The Corpus Christi Play was an annual outdoor event, involving hundreds of actors; it was already a long-established tradition by the end of the 14th century, and continued until suppressed by the Protestant Reformation in the late 16th century.” —Medieval ‘Body of Christ’ PlayLiteracy Weblog)
Today is the day the medieval church would have celebrated the Feast of Corpus Christi (“Body of Christ). This website is one of my oldest online resources. I created the first version in C++, and it ran only on Windows. When I demonstrated it as a poster paper at my very first academic conference (almost 10 years ago), I learned just how many medievalists are also mac users. That led me to learn Java.
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dang datz sad man y yall do dat yall no dat yall waz wrng 4 dat dnt eva do dat again no BY
Jesus looks so thin. Someone give him some food please.
well im looking for a theatre school and im an artist and and an actor for 9 years now acting on stage.can you direct me tp a better campus? thanks
Lynda, mystery plays sound like a great topic for a term paper.
I'm sure your medieval history teacher is trying to encourage your critical thinking and research skills, so I'll let you discover that answer on your own -- which you can easily do by reading and clicking on links from the page I blogged.
Good luck!
loved your site. I'm working on a term paper about Mystery Plays for my midievil history class. My question is . . . I noticed that the path took about 20 hours. How many days did they perform?
There has been quite a bit of scholarship on that subject... you might want to check the bibliography on my York pages.
http://jerz.setonhill.edu/resources/PSim/bibliog.html
All the videotapes from the Records of Early English Drama (REED) at the University of Toronto reflect the meticulous scholarship of the REED project... the clips and photos on my pages were taken from one of their older videotapes. YOu might start with these (not online -- you'll have to do some library sleuthing, perhaps getting them through interlibrary loan)
Johnston, Alexandra F. and Margaret Dorrell. "The Doomsday Pageant of the York Mercers: 1433," Leeds Studies in English ns 5 (1971): 29-34.
-----. "The York Mercers and their Pageant of Doomsday: 1433-1526." Leeds Studies in English ns 6 1972, 10-35.
To Whom it May Concern,
Hello! My name is Paula and I'm taking an introduction to theatre class at a local college. For my final project I have decided to build a replica of a Medieval Pagent Wagon. Any ideas or tips? Anything would be greatly appreicated. Thank You, Paula in South Carolina
Thanks for your note -- I'm glad to hear my site helped you relive some good memories.
The simulation was part of my term paper for a graduate course in the York Cycle, taught by Prof. Alexandra Johnston, one of the leading scholars on the York plays. As far as I know, the route as I mapped it passed muster with her.
I've never been to York myself. I simply trusted the names and labels that I found in other scholarship. The map doesn't precisely represent York as it was during the cycle, and of course the city has changed since the map was made. But it's been quite some time since I've looked into York scholarship, and even when I was up-to-date I wouldn't have been qualified to comment on your suggestion... you know far more than I do on that!
May I post your query on my weblog? I don't know how many medievalists read my site, but that's really the only way I could possibly hope to help you with your question.
Firstly may I say how much your pages have delighted me. As someone who lived in York for five years as a student I became a ?Yorkaphile?. Wandering the streets and exploring it?s history on foot became in that time a passionate hobby for me
Thank you for bringing so much back to me
A query though?
I thought at first that you had mistaken Jubbergate for Spurriergate, but looking more closely at a map I am even more confused about the route you map out . Jubbergate is the other isde of Parliament Street on the modern York street plan, but a route to it is not unfeasible, but of course in medieval times this would have taken it onto Pavement before going around the city. That area now classified as High Ousegate on which the parish church of all Saints Pavement now stands was, as the name suggests, on Pavement in older times. It makes me wonder whether the procession went up that far, or whether it did indeed turn off at Spurriergate and proceed down towards Coney Street that way ( a far more logical route ? a direct route to the Guild (common) Hall rather than to the junction that is now the junction of High Ousegate with Parliament Street. In this proposal, what I suggest is that Jubbergate once extended further south than it does now. Perhaps Market Street was once part of Jubbergate?
Perhaps you know the answer to this already, but I would be interested to know.
Best wishes
Tanya Jane Richards [ia e-mail; posted by permission. --DGJ]