works. A few period illustrations, maps and a street plan help set the scene. The whole exemplary apparatus is worn lightly, all helping to encourage reading and acting. Glossaries of terms and notes sit unobtrusively at the foot of the page, immediately available to help the reader. He [Walker] specifically arranges his anthology to allow, and encourage, the plays to speak for themselves: wide-ranging selection, concise informative introduction to each work, notes and glossaries. In a single volume a whole range of rich literature is made accessible to the modern reader in what must be just about the star volume in an anyway excellent series. This book will be essential in any undergraduate or senior school collection of English literature, or of drama, and will enhance may other collections besides". Reference Reviews

Walker offers a thoroughly researched and well-chosen selection of key primary texts and some unusual plays. He also provides short but comprehensive introductions that will be easily accessible to beginning students. Choice A marvellous collection of dramatic texts from the late fourteenth century to the beginnings of the Renaissance in the British Isles. In this remarkably comprehensive collection we have the entire texts of the key plays of the period, including some less usual works. A few period illustrations, maps and a street plan help set the scene. The whole exemplary apparatus is worn lightly, all helping to encourage reading and acting. Glossaries of terms and notes sit unobtrusively at the foot of the page, immediately available to help the reader. He [Walker] specifically arranges his anthology to allow, and encourage, the plays to speak for themselves: wide-ranging selection, concise informative introduction to each work, notes and glossaries. In a single volume a whole range of rich literature is made accessible to the modern reader in what must be just about the star volume in an anyway excellent series. This book will be essential in any undergraduate or senior school collection of English literature, or of drama, and will enhance may other collections besides . Reference Reviews

Author Information

Greg Walker is Professor of Early Modern Literature and Culture at the University of Leicester. His previous publications include John Skelton and the Politics of the 1520s (1998), Plays of Persuasion: Drama and Politics at the Court of Henry VIII (1991), Persuasive Fictions: Factions, Faith and Political Culture in the Reign of Henry VIII (1996), and The Politics of Performance in Early-Renaissance Drama (1998).

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Countries Available

All regions