5
Only two forms of outdoor staging are identified with any certainty by medieval English stage directions: the pageant vehicle and theatre-in-the-round. Other forms are implied through stage directions, records, eye-witness accounts, wills, inventories, guild and legal accounts and government documents. These forms may well be irregular in shape and location as determined by street conditions, market squares, church yards and quarries. Such potential performance sites may point to spaces but not theatre form, and thus the nature of playing places has to be deduced from internal evidence within plays, explicit stage directions and other available external evidence. It is possible to construct evidence of performance sites and theatre form from the smallest amount of evidence contained in explicit stage directions if carefully assessed. For example, in the Towneley Purification of Mary (Play 17), there is an explicit stage direction that simply states ‘Tunc pulsabunt’ (Then they [the bells] shall ring). From this simple stage direction, Cynthia H. Tyson is able to make out a strong case for the performance location and theatre form in which the play was likely to have been performed.1
Staging Thresholds
Very few stage directions or staging notes describe with any precision the nature of English playing places. Even the playing spaces on pageant vehicles, whose overall sizes may be conjectured, are not revealed by explicit stage directions, although there are many stage directions that imply the nature of such performance spaces. Implications frequently arise from references to the vertical movement of players between ground and raised levels and horizontal movement to and from staging focus across a designated boundary. In The Norwich Grocers’ Play (Text B), a stage direction implies a usable spatial feature of their pageant vehicle: ‘Then Man and Woman departyth to the nether parte of the pageant and Man sayeth’.2 Further implications may be inferred concerning vertical arrangements on the pageant vehicle of the Coventry Weavers’ pageant of The Purification, or Presentation in the Temple (and the episode of Christ before the Doctors) by two stage directions when they record: ‘There Semeonn and his clarkis gothe vp to the tempull, and Gaberell cumyth to the tempull dore and seyth’ and ‘There Mare and Josoff departis owt of the vpper parte of the pagond’.3 Clearly, spatial opportunities on pageant vehicles and those of theatre-in-the-round spaces or other ground-level playing places are quite different in respect of physical size and shape and make for different performance conventions. For instance, in the Ordinalia de Origine Mundi of the Cornish Ordinalia, a stage direction records: ‘Et tunc equitabunt extra ludum’ (And then they shall ride out of the playing place).4 A stage direction in The Conversion of St. Paul registers: ‘Her Sale rydyth forth wyth hys seruantys abowt þe place, owt of þe pl⟨ac⟩e’.5 In Mary Magdalen, a stage direction determines: ‘Her goth þe shep owt of þe place, and Mavd[leyn] seyth’.6 Not only do these stage directions formally delimit the outdoor playing space, but they also determine it to be at ground level. Another stage direction, in the indoor play Impacyente pouerte, states: ‘And here they face Peace out of the place’.7 Again, a ground-floor playing place is implicated together with its demarcation. Further confirmation of this arrangement occurs in an earlier stage direction where movement ‘comminge in’ from ‘wtout’ also demarcates the playing place threshold: ‘here mysrule syngeth wtout comminge in’.8 The distinction contained in this stage direction marks the significance of the boundary between the playing space and non-playing space. Whether this signifies a physical barrier to the appearance of the singing player or a staging convention that permits him to be seen by the audience is unclear. Crossing the playing threshold is again recorded in John Bale’s King Johan when a stage direction establishes that the poisoned ‘dissimylacõ’ (Dissimulation) is to be removed: ‘here haue hym owt of the place’.9 Here too, playing is implicated at ground level, although Peter Happé describes movement that ‘seems to ebb and flow across the locus determined by the exigencies of allegory or symbol rather than by a concept of place’.10
The most precise and full account of staging notes to delineate both vertical and horizontal arrangements occurs as part of the well-known staging plan of The castel of perseueraunse (The Castle of Perseverance), as discussed in Chapter 1 of this work. Here, the drawing and the accompanying notes specify a playing area at ground level, ‘þe place’, and five locations permitting raised levels that are designated as ‘Sowth Caro skafold’, ‘Wes[t] mund[us] skaffol[d]’, Northe Belyal skaffold’, ‘Northe est Coveytyse Skaffold’ and ‘Est deus [s]kafold’ (Figures 1.1 and 1.2). These scaffolds help to define the limits of the round playing space. Confirmation of these scaffolds permitting raised levels on which personages may stand or sit is contained in explicit stage directions in the play: ‘tunc descendit [descendunt] in placeam pariter’ (then they [Pleasure and Folly] descend into the place together); ‘tunc ascendet humanum geus ad mundum’ (then Man shall go up to World); ‘tunc descendit ad confessionem’ (then he [Mankind] descends to Confession); ‘tunc descendent in placeam’ (then they [Gluttony and Flesh] shall descend into the place); ‘tunc descendit [desendet] ad auariciam’ (then he [Mankind] shall descend to Avarice); ‘tunc ascendet [ascendent] ad prem omnes pariter & dixit verita[s]’ (then they [Truth and Peace] shall ascend to the Father all together, and Truth shall say); ‘pater sedens in trono’ (the Father sitting on His throne); ‘tunc ascendent ad malum angelum omnes pariter & dicet [Pax]’ (then they [Truth, Peace, Justice] shall ascend to the Bad Angel all together, and Peace shall say); ‘tunc ascendent tronum’ (then they [Peace and Justice] shall ascend to the throne); ‘Pater sedens in judicio’ (the Father sitting in Judgement).11 It is these stage directions, recording the three-dimensional conditions of the place and its scaffolds, that confirm the nature of those designations depicted in the two-dimensional plan view.
A similar use of space is delineated in MS Peniarth 105B, Beunans Meriasek: The Life of St. Meriasek, in the National Library of Wales.12 Here, two staging plans, somewhat less detailed than that in the MS of The Castle of Perseveraunce, are recorded in such a way as to emulate the latter13 (Figure 3.1 Figure 3.2 Figure 3.3 Figure 3.4). The plans present drawings of an in-the-round staging configuration consisting of named locations around the perimeter of the circular playing place with a centrally constructed feature referred to as the ‘capella’ (chapel). The two plans represent the first and second days of performance. The capella is only recorded in the first-day plan and not that of the second day.
Stage directions in Beunans Meriasek: The Life of St. Meriasek are written in the hand of the main scribe and at least two others, with the possibility of a fourth scribe.14 An original stage direction by the main scribe records: ‘descendat solus ad capellam’ (Let him go down alone to the chapel), and an adjacent observation records: ‘MERIADOCUS in capella’ (MERIASEK in the chapel).15 These recorded observations establish that the chapel is a physical scenic property and that it is capable of being occupied by Meriasek. Its design must be such that, when Meriasek is in the chapel, he can be seen and heard by the audience praying to God. And a stage direction inserted by a later hand states: ‘chappell aredy. Her a (he) weryth a rosset mantell and a berde’.16 Whether the ‘chappell aredy’ refers to a static chapel or one that has been manoeuvred into place is unclear, but, like the castle in The Castle of Perseueraunce, it performs as a central symbolic and practical scenic element of the play. The importance of these two central scenic devices is not often alluded to in respect of the evidence of staging support they offer each other.
Where playing space is not so well defined, prior to presentation, there are devices by which space could be created during performance. In the Chester Cappers’ Playe of Moses and the Law: Balaack and Balaam (Play 5), two stage directions establish playing arrangements on and around their pageant carriage:
Tunc descendet de monte, et veniet rex Balaack equitando juxta montem et dicat.
