During the York Festival 1988, four waggon plays were performed in procession at four stations along Petergate. The occasion undoubtedly captured the circumstances of ‘original’ staging better than any representation of a single play could. The plays chosen were the three York Marian Plays and the Last Judgement. On several occasions since then, several plays have been presented together. Dean's Park has been the starting point, and here a viewing stand has been erected, and from here the waggons have moved out to the streets. A performance of several plays on waggons is planned for 2002, though here the location will be the Museum Gardens. Photographs will follow on these page. In the meantime, here is the text of the booklet which accompanied the 1988 performances.View booklet cover
The York Cycle of mystery plays was originally performed annually on pageant waggons mobile stages which trundled through the streets of the city stopping at pre-arranged locations (or 'stations') for each guild to play its episode or 'pageant'. In its heyday in the 15th and 16th centuries, there were up to 50 plays and 12 to 16 stations. For a large part of the day, the city was turned into a theatre, with the plays coming to the audience instead of vice versa. Each audience was relatively small but, by playing over and over again, each episode managed to reach a very large number of spectators without sacrificing the intimacy which was essential to their message.
This evening we are attempting to recreate the pageant-waggon performance of the last four plays of the York Cycle as they might have been seen in the 1470s along a section of the original route, the stretch of Low Petergate from Minster Gates to Goodramgate, with a slight modern diversion to King's Square. There will be four playing-places or 'stations': the first at Minster Gates, the second at the junction of Petergate with Grape Lane, the third at Goodramgate head, and the fourth in King's Square. The first of the plays will start at 7p.m. at Minster Gates, 'and then all other pageants fast following ilk one after other as their course is without tarrying' until Doomsday finishes at King's Square around 11 p.m. You may thus follow one play through several performances, or by staying in the same place, see all four plays in sequence. One word of warning: please keep well back when the waggons begin to roll. They are very manoeuvrable, but they are also very heavy, and we cannot be responsible for damage to you or your property.
The four plays are produced, in the medieval tradition, by four different companies, the Unicorns of Copenhagen, the Durham Medieval Drama Group, the York Lords of Misrule, and the Lancaster Joculatores. All four are designedly spectacular, making use of the stage machinery and 'devices' for which medieval craftsmen were famous: three of the waggons incorporate lifts. Each has been reconstructed making use of all the available evidence about the staging of medieval pageant-waggon theatre - in the case of Doomsday, this includes a lengthy inventory from York of items of set, scenery, and costumes - yet the results are very different. Judging by surviving pictures of continental pageant-waggon processions, this diversity is exactly right.
Our thanks to: Judith Acknil and the York Festival Office; Mr. John Lilley, the York City Centre Manager; Inspector Parnaby and the York Police; Mr. J. Towle and the York City Engineer's and Surveyor's Department.
In the York mystery play Cycle, the final play of Doomsday is preceded by a sequence of plays about the Death, Assumption, and Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Though these plays are rarely performed today, they are typical of the late medieval reverence for the Virgin: a single play on the same subject survives in the N.Town Plays, and we know of others, now lost, from a number of British cities, including Chester. But early Protestants were particularly hostile towards such plays: In 1548 they were suppressed at York, and although revived in 1554 after the accession of the Catholic Mary Tudor, they were clearly a source of sectarian dispute. With the return of a Protestant regime under Elizabeth, they were finally dropped from the Cycle in 1561. A few years later the whole Cycle was to suffer the same fate.
The Death of the Virgin was performed by the Drapers throughout its known history, although its cast list as noted down by Roger Burton, Common (Town) Clerk of York, in 1415 is slightly different from the surviving text of c.1470, which suggests that the play was rewritten at some stage. In the early 16th century, the Drapers appear to have found the cost of their play a burden, and in 1522 and 1529 the City Council had to threaten them with heavy fines if they failed to produce It. Later, there were objections on religious grounds:
when the Marlan plays were revived in 1554, four drapers refused to contribute pageant silver, and had to be threatened with closure of their shops. The music for this play is specified rather more exactly than usual: its ends with the Marian anthem Ave regina caelorum, though the musical setting is not specified.
After the Death of the Virgin, the cycle once contained a play of the Funeral of the Virgin, otherwise known as 'Fergus', the name of one of Its characters. At first it was performed by the Masons, but In 1431-2 they petitioned to abandon it, on the grounds that 'the subject matter of this pageant was not contained in the Holy Scriptures, and caused laughter and shouting rather than devotion, and often disputes, arguments, and even fights broke out among the audience so that they could rarely bring forth and play this pageant of theirs in daylight as the preceding pageants do'. 'Fergus' appears to have been the name of the victim of the central miracle of the play: he laid Impious hands on the Virgin's coffin on its bier, and stuck to it: when his companions succeeded in pulling him away, he left his hands behind - a theatrical feat that clearly provoked an over-excited audience reaction. In 1476 it was revived by the Linenweavers, but they too seem to have had trouble with it: the production lapsed in 1485, and unfortunately no text of the play survives.
The Assumption of the Virgin, the second play in the existing sequence, was produced by the Woollen Weavers throughout its known history. In 1486 the Weavers' pageant waggon was hired by the city as one of the floats used in the official welcome of King Henry VII into York. It was placed at the end of Swinegate (now Little Stonegate) facing into Stonegate, and involved 'Our Lady coming from heaven and welcome the King in words following, and thereupon ascend to heaven with angel song', which implies use of characters, machinery, and music from the Weavers' play as well as the waggon itself. Clearly, this play must have been among the most magnificent that York could boast of. It is written in an elaborate, 13-line stanza form, with alliteration in every line, and also has exact and ambitious musical instructions: the text contains three Latin songs in two-part settings, followed at the end of the play by a more complex two-part setting for each of them. These are the only songs with written-out musical settings in any manuscript of a medieval play in English.
The last of the Marian plays, the Coronation of the' Virgin, was originally the responsibility of the Mayor. At some time between 1463 and 146$, responsibility for it had passed to the Hostelers, although a contribution continued to be paid to them from civic funds to finance
it. In 1484, four members of the guild contracted to 'reapparel' this play, but it is not clear whether this applies only to costumes or also to the hangings, painting, and so on of the waggon Itself.
Unlike most of the York plays, the Mary plays have no biblical source: accounts of her Death, Burial, Assumption into heaven, and Coronation are derived from the 5th-century Tranaltus Mariae ('Passing of Mary'), though the stories were so widespread by the later Middle Ages that the immediate sources of the York plays are hard to identify.
This sequence of plays is edited by John McKlnnell In a modern-spelling text entitled Three Mary Play. from the York Cycle (Medieval English Theatre Modern-Spelling Texts 7: ISBN 0 86386 008 7, ISSN 0264 2786). It is on sale at Godfreys in Stonegate, and can be ordered from booksellers or through Medieval English Theatre, do Meg Twycross, English Department, University of Lancaster, LANCASTER LAl 4YT.)
THE UNICORNS OF COPENHAGEN
The York Drapers' Pageant of
THE DEATH OF THE VIRGIN
Cast
Mary Birgitte Pedersen
Christ Stig Mogensen
Gabriel Kirsten Djorup
John Ebbe Klitgard
Peter Peder Flyvbjerg
James Dennis Omo
Andrew Graham Caie
1st Servant Birgitte Lomborg
2nd Servant Annette Jallberg
1st Jew Henrik Thill Nielsen
2nd Jew Stefan Ahn
1st Angel Lene Christensen
2nd Angel Anne-Sofie Molter
3rd Angel and flautist Karsten Ronge
Devil Anne Marie Sindberg
Prompter Gunvor Wahigreen
Costumes Kirsten Djorup and Gunvor Wahigreen
Scenery Hanne Nielsen
Staging: Peder Flyvberg, Karsten Ronge, and Henrik Nielsen
Production Lene Christensen, Dennis Omo, and Birgitte Lomborg
Administration Graham Caie and Margaret Benson
We would like to thank the Faculty of Humanities of Copenhagen University, and the EC 'ERASMUS' programme for their aid.
