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What Exactly are the York Mystery Plays?
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Siobhain Bowen 01/12/03 English Seminar Mystery Plays What Exactly are the York Mystery Plays? An Approach? The distinguishing features of medieval drama are its Christian content and its didactic purpose. Vernacular plays typically dramatized the lives of the saints, stories from the Bible, or moral allegories. The biblical cycle plays, sometimes called mystery plays, were originally performed under church auspices, but by the late 14th century they were produced under the supervision of craft guilds (misteres) and performed in public places on the feast of Corpus Christi or during Whitsuntide. Fairly complete texts survive for the English cities of York, Wakefield, Chester, and an unidentified fourth town; two pageants are extant from the Coventry cycle. Similar cycles dramatizing events from the fall of Lucifer to the Last Judgment were produced on the continent. Although they contained Old Testament and nativity sequences, the cycles were primarily devoted to portraying the life and passion of Christ, his...
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