[Then he shall come down from the mount, and King Balaack shall come riding on horseback beside the mountain and is to say:]17
Tunc Balaham ascendit super asinam et cum Milite equitabit; et in obviam venit Angelus domini cum gladio extricto [extracto]; et asina videt ipsum et non Balaham, ad [terram] prostrata jacebit; et dicat:
[Then Balaam climbs upon his ass and shall ride with the Knight; and an angel of the Lord meets them with drawn sword; and the ass—and not Balaam—sees him, shall fall prostrate to the ground. And Balaam is to say:]18
Space on the pageant carriage was presumably dominated by the mount, leaving a small amount of standing space. To these two levels could probably be added the height of Balaack on horseback and someone standing on the ground or, in the case of Balaam’s ass, lying on the ground. This range of levels clearly creates theatrical opportunities and interest in performance, although playing in the street presents concerns for the ability of spectators to see the action. If audiences are not to lose the thread of the action, they must be able to see what is happening at street level without being visually blocked by others. Thus, in order to witness Balaam’s prostrate ass, space needs to have been made by spectators moving back from the action in order to improve their ability to see it. It is not likely that spectators would move back from the action of their own volition. It seems more likely that spectators were helped, or persuaded, to move back by Balaack riding on horseback up against the inner fringe of spectators in order to press them back, in much the same way that modern police horse-riders control crowds. Even then, this is not a perfect theatrical answer.19 It is, of course, possible that a ‘perfect theatrical answer’ was not even sought. Max Harris, in his discussion of the presumed difference between literary theatre and traditional theatre, makes the following point:
Just as an actor, even in the literary theater, does not expect to see all the action from his or her vantage point on (or off) stage, so non-costumed festival participants do not expect to see all the action from their place within the flow of events.20
Although this is a pertinent point, the difference here is that the play, along with other mystery plays, was intended to teach through the biblical narrative. Spectators missing narrative links could not be said to have received the didactic intention or value of the performance. The same requirement for the creation of space occurs with the Chester Vintners Play of the Magi (Play 8), when the Magi arrive: ‘Hic descendunt de equis et ibunt in montem’ (Here they dismount from their horses and shall go into the mountain).21 When the three kings emerge from the mountain, a further stage direction declares that they ‘Then goe downe to the beastes and ryde abowt’.22 The ‘beastes’ in this instance appear to be the dromedaries spoken of in the text. If the text is considered to offer a credible record of action, as an implicit stage direction, then the three kings continue their journey on dromedaries. The Tertius Rex says:
A dromodarye, in good faye,
will goe lightly on his waye
an hundreth myles upon a daye;
such beasts nowe take wee.23
Although the horses that initially brought the Magi into the scene appear to be actual horses, the ‘beasts’ or dromedaries seem to be artificial animals. The clue to this assessment comes from the Memorandum of Agreement Concerning the Midsummer Watch at Chester (1563–64), which itemises ‘ornamentes […] withall furnytures thervnto belongeng’.24 The list includes:
ffoure Ieans [lions], won vnicorne won drombandarye, won Luce [fleur de lis], won Camell, won Asse, won dragon, sixe hobby horses & sixtene naked boyes, And the same so being in A Redines shall bere & carie or cause to be borne & caried during the seid wache from place to place according as the same have ben vsed vpon their proper costes & charges.25
Given that the three kings ‘ryde abowt’ on or with their ‘beastes’, as they might have done with ‘hobby horses’, it is possible that the dromedaries ridden by the Magi are supplemented from this supply, and their perambulation is again used to maintain the playing space.
Whether the playing space is predetermined in its horizontal axis as a defined space or one determined in performance by the inner edge of a mobile audience, conventions of moving about the space occur in different forms and for different purposes. A stage direction in the Chester Drapers Playe of Adam Cain (Play 2) records: ‘Then goinge from the place where he was, commeth to the place where he createth Adam’.26 Another stage direction that refers to pageant carriage movement occurs in the Chester Corvisors Playe of Mary Magdalene; To Jerusalem; Judas (Play 14): ‘Tunc Judas pro tempore abiit, et Cayphas dicit:’27 (Then Judas for a time goes away, and Caiaphas speaks). Under naturalistic conventions, it might be assumed that Judas left the carriage platform, but, within didactic practice, he may simply have removed himself from the focus by going to the other end of the vehicle and possibly turning his back on the action. These are examples of the kind of stage directions that would apparently seem useful to the player but are, at the same time, incomplete and indistinct. They offer no significant information to the player and offer only generalised information about locations on the pageant carriage that have been witnessed in earlier performance. They use the kind of nondescript language that an observer might use in recording what happened previously and they make the assumption that the reader of the stage direction knows of the relative identity and relationship between the changed unnamed places. The same kind of observation is used in the Chester Saddlers Playe of Emmaus (Play 19) that simply records a change of location without any specific knowledge of narrative or theatrical significance: ‘Tunc ibunt ad alios discipulos in alio loco congregatos’ (Then they shall go to the other disciples assembled together in another place).28
Moving about ‘a lytyll’
Reinforcement of the purpose of medieval stage directions as observed records may be seen when personages are required to move about ‘a little’. Such references are examples of conventional stage moves but are also ones so described because they record action that has been previously witnessed. They do not describe in detail why or where movement should begin and end. Phrases that record such moves exist as statements derived from generalised observations that are no doubt accurate, but do not offer any information that could be of use in directing players in their action. These actions are so described because they record what the observer sees: the player does move ‘a little’.
In the Ordinalia de Origine Mundi of the Cornish Ordinalia, Adam is observed to go away from Eve: ‘Et tunc recedat ab ea paucumper’ (And then let him go away a little while from her).29 In the N.town play of The Appearance to Mary Magdalene (Play 37), a stage direction records Mary Magdalen’s movement: ‘Hic parum deambulet a sepulcro, dicens’ (Here let her walk a few steps away from the sepulchre saying).30 Three stage directions in the Ordinale de Resurrexione Domini Nostri Jhesu Christi of the Cornish Ordinalia exemplify these concerns: ‘hic mar. jacobi et salome recedunt a sepulcro et sedent parumper abhinc’ (Here Mary the mother of James, and Salome retire from the tomb, and sit down a little way from it); ‘dimittet eum et recedit non procul’ (He shall let him go and he retires to no great distance); ‘hic tortores absentant se parumper’ (Here the executioners absent themselves for a short time).31 Each of these three stage directions is written by a later hand. Of the first of the three stage directions, Neville Denny, in his production notes of the Bristol University Drama Department production of the Ordinalia in the Perran Round in 1969, states:
‘Here MARY JACOBI and MARY SALOME withdraw from the tomb and sit down a little way from it.’ A clumsy stratagem. It would be better, and easier, for them to exit at this juncture. (No exit is indicated by the text).32
One can quite easily see how this action might be considered theatrically ‘clumsy’ if modern staging conventions governed by naturalism are employed. A modern director might legitimately be concerned for the inadvertent creation of ‘split focus’ or, in other words, the development of two separated points of focus where each detracts from the other and confuses what the audience is meant to concentrate upon. However, in this instance, under didactic staging conditions, movement ‘a little way from it’ (the tomb) seems a perfectly acceptable way of delivering the moment by keeping both Marys in view of the audience but out of focus of the scene. Perhaps this is why no stage direction requiring their exit is indicated here. These practices of moving away ‘a little’ or ‘walking about a little’ occur in many stage directions. A stage direction in the Passio Domini Nostri Jhesu Christi of the Cornish Ordinalia records: ‘et tunc ipsi transeant cum jhu [Jhesu] et parumper spaciabunt in platea dummodo nuncius eat post doctores et dicit cayphas’ (And then they are to pass [go across] with Jesus, and shall walk about a little in the place while the messenger goes after the doctors; and Caiaphas says).33 In the Ordinale de Resurrexione Domini Nostri Jhesu Christi of the Cornish Ordinalia a stage direction records: ‘et tunc nuncius et iet et spaciabit in platea parumper et ei obuiabit uernona’ (And then the messenger shall go and walk about in the place a little; and Veronica shall meet him).34 A stage direction in The Conversion of St. Paul establishes: ‘Here goyth Sale forth a lytyll asyde for to make hym redy to ryde, the seruua[n]t thus seyng’.35 In the Chester Skynners Playe of the Resurrection (Play 18), after the three Marys discover that Christ is missing from his tomb, they depart in order to tell the disciples of this situation, and a stage direction records:
Tunc discedent, et palisper [paulisper] circumambulabunt; et tunc obvient discipulis, Petro et Johanni.