The Unicorns are the drama group attached to the Medieval Centre of Copenhagen University. We have performed a number of medieval English mystery plays in modern and medIeval English in the past, but this is the first time we have participated in an International university production.
During the past semester we have studied the practical aspects of modern productions of medieval drama along with the University of Lancaster, and exchanged students and teachers. This has been possible with Common Market 'ERASMUS' funding, but the performance has been financed by money the students have raised.
This play depicts Christ's sending of Mary to Gabriel in a scene that deliberately recalls the Annunciation: for example, Gabriel brings a palm from heaven to Mary. This time Gabriel's message is that Mary will soon die and be reunited with her Son. Mary immediately accepts Christ's wish, as she did at the Annunciation, but begs Christ that the apostles might be present at her death, and that the devil might be kept away. The former wish is permitted, but not the latter, as it was firmly believed that at everyone's death angels and devils were present, each claiming the soul of the dying body: the result of the battle for the possession of the soul depended on its spiritual condition. In this play the devil does make an appearance, but is easily warded off by the guardian angels. During the final moments of Mary's life the apostles miraculously appear from all over the world, and are told of the imminent death of Mary by St. John, whom Christ requested to take care of Mary before He died. Mary is attended by two servants, and there are also two Jews who ask for her aid. The aim of this is to show the power of Mary as an intercessor. After her death, the Apostles lay her to rest, and her soul, depicted like a doll, is taken to Christ, after which apostles and angels sing a song in Mary's praise.
THE DURHAM MEDIEVAL DRAMA GROUP
presents
The Weavers' Pageant of
THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN
Cast
Thomas Peter Dawson
Mary Marianne van der Beukel
Archangels: 1st Angel Sasha Waddell
14th Angel Karen Wellings
Singing Angels: 2nd Angel Brenda Higgins
3rd Angel Ian Robley
4th Angel Amanda Leslie
5th Angel Sarah Wall
6th Angel David Higgins
7th Angel Yu Mel Lee
8th Angel Angie Robley
9th Angel Gordon Cairns
Seraphim: lOth-l3th Angels from: Diane Baldwin
Michael Banham
Rachel Hurd
Helen Lawne
Nicola Marshall
Victoria Wilkinson
Apostles:
Peter Bryan Cooke
Andrew Bill Allison
James the Great Bill Cunningham
John John Thor Ewing
Bartholomew Cohn Clark
James the Less Gordon Bond
Jude Andrew Micklethwalte
Matthew Richard Britnell
Matthias Julian Black
Philip David Knight
Simon the Zealot Mike Snowball
Marshals
Pageant Master Gordon Lawne
Banner Carrier Ros Barnes
Reliquary Carrier Catherine Brown
Waggon Crew Les Barnes, Joyce Brown, David Lawrence John McKinnell, Janet Pruce, John Pruce
Rick Tersmette, Adam Walker
Programme Sellers Katie John, Judy McKinnell
Stage Staff
Stage Manager Gordon Lawne
Waggon Builders Bill Allison, Les Barnes,
George Bywater, Tom Gardiner, Peter Hagger, John McKinnell, Ray Matthews, Bill Parker
Waggon Advisors Norman Bailey (Cartwright)
Peter Hagger (Design and Engineering)
Bill Parker (Design and Carpentry)
Artist Karen Wellings
Painters Julie Gerard, Katie John, David Lawrence,
Vanessa Leyland, John MeKinnell, Penelobe Radcliffe,
Olwyn Renowden, Sarah Wall
Makeup Audrey Fiddian
Props Mistress Kate Lawne
Costume Mistress Ros Barnes
Costume Makers Mrs. E. Barnes, Catherine Brown,
Mrs. A. Craggs, Katie John, Christine Jones, Judith Kenny, Judy MeKinnell, Jean Moir, Mrs. M. Stoker, Sarah Wall, Suzie Watson
Direction and Organisatlon
Treasurer Richard Britnell
Sponsorship Secretaries Alison Allison,
Angela Forster, Rosemary Short
Mistress of the Children Ros Barnes
Musical Director David Higgins
Assistant Director and Prompter Kate Lawne
Director John McKinnell
Sponsored by Malden Timber Ltd (Dragonville)
Claremont Garments (Peterlee) Ltd.
