York Mystery Plays


The York Mystery Plays, or the York Corpus Christi Plays, are a Middle English cycle of 48 mystery plays or pageants covering sacred history from the creation to the Last Judgment. They were traditionally presented on the feast day of Corpus Christi and were performed in the city of York, from the mid-fourteenth century until their suppression in 1569. The plays are one of four virtually complete surviving English mystery play cycles, along with the Chester Mystery Plays, the Towneley/Wakefield plays and the N-Town plays. Two long, composite, and late mystery pageants have survived from the Coventry cycle and there are records and fragments from other similar productions that took place elsewhere. A manuscript of the plays, probably dating from between 1463 and 1477, is still intact and stored at the British Library.

Plays

There is no record of the first performance of the mystery plays, but they were recorded as celebrating the festival of Corpus Christi in York in 1376, by which time the use of pageant wagons had already been established. The plays were organised, financed and performed by the York Craft Guilds. The wagons were paraded through the streets of York, stopping at 12 playing stations, designated by the city banners.
The cycle uses many different verse forms, most have rhyme, a regular rhythm with fairly short lines and frequent alliteration. The balance of critical opinion is in favour of several clerics being responsible for their authorship, one of whom is conventionally known as the "York Realist". It comprises 48 pageants that were originally presented on carts and wagons dressed for the occasion. In some accounts there are as many as 56 pageants. They told stories from the Old and New Testaments, from the Creation to the Last Judgement. The plays continued after the Reformation when in 1548, the feast of Corpus Christi was abolished in England. The plays were accommodated in to the new religious orthodoxy by cutting scenes honouring the Virgin, but were suppressed in 1569.
Traditionally, an individual guild took responsibility for a particular play.
  1. Barkers – The creation, and the Fall of Lucifer
  2. Plasterers – The creation – to the Fifth Day
  3. Cardmakers – Creation of Adam and Eve
  4. Fullers – Adam and Eve in Eden
  5. Coopers – Fall of Man
  6. Armourers – Expulsion from Eden
  7. Glovers – Sacrifice of Cain and Abel
  8. Shipwrights – Building of the Ark
  9. Fishers and Mariners – Noah and his Wife
  10. Parchmenters and Bookbinders – Abraham and Isaac
  11. Hosiers – Departure of the Israelites from Egypt;Ten Plagues; Crossing the Red Sea
  12. Spicers – Annunciation and Visitation
  13. Pewterers and Founders – Joseph's trouble about Mary
  14. Tile-thatchers – Journey to Bethlehem, the Nativity of Jesus
  15. Chandlers – The Annunciation to the shepherds, the Adoration of the Shepherds
  16. Masons – Coming of the Three Kings to Herod
  17. Goldsmiths – Coming of the Kings: Adoration
  18. Marshals – Flight into Egypt
  19. Girdlers and Nailers – Massacre of the Innocents
  20. Spurriers and Lorimers – Christ with the Doctors
  21. Barbers – Baptism of Jesus
  22. Smiths – Temptation of Jesus
  23. Curriers – Transfiguration
  24. Capmakers – Woman Taken in Adultery; Raising of Lazarus
  25. Skinners – Jesus' entry into Jerusalem
  26. Cutlers – The conspiracy: Pilate, Annas, Caiaphas, Bargain of Judas
  27. Bakers – Last Supper
  28. Cordwainers – Agony, Betrayal and Arrest
  29. Bowyers and Fletchers – Denial of Peter; Jesus before Caiaphas
  30. Tapiters and Couchers – Dream of Pilate's wife; Pilate's court
  31. Listers – Trial before Herod
  32. Cooks and Water-leaders – Second Accusation before Pilate; Remorse of Judas; Purchase of the Field of Blood
  33. Tilemakers – Second Trial before Pilate
  34. Shearmen – Christ Led to Calvary
  35. Pinners, Painters and Latoners – Crucifixion
  36. Butchers – Mortification of Christ; Burial
  37. Saddlers – Harrowing of Hell
  38. Carpenters – Resurrection
  39. Winedrawers – Christ's Appearance to Mary Magdalene
  40. Sledmen – Travellers to Emmaus
  41. Hatmakers, Masons, Labourers – Purification of Mary; Simeon and Anna
  42. Scriveners – Incredulity of Thomas
  43. Tailors – Ascension
  44. Potters – Descent of the Holy Spirit
  45. Drapers – Death of Mary
  46. Weavers – Appearance of Mary to Thomas
  47. Ostlers – Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin
  48. Mercers – Judgement Day