[Then they shall leave, and shall walk around for a little while: and then they shall meet the disciples Peter and John].36
Here, walking around for a little while covers two requirements to indicate (a) the passage of time and (b) the narrative distance travelled. In spite of there being little room to walk around the pageant carriage, it seems as if this action might have been a represented convention. Both of these recorded intentions are derived from the biblical narrative at John 20:2 and determine, at one level, the purpose of walking round. A similar stage direction occurs in the Ordinale de Resurrexione of the Cornish Ordinalia, where Cleophas and his companion (Luke) are required to walk around the place in order to simulate their walk to Emmaus: ‘cleophas et socius ambulant in platea’ (Cleophas and his companion walk in the place).37 However, the biblical narrative was not always the driving force behind personages walking around the space.
Walking about the Place
Often, walking around the space was a neutralising theatrical convention to halt or pause the action in order to let the audience absorb what had gone before and to take stock of what was about to happen or might happen. The convention was a didactic one that gave the audience time to take in and understand the significance of what it had just witnessed. Another purpose of walking around the space was to allow time for the preparation of subsequent action.
Riding or walking ‘abowt þe place’ was a circular activity presumably taking up as much space as the ‘place’ would allow. In the MS of the Cornish Beunans Meriasek: The Life of St. Meriasek, a stage direction (added later and written in the past tense) records that King Conan: ‘surrexit circa placeam’ (he rose [and walked] round the open space).38 Similarly, in the N.town play of The Visit to Elizabeth (Play 13), a stage direction describes the movement of Mary and Joseph: ‘Et sic transient circa placeam’ (And thus they shall go about the place).39 This action presumably plays under Contemplacio’s speech which follows. A strong example of this use of the convention is seen in the N.town play of the Betrayal (Play 28), where a stage direction, previously cited in Chapter 4, states:
Here xal a massanger com into þe place rennyng and criyng, ‘Tydyngs! Tydngys!’, and so rownd abowth þe place, ‘Jesus of Nazareth is take! Jesus of Nazareth is take!’, and forthwith heylyng þe prynces, þus seyng40
The same kind of circular passage is recorded by a stage direction in Mary Magdalen that records: ‘Et tunc navis venit adcirca placeam. Rex dicit:’ (Then the ship comes around the place. The King says:).41 Another way of expressing the large ambulatory circle walked by personages is one recorded in a stage direction (a later MS addition) in the Passio Domini Nostri Jhesu Christi of the Cornish Ordinalia: ‘hic pompabit annas pro platea’ (Here Annas shall walk about in front of the place).42 Presumably, ‘pro platea’ refers to a circuit immediately in front of the front row of spectators. Expansion of these walked loops or rings is recorded when more than one person at a time is required to travel around the space. In The Conversion of St. Paul, a stage direction (cited earlier in this chapter) records ‘Her Sale rydyth forth wyth hys seruantys abowt þe place, owt of þe pl⟨ac⟩e’.43 Another stage direction in the Cornish Bewnans Ke: The Life of St Ke extends the convention when it requires Cador Duke of Cornwall, Augel King of Albany, the Fourth Squire, the First and Second Bishops, the First and Second Cross Bearers, Bedevere, Kay, Howel and Morryth to: ‘Tunc ambulant circa theatrum omnes bini et trini’ (Then they walk round the theatre in twos and threes).44 Thus, eleven personages are required to travel around the place together. Another group ‘walkabout’ occurs in the Passio Domini Nostri Jhesu Christi of the Cornish Ordinalia where a stage direction records: ‘nunc episcopus et princeps et milites omnes transient cum jhu [Jhesu] et spaciabunt in platea’ (Now the bishop, and the prince, and all the soldiers shall pass with Jesus, and walk about in the place).45
Parading, Pomping and Boasting
A different purpose applied to the convention of walking round the space occurs in the Cornish plays when individual personages are required to ‘pomp’ or ‘parade’ through the Latin form, pompabit.46 In the Ordinalia de Origine Mundi of the Cornish Ordinalia, a stage direction records the simplest form of ‘parading’: ‘hic pompabit abraham et postea dicit’ (Here Abraham shall walk about; and afterwards he says).47 Later in the same play, a stage direction records: ‘Hic pompabit rex pharo et postea dicit moyses’ (Here king Pharoah shall walk about; and afterwards Moses says).48 A later stage direction records: ‘et ludet rex dauid et ipse pompabit’ (And king David shall come into the place; and he shall walk about).49 Later still, a stage direction records: ‘Rex salamon pompabit hic et postea dicit salamon’ (King Solomon shall walk about here; and afterwards Solomon says).50 In each of these Cornish Ordinalia examples, the ‘walking about’ exists as action required to display the personage. It is only at the end of this walking about sequence that the personage speaks. The audience presumably knows that the personage will speak at the end of his parade, for this is the convention. In the Beunans Meriasek: The Life of St. Meriasek, typical stage directions record the action of parading: ‘Pater mereadoci pompabit hic’ (Meriasek’s father shall here parade); ‘Hic magister pompabit’ (Here shall the Master parade); ‘Hic pompabit rex conanus’ (Here King Conan shall parade).51 Parading is not simply concerned with ‘being’ on parade: the activity is a performed one where the personage actively displays himself in a conscious ‘look at me’ sort of way, or, as Richard Southern describes it: ‘This is a fine verb [to pomp] to describe the opening vaunt of a splendid figure—he shall ‘pomp’, he struts, proclaims his greatness on his high scaffold’.52 Such display abounds with ostentatiously performed confidence. ‘Parading’ or ‘pomping’ is not only a device of introduction, it is also means of building theatrical expectation. This is the kind of performance that may still be seen in modern-day Spanish fiestas where individuals in procession use gestures with open arms and palms inviting spectators to admire them. They nod continuously, as if in agreement with spectators in an imagined conversation where the spectator is assumed to be telling the personage how great he/she is.
In Chapter 1 of this work, I discussed the purpose and value of optional action recorded in stage directions. Another range of options is recorded in respect of ‘walking about’, and one example is offered on behalf of Caiaphas’s clerk or crozier-bearer in the Passio Domini Nostri Jhesu Christi of the Cornish Ordinalia: ‘et tunc iet ad principem annam et dicit crociarius et pompabit si velit’ (And then he shall go to the prince Annas, and the crozier-bearer speaks; and he shall walk about if he likes/wishes).53 Another stage direction (added by a later hand) in the Ordinalia de Origine Mundi of the Cornish Ordinalia creates the same option for Solomon: ‘hic pompabit rex salamon si voluerit (Here Solomon shall walk about if he likes).54 Yet another example of recorded option occurs in Beunans Meriasek: The Life of St. Meriasek, where the Bishop of Kernou is provided with the choice of ‘parading’: ‘Hic pompabit episcopus kernov si placet’ (Here the bishop of Kernou shall parade if he likes).55 In these instances, the options of parading for the Bishop of Kernou and Solomon seem to exist because they have already been introduced to the audience at an earlier point.56 A stage direction offers a different kind of option when ‘Hic pompabit Episcopus Poly vel Doctor’ (Here the Bishop of Pola or the Doctor shall parade).57 Either may parade on entering the scene, for they play the forthcoming scene together. The process of parading usually occurs on entry into the platea and frequently takes on the function of displaying the personage or, more specifically, expanding the action into what was known as the ‘boast’. The ‘boast’ was conventionally offered by major personages and could be demanding, boastful, threatening, ranting or bombastic. All or any of these qualities are the means by which the personages’ opening lines were delivered on or after entry. In Mary Magdalen, a stage direction records: ‘Here devoydyt Jhesus wyth hys desypyllys; Mary and Martha and Lazare gon hom to þe castell, and here begynnyt [þe Kyng of Marcylle] hys bost’, whereupon the Kyng of Marcylle says:
Awantt! Awant þe, onworthy wrecchesse!