The Hadrian Trust (Neweastle-upon-Tyne)
and other Durham companies.
The plots of the York Mary plays ultimately go back to the 5th-century Transitus Mariae ('Passing of Mary'), versions and elaborations of which were widespread in the later Middle Ages. The Assumption follows the version of the story by which all the Apostles are miraculously transported to Mary's bedside before she dies except for Thomas, who had to travel all the way from India. He becomes the 'hero' of this episode, as he is, as a kind of consolation prize, granted the privilege of being witness to the Assumption. She gives him her girdle, which he uses as a token to convince the other Apostles that she has been bodily raised to heaven. The apostles, however, do not believe him until they have opened her tomb and found her gone. The story thus reverses the situation after the Resurrection of Christ, which Thomas alone doubts until he is given hard evidence.
As mentioned in the Introduction, in 1486 the Weavers' pageant waggon was used as a stage for the Royal Entry of Henry VII into York. The scenario 'Our Lady coming from heaven and welcome the King in words following, and thereupon ascend to heaven with angel song, and then it to snow by craft to be made of wafers in manner of snow' suggests that the organisers of the show made use of characters, costumes, and music from the play itself, as well as the stage lift. The artificial 'snow' suggests re-use of a device for dropping manna on the Apostles after their discovery of the Assumption - a detail found in the York Breviary.
No medieval drawings of English pageant waggons survive, and unlike the Mercers, the York Weavers have left no inventory of the parts of their waggon. We have therefore had to reconstruct the sort of vehicle they might have used from drawings of Flemish pageants and the demands of the play Itself.
At first the structure represents a generalised religious building of the later 15th century; the flowers with which the skirts and arches are decorated - daisy, rose, and lily - are all common symbols of the Virgin Mary, and the first two are based on carved details on the old choir stalls of St. Oswald's Church, Durham. Thomas is then transported to Mary's tomb In the Vale of Josaphat, which is said in the York Breviary to lie between Mount Slon and the Mount of Olives; observant spectators of our production may recognise the landscape curtains as depicting what Durham monks called 'the English Zion'. Some of the other details are borrowed from Psalm 104, where landscape and Its animals are described as the work of God 'who stretches out the heavens like a curtain'. The structure now represents the church which is said to have been built at Mary's tomb; the numerous arches and pillars can be seen in a number of Flemish pageants representing temples or churches, e.g. the Louvain Assumption of 1594.
Medieval manuscript paintings usually show the Assumption into Heaven with Mary standing on an almond-shaped, full-length halo, known as the mandorla, behind her; she stands on the crescent moon and Is surrounded with the rays of the sun. The Louvain pageant drawing shows that the mandorla could be kept vertical and steady by slotted guide posts at either side, and that the platform on whch Mary stood was concealed by the crescent moon. This kind of lifting device, quite different from the four ropes used to lower and hoist the seated Christ In the York Doomsday, is obviously well suited to a tall structure like the mandorla, and had been followed in our production. The decoration of heaven is based on Maitre Enguerrand de Quarton's painting of the Coronation of the Virgin in the monastery of Villeneuve-les-Avignon, which dates from 1452, but It is seen as if through the clerestory windows of a medieval church.
