The Corpus Christi plays aimed to create devotion and contemplation within everyday life. Performed on Corpus Christi Day, the intention was to perform, within one day, ‘the whole history of the universe from the creation of Heaven and Earth to Doomsday’[1]. These performances became didactic; they aimed to give the laity an opportunity to reaffirm their religious beliefs. It was no coincidence as to which guild performed which play, ‘it was chiefly means of getting the actors, and the audience, to identify with the religious context of the play’. For example, the Pinners and Painters were responsible for ‘The Crucifixion’, this is appropriate as they were the makers of nails, a main prop in Christ’s crucifixion. Through props, costumes and gestures the guilds, who performed each pageant, were able to create a devotional and spiritual purpose to their work and consequently continue their devotion by ‘investing their labour itself with a role in God’s salvific plan’[2].
Props were a key feature towards the devotional aspect of the Corpus Christi Plays. They were mostly used for their symbolism, as their natural purpose was manipulated to aid the spiritual and devotional message created through the performance. Beckwith implies that ‘in theatre a prop is at once an object we look at and a tool put to use by performers’[3]. The Arma Christi are instruments of the Passion, through the performance they became forms of devotion and devises for contemplation. Throughout ‘The Crucifixion’ the Arma Christi are brought to the audience’s attention through the use of deictic markers. As a result, there is a demonstrative emphasis on the ‘here and now’. The objects used within ‘The Crucifixion’ consequently hold an associative memory when placed in the real world beyond the play; this is further implied by the fact that it is the Pinners and Painters guild which performed this particular mystery play. When the audience went to use or buy a nail in their daily lives they themselves became explicit in the act of Christ’s crucifixion. The final raised image of Christ on the cross becomes a representation of what the audience have been complicit in and are subsequently made ‘to realise the extent of their own sinfulness’[4]. The image of Jesus on the cross consequently creates an emphasis on the body and its physicality. The effects of the Arma Christi continue into medieval art. The presentation of blood becomes a part of the contemplation and further adds to the affective piety that is already experienced throughout medieval drama. Within the ‘Psalter’[5] an image of the Nativity and Crucifixion shows an excessive use of blood, the purpose of this being to further increase the viewer’s understanding of Christ’s suffering, in order to save us from our sins. This picture also depicts, very graphically, the Arma Christi, making the nails clear and contrasting against Christ’s blood. Although one cannot prove that blood was used as a prop within the Corpus Christi pageants, it was clearly shown through medieval images. The depiction of Christ’s blood within medieval art becomes part of the religious contemplation encouraged by the artist.
The symbolism encapsulated within each object is further shown within ‘The Second Shepherds Play’. Once again, by using everyday objects the audience are made to feel a part of the event, as they can draw parallels between themselves and the characters. The ‘bob of cherries (l. 718)’[6] were a rare fruit in the middle ages; this implies that the cherries are, in essence, miraculous. This also suggests ‘the miraculous nature of Christ’s birth, and also (in their blood red colour) his future sacrifice’[7]. The bird, ‘often represented as a dove’[8], can be seen as a symbol of ‘the Holy Spirit… and thus Christ’s divinity’[9]. The devotional purpose of the bird is the normality of it. A bird would be something that would be seen by the audience every day. The sight of a bird may possible evoke emotions through the memory of the performance. The gift of the ball is a very human one, suggesting youthfulness and humanity, perhaps implying a connection between Christ and the everyday man. However, when looking at its devotional purpose it can be argued that the ball signifies ‘kingship (it being round, like an orb, and also taken from the ‘royal’ game of tennis’[10]. All three gifts from the Shepherds can be seen as parallels to ‘those offered by the magi’[11]. The Cherries, therefore, represent the myrrh. The link to the passion is explicit; the red colour represents the blood of Christ. This is therefore parallel to myrrh, an embalming oil used for Christ’s body after his crucifixion. The bird then becomes representative of frankincense. When considering the symbol of the Holy Spirit, frankincense is also not tangible and spiritual. The ball, as a result, parallels gold. With its spherical shape, the ball can be seen as an orb, an implication of kingship is therefore shown through both the ball and the gold.
There are few records regarding the costume worn for both ‘The Crucifixion’ and ‘The Second Shepherds Play’. Looking at medieval images can help in creating some knowledge as to what costumes were used within the pageant, as Mâle suggests ‘medieval art was directly affected by the drama’[12]. In the ‘Bible Picture Leaf’[13], believed to have been part of the Eadwine Psalter, illustrates the shepherds dressed in traditional attire. The devotional purpose of this costume would aid the audience’s connection to the divine. Wearing the costume of the character adds to the realistic aspect of the performance, and thus gives immediacy in the presence, bringing forth the stories of the Bible and placing them right before the eyes of the audience. This is supported by Walker who suggests that ‘if Christ was shown being crucified by local people… then the religious message that we are all in a real sense responsible for crucifying Christ’[14] A similar outfit is also worn by the shepherds in ‘The Huth Hours’, from the workshop associated with Simon Marmion[15]. In order to decipher the costumes worn by the soldiers in ‘The Crucifixion’ one must look, once again, to medieval images in order to gain an insight into what the costume may have been. A stain glass window in Tewkesbury Abbey depicts Hugh Despencer in armour[16]. This image of a knight can suggest the type of clothing worn by the Soldiers within ‘The Crucifixion’. Consequently, as shown by ‘The Second Shepherds Play’, the use of period costume would have aided the devotional purpose of contemplation.