Why lowtt ȝe nat low to my lawdabyll presens,
Ye brawlyng breellys and blabyr-lyppyd bycchys,
Obedyenly to obbey me wythowt offense?58
A boast of a different quality is recorded as having been delivered by ‘þe Jewe Jonathus’ in the Play of the Sacrament, when a stage direction records delivery of his boast: ‘Now shall þe marchantys man withdrawe hym and þe Jewe Jonathas shall make hys bost’.59 Jonathas’s boast consists of an appeal to ‘Machomet […] My sowle for to save yff yt be thy wyll’. Typical boasts, although not labelled as such, occur in Beunans Meriasek: The Life of St. Meriasek, when stage directions record: ‘Hic Tyrannus pompabit dicens’ (Here the Tyrant shall parade, saying), and another states: ‘Hic pompabunt tortores [w swerdys’. (Here the torturers shall parade [with swords]).60 It is the roles and status of these personages that dictate the nature of their pomping as boasts. No doubt the torturers were involved with much swagger and bravado in displaying their skill with swords.
Coming Into and Leaving Focus
Departing and coming into playing focus and its action are observed and recorded in a number of ways. In some cases, leaving the focus of the scene simply means movement to other parts of the playing area, away from the presence of other personages who retain the focus. The converse is also the case. A stage direction in Bewnans Ke: The Life of St Kea records movement of St Kea and his servant: ‘Tunc venit coram rege’ (Then he comes into the presence of the king).61 Again, the implication is that St Kea and his servant are already in the platea in order to make their move towards Teudar’s ambit. The same condition applies to other personages later in the same play: ‘Tunc venient legati bini et bini coram imperatore’ (Then the legates will appear two by two in the presence of the Emperor).62 Movement by individuals around the playing space is commonly identified in relation to the position of other personages. A stage direction in the Gwreans An Bys: The Creacon of the World records that ‘All the Angells must haue swords and staves & must come to the rome wher Lucyfer ys’.63 Use of the word ‘rome’ in this context refers to the space occupied by Lucyfer and not a physical room.64 In the Ordinalia de Origine Mundi of the Cornish Ordinalia, a stage direction records that Adam shall approach Eve ‘et iterum veniet ad eam’ (And again he shall come to her).65 In the same play, it is recorded that God ‘goes away from him’ (Noah).66 When personages are recorded as having moved away or withdrawn from other individuals, and yet remain in the playing space, they are frequently required to remain still or silent in order to satisfy the narrative needs of the scene and, at the same time, passively support the focus elsewhere in the playing space (see Chapter 6).67 Different processes of leaving and coming into focus are recorded in the Chester Skynners Playe of the Resurrection (Play 18): ‘Tunc abeunt, hic per aliam viam ille per alteram. Mulieres venient’ (Then they go off, one along one way and the other along another. The women shall come).68 Here, Peter and John presumably remove themselves from different sides or ends of the pageant carriage to walk in the street, and Mary Magdalen arrives in focus on the pageant carriage.
The process of removing personages from the focus of scenes is often referred to as ‘voyding’, ‘avoydyng’ and ‘devoydyng’. I have discussed the nuanced differences in and between these three terms elsewhere and shall touch on them only lightly here.69 The important lead question is: ‘Do these terms mean the same thing? Second, if the meanings are different, to what extent are they different? And third, how do the meanings relate to movement within and without the designated playing space? A stage direction in the Cornish Gwreans An Bys: The Creacon of the World records: ‘The serpent voydeth & stayeth and [Lucyfer agayn] ofereth to go in to her’.70 If the serpent is required to ‘voydeth’ and at the same time ‘stayeth’, then this simply means a removal from focus to another visible position in the playing place. Another stage direction in Mary Magdalen records: ‘Here avoydyt Jhesus sodenly, þus seyyng Mary Magdleyn’.71 In this case, the term ‘avoydyt’ is qualified by the stipulation that the action previously happened ‘sodenly’. To whom should the suddenness be revealed? In the biblical narrative, the suddenness refers to a disappearance from Mary, whereas, in the play, the audience shares in the realisation of the suddenness, which is meant to be perceived immediately after the action, not during it. ‘Avoydyng’ from the playing place does not automatically or necessarily mean a disappearance from audience view, although it does mean a withdrawal from focus within the demarcated playing place and, in the case of Jesus’s withdrawal, a disappearance is implied because of the miraculous nature of the action.72 Two further stage directions in Mary Magdalen require personages to ‘devoyd’: ‘Here devodyt Jhesus wyth hys desipylls, þe Good Angyll reioysyng of Mawdleyn’ and ‘Here goth Mary and Martha homvard, and Jhesus devodyt’.73 Clearly, Mary and Martha remove themselves from the playing place in order to go home to their assumed tent on the periphery of the playing place, and it seems that Jhesus also leaves the playing place by devoiding. This interpretation may be supported by the action recorded in a stage direction in the play of Wisdom: ‘Her LUCYFER dewoydyth and cummyth in ageyn as a goodly galont’.74 The meaning implied here clearly indicates the crossing and recrossing of the playing perimeter. The same meaning of devoydyth as crossing a boundary is contained in the Appeal of Thomas Usk against John Northampton in 1384:
And certeinly, the ful purpos of the persones to-forn nempned [before named] was to haue had the town in thair gouernaile, & haue rulid it be thair avys [advise], & haue holden vnder, or elles de-voyded owt of towne, al the persones that had be[en] myghty.75
Again, the same meaning may be seen in more precise records of personages leaving the demarcated playing space in stage directions that record the act of going ‘owt’. In the play of Wisdom, a stage direction states: ‘Here þey go owt, and in þe goynge þe SOULE syngyth in þe most lamentabull wyse, wyth drawte notys as yt ys songyn in þe passyon wyke’.76 A stage direction in Mary Magdalen (cited above) records passage of the ship: ‘Her goth þe shep owt of þe place, and Mavd[leyn] seyth’.77
Going Home
The convention of going ‘homvard’, or going home, is prevalent in those forms of staging that consist of flat playing spaces at ground level that are bordered by tents, mansions, scaffolds or stages which may, or may not, exist at raised levels. It is these structures that represent ‘homes’ for principal named personages. In The Play of the Sacrament, a stage direction records the point at which Ser Ysodyr, the priest, returns home: ‘Here goeth þe Jewys away and þe preste commyth home’.78 Stage directions in the Cornish Ordinalia and Beunans Meriasek: The Life of St. Meriasek, respectively, contain records of personages returning home. In both plays these stage directions are written by later hands. There is one exception in Beunans Meriasek: The Life of St. Meriasek of a stage direction written in the original hand that states: ‘tunc tranceant domum omnes’ (Then let all go home).79 However, the stage directions added by a later hand do seem to be legitimate in their respective contexts. For instance, a stage direction in the Passio Domini Nostri Jhesu Christi in the Cornish Ordinalia illustrates the ability to ‘be seen’ or ‘not seen’ when Herod is drawn into the action from his home: ‘hic pompabit si voluerit herodes’ (Here Herod shall shew himself, if he will).80 A subsequent stage direction describes Herod’s home as a ‘tentum’: ‘Jhc hic ambulat ante tentum herodis paurumper’ (Jesus here walks before the tent of Herod a little).81 Pilate’s home is also described as a tent: ‘et tunc pilatus ascendit in tentum suum’ (And then Pilate goes up to his tent).82 The same sort of description applies to Caiaphus’s home: ‘hic descendit pilatus et iet in tentum cayphas’ (Here Pilate goes down, and Caiaphas shall go into his tent).83
Earlier, I discussed the role of stage directions and their implications for the development of staging conventions, and no better examples of raised homes, tents or scaffolds may be found than in records of personages going ‘up’ or ‘down’ from their respective homes. In Beunans Meriasek: The Life of St. Meriasek, a stage direction records: ‘descendunt omnes in placeam’ (All go down into the place).84 Two further stage directions that imply the raised position of the Bishop of Kernou’s home inform: ‘descendit episcopus kernov in placeam’ (The Bishop of Kernou goes down into the place) and ‘ascendit episcopus kernov’ (The Bishop of Kernou goes up).85 In the Bewnans Ke: The Life of St Kea, a stage direction records: ‘Teutharus descendit in theatrum’ (Teudar comes down into the theatre [the place]).86 A stage direction in The Play of the Sacrament adds a further example: ‘Her shall Ser Ysodyr þe prest speke ont[o] Ser Arystori, seyng on thys wyse to hym; and Jonatas goo don of his stage’.87 In the Passio Domini Nostri Jhesu Christi of the Cornish Ordinalia, a stage direction records that Cayphas, Annas and others go up to Pilate’s tent: ‘et tunc ascendant omnes præter ihesum qui stabit ante tentum pilati’ (And then all go up except Jesus, who shall stand before the tent of Pilate).88
