ACTA
UNI VERS1TATIS
LODZIENSIS
FOLIA LITTER A R IA A N G L IC A 3, 1999
Peter Barlow
CYCLICAL AND LINEAR ASPECTS
OF THE MEDIEVAL TIME-FRAME: DOES THE VIEW
OF TIME WHICH PERVADES ENGLISH MEDIEVAL
RELIGIOUS DRAMA PRECLUDE THE FREQUENT CRITICISM THAI
THE DRAMATISTS ARE GUILTY OF “NAIVE ANACHRONISM”?
A ny consideration o f the dram atic use o f tim e in the English M ystery
Plays has to ap p roach the them e w ith a m edieval u n d erstanding o f the
n atu re and uses o f time. T he application o f a m o d ern view o f tim e would
only be relevant to the process o f staging the plays for a m o d ern audience
w ith its peculiar m ind-set. A nd while the prospect o f grappling w ith the
problem o f enacting the plays on a m o d ern stage is enticing, it is a task
which could only com m ence after the task o f this pap er has been com pleted
- th a t is, the discovery o f the plays’ own (original) tem poral integrity.
I shall be arguing th a t this is the case, and th at the dram atists are no t
“ guilty” o f naive anachronism . As M artin Stevens says:
In our lim e, the text m ust finally be judged on whatever m eaning can validly be found
in it by its best readers. M oreover, we must be aware that what w e discover through
erudite scholarship would often have been available in the perceptual set o f the m ost
ordinary medieval spectator.1
A nd so, while the plays m ay now appear to be an interesting collection
o f an tiq u arian a, offering perhaps delight in the unfam iliar alliterative verseform s, the obscure archaism o f the dialect(s), and the naive prim itive
religious beliefs, these were all a fam iliar p a rt o f the m edieval audience’s
experience. A nd in looking at the use o f the ideas o f tim e in the plays,
m o d ern assum ptions m ust be shed ab o u t the nineteenth-century scientific,
exclusively linear view o f time, in favour o f m edieval assum ptions. T he
im plications o f the m edieval church’s hegem ony were such th at all intellectual
1 M artin Stevens, Four M iddle English M y ste ry Cycles (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1987), p. 226f.
activity was subject to the ch u rch ’s theological and political world view
- including its understanding o f time. A p art from its aim (in com m on with
any pow erful o rg anisation) o f increased pow er for itself, the aim s o f the
church were the salvation o f its own m em bers and the conversion o f
non-m em bers to the faith; its w orld view was therefore subject to the
achievem ent o f these tw o ends. These are evident from the co n ten t o f the
plays (the use o f typology being particularly relevant in this paper) but
I first w ant to look at the idea o f the sanctification o f time which was one
o f the purposes o f the liturgical calendar and o f the daily office o f the church.
T h e ch u rch ’s calendar treats tim e in two ways at once. It condenses
the celebration of the events o f the New T estam ent, and parallel w ith th a t,
the Old T estam ent, into a year-long cycle o f festivals, which is in turn
condensed into a weekly cycle, each M ass being a new E aster celebration
(in som e com m unities the weekly cycle is condensed again so th a t the whole
history o f the world from creation to doom sday is liturgically re-enacted
daily). A longside this, a linear sense o f time is also used, historically in
the co m m em oration on saints’ days, and in a “ real-tim e” application in
linking festivals to the annual cycle o f the seasons. It would no t be
a strange concept for the m edieval audience to accept the validity o f the
figurative type in a play in the sam e way th a t C hrist could share his L ast
S upper w ith people o f every age in the M ass. G iven such a sophisticated
understanding of concepts o f time, the charge against the m edieval dram atists
o f “ naive an ach ronism ” looks unlikely. A nachronism s, certainly. Naive? In
com parison, it is the m odern view, limited by nineteenth-century concepts
o f Science and H istory which appears naive.
A u erb ach , in considering the use o f a Jigura o r type in m edieval
th o u g h t,2 com m ents on the idea o f com bining the theologically im p o rtan t
figures o f A dam and Eve with the com m on people o f the tim e o f the
play’s presentation by “ realizing] and com bining] sublimitas and hum ilitas."3
T h u s, “ T h is first m an -w o m an dialogue o f universal historical im p o rt
[,sublimitas] is turned into a scene o f sim plest everyday reality [humilitas].
