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The Liturgical Basis of The Towneley Mysteries
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
The Towneley Mysteries have two remarkable characteristics which have attracted the attention of scholars: they contain a number of plays borrowed directly from the York cycle and they also contain a number of other plays so conspicuous for their highly dramatic form that the cycle may be said to have reached in them the highest point in the dramatic development of the English Mystery. Various theories have been advanced to account for the presence of these two sets of plays in Towneley and especially for the relationship, and its extent, of Towneley and York. The two theories of greatest interest are those of Professor Davidson and Professor Hohlfeld. A third, advanced by Mr. Pollard, is practically the same as Professor Hohlfeld's, with one or two slight modifications, which hardly concern us here.
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References
page 419 note 1 Davidson, English Mystery Plays (Tale Thesis, 1892), p. 129.
page 419 note 2 Anglia, xi, 219 ff. “Die altenglischen Kollektivmisterien, etc.”
page 419 note 3 Introduction to The Towneley Plays, E. E. T. S. edition.
page 420 note 1 The first of these may, for convenience, be called the York, or Y group; the second because of references which it contains, to Wakefield, the Wakefield, or W group.
page 420 note 2 Anglia, xi, 307.
page 421 note 1 Anglia, xi, 307 ff.
page 421 note 2 The Towneley Plays, Introduction, xxvii, xxviii.
page 421 note 3 Anglia, xi, 239. Davidson, p. 6, etc.
page 422 note 1 E. K. Chambers, The Mediæval Stage, vol. 2, chap. xviii-xxii.
page 424 note 1 Davidson, pp. 6 ff. I have already remarked that Davidson's compiler is in reality two editors, one using couplets and the other quatrains (see above, p. 419). It is of importance to note that the couplet man has worked only in the two groups (of the Hohlfeld-Pollard grouping) which do not contain direct borrowings from York. These borrowings contain no couplets, whereas all three groups contain quatrains, and they are especially characteristic of the York borrowings. The inference from this is that, contrary to Hohlfeld's idea, the borrowings are the last addition to the cycle.
page 425 note 1 See above, pp. 419 ff.
page 426 note 1 For detailed discussion see Chambers, vol. ii.
page 426 note 2 Academy (London), Jan. 11, 1890.
page 427 note 1 Chambers, vol. 2, pp. 52 ff.
page 429 note 1 Concerning these similar phrases it may be objected that they are nothing more than translations of the same biblical source, rather than of a liturgical original. And in some scenes this would appear to be the case, were it not that in other scenes they show a common variation from the Bible story, which is evidently originally a liturgical variation. It must be remembered, in this connection, that each of these plays is but a scene in a long liturgical play, which is much elaborated, and must be considered in its; relation to the other scenes of the play.
page 431 note 1 Miss L. T. Smith, The York Plays, Introduction, p. xxi, and note, p. 433.
page 432 note 1 See page 420.
page 433 note 1 See Davidson and Hohlfeld.
page 433 note 2 Chambers, vol. 2, pp. 52 ff.
page 433 note 3 While T and Y coincide in the titles of the Old Testament scenes through Abraham and Isaac, they disagree thereafter, and where they coincide in title the framework differs.
page 434 note 1 Du Méril, Origines Latines du Théâtre Moderne, p. 187.
page 434 note 2 Du Méril, pp. 162, 175.
page 434 note 3 Ibid., p. 171.
page 435 note 1 The text of true Coventry used is that found in Manly, Specimens of the Pre-Shakspcrean Drama, vol. 1, pp. 120 ff.
page 435 note 2 Figures in () indicate stanzas in Y and T, lines in Cov.
page 436 note 1 Davidson, pp. 158–163.
page 440 note 1 The text of so-called Coventry is Halliwell, Ludus Coventriae.
page 448 note 1 Anglia xi, p. 293.
page 449 note 1 Comparison of Y and T from O. Herttrich, Studien eu den York Plays.
page 450 note 1 Anglia, xi, 293, 307.
page 451 note 1 Anglia, xi, pp. 293, 307.
page 453 note 1 Miss L. T. Smith, York Plays, Introd., xxi, and note.
page 454 note 1 Anglia, xxv, 212.
page 459 note 1 T. Wright, The Chester Plays.
page 461 note 1 Chambers, vol. 2, App. x, p. 423.
page 461 note 2 Davidson, pp. 137-157.
page 461 note 3 C. Lange, Die Lateinischen Osterfeiern, p. 146.
page 464 note 1 Davidson, pp. 137-157.
page 465 note 1 See Burton's list, York Plays, Introduction, especially p. xxviii.
page 465 note 2 Note in this connection the following more highly developed scene from Augsburg, 11th or 12th century (Lange, 182). I quote simply this scene from a longer play:—
Ex post intervallum stantes in medio, linteum in publicium ostendes canent:
Cernitis socii
Tunc duo ad hoc parati, expersona discipulorum petri et iohannis, et currendo ad monumentum vnus precedat, quo non infrante, posterior introeat choro cantent a:
Currebant duo simul
Interum sacerdotes predicti: cruce undata aspersa et thurifacta, pronuntient omnibus resurreetionem cantando a
Surrexit dominus de sepulchro.
Chorus autem, audita resurrectiones, prorumpens in gaudium, alta voce communter imponet:
Te deum laudamus.
page 467 note 1 Chambers, vol. 2, pp. 340, 341.
page 467 note 2 Davidson, pp. 18, 19.
page 467 note 3 York Missal, pp. 105-106.
page 468 note 1 York Missal, p. 129.