CHRIST BEFORE THE ELDERS

 The play chosen to be performed on a pageant wagon in the streets during the York Festival of 1960 is the Spurriers’ and Lorimers’ Play of Christ with the Doctors in the Temple. It is a simple and quiet piece of much charm and variety.

The Play is performed as much as possible in the original manner and in the original places in the streets of York. These Plays were produced by the Craft Gilds of York, each of which was responsible for one particular Play or joined in it with another Gild, under the general management of the City Corporation. The 48 Plays of the Cycle were performed on Corpus Christi Day in early June, on movable platforms or stages at certain selected points in the City; the whole series of Plays moved round from point to point in succession throughout the day. The stages or 'pageants' were generally of one storey, and by Corporation regulation the actors must be all in costume before the first Play started at the first Station. There is no instance of a Play requiring changes of costume.

This Play was probably first performed about the year 1350 if not earlien As may be expected from such an early period, the Play is simple in style, but not so simple as it looks. There is free use of rhyme and much alliteration. The story is handled firmly and moves along briskly, and there are some nice touches of character drawing. The stage direction in the one surviving manuscript gives the characters as : "The Doctors; Jesus the Boy sitting in the Temple in the midst of them asking them questions and answering them; four Jews; Mary and Joseph seeking Him and finding Him in the Temple." The Play falls actually into three parts; in the first Mary and Joseph are departing from Jerusalem when they find that Jesus is not in their company, and they decide to go back in order to find Him. The action then passes to the Temple, where the Doctors meet to begin a discussion of the Law. The boy Jesus enters, and begins to debate with them, but in a tone of authority which they do not understand or find agreeable. He then gives them an exposition of the Ten Commandments. The Doctors are impressed and begin to give their opinions, when Mary and Joseph enter. Joseph is attacked by shyness at the thought of intruding into that company in his humble clothes, and it is Mary who takes charge of the situation. The Play ends with Jesus leaving for home with Mary and Joseph, after a kindly farewell from the First Doctor.

The Play follows the Bible story closely, and in many passages the words are a paraphrase of St. Luke's Gospel. It illustrates also one of the main features of the York Plays in general, the teaching purpose. They were intended to give instruction in the Christian faith, and especially to teach the Bible story and its meaning. The present production will make this quite clear, as it endeavours to reproduce as much as possible the conditions of the productions in these very streets in the Middle Ages, with the spectators encircling the waggon or watching from their house doors and windows. The original words have been altered as little as possible, so that the old effect may be recaptured even in these days so different from the Middle Ages which saw the first performances.

J.S. PURVIS.

YORK FESTIVAL 1960

CHRIST BEFORE

THE ELDERS

THE TWENTIETH PLAY OF THE YORK CYCLE OF MYSTERY PLAYS

performed on a Pageant Wagon in the Streets of York during the

York Festival, 1960.

The text of the play is the translation of Rev. Canon J. S Purvis, published by permission of the S.P.C.K. by the York Festival Society, York, 1960.