The notion and practice of ‘going home’ does not occur in pageant vehicle forms of staging. ‘Home’ can operate in different ways. It can be a place determined by the biblical narrative or one of theatrical neutrality, where the personage is recognised to be ‘out of action’89 and not seen to be involved in the development of the play, or it can be seen that the personage is able to contribute to the action of the play from his home. When at home, the personage may be seen or not seen by other personages or spectators, for the home is capable of being closed up or left open to view. In the N.town play of The Conspiracy (Play 26), Annas is required to show himself in his open scaffold: ‘Here xal Annas shewyn hymself in his stage beseyn aftyr a busshop of þe hoold lawe in a skarlet gowne.90 In the Bewnans Ke: The Life of St Kea, a stage direction records: ‘Tunc ascendunt episcopi et sedebunt divisive post reges. Clauditur tentum Arthuri’ (Then the bishops ascend and will sit in various places behind the kings. Arthur’s tent is closed).91 King Arthur’s tent is again required to be closed after he has spoken with the legates: ‘Hic clauditur tentum et ibi pausatur’ (Here the tent is closed and there is a pause).92 Arthur presumably speaks in front of his open tent to the legates in the place, and the stage direction requires him to retreat into the tent, leaving the legates in the place. Stipulation that the tent should close is clearly a staging convention to redirect the focus; it also represents the kind of demarcation that was used in later theatre to delineate scenes. Opening and closing curtains or flaps on a pageant, tent or scaffold are straightforward procedures. However, the timing of such actions within a theatrical context is often critical. As part of the processional wedding celebrations in Bruges, 1468, for ‘THE MARIAGE of the Ryght high’ and myghty Prince the Duc of Burgoigne with’ the Right high and excellent Princesse Margarett, Suster vnto the Right high’ and myghti Prince and most Cristen’ Kyng, Kyng Edward the iiijth’, the importance of subtle curtain closure on the respective pageants is recorded as follows:
there was a stage made of tymbr’ warke, cov’de wt tappettes, and before subtelly corteynyd’; with’ oute those cortaynez a man gevyng attendance att soche tyme as my lady passid by, and drew the cortayne of the last pageaunte of the iij pageauntes afore reh’sid, and than secretely closed it a gayne, and shewde as lytill’ sight as myght be sheued; and soo sodenly from pageaunt to pageaunt. The furst pageaunt cast the curtaynez subtyly, that the people hadde therof a sufficient sight’: the pageauntes were soo obscure, that y fere me to wryte or speke of them, because all’ was countenaunce and noo wordes.93
In addition to the use of tents as homes located on the periphery of the playing place, they also appear to have been used in the playing place itself. In the Bewnans Ke: The Life of St Kea, a stage direction records: ‘Hic descendunt ad tentarium’ (tentorium; Here they go down to the tent).94 In another tent in the Beunans Meriasek: The Life of Saint Meriasek, a stage direction records: ‘clamat ille in alio tento’ (He shouts in another tent).95 A stage direction in the Ordinalia de Origine Mundi of the Cornish Ordinalia implies use of another tent in the playing place when:
Et ipse sepelliret ipsum et portabit corpus sub aliquo tento et ibit salamonem et dicit nuncius
[And he shall bury him, and carry the body under some tent, and shall go to Solomon; and the messenger says.]96
In this case, the nondescript reference to the tent implies not a tent used as a higher-level home, but one contained in the playing place. Although the act of burying King David at playing-place level seems more manageable, such positioning of tents may have presented sight-line issues for the spectators, depending on their distance and viewing height. Positions of least disruption for tents in the platea, as far as sight-lines are concerned, are best located at passageways into the playing space or at the mouth of a vomitory created by banked seating or standing.
Stage directions in the play of Mary Magdalen do not confirm the theatrical form of its staging, although some of its features are declared. Mary, Martha and Satan are recorded as having homes,97 and ‘þe prynse of dyllys’ also has his own ‘stage’: ‘Here xal entyr þe prynse of dyllys in a stage, and helle ondyrneth þat stage, þus seyyng þe Dylfe’.98 This stage direction implies that ‘helle ondyrneth þat stage’ exists at ground level and is not elevated by virtue of a position on presumed audience banking, as in the Cornish plays and the Castle of Perseverance. Satan, too, is recorded as having his own stage:
Here xal Satan go hom to hys stage, and Mari xal entyr into þe place alone, save þe Bad Angyl, and al þe Seuen Dedly Synnys xal be conveyyd into þe howse of Symont Leprovs, þey xal be arayyd lyke seuen dylf, þus kept closse; Mari xal be in an erbyr, þus seyyng.99
The ‘homes’ and ‘stages’ recorded above presumably condition, or help to condition, delineation of the playing space. Whether these constructions are organised in a circular arrangement or some other three-dimensional shape is unclear, although they are presumably required to support the nature of the playing space and its demarcated boundary. In Mary Magdalen, sufficient space needs to be made available to permit the circular passage of the ship at ground level: ‘Et tunc navis venit adcirca placeam. Rex dicit’ (Then the ship comes around the place. The King says:).100 Given that this stage direction records the passage of the ship to be ‘adcirca placeam’, the requirement implies that the circular movement also relates to the position of the audience. There seems little purpose or value in taking a path ‘around the place’ if the audience does not also surround the route of the ship. Whether the spectators stand or sit, and in what formation, is unclear, although some sort of regular or irregular theatre-in-the-round form seems most likely. After all, theatre-in-the-round need not consist of a perfect circle. In order to benefit from three-dimensional theatrical value, such forms can be oval, elliptical, square, octagonal, hexagonal, triangular or rougher variations of these configurations. Between them, such forms are capable of creating flexible staging opportunities according to demands imposed by available ground conditions.101 F. J. Furnivall interprets the stage direction ‘Here xal entyr þe prynse of dyllys in a stage, and helle ondyrneth þat stage, þus seyyng þe Dylfe’ to mean that ‘Then the devils are seen in Hell, which is the lower stage of the 2- or 3-staged wagon’. Glynne Wickham, writing of Mary Magdalen, states: ‘This is not to say that it could not be performed “in the round”; I fancy it could’. Natalie Crohn Schmitt states that there is evidence that Mary Magdalen was performed in the round, although stage directions do not provide that evidence. David Bevington creates a conjectured theatre-in-the-round layout of the play in his Medieval Drama. Mary Loubris Jones conducts a most thorough, yet appropriately cautious, investigation of the staging of Mary Magdalen in her unpublished PhD thesis. One of the strengths of this work lies in Jones’s insistence on the dangers of imposing modern concepts and practices on to medieval evidence.102
Locations
Some scholars refer to identified locations, such as those in Mary Magdalen, as ‘loca’, ‘domus’ and ‘sedes’.103 Stage directions in Mary Magdalen do not use these terms. This is presumably because the writer of the stage direction is an observer of the play in action and is unable to make use of this sort of vocabulary as a means of identifying or naming staging locations. It is the narrative, as delivered by the player, that conveys the identity of the place. For example, in Mary Magdalen, Nvncyus Pylatus says to Pilate:
My lord, in hast yower masage to spede
Onto þo lordys of ryall renown,
Dowth ȝe nat, my lord, it xall be don indede!
Now hens woll I fast owt of þis town!
At this point, a stage direction records: ‘Her goth þe masengyr to Herodes’, and the text follows immediately with Nvncyus’s lines:
Heyll, soferyn kyng ondyr crown!
þe prynsys of þe law recummende to yower heynesse,
And sendytt yow tydyngys of Crystys passyon,
As in þis wrytyng doth expresse.104
Suddenly, the messenger is in front of Herod. Even under didactic playing conditions, spectators do not need further explanation of what has happened. Jerusalem, the place where the messenger meets Herod, is only one of a number of constantly changing locations in the place and is represented by a staging convention determined by the player and his spoken words. Attempts to establish the location—in this case, Jerusalem—through scenic representation are unnecessary and unwieldy. One of the virtues of three-dimensional staging, such as theatre-in-the-round, is that it facilitates and promotes fluid opportunities to develop changes in narrative location.105 Labels such as ‘localised’ and ‘unlocalised’, as used by some scholars to define playing areas, are of little use in creating distinctions between observable areas and narrative locations.106 These labels are not recorded in medieval English stage directions and amount to modern impositions upon texts.