THE YORK LORDS OF MISRULE
present
The Lord Mayor's
THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN
Cast
Christ Martin Bartlett
Mary Barbara Couchman
Angels Dominique Woodall
Philippa Gell
Margaret McAllister
Paul Toy
Jane Smith
Mary Brown
Director Paul Toy
Designer Philip Harris
Costume Philippa Gell, Elizabeth Coles-Taylor, Gill White
Musician Tony Barton
Stage and Waggon Crew Ben Nilson, Andrew Rustone, Adam Menuge, Charles Butler, and Philip Harris
Our thanks to: Tony Barton; Simon Barton; Alastair Minnis; the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York; and The Good Beer Shop.
This play completes the process of glorification of the Virgin. Christ commands the angels to summon her to sit beside Him and be crowned Queen of Heaven. The play Is virtually a paean of praise in her honour, first by the angels, and then by Christ himself. He enumerates her Joys - the Annunciation, Nativity, Resurrection, Ascension, and this the fifth and last - and welcomes her to eternal bliss in words both filial and loverlike:
Thou art my life and my liking,
My mother and my maiden sheen;
Receive this crown, my dear darling,
There I am King, thou shalt be Queen.
The JOCULATORES LANCASTRIENSES
present
The Mercers' Pageant of
Cast in order of speaking
God Malcolm Miller
First Angel Tim Lodge
Second Angel Juliana Twycross
lain Porter First Good Soul
Second Good Soul Martine Braekman
Peter Sampson
First Bad Soul
Second Bad Soul Arabella Sawyer/Cathy Ellis
Third Angel (St. Michael) John Brown
Apostles:
Peter John Benson
John Michael Maloney
Paul Paul Norman
Bartholomew Ian Hobart
Philip Gordon Giles
Thomas Jane Appleby
Matthias Steve Lever
Lisa Jefferson
James Major Suzanne Andersen
James Minor Elisabeth Hoim
Matthew
Simon Olga Homer
Andrew Jayne Taylor
First Devil Kevin Twomey
Second Devil Vibeke Damlund
Third Devil Ellie Deekes
Death John Withrington
Banner Anita Formby, Josh Arnold
Stage Manager Jacqul Greaves
Crew Sue Fidler, Cathy Ellis, Jon Willows, Richard Algar,
Sandy MacGregor, James Harrison, Joy Cuthbertson
So many people from cast and crew have been involved in each of these tasks that it would be time-consuming and invidious to list all their names. Apart from the first section, those below are the people in charge of researching and organising each area.
Pageant waggon repairs and construction
Peter Lee, Sue Fidler, Richard Algar, Jon Willows, John Benson, Jacqui Greaves, John Brown, John Withrlngton
Painting foremen Sue Fidler, Jacqui Greaves
Set design and construction:
Heaven and earth Arabella Sawyer
Hell Kevin Twomey
The grave lain Porter
Special effects Kevin Twomey
Heaven wheel and God's seat Tony Garcia
Masks Ellie Deekes
Wardrobe Muriel Utting
Angels Diane Bieber
Apostles' haloes and attributes Jayne Taylor
Banners Meg Twycross
Transport Olga Homer
Directed by Meg Twycross
Devils directed by John Brown
Singing rehearsed by Malcolm Miller, Gordon Giles
Our special thanks to:
The Chaplaincy Centre, Lancaster University; the Medieval Studies
Centre, Lancaster University; Alan Parker; Tony Garcia; Frank Clarke;
Bill Moore (Lifting Tackle) Ltd, Heysham; Forton Woodturning Co.
Ltd.; Karen Clarke; Stuart Simpson; Bryan Homer; Graham Caie;
Kim Baston; Roger Bray; the Director and staff of the Nuffleld Theatre
Studio; Alan Baker (Cartmel); Canon Alan Smithson and John Campbell
(Carlisle); David Wright and Canon Maurice Bartlett (Lancaster);
Alastair Minnis and the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of
York; Ian and Dorothy Pattison; Rosemary Phizackerley; Rachel and
Michael Froggatt; Rosemary Pearsall; Fred Challenger; Lynne
McGoldrick; Canon John and Mrs. Toy; Jane Oakshott; the Fudge
Kitchen, Low Petergate.
