The
English mystery plays -- cyclic collections of short plays on incidents
in biblical history from the Creation to the Last Judgement -- were
truly popular dramas. They were intended for the people, not the court;
they were patronized by the craft guilds that sponsored the individual
plays (the word "mystery" refers to the crafts and trades rather than
to something "inexplicable or secret"); and though there may have been
occasional semi-professional actors, the roles were filled mainly by
amateurs, like Absolon in the Miller's Tale, as described in the lines
quoted above. These plays, in short, were civic undertakings,
expressive of civic attitudes and values as well as the religious ideas
that are their main concern. It is not therefore surprising that the
mystery plays often offer, as a kind of aside, social comment. The
authors of the mystery plays are unknown. Most of them are written in
stanzas reminiscent of the popular romances, but what one should make
of that is not altogether clear. The one author whose work stands out
from that of the others is the so-called "Wakefield Master" (whose
works are included in the Townley Cycle). Today his "Second Shepherds'
Play" is by far the best known (and the most often performed) of the
mystery plays. The plays survive in "cycles," of which the York and
Townley cycles are the most important. The cycles are collections of
individual plays, beginning with a play on the Creation and ending with
a "Last Judgement." Within these limits, considerable variation is
possible, but all the cycles follow the history of salvation in a
series of plays depicting events in the Old and New Testaments (with
much non-biblical detail).
These plays are available in slightly regularized form, with glosses for beginning readers:
Noah, so important to the action of the Miller's Tale.
Herod the Great (the role attributed to Absolon in the Miller's Tale).
All the survuiving Middle English plays (including the Townley cycle are available (without glosses) on the internet in the Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia.
See especially The Second Shepherds' Play, Play XIII in the Townley cycle.
See also the edition of Martin Stevens and A.C. Cawley, The Towneley Plays. EETS, SS 13-14. London, 1994 [Widener 11474.5 vol. 123-14], which has very good notes and a glossary.
The
mystery plays were not the only form of early popular drama. A still
useful and convenient guide to the varieties is vol. I of John Matthews
Manly, Specimens of Pre-Shakespearean Drama. Boston, 1900 [Widener 14414.31].
For a general survey see Stanley J. Kahrl, Traditions of Medieval English Drama. Pittsburg, 1975 [PR641.K33 1975], and for a classic study of the literary characteristics of the cycles, see V.A. Kolve, A Play Called Corpus Christi. Stanford, 1966 [PR643.C7 K6 1971].
For a bibliography of critical and scholarly work on the English drama of the time, click here.