However, some stage directions do liken particular areas of the playing place to identifiable locations. In the N.town play of The Betrayal (Play 28), a stage direction records: ‘Here Jesus and his discipulys go toward þe Mount of Olyvet; and whan he comyth a lytyl þerbesyde in a place lych to a park, he byddyt his dyscipulys abyde hym þer, and seyth to Petyr or he goth’.107 In this case, the ‘place lych to a park’ is presumably recorded as a symbolic representation and not a naturalistic scenic simulation. In didactic terms, the park may be represented by no more than a removable tree or pot of flowers. Similarly, in the N.town play of The Conspiracy (Play 26), another likeness is recorded: ‘Here þe buschopys with here clerkys and þe Pharaseus mett [at] þe mydplace, and þer xal be a lytil oratory with stolys and cusshonys, clenly beseyn lych as it were a cownsel hous; Annas þus seyng’.108 Here, representation of ‘a cownsel hous’ may be no more than a careful arrangement of seated representatives on their stools and cushions. However, this stage direction may also be significant in helping to determine the form of staging of this play. It is often considered that the N.town plays were performed in the round because of references to scaffolds and the playing place which may be likened to the playing arrangements of Beunans Meriasek: The Life of St. Meriasek, Bewnans Ke The Life of St Kea, the Cornish Ordinalia and The Castle of Perseverance. In his introduction to The Passion Play: From the N.Town Manuscript, Peter Meredith argues:
The possibilities of layout for these scaffolds are numerous. The circle and the semi-circle are possibilities but by no means the only ones; their advantage is that they automatically define the area of the ‘place’. Preference is often given to the circle because of the layout in the Castle plan, supported as it is by the Cornish Ordinalia and Meriasek. These are excellent evidence for the existence of such a layout but there are a very large number of plays recorded for which evidence of stage layout is lacking and it would be wrong just because of the existence of one plan to impose circularity on all non-processional plays.109
The thrust of Meredith’s cautiousness is appropriate, but, if the playing place(s) of the N.town plays are not of the circular kind, what other three-dimensional forms might be relevant? Comparisons with modern three-dimensional theatre forms might be with thrust, avenue, arena, end stage, oval, hexagonal or octagonal forms. An additional three-dimensional form might be irregular, as defined by an irregularly demarcated location. The N.town stage direction above refers to ‘þe buschopys with here clerkys and þe Pharaseus mett [at] þe mydplace’. It seems, therefore, that the theatre form of the N.town plays, or at least The Conspiracy (Play 26), must be one capable of permitting identification of a ‘mydplace’, assuming, of course, that the description is an accurate one. The description accompanying the plan of The Castle of Perseverance also states that: ‘þis is þe castel of perseueraunse þat stondyth in þe myddys of þe place’. One of the two plans accompanying the play of Beunans Meriasek: The Life of St. Meriasek places the ‘capella’ (chapel) in the middle of the playing place. Other places such as the ‘tomb’ (Cornish Ordinalia), ‘þe howse of Symont Leprovs’ (Saint Mary Magdalen), the ‘sepulchre’ (Cornish Ordinalia, N.town) and the ‘temple’ (Cornish Ordinalia) are each labelled in stage directions, with no evidence of scenic representation. Identification of these places is established and confirmed by what personages say and carefully selected symbols to create identity of the location.
Notes
1. Stevens and Cawley, Towneley Plays, I, p. 207; Cynthia H. Tyson, ‘Property Requirements of Purificacio Marie: Evidence for Stationary Production of the Towneley Cycle’, Studies in Medieval Culture VIII & IX, The Medieval Institute (Kalamazoo: Western Michigan University, 1976), 187–91.
2. Davis, Non-Cycle Plays and Fragments, p. 16; assuming that the platform of the pageant vehicle is rectangular, does the description of the ‘nether parte’ refer to the back of the long side or the short one? Whichever side is referred to, it presumably refers to the back side of the stationary vehicle in performance and not necessarily to the rear side when travelling.
3. The Coventry Corpus Christi Plays, ed. by Pamela M. King and Clifford Davidson, Early Drama, Art, and Music Monograph Series, 27, Medieval Institute Publications (Kalamazoo, MI: Western Michigan University, 2000), pp. 123, 133.
4. Norris, Ancient Cornish Drama, I, pp. 166–67.
5. Baker, Murphy and Hall, The Late Medieval Religious Plays, p. 5. See Chapter 7 in this work for further implications concerning the stage direction.
6. Baker, Murphy and Hall, The Late Medieval Religious Plays, p. 88.
7. ‘Lost’ Tudor Plays Wealth and Health, c.1557–8. Impatient Poverty, 1560. John the Evangelist, c. 1520, Tudor Facsimile Texts, ed. by John S. Farmer (London: Privately printed for Subscribers, 1907), sig. D.ir; in this instance the ‘place’ appears to be demarcated within an unnamed ‘hall’, for Peace, on his exit, wishes ‘Joye and solace be in this hall’, sig. Biv; MED fācen v. [From fāce.] ‘(a) To confront (a person) boldly or threateningly; (b) to show a bold or threatening face’.
8. Farmer, ‘Lost’ Tudor Plays Wealth and Health, sig. C.iiir.
9. John Henry Pyle Pafford and W. W. Greg, eds, King Johan, Malone Society Reprints (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1931), p. 85.
10. Happé, The Complete Plays of John Bale, 2 vols (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1985, 1986), I, p. 22.
11. The Macro Plays The Castle of Perseverance Wisdom Mankind: A Facsimile Edition with Facing Transcriptions, ed. by David Bevington (New York: Johnson Reprint Corporation; Washington DC: The Folger Shakespeare Library, 1972), f. 159v, f. 160v, f. 169r, f. 174v, f. 180r, f. 187r, f. 190r, f. 190v.
12. Aberystwyth, The National Library of Wales, MS Peniarth 105B, fols 51v, 92v.
13. Stokes, Beunans Meriasek: The Life of St. Meriasek, pp. 144–45, 266–67.
14. See text at n. 23 in Prelude.
15. Stokes, Beunans Meriasek: The Life of St. Meriasek, pp. 10–11.
16. Stokes, Beunans Meriasek: The Life of St. Meriasek, pp. 64–65.
17. Lumiansky and Mills, Chester Mystery Cycle, I, p. 83.
18. Lumiansky and Mills, Chester Mystery Cycle, I, p. 87.
19. Orazio Busino, chaplain to Piero Contarini, the Venetian Ambassador, described the means of creating performance space in the Lord Mayor’s Show in London for 1617: ‘To clear the way, the City Marshal on horseback, with a gold collar round his neck, and two footmen in livery, kept parading up and down; he was so smooth and sleek that we unhesitatingly pronounced him to be of the swinish race of jolly Bacchus. The way was also kept by a number of lusty youths and men armed with long fencing swords, which they manipulated very dexterously, but no sooner had a passage been forced in one place than the crowd closed in at another’: Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts, Relating to English Affairs, existing in the archives and collections of Venice, and in the other libraries of Northern Italy, ed. by Allen B. Hinds (London: HMSO, 1909), pp. 58–63 (p. 59); another means of creating space was through the use of fireworks: see Philip Butterworth, Theatre of Fire: Special Effects in Early English and Scottish Theatre (London: The Society For Theatre Research, 1998), pp. 24–25.
20. Max Harris, Aztecs, Moors, and Christians: Festivals of Reconquest in Mexico and Spain (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2000), p. 95.
21. Lumiansky and Mills, Chester Mystery Cycle, I, p. 158; Mills suggests that ‘The waggon-set was obviously the court of Herod, decked out in rich hangings’ and that the ‘mount’ was ‘perhaps a separate set, or again an area in front of the curtained-off stage’. Clearly, the ‘mount’ must have been higher than the mounted Balaack with sufficient height for the stage direction to be able to say that Moyses ‘descendet de monte’: Mills, The Chester Mystery Cycle: A New edition with Modernised Spelling, p. 151.