Sublim e as it is, it becom es a scene in simple, low style.” 4 Aiid d ra m a is
the one art-form which can effectively m ake the connection w ith the present
tense reality o f the audience: a d ram atic perform ance m ust take place in
the present tense in relation to its audience - “ the ‘now ’ o f com position
and o f perform ance on C orpus C hristi day in the m edieval to w n .” 5 F u rth e r,
the developm ent o f the plays from their liturgical origins has involved
1 Erich
3 Ibid.,
4 Ibid.,
5 V. A .
p. 101.
Auerbach, M im esis (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968), Ch. 7.
p. 151.
p. 151.
K olve, The P lay Called Corpus Christi (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1966),
a tran slatio n into the vernacular, both in term s o f language and culture. This
is a logical developm ent from the immediacy o f im pact o f the discovery o f the
em pty tom b in the Quem Quaeritis? to the im m ediately identifiable icons o f
a co n tem p o rary vernacular culture. T he aim was n o t a historically realistic
p o rtray al o f events as would be understood today, bu t a spiritually tru e
account. T he aim is to save souls, not to pursue a line o f scientific enquiry.
W ith Old and New T estam ent m aterial hinging aro u n d a p ro p h e t’s play,
p refiguration is im p o rtan t to all Old T estam ent plays, and is a strong idea,
determ ining in p a rt the “ choice” o f episodes to be dram atised. T he classic
exam ple o f the figurative type in the m ystery cycle plays m u st be the case
o f Abraham and Isaac. In addition to the them atic significance o f the
actions o f the sacrifice o f Isaac, the C hester play connects it with the
M essianic prophecy linking C hrist with M elchisidec’s priesthood: his present
to A b rah am o f “ bread and wyne” 6 is itself a figure for the L ast S upper,
w ith the play on the subject later in the cycle, and the E ucharist (this is
the C orpus C hristi festival). M oreover, the inclusion o f the M elchisidec
them e would also serve to reinforce the au th o rity o f the church. T he m any
im ages and them es in bo th the biblical story and the plays are seen to
prefigure C alvary. A braham is a figure for G od the F a th e r, and Isaac for
Jesus, prefiguring Jesus’ m eekness in accepting his fa th e r’s will:
Father, I am all readye
T o doe your bydding mekelie,
T o beare this w ood [full] bow ne am I,
A s you comaund m e.7
T h e w ood, o f course, becom es n o t ju st the firew ood o f the original
story b u t a figure for the C ross which Isaac carries to the place o f sacrifice;
(a figure b o th o f later events in the history o f redem ption bu t also o f th at
aspect o f the m ystery cycle which will be witnessed by the audience later
on th a t day). H ere is A u e rb ach ’s sublimitas. In the earthiness and path o s
o f the follow ing dialogue between Isaac and A b rah am we find A u e rb a c h ’s
hum ilitas, w ith Isa ac’s p ractical requests fo r a blindfold an d a swift
d ispatch, am ongst m any o th er tim e-occupying devices, and his com forting
his increasingly upset father, while also beginning to let his irritatio n and
im patience show (but w ho was it who was w asting tim e anyway?):
A mercye, father! Why tary you so?
Smyte o f m y head, and let me goe!
I praie you, rydd me o f m y woe;
For now 1 take my leave.8
6 Peter Happe, English M y ste ry P lays (London: Penguin, 1975), p. 136.
7 Ibid., p. 142.
8 Ibid., p. 148.
T h e final m ajor figure in the play is the substitute o f the ram , the
significance o f which could no t - with A b ra h a m ’s speech - be lost to the
m edieval audience:
Sacrifice here to me sent is
And all, lord, throughe thy grace.
A horned wedder here I se,
A m ong the breeres tyed is he,
To the offred it shall be
A none right in thui place.9
T his prefigures G o d ’s initiative in sending the lam b o f G od to be
sacrificed for o u r sins, and m akes reference to the trad itio n th a t the episode
occurred on the site o f the future C alvary.