    The York Realist

The authorship of the plays is unknown, but analysis of the style allows scholars to recognise where authorship changes. One group of plays, concerned with the Passion, has been attributed to a writer called "The York Realist", and the name has come into general use. The eight plays concerned are
  • Cutlers – Conspiracy
  • Cordwainers – Agony and Betrayal
  • Bowyers and Fletchers – Peter's Denial; Jesus before Caiphas
  • Tapiters and Couchers – Dream of Pilate's Wife
  • Listers – Trial before Herod
  • Cooks and Water-leaders – Second Accusation before Pilate; Remorse of Judas; Purchase of the Field of Blood
  • Tilemakers – Second Trial before Pilate
  • Butchers – Mortification of Christ; Burial
They are all written in vigorous alliterative verse as are other plays in the cycle. The distinctive feature, apart from the high quality of the writing, is the attention to incidental detail in the story-telling and in the subtle portrayal of the negative characters: Pilate, Herod, Annas and Caiaphas. Playwright Peter Gill expressed the view that "If it hadn’t been for the York Realist, Shakespeare would have been a second rate writer like Goethe".

Modern revivals

After their suppression in Tudor times, the plays remained little known until Lucy Toulmin Smith obtained permission from the Earl of Ashburnham to study the manuscript of the plays in his possession and publish her transcription together with an introduction and short glossary in 1885.
In 1909, the York Historic Pageant included a parade of guild banners accompanying a wagon representing the Nativity through the streets. In December the same year a selection of six plays was performed as a fund-raising venture for St Olave's Church, York. The play cycle was revived on a much larger scale in 1951 in the York Festival of the Arts, part of the Festival of Britain celebrations. It was performed on a fixed stage in the ruins of St Mary's Abbey in the Museum Gardens and directed by E. Martin Browne. The music, written for the occasion by James Brown, was directed by Allan Wicks. The part of Jesus was played by Joseph O'Conor, and other roles were taken by amateurs. As the website notes:
A prohibition on the representation of the deity - God or Christ - still existed in England, so the name of the professional actor hired to play Jesus for the 1951 production was kept a secret. And the Dean of York still maintained a ban on the representation of the giving of the Sacrament of the Last Supper.

In the interests of comprehensibility, the text was abbreviated and modernised by Canon Purvis who went on to lead the Borthwick Institute at the University of York, and produced a modernisation of the complete text.
Following the success of the 1951 production, said to be "the most widely applauded festival event in the country, with over 26,000 people witnessing the Plays", selections from the cycle were staged in the same location at three-year intervals, lengthening to four-year intervals, until 1988. They have aroused academic interest and publications. Usually directed by a professional and with a professional actor playing Jesus, the rest of the cast were local amateurs. Ian McShane played Lucifer/Satan in 1963. Some amateur actors such as Judi Dench became professionals. Directors included E. Martin Browne again, David Giles, William Gaskill, Edward Taylor, Jane Howell, Patrick Garland, Toby Robertson and Steven Pimlott.
The role of Jesus was played a second time by Joseph O'Conor, then by Brian Spink, Tom Criddle,, Alan Dobie, John Westbrook, John Stuart Anderson, local York man David Bradley, Christopher Timothy, Simon Ward and Victor Banerjee.
Meanwhile, 1975 saw the Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Leeds co-ordinating the staging of 42 pageants on the Leeds University campus.
In 1992, the York production was moved in a modern production to the York Theatre Royal, with Robson Green playing Christ and a script adapted by Liz Lochhead. The 1996 production in the same place was all-amateur, with the part of Jesus played by local solicitor Rory Mulvihill, and the script shortened by Lochhead. For 2000, the interest of the Dean of York, Very Rev Raymond Furnell, led him to offer the use of York Minster for the most ambitious production so far.

York Millennium Mystery Plays

In 2000 a large-scale performance was staged in York Minster, as The York Millennium Mystery Plays, directed by Gregory Doran, with a script adapted by Mike Poulton. With Ray Stevenson in the role of Christ and Rory Mulvihill as Satan, the production was the most expensive and wide-reaching project in the history of the plays' modern revival. The first half began in heaven with the story of the fall of Lucifer, followed by the creation of the world, the fall of Adam and Eve, Noah's Ark and the story of Abraham and Isaac. From the New Testament there came the annunciation and nativity of Jesus, the massacre of the innocents, Christ's childhood, baptism, temptation and ministry, and his entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. The second half concentrated on the capture and trial of Christ, and his crucifixion, resurrection and ascension. The production ended, as is traditional, with the Last Judgement.
The production ran for a month, with a total audience of 28,000. Aside from the professional director and actor, Ray Stevenson, the cast was made up of amateurs, mainly from the York area. More than fifty children also took part. Original music was written for the production by local composer Richard Shephard.