22. Lumiansky and Mills, Chester Mystery Cycle, I, p. 161.
23. Lumiansky and Mills, Chester Mystery Cycle, I, p. 160.
24. Baldwin, Clopper and Mills, REED: Cheshire including Chester, I, p. 111; MED ǒurnement n. 1(a) ‘Ornamental apparel, trapping(s, jewel)s, trinket(s), etc. 2. Pl. Equipment, accessories, trappings, furniture, accouterments’; MED prŏpretē n. 3(b)? ‘an appurtenance for a play,? stage property’. Although question marks are raised in respect of the meaning of prŏpretē, there is clear overlapping meaning between the two words as used in a theatrical context; it therefore seems that the term ‘ornament’ was superseded by the word ‘property’; for clear use of the word ‘ornament’ see Richardson, The Annalls of Ipswche, pp. 103, 164 (see Chapter 8, nn. 4, 5, 10 in this work).
25. Baldwin, Clopper and Mills, REED: Cheshire including Chester, I, p. 111.
26. Lumiansky and Mills, Chester Mystery Cycle, I, p. 16; see text at n. 28 in Prelude.
27. Lumiansky and Mills, Chester Mystery Cycle, I, p. 263.
28. Lumiansky and Mills, Chester Mystery Cycle, I, p. 362; see also the stage direction in the Chester Taylors Playe of the Ascension (Play 20), p. 374: ‘Jesus autem pausans eodem loco dicat:’ (Then Jesus, pausing in the same place, is to say).
29. Norris, Ancient Cornish Drama, I, pp. 50–51.
30. Spector, The N-Town Play, I, p. 366.
31. Norris, Ancient Cornish Drama, II, pp. 64–65, 138–39.
32. In 2001 I came across a bookseller’s advertisement that advertised a copy of a book by Neville Denny titled The Cornish Cycle of Miracle Plays. I thought I knew Denny’s published output but I did not recognise this title. The cost of the book was £14.00 plus postage and packing. Given Denny’s authority and reputation I thought the sale would be worth a punt. When the book arrived it turned out to be a homemade foolscap-sized book with a thick green-card cover. The contents were typed on a pre-computer typewriter. The text was of the acclaimed 1969 Bristol University Drama Department production of the Cornish Ordinalia directed by Denny and performed at the Perran Round in Cornwall. The text contained many corrections, written in pen, which were both textual changes and stage management-type annotations. This copy seems to have been Denny’s own script and not simply a stage management version, as the textual changes were authoritative Latin, Cornish and biblical ones. I had stumbled across a very important item of medieval theatre memorabilia. After perusing the work at length, it seemed to me that the only fitting destination of the script was the Theatre Collection at the University of Bristol. Along with other items related to the production, this is where the book has been kept since 2007. See University of Bristol Theatre Collection TC/W/S/18, p. 14, n.32.
33. Norris, Ancient Cornish Drama, I, pp. 352–53.
34. Norris, Ancient Cornish Drama, II, pp. 124–25.
35. Baker, Murphy and Hall, The Late Medieval Religious Plays, p. 3.
36. Lumiansky and Mills, Chester Mystery Cycle, I, p. 353; John 20:2.
37. Norris, Ancient Cornish Drama, II, pp. 94–95. See Chapter 4, n. 26, in this work.
38. Stokes, Beunans Meriasek: The Life of St. Meriasek, pp. v–vi, 26: Stokes writes: ‘The colophon states that the MS was finished by “Dominus Hadton,” [Rad. Ton] in the year 1504. The whole book is, I think, in his handwriting, but the MS. has been corrected in several places by a subsequent possessor, who also inserted the stage directions to which I have prefixed a bracket, thus: [.’: pp. 26–27. See Chapter 3, text and n. 53, in this work; Combellack-Harris translates this stage direction in the present tense: ‘He rises (and goes) all around the plain’, ‘A Critical Edition of Beunans Meriasek’, p. 363.
39. Spector, The N-Town Play, I, p. 131.
40. Spector, The N-Town Play, I, p. 299.
41. Baker, Murphy and Hall, Late Medieval Religious Plays, p. 86.
42. Norris, Ancient Cornish Drama, I, pp. 266–67. Neville Denny considers this stage direction to be ‘An additional and superfluous stage-direction by a later scribe’: Denny, Cornish Cycle of Miracle Plays p. 7, n. 18.
43. Baker, Murphy and Hall, Late Medieval Religious Plays, p. 5.
44. Thomas and Williams, Bewnans Ke The Life of St Kea, pp. 144–45.
45. Norris, Ancient Cornish Drama, I, pp. 352–53.
46. MED pomp(e (a) ‘Ostentatious display of wealth, power, strength, etc.; also, the personification of such display or show’; pompen v. ‘To boast’; see Butterworth, Staging Conventions, pp. 40–42.
47. Norris, Ancient Cornish Drama, I, pp. 96–97.
48. Norris, Ancient Cornish Drama, I, pp. 112–13.
49. Norris, Ancient Cornish Drama, I, pp. 144–45.
50. Norris, Ancient Cornish Drama, I, pp. 182–83.
51. Stokes, Beunans Meriasek: The Life of St. Meriasek, pp. 2–3, 6–7, 10–11.
52. Richard Southern, The Medieval Theatre in the Round: A Study of the Staging of The Castle of Perseverance and Related Matters (London: Faber, 1957; repr. 1975), p. 147.
53. Norris, Ancient Cornish Drama, I, pp. 26667.
54. Norris, Ancient Cornish Drama, I, pp. 180–81.
55. Stokes, Beunans Meriasek: The Life of St. Meriasek, pp. 164–65.
56. Norris, Ancient Cornish Drama, I, pp. 180–81; Stokes, Beunans Meriasek: The Life of St. Meriasek, pp. 30–31.
57. Stokes, Beunans Meriasek: The Life of St. Meriasek, p. 78.
58. Baker, Murphy and Hall, Late Medieval Religious Plays, p. 55.
59. Davis, Non-Cycle Plays and Fragments, p. 62.
60. Stokes, Beunans Meriasek: The Life of St. Meriasek, pp. 66–67, 184–85.
61. Thomas and Williams, Bewnans Ke: The Life of St Kea, pp. 50–51.
62. Thomas and Williams, Bewnans Ke: The Life of St Kea, pp. 170–71.
63. Stokes, Gwreans An Bys: The Creation of the World, p. 24.
64. MED rǒum 1. (d) ‘a particular place or spot, of definite location though of unspecified extent’. See Chapter 8, n. 84 and text, in this work.
65. Norris, Ancient Cornish Drama, I, pp. 50–51.
66. Norris, Ancient Cornish Drama, I, pp. 94–95.
67. Skelton, in his Magnyfycence (1530), appears to be the earliest English author to use the term ‘manet’ or ‘maneat’ in a stage direction to refer to the personage or personages who remain in the playing space after others have left: ‘Itaque measure exeat locum cum lybertate et maneat magnyfycence cum felicitate’ (So let Measure leave the place with Liberty, and Magnificence remain with Felicity): John Skelton, Magnyfycence, ed. by John S. Farmer, Tudor Facsimile Texts (London: Issued for Subscribers by the Editor, 1910; New York, AMS Press, 1970), sig. Aiiiir; OED Online manet, v. intransitive. ‘He (or she) remains: used as a stage direction (chiefly) preceding the name of a character who is to remain on stage for the ensuing action, while others leave. Also occasionally referring to more than one character’. The earliest use of the term hitherto recorded by the OED Online is 1591.
68. Lumiansky and Mills, Chester Mystery Cycle, I, p. 355.
69. Philip Butterworth, ‘Comings and Goings: English Medieval Staging Conventions’, The Early Drama, Art, and Music Review, 18.1 (1995), 25–34; Butterworth, Staging Conventions, pp. 78–90.