K o lv e10 offers a fram ew ork o f the history o f redem ption into which the
C o rp u s C hristi plays fit which he calls the Corpus Christi protocycle. This
virtually parallels the m edieval “ Seven Ages o f the W o rld ” - C reation; T he
F lo o d ; T h e P atriarchs; M oses and the F light from Egypt; T he P rophets;
C h rist’s life and m inistry; D oom sday. B ut K olve has rightly added the
“ C o rp u s C hristi - m o m en t o f p erfo rm an c e.” T he m ystery cycles are
situated within tim e at the m om ent o f their perform ance. Y et unlike any
o th er w estern d ram atic trad itio n their very subject is the w hole o f time:
h istory from beginning to end. E nacting the end o f tim e is a som ew hat
d au n tin g prospect, and certainly the Y ork M ercers’ Play o f Judgem ent D ay
seems m o re to lend itself to spectacle, with a large cast, tom bs being rent
open, a few devils throw n in for good m easure, and the dam ned fleeing
to Hell. T he judgem ent itself is based very accurately on M atthew 25,
31-46, the m ain th ru st o f which is encapsulated in “ in so far as you did
this to one o f the least o f these brothers o f m ine, you did it to m e.” 11 It
w ould be h ard to find anachronism s in a play set in the fu tu re (unless
you view any play set in the future as a prima facie exam ple o f anachronism );
and the p o in t o f figurative typology is th a t it uses accepted historical fact
to address a non-historical subject, so this to o w ould be ou t o f place in
this play. But its use o f prophecy as the basis for its story was far from
strange for the m edieval m ind. T he play, being the last in the cycle, is the
final im pression th at the audience will be left with, and accordingly is
a straightforw ard representation, theologically orthodox, with none o f the
h u m o u r which m arks the action o f so m any o f the m ystery plays, but with,
as I said above, spectacle, and the strong w arning o f the consequences of
ignoring the social n atu re o f the gospel. T he one additional facto r which
9 Ibid., p. 150 (m y emphases).
10 Op. cit., p. 120.
11 Jerusalem Bible, v. 40.
allows scope for h u m our or com m ent is the decision as to which characters
jo in the saved and which join the dam ned. I can find no positive textual
su p p o rt for the idea o f including Pilate am ong the saved - although he is
characterised m uch less harshly in the Y ork cycle th an in the Tow neley.
I m en tio n this because the re-enactm ent which I saw (1966) specifically
“ saved” Pilate. A t the tim e, I to o k this to be a m odern com m ent, but
have since discovered it to be a com m onplace o f m edieval apocryphal
legend.
B oth the above plays deal with tim e in a way which is foreign to
the m o d ern m ind set, but they d o n o t particularly feature ideas which
could bear the charge o f “ naive anachronism s” : in general there is sim ­
ply no case to answer. T he Tow neley Second Shepherds' Play, how ever,
certainly could face such a charge, as well as “ naive inconsistency of
place” , which I shall consider as a function o f the sam e phenom enon.
T h e typology o f the sheep in C hrist’s crib I shall m ention only briefly,
and to com m ent on its grimly ironic touch which if insensitively staged
could degenerate into no m ore th an farce, but again provides an excel­
lent exam ple o f the com bining o f sublimitas and humilitas. T h e com ic
effects o f the play’s anachronism s also follow from this skilfully achieved
co m b in atio n . T he key factor is the d ra m a tist’s use o f the vernacular in
depicting the shepherds. His reasons for this seem to be tw ofold. F irstly,
his und erstan d in g o f the gospel is th at it is p ro letarian in its nature, so
his depiction o f everyday people is designed to depict ordinary people in
a positive light. Secondly, when it com es to W akefield - w ool country
- th e o rd in ary people knew all ab o u t shepherds; n o t only could the
audience relate easily to the subject, the d ram atist also knew the subject
inside out. T h e im plication underlying the charge o f naivete is th a t the
w riter was try in g to depict Jew ish shepherds and got it w rong. B ut
th e re ’s no evidence at all th a t he was try in g to achieve a historical
a c c o u n t, especially as he could m o re effectively w rite th e sp iritu a lly
pow erful plays which have com e dow n to the present day. T he use o f
o ath s by “ oure L ady” ,12 reference to the P atern o ster,13 and o th er m edi­
eval C h ristia n phrases reproduced w ith varying accuracy, reference to
“ H o rb e ry ” (near W akefield)14 - all these serve to create a verisim ilitude
designed to aid identification by the audience, as well as to celebrate
and entertain. O th er com ic elem ents in the play - m isogynist hum our,
secrets know n to the audience but no t the characters, the m usical inep­
titu d e o f the sh epherds - all serve to help the d ra m a w ork fo r its
12 Happé, op. cit., p. 266, (line 19).
13 Ibid., p. 269 (line 104).
14 Ibid., p. 483 (line 455).
audience, as well as having their own significances, such as the shep­
h erd s’ singing prefiguring the angels’, and the deceit o f the location o f
the stolen sheep echoing the deceit o f S atan in the redem ptive plan. T he
final note o f the play is the shepherds’ gifts - a figure for the m ag i’s
gifts. In the context o f the play’s message th at C h rist’s m ission includes
the presen t tim e an d present people, the sh ep h erd s’ gifts are a p p ro ­
priately w ithin reach o f even the poorest people in Y orkshire. C herries,
anachronistically unavailable in the m idw inter o f the narrative, are in
season in June!