Sponsored by the John Lewis Partnership PLC, and also supported, with Copenhagen, by a grant from the ERASMUS programme of the European Community.
The York Cycle
Doomsday (The Day of Judgement) is the last play of the medieval York mystery cycle. Its fifty-odd plays, played In sequence, showed the whole history of the universe, and God's plan for its salvation, from its beginning - the Creation by God - to the end - our play of Doomsday, which was produced by the York Mercers, the richest and most powerful guild in the city.
Doomsday is the one episode which Is set not in the past, but in the future, and the audience are presented with a terrifying warning and a stark choice: when Christ comes to judge each according to his works, on which side will you be? The main part of the play is structured on Christ's account of the Judgement in Matthew 25, with the image of the shepherd dividing the sheep from the goats, the sheep on his right hand, and the goats on his left.
In medieval paintings this great divide is reinforced pictorially by the addition of the final destination of good and bad souls: the stairs running up to Heaven on the right hand of God, and the mouth of Hell on his left. In the centre God sits impartially, enthroned on a rainbow, and surrounded by angels displaying the Instruments of the Passion. Often, on a lower level, the archangel St. Michael stands with drawn sword and sometimes a pair of scales to weigh each soul and despatch it to its destination.
It has been pointed out that at Doomsday Christ does not so much preside over a trial as pronounce sentence. Good and Bad Souls are to be judged 'after their working, wrong or right'. The criterion on which they are judged, as in the Gospel, is whether or not they have shown active charity to their fellow men:
'For I was an-hungred, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in;
Naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me.'
Matthew 25: 35-36
Each group in turn asks when they did this to Christ, and each is given the answer, 'Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done It unto Me'. In the Middle Ages these six actions were called the Six Corporal Works of Mercy, and the churchgoer was prominently reminded of them in paintings and stained-glass windows. Our banners are copies of the panels from the early 15th-century stained glass window in All Saints, North Street, York; the parish church of many of the Mercers whose guild put on the play of Doom8day.
It was generally accepted that at the Day of Judgement body and soul would be re-united. However, according to popular belief, while the good would be given their bodies in a perfect form, unblemished, and thirty years old (the age of Christ when he began his ministry), the bad would rise with their bodies In a state of decay. In mystery-play accounts they are often called the White Souls and the Black Souls.
The Apostles are not judged, but sit as assessors on thrones beside Christ. In Doomsday pictures, the Twelve were slightly rearranged to include the apostle Paul: usually St. Jude was left out.
Our recreation of the York Mercers' pageant-waggon and its set Is based on a manuscript inventory, discovered about ten years ago, which lists the pieces of set, costumes, and props in the possession of the pageant masters of the guild for the year 1433. This is a thrilling but frustrating document. It shows that the set was colourful and elaborate in the extreme, with hangings of painted red damask, a double rainbow, blue clouds, red clouds with gold stars and sunbeams. It also shows that God ascended and descended from 'the highest of heaven' on an iron lift with a seat, presumably worked by a winch. There are other more mysterious items, among them 'a heaven of iron' with 'a nave of tree (hub of wood)'. Various reconstructions have been suggested: ours follows descriptions of other medieval stage heavens which, laden with angels and often lights, revolved around God when the curtains were drawn. The heavens were seen as concentric circles, each propelled by a hierarchy of angels, revolving around God their centre, and we have taken this 'heaven of iron' to be a great wheel, carrying the 'nine little angels painted red to run about in the heaven' which are also listed. God in heaven is often shown seated in his glory surrounded by a red aura which on further inspection turns out to be made up of scores of tiny seraphin - red, because their name means 'burRing', as they are on fire with the love of God.
The characters were costumed in a very stylised fashion, with wigs, masks, and where appropriate, haloes, and God's mask was gilded.
Text © (1988) John MeKinnell, Meg Twycross, the Copenhagen Unicorns.