70. Stokes, Gwreans An Bys: The Creation of the World, p. 42.
71. Baker, Murphy and Hall, The Late Medieval Religious Plays, p. 61.
72. See Mary K. Loubris Jones, ‘Pilgrimage from Text to Theater: A Study of the Staging of the Digby Mary Magdalen’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Colorado, 1977); Mary Loubris Jones, ‘How the Seven Deadly Sins “Dewoyde from þe Woman” in the Digby Mary Magdalen’, American Notes and Queries, 16 (1978), 118–19; Butterworth, ‘Comings and Goings’, 25–34; Butterworth, Staging Conventions, pp. 84–90; ‘On the surface it hardly seems possible that the ta’ziyeh is as powerful as it is purported to be: the actors carry their parts around in their hands; they engage in no extraordinary histrionics; there is no conscious attempt to produce dramatic tension or build to a climax; they regularly break character and remain in full view of the audience while drinking tea, chatting with their fellows, etc. These facts will not be extraordinary to students of Asian theatre (or to students of Brecht), but they are usually somewhat surprising for persons whose experience is limited to the most conventional Western drama’: William O. Beeman and Mohammad B. Ghaffari, ‘Acting Styles and Actor Training in Ta’ziyeh’ in Eternal Performance: Ta’ziyeh and Other Shiite Rituals ed. by Peter J. Chelkowski (London, New York, Kolkata: Seagull, 2010), pp. 74–93 (p. 78).
73. Baker, Murphy and Hall, The Late Medieval Religious Plays, pp. 47, 51. For similar stage directions, see p. 62.
74. Eccles, Macro Plays, p. 126.
75. A Book of London English 1384–1425, ed. by R. W. Chambers and Marjorie Daunt (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1931, repr. 1967), p. 24. As the playing place has its boundaries, so does the town.
76. Eccles, Macro Plays, p. 146.
77. Baker, Murphy and Hall, The Late Medieval Religious Plays, p. 88. An almost identical stage direction occurs at p. 72.
78. Davis, Non-Cycle Plays and Fragments, p. 68.
79. Stokes, Beunans Meriasek: The Life of St. Meriasek, pp. 178–79.
80. Norris, Ancient Cornish Drama, I, pp. 356–57.
81. Norris, Ancient Cornish Drama, I, pp. 356–57.
82. Norris, Ancient Cornish Drama, I, pp. 386–87.
83. Norris, Ancient Cornish Drama, I, pp. 350–51.
84. Stokes, Beunans Meriasek: The Life of St. Meriasek, pp. 16–17.
85. Stokes, Beunans Meriasek: The Life of St. Meriasek, pp. 30–31, 34–35.
86. Thomas and Williams, Bewnans Ke: The Life of St Kea, pp. 12–13.
87. Davis, Non-Cycle Plays and Fragments, p. 65.
88. Norris, Ancient Cornish Drama, I, pp. 348–49.
89. The notion of ‘being out of action’ is the same convention as that used by children when they use the terms ‘barley’, ‘faynights’, ‘kings’, ‘cruses’ (crosses) or ‘scribs’ to signify that they too should be considered to be out of action when playing a game. Effectively, the terms refer to a truce; Jamieson’s Dictionary of the Scottish Language, ed. by John Johnston, rev. by John Longmuir (Edinburgh: William P. Nimmo, 1867): ‘Barley, s. A term used in the games of children when a truce is demanded’; see Iona and Peter Opie, The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1959), pp. 135, 141–53; Iona and Peter Opie, Children’s Games in Street and Playground, p. 63; Iona Opie, The People in the Playground (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), pp. 79, 81, 179; Amanda Bateman and Carly W. Butler, ‘The Lore and Law of the Playground’ in The Lifework and Legacy of Iona and Peter Opie: Research into Children’s Play, ed. by Julia C. Bishop and June Factor (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2019), pp. 53–68 (pp. 62–64).
90. Spector, The N-Town Play, I, p. 252; See Chapter 3, n. 87, for the full stage direction.
91. Thomas and Williams, Bewnans Ke: The Life of St Kea, pp. 168–69.
92. Thomas and Williams, Bewnans Ke: The Life of St Kea, pp. 220–21.
93. Samuel Bentley, Excerpta Historica, or, Illustrations of English History (London: Samuel Bentley, 1831), pp 228–29; MED tapet(e n. (a) ‘A piece of decorative fabric bearing a painted, emroidered, or woven pattern or figures and used variously as a carpet, coverlet, bed or wall hanging, or the like, a tapestry’.
94. Thomas and Williams, Bewnans Ke: The Life of St Kea, pp. 58–59.
95. Stokes, Beunans Meriasek: The Life of St. Meriasek, pp. 192–93; Combellack-Harris makes a significantly different translation by saying: ‘He shouts into another tent’: ‘A Critical Edition of Beunans Meriasek’, p. 525.
96. Norris, Ancient Cornish Drama, I, pp. 180.
97. Baker, Murphy and Hall, The Late Medieval Religious Plays, pp. 51, 55, 42.
98. Baker, Murphy and Hall, The Late Medieval Religious Plays, p. 35.
99. Baker, Murphy and Hall, The Late Medieval Religious Plays, p. 42.
100. Baker, Murphy and Hall, The Late Medieval Religious Plays, p. 86.
101. John McKinnell makes it clear that he and his company originally conceived their production of Mary Magdalen to be performed in the round: ‘In the event, Palace Green was not available to us, and the best alternative site, at Little High Wood, happened to be a sloping and tapering one, quite unsuitable for a performance in the round. We therefore decided on a production in the half-round, and adopted the guiding principle that there ought to be as few stage locations as possible’: John McKinnell, ‘Staging The Digby Mary Magdalen’, Medieval English Theatre, 6.2 (1984), 126–52. See Chapter 2, n. 63, of this work.
102. The Digby Mysteries, ed. by F. J. Furnivall, The New Shakspere Society (London: Trübner, 1882), p. x: there is no evidence to corroborate provision of a’2- or 3-staged wagon’; Glynne Wickham, ‘The Staging of Saint Plays in England’, in The Medieval Drama, ed. by Sandro Sticca (Albany, NY: State University of New York, 1972), pp. 99–119 (p. 112); Natalie Crohn Schmitt, ‘Was There a Medieval Theatre in the Round?’, Theatre Notebook, 23.4, Part 1 (Summer 1969), 130–42 (p. 131); David Bevington, Medieval Drama (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1975), pp. 688–89; Mary K. Loubris Jones, ‘Pilgrimage from Text to Theater: A Study of the Staging of the Digby Mary Magdalen’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Colorado, 1977); for further conjectured staging possibilities, see Matthew Evan Davis, ‘As Above, So Below: Staging the Digby Mary Magdalene’, Theatre Notebook, 70.2 (2016), 74–108 (p. 104).
103. E. K. Chambers, The Mediaeval Stage, 2 vols (London: Oxford University Press, 1903, rpr. 1967), II, pp. 79–85; Harry M. Ritchie, ‘A Suggested Location for the Digby Mary Magdalene’, Theatre Survey, 4 (1963), 51–58; Jerome Bush, ‘The Resources of Locus and Platea Staging: The Digby “Mary Magdalen” ’, Studies in Philology 86.2 (Spring 1989), 139–65.
104. Baker, Murphy and Hall, The Late Medieval Religious Plays, p. 67.
105. Writing of theatre-in-the-round, Robin Pemberton-Billing states: ‘Once audiences have accepted the convention that scenery does not provide the context for action (even though properties and furniture may be used selectively and sparingly), they discover a sort of imaginative release’: Robin Pemberton Billing, The Octagon Theatre, Bolton: Concept to Reality, ed. by Philip Butterworth (Leeds: Leeds Graphic Press, 2011), p. 63.
106. See Alan H. Nelson, ‘Some Configurations of Staging in Medieval English Drama’, in Medieval English Drama: Essays Critical and Contextual, ed. by Jerome Taylor and Alan H. Nelson (Chicago, London: University of Chicago Press, 1972), pp. 116–47.
107. Spector, The N-Town Play, I, p. 286.
108. Spector, The N-Town Play, I, p. 257.
109. Peter Meredith, The Passion Play from the N.Town Manuscript (London, New York: Longman, 1990), p. 25.