It is the sam e desire to achieve an im m ediacy o f im pact which leads
to the references in the Tow neley H erod the Great to the (relatively!) local
countries listed as being under H e ro d ’s sway:
From
From
From
Both
Paradise to Padua, to M ount Flascon,
Egypt to M antua, unto K em p town,
Sarceny to Susa, to Greece it abown,
Norm andy and Norw ay low t to his crow n.15
This inaccuracy is sim ilar in some ways to those o f the Second Shepherds’
P lay, in th at it is there to m ake the story m ore im m ediate to its audience.
B ut it achieves this th ro u g h a self-conscious gran d io sity befitting th e
rendering o f its subject, which was totally lacking in the rendering o f the
shepherds. Sim ilarly grandiose is the anachronistic claim o f M ah o u n as
a cousin o f H erod. Even allowing this to m ean a kinsm an (in the loosest
sense) and a fellow -heathen, this is one anachronism for which I m ight be
prep ared to allow the charge o f naivete to stand. But while I believe th at
the audience could have accepted it at its face value, this was n o t its
p u rp o se. T h e m edieval m ind w ould n o t have suffered any q u alm s o f
rem orse at slandering Islam even if it had been conscious o f the slander:
the im p o rtan t issue was the dram atic effectiveness in painting H e ro d ’s
ch aracter so th at the audience’s souls were touched by the theological point
o f the piece. T here are som e contem porary C hristian images in the play,
serving the sam e purpose as in the shepherds’ plays o f presenting the play
in an accessible idiom:
. . . epistles and grales.
M ass, matins . . , 1<s
A nd I am sure th at the soldiers were depicted as the com m on soldiers
which the audience would know well - m any having them selves served at
times in their L o rd ’s armies. T he suprem ely significant, and - to its speaker
- unw itting, prophecy in the play is the statem ent that:
15 A. C. Cawley, Everyman and M edieval M iracle P lays (London: D ent, 1977), p. 112.
16 Ibid., p. 118 (lines 205-206).
. . . if ye d o as I mean,
He shall die on a spear.11
Its effect is heightened by its inclusion in a series o f episodes depicting
a grandiose H erod and a bunch o f barely com petent soldiers w ho scarcely
m anaged to kill defenceless children.
M y title asks the question w hether, in the light o f the m edieval view
o f time, the dram atists o f the m ystery cycles arc guilty o f naive anachronism .
T h e answ er, as I hope I have show n clearly, is th at they are neither guilty
n o r, in the m ost p art, are their anachronism s “ naive” but ra th er, deliberate
and sophisticated d ram atic devices. Even where they m ay have com m itted
naive m istakes - such as the M ah o u n /H ero d anachronism - they were not
guilty thereby, in the term s o f reference o f their own era.
Departm ent o f English Literature and Culture
University o f Łódź
P eter Barlow
CYKLICZNE I LINEARNE ASPEK TY ŚR ED N IO W IEC ZN EJ
RAM Y CZA SO W EJ: CZY PO JĘC IE C Z A SU , KTÓRY TAK PRZENIK A
ANGIELSK I RELIGIJNY DRAM AT ŚR ED N IO W IEC ZN Y ,
W YKLUCZA C ZĘSTE O SK ARŻENIA DR AM ATUR G Ó W
O „NA IW NY A N A C H R O N IZ M ”?
Zrozumienie anachronizmów w angielskim religijnym dramacie średniowiecznym rozpatrywane
jest w zależności od aktualnego religijnego pojęcia natury czasu. Uw ażam , iż obok figuralnych
interpretacji (tzw. figur), Auerbach przyczyni! się do wprowadzenia konceptów humilitas
i sublim itas do dramatycznej formy artystycznej, której nie m oża oceniać poprzez porównanie,
a zwłaszcza poprzez porównanie do późniejszej estetyki. Anachronizm y biorą swój początek
nie z niew iedzy, lecz służą wysoce wyszukanej formie artystycznej, skoncentrow anej na
efektywnej społecznej prezentacji prawd duchowych.
17 Ibid., p. 119 (lines 251-252), my emphasis.