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The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Theatre
Mystery plays and other drama of the English Middle Ages are perennially popular with students and theater audiences alike. This text introduces readers to famous mystery cycles such as those of Chester and York.
- GenresNonfictionHistory
424 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 30, 2022
It may look like The Cambridge Companion to Falling Asleep, but actually it has a pulse. The CUP hasn’t mucked around and has got the top people in each field to contribute. There’s a superb introduction; an essay each on the four big cycles and then one each for morality plays, etc etc. It also covers Cornish drama.
There’s really only one dud essay in the whole lot which, ironically, is on the subject that brought me here in the first place. I’m reading the Coventry cycle and it quickly became apparent that it’s not like other plays. The text is obviously a far smaller part of it than I’m used to and I needed something to make it accessible (I’m reading the EETS edition so there’s not the usual introduction you might get in a Penguin). The essays on the other cycles were very helpful, especially Beadle’s About the York cycle. Reading Coventry, it’s obviously a ritualised religious behaviour, but why go to all the effort when you’d think Catholicism would have enough ritual already. Beadle makes the interesting observation that the cycles began their life in the generation after the Black Death, so perhaps we’re seeing some sort of attempt at a massive communal magic spell. It didn’t work of course, but I certainly prefer this response to a pandemic than say, oh I don’t know, invading the Ukraine?
Most useful though is Meg Twycross’ essay on staging. This was exactly what I needed for the imagination. There’s also an essay on modern production which was helpful.
There’s really only one dud essay in the whole lot which, ironically, is on the subject that brought me here in the first place. I’m reading the Coventry cycle and it quickly became apparent that it’s not like other plays. The text is obviously a far smaller part of it than I’m used to and I needed something to make it accessible (I’m reading the EETS edition so there’s not the usual introduction you might get in a Penguin). The essays on the other cycles were very helpful, especially Beadle’s About the York cycle. Reading Coventry, it’s obviously a ritualised religious behaviour, but why go to all the effort when you’d think Catholicism would have enough ritual already. Beadle makes the interesting observation that the cycles began their life in the generation after the Black Death, so perhaps we’re seeing some sort of attempt at a massive communal magic spell. It didn’t work of course, but I certainly prefer this response to a pandemic than say, oh I don’t know, invading the Ukraine?
Most useful though is Meg Twycross’ essay on staging. This was exactly what I needed for the imagination. There’s also an essay on modern production which was helpful.
March 27, 2017
Although I was reading this for revision purposes it was very insightful for a background on medieval theatre
August 9, 2021
VV interesting intro to main types of medieval drama etc. - particularly liked the chapter on modern adaptations!
January 9, 2026
The York Cycle Corpus Christi Play you will always be famous to me
December 21, 2011
What a handy little reference guide this is; I first encountered it in college and have since used it several times in research as a starting point of theories and clarifications. If you're doing anything with medieval English theatre (which, let's face it, not a whole lot of people really are, but still) you'll need to have this handy. Even though it's getting slightly dated, it's still one of the best introductions out there for the field and all of the things you need to know in it. Each essay is accessible, relatively short, and covers ground in an engaging but scholastically grounded way--even for those who don't study this kind of theatre for a living, it's and interesting read.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews