Coventry Mystery Plays

The Coventry Mystery Plays, or Coventry Corpus Christi Pageants, are a cycle of medieval mystery plays from Coventry, West Midlands, England, and are perhaps best known as the source of the "Coventry Carol". Two plays from the original cycle are extant having been copied from the now lost original manuscript in the early 19th century.^[1] A separate Ludus Coventriae once thought to belong to the Coventry cycle of Mystery Plays is now believed to have originated in East Anglia.^[2]

Performances of the Coventry Plays are first recorded in a document of 1392–3, and continued for nearly two centuries; the young Shakespeare may have witnessed them before they were finally suppressed in 1579. In its fullest form the cycle comprised at least ten plays, though only two have survived to the present day. Of these two, the Shearmen and Tailors' Pageant was a nativity play portraying events from the Annunciation to the Massacre of the Innocents, and the Weavers' Pageant dealt with the Purification and the Doctors in the Temple.^[3]

The only ancient manuscript of the Shearmen and Tailors' Pageant was destroyed by fire in 1879, but fortunately it had previously been transcribed and published by Thomas Sharp.^[4] The plays were most recently edited by Pamela M. King and Clifford Davidson in The Coventry Corpus Christi Plays (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000).

References

1. ^ Chris Upton Midlands archive: No mystery ... Birmingham Post 9 September 2000
2. ^ Birmingham Post Culture: Poetic justice for Coventry history 19 November 2002
3. ^ R. M. Wilson The Lost Literature of Medieval England, 2nd edition (London: Methuen, [1970] 1972) pp. 226-7; Beatrice Groves Texts and Traditions: Religion in Shakespeare, 1592-1604 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2007) pp. 36-41.
4. ^ A. C. Cawley (ed.) Everyman and Medieval Miracle Plays (London: J. M. Dent / New York: E. P. Dutton, [1956] 1979) p. 69.

External links

• This production in 2006 by the Players of St Peter included the Weavers' Pageant

This article on a play is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: Middle English literature Folk plays English plays Medieval drama Festivals in England Coventry Christian plays Play stubs Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную? Nabdogo Colaba Observatory Look at other dictionaries: mystery plays —    The most widespread and popular form of drama in medieval Europe was the mystery play, which retold a story from the biblical narrative.While extremely popular in France and in Germany, these plays were most widespread in England, where they… …   Encyclopedia of medieval literature York Mystery Plays — The York Mystery Plays are an English cycle of forty eight mystery plays, or pageants, which cover sacred history from the creation to the Last Judgement. These were traditionally presented on the feast day of Corpus Christi (a movable feast… …   Wikipedia Wakefield Mystery Plays — The Wakefield or Towneley Mystery Plays are a series of thirty two mystery plays based on the Bible most likely performed around Corpus Christi day in (again, most likely) the town of Wakefield, England during the late Middle Ages until 1576. It… …   Wikipedia Coventry — For other uses, see Coventry (disambiguation). City of Coventry   City Metropolitan borough   …   Wikipedia Coventry — /kuv euhn tree, kov /, n. 1. a city in West Midlands, in central England: heavily bombed 1940; cathedral. 337,000. 2. a town in central Rhode Island. 27,065. 3. send to Coventry, to refuse to associate with; openly and pointedly ignore: His… …   Universalium Mystery play — Mystery plays and miracle plays (which are two different things) are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe. Medieval mystery plays focused on the representation of Bible stories in churches as tableaux with accompanying… …   Wikipedia N-Town Plays — (Ludus Coventriae, Hegge Cycle) (late 15th century)    One of the four extant compilations of late medieval MYSTERY PLAYS, the N Town Plays survive in a single manuscript, British Library MS Cotton Vespasian D.viii. Richard James, librarian to… …   Encyclopedia of medieval literature N-Town Plays — The N Town Plays (also called the Hegge Cycle and the Ludus Coventriae cycle) are a cycle of 42 medieval Mystery plays from between 1450 and 1500. Contents 1 The manuscript 2 Location 3 Date 4 Source …   Wikipedia Miracle Plays and Mysteries — • These two names are used to designate the religious drama which developed among Christian nations at the end of the Middle Ages Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006. Miracle Plays and Mysteries     Miracle Plays a …   Catholic encyclopedia N-Town plays — ▪ English drama       an English cycle of 42 scriptural (or “mystery (mystery play)”) plays dating from the second half of the 15th century and so called because an opening proclamation refers to performance “in N. town.” Since evidence suggests… …   Universalium 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”