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mystery plays
mystery plays, biblical dramas popular in England from the 13th to the later 16th cent., take their name from the mestier (métier or trade) of their performers; they were previously called ‘Miracle Plays’ which, strictly, are enactments of the miracles performed by the saints. The Mysteries enact the events of the Bible from the Creation to the Ascension (and in some cases later). Their origin is much disputed; one of the earliest is the Anglo-Norman Jeu d'Adam (see Adam), and there were cycles in many countries: France, Italy, Ireland, and Germany (surviving in the Oberammergau Passion Play). Though it is clear from their archives that many English towns had them, only four complete cycles survive: York, Chester, Wakefield (also called Towneley from the owners of the manuscript), and the Ludus Coventriae, also called the Hegge cycle, and N-town because it is not known where it comes from. They are connected with the feast day of Corpus Christi. The various pageants were each assigned to a particular trade-guild, often with a humorous or macabre connection between the métier and the play. Their great popularity in England from the time of Chaucer to Shakespeare is repeatedly attested by those writers, among others. Their end was no doubt mainly caused by Reformation distaste for idols and religious pageantry. Their great interest is as an early, popular form of theatre, manifesting energy, humour, and seriousness; it is not accurate to think of their composers as unlearned, as is clear from the group of six plays in the Towneley cycle assigned to a presumed author known as ‘the Wakefield Master’.
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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "mystery plays." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "mystery plays." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-mysteryplays.html MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "mystery plays." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-mysteryplays.html |
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mystery plays
mystery plays. Best preserved of the vernacular religious drama which flourished in England, as on the continent, in the high Middle Ages, the mystery plays were known as ‘the play of Corpus Christi’, since originally performed at that festival. They versify and dramatize the biblical and apocryphal narrative of man's fall and salvation from Creation to Doomsday, with emphasis on Christ's trial, death, resurrection, and harrowing of hell. The plays offered religious instruction, entertainment, and a boost to civic pride and commercial interests. Their dramatic impact was enhanced by music, special effects, and moments of comedy, and their contemporary relevance by the presentation, for instance, of high priests as bishops, and shepherds as medieval Yorkshiremen.
Major cycles survive from York (51 short plays) and Chester (25), together with documentation about their performance by trade guilds or ‘mysteries’ on wagons in the streets. The 32 ‘Towneley’ plays are plausibly associated with Wakefield, and the 42 N-Town plays (formerly ‘Hegge’ plays or, misleadingly, Ludus Coventriae) tentatively with Lincoln or Norwich. One or two plays each survive from Coventry, Newcastle, Norwich, and Northampton, and records, but no texts, from several towns from Aberdeen to Canterbury. Suppressed by the protestant hierarchy around the 1570s, performance of the plays has enjoyed a revival since 1951. D. C. Whaley |
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JOHN CANNON. "mystery plays." The Oxford Companion to British History. 2002. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. JOHN CANNON. "mystery plays." The Oxford Companion to British History. 2002. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O110-mysteryplays.html JOHN CANNON. "mystery plays." The Oxford Companion to British History. 2002. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O110-mysteryplays.html |
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Mystery Play
Mystery Play, medieval religious play which derives from liturgical drama, but differs in being wholly or partly in the vernacular and not chanted but spoken. Also it was performed out of doors—in front of the church, in the market square, or on perambulating pageants. The earlier English name for it was miracle play, now seldom used, and a better name would be Bible-histories, since each play was really a cycle of plays based on the Bible, from the Creation to the Second Coming. Substantial texts of English ‘cycles’ of such plays have survived from Chester, Coventry, Lincoln, Wakefield, and York. Simultaneously with the English mystery play there arose in Europe, in the vernacular, the French mystère, the German Mysterienspiel, the Italian sacra rappresentazione, and the Spanish auto sacramental, to name only the most important. Traces of similar plays are found in Russia, in the states of Central Europe, and also in Denmark.
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PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Mystery Play." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Mystery Play." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-MysteryPlay.html PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Mystery Play." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-MysteryPlay.html |
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mystery plays
mystery plays Best preserved of the vernacular religious drama which flourished in England in the high Middle Ages, the mystery plays were known as ‘the play of Corpus Christi’, since originally performed at that festival. They versify and dramatize the biblical and apocryphal narrative of man's fall and salvation, with emphasis on Christ's trial, death, resurrection, and harrowing of hell. The plays offered religious instruction, entertainment, and a boost to civic pride and commercial interests. Their dramatic impact was enhanced by music, special effects, and moments of comedy, and their contemporary relevance by the presentation, for instance, of high priests as bishops, and shepherds as medieval Yorkshiremen.
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Cite this article
JOHN CANNON. "mystery plays." A Dictionary of British History. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. JOHN CANNON. "mystery plays." A Dictionary of British History. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O43-mysteryplays.html JOHN CANNON. "mystery plays." A Dictionary of British History. 2004. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O43-mysteryplays.html |
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Mystery Plays
Mystery Plays (or Miracle Plays). The terms ‘mystery’ and ‘miracle’ are applied loosely to the vernacular religious drama of the later Middle Ages, notably the English Corpus Christi plays and the French Passion Plays. Much is uncertain about the origins of this type of drama, but the shaping influence of the Liturgy, especially that of Holy Week and Easter, is clear. Vernacular paraphrases of the Bible and Gospel harmonies were more immediate sources. Apocryphal legends and the lives of saints were also dramatized. Performances usually took place out of doors. The plays were suppressed in the 16th cent., but some have recently been revived. See DRAMA.
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E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Mystery Plays." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Mystery Plays." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-MysteryPlays.html E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Mystery Plays." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-MysteryPlays.html |
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mystery play
mystery play (miracle play) Medieval English drama based on a religious theme. Mystery plays were originally used by the clergy to teach their illiterate congregation the principal stories of the Bible. By the 14th century, they had become a popular entertainment. Each year, the plays were performed by the various craft guilds in a town. In England, mystery plays from four towns have survived: Chester, York, Wakefield, and Coventry.
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"mystery play." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "mystery play." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-mysteryplay.html "mystery play." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-mysteryplay.html |
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Mystery plays
Mystery plays (Christian): see THEATRE AND DRAMA.
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JOHN BOWKER. "Mystery plays." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. JOHN BOWKER. "Mystery plays." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-Mysteryplays.html JOHN BOWKER. "Mystery plays." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-Mysteryplays.html |
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mystery play
mystery play see miracle play . |
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"mystery play." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "mystery play." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-X-mysteryp.html "mystery play." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-X-mysteryp.html |
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mystery plays
mystery plays, see theatre.
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"mystery plays." The Oxford Companion to Irish History. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "mystery plays." The Oxford Companion to Irish History. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O245-mysteryplays.html "mystery plays." The Oxford Companion to Irish History. 2007. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O245-mysteryplays.html |
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