Literary Significance

Karen Hodder, Lecturer, Department of English and Related Literature, at the University of York

The single manuscript of the York plays represents the only surviving text of a series of frequently performed plays that were probably often revised and updated throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It is probably the product of multiple authorship by anonymous clerics.

The 48 pageants use 20 different verse forms, matching their rhythms to the diverse moods and tones of a variety of dramatic action. This is, of course, a stylised form of discourse, but one that is equally adaptable to the eloquent grandeur of God's speeches, the lyrical beauty of Christ's lament from the Cross, the comedy of the simple shepherds and the brutal, fragmented speech of the torturers.

Communication with the audience was the playwrights' priority. This was an accessible form of drama, designed to involve a community, and many of those involved in previous modern revived productions have testified to the power of the mystery plays in building a sense of corporate involvement.

In the Middle Ages, most literature was aimed at an elite. Then, as indeed now, the medieval drama has a uniquely wide appeal.

Note - the text of the York Plays, edited by Richard Beadle, is available online - see the links page

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