medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Hi, John,
There are sketches from the 14th (also discussions of them in, for
example, Chaucer) and etchings of later performances.
I found an example from Coventry at:
<http://images.icnetwork.co.uk/upl/iccoventry/mar2001/6/1/000462F3-3D12-1ABB-B45480C328EC04BF.jpg>
Wakefield at:
<http://www.wakefield.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/F23D221F-8CAF-4F0A-A09F-C9B207C2B698/0/MysteryPlay.gif>
Also extant are lists of objects to be painted and paid for by the
towns for the yearly maintenance in records, for instance, from
Coventry. It may be worthwhile noting that Shakespeare's "great 'O'"
developed out of the typical open-air, two-story cart used as the
wheeled performance base for the Mystery plays.
The carts had the dressing rooms on the "first" floor" and the second
floor "stage" open on all sides. The "dressing rooms" were enclosed
in cloth and usually were painted with emblems related to the guild
and the guild's theme on each side. The Elizabethan stage also had
the main performance on the second floor; the stage was elevated and
had trapdoors to the lower level -- the "balcony" was a third floor.
The action was, again, visible from all sides. Theatre in the round.
We have lists of props for the Elizabethan stage, as well.
Shakespeare certainly saw the Coventry plays; he makes fun of the
Coventry version of Herod.
Because the mystery plays were still produced as mystery plays in the
16th-century, we also have have descriptions of the modes of
performance. Which, of course, included painted props on cloth.
On a further note, the origins of the English mystery plays may be
older than we have previously thought. Bodleian MS Junius XI (10th
c.) has four "poems." There appears what may be actor's cues written
into the text. For example, "eve" written with a ' v ' suddenly
appears as "eue" one verse before "she" is to speak... and so on.
This MS has delightful sketched illustrations. (The butt of Lewis
Carroll's "Anglo-Saxon attitudes" joke.)
[Note: the phoneme attached to the form v/u was the same. That ' v '
indicated 1st and 'u' indicated 2nd (deuteros) can be seen in the St.
Gall MSS of the ninth-century -- as well as in BN MS Lat. 8824.]
There are also descriptions and etchings on the Sicilian plays and on
the Valenncienes plays.
The bib on the mystery plays is huge. Perhaps you would choose one of
the Cycles that you wish to investigate? In English we have the 32
plays of the Towneley, the N-Town plays (apparently a compilation
performed by "professional" actors); the 24 plays of the Chester
cycle; the 48 plays of the York cycle -- and, unfortunately, only 2
of the famous and well documented Coventry plays. The last is well
described as it collected royal audiences -- including Richard III a
few months before Bosworth) -- Elizabeth I apparently brought quite
an entourage to see the Coventry performances.
So, yes, the possibility that the shroud was a stage prop is not nil,
whether or not we can come up with a duplicate example of a painted
crucified man.
Cheers,
Rochelle
>medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>Dear John,
>
>You are perfectly right in seeing my inclusion of Rochelle's second
>alinea as confusing the issue. I should not have done that without
>explaining that it was the theatrical context, and not the
>geographical one, I was interested in. Sorry.
>
> >....Though it would gain credibility were one able to show similar
> double-imaged (with flat-topped heads) textiles that
> incontrovertibly _were_ created for one of the purposes proposed
> (theatrical prop or processional banner).
>
>Indeed. Of course this is going to be an iconographical search.
>Pictures showing medieval theatricals are, however, extremely rare.
>And while, maybe, those showing processions are probably more
>numerous, I think we will be lucky to find one with just such an
>image being born in one.
>
>Best,
>
>
>Henk
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