However, one has to consider the option of no specific costume, and the idea that perhaps the actors wore their normal, everyday clothes. Therefore the symbolism consequently changes. The performance is no longer a mirror image of the Bible but instead is becomes contemporary and more relevant to its audience. Thus ‘the actor, as image, does not become but represents the person he plays’[17]. Cawley suggests that through this ‘the playwright has humanized the shepherds’[18]. This is further shown through ‘The Crucifixion’. If the Soldiers were to wear normal clothing they too would become a symbol of something much bigger than themselves. This is clearly depicted within ‘The Hours of Bona Sforza’[19].
When costume was minimal, the use of gesture became crucial in the creation of a character. There were certain universal aspects to gesture that were made appropriate to certain characters. It can be argued that, in pageant drama, the use of exaggeration was necessary in order to explicitly show certain movements and objects. Through the text it is clear that the author had a ‘flair for realistic presentation of the physically horrible’[20].The demonstrative nature of movement within The Crucifixion would have had a great impact on the audience. The ‘soldiers’ brisk indifference to Christ’s suffering’[21] contributes to the affective piety most likely felt by the audience. Through the audience’s sympathy for Christ as he undergoes the horrible torment, they are able, as a result, to relate to the divine. The emphasis created through the ‘mercilessly drawn out’[22] performance on the body and physicality aids this emotional form of piety. This is presented through Cowley’s description of the soldiers ‘pulling at cords to stretch out Christ’s limbs as far as the nail-holes’[23]. Soldier One’s suggestion of ‘fast[ening] on a cord, and tug[ging] him to, by top and tail (ll. 113-114)’ [24] additionally creates the idea of affective piety, as the extreme physicality of the action would most likely result in the repulsion of the audience, who, as a result, would begin to understand the divine. It is, consequently, the use of a real human body that makes it affective. There is a clear focus, as Walker suggests, ‘on the agonies of the suffering Christ that were at the heart of late medieval affective piety’[25]. The physical danger in which the actor places themselves in succeeds in adding to the devotional quality of the scene thus creating a further spiritual and devotional purpose as it becomes a ‘moment of intense physical activity’[26]. However, some critics disagree with the idea of affective power through performance. ‘The Tretise of Miraclis Pleyinge’ suggests that the emotion evoked through performance is directed in the wrong way. ‘siche myraclis pleyinge is not to Þe worshipe of God for Þei don more to ben seen of Þe worlde and to plesyn Þe world Þanne to be seen of God or to plesyn to hym’[27] The audience members weep for what they see physically in front of them and, consequently, do not recognise that there should be some inward stimulation towards belief and ‘contemplation of their own real sins, and so thwarting God’s will rather than forwarding it’[28].
In conclusion, it is evident that props, costume and gesture were all vital for enforcing the devotional aspect and purpose of the Corpus Christi Plays and without their symbolism much of the connection with the audience would have been lost. Although there are limited records of these elements of performance and even less on the audience’s reactions, one can still infer the effect that such things would have had upon a contemporary audience. The dramatisation of these stories is also fundamental for contemplation, as Beckwith defines ‘it is in the theatre of dramatic action that [biblical stories] are best understood’[29]. The demonstrative nature and theatricality brings the performance to life and consequently arises interest in the audience, it is this that creates the devotion and contemplation as without this the props, costumes and gestures would be irrelevant.
Endnotes
[1] Medieval Drama: An Anthology, ed. By Greg Walker (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2000) p.3
[2] Medieval Drama: An Anthology, ed. By Greg Walker (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2000) p.4
[3] Sarah Beckwith, Signifying God: Social relation and Symbolic Act in the York Corpus Christi Plays (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001) p.66
[4] Medieval Drama: An Anthology, ed. By Greg Walker (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2000) p.12
[5] Psalter, ‘The Nativity; the Crucifixion’, Switzerland, diocese of Constance, Additional MS 22280, ff.9b-10
[6] The Second Shepherds Play, in Everyman and Medieval Miracle Plays, ed. By A. C. Cawley (Great Britain: Clays, 2004) l. 718
[7] Medieval Drama: An Anthology, ed. By Greg Walker (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2000) p.42
[8] Medieval Drama: An Anthology, ed. By Greg Walker (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2000) p.42
[9] Medieval Drama: An Anthology, ed. By Greg Walker (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2000) p.42
[10] Medieval Drama: An Anthology, ed. By Greg Walker (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2000) p.42
[11] Medieval Drama: An Anthology, ed. By Greg Walker (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2000) p.42
[12] The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Theatre, ed. By Richard Beadle and Alan J. Fletcher (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008) p. 247
[13] Bible Picture Lead,’ Twelve Scenes from the Christmas Story. From the Annunciation to the Shepherds to the Death of Herod’, Trinity College, Cambridge, Additional MS 37472 no.1 (recto)
[14] Greg, Walker, Medieval Drama: An Anthology (India: Blackwell Publishing LTD, 2000) p.4
[15] Huth Hours, ‘The Annunciation to the Shepherds’, North-eastern France, Valenciennes, Additional MS 38126 ff.79b-80
[16] Medieval Panorama, ed.by. Robert Bartlett (London: Thames and Hudson LTD, 2001) p.109
[17] The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Theatre, ed. By Richard Beadle and Alan J. Fletcher (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008) p. 27
[18] Everyman and Medieval Miracle Plays, ed. By A.C. Cawley (Great Britain: Clays, 2004) p.74
[19] Hours of Bona Sforza, ‘Christ Nailed to the Cross’, Flanders, Ghent, Additional MS 34294, f.12b
[20] Everyman and Medieval Miracle Plays, ed. By A.C. Cawley (Great Britain: Clays, 2004) p.137
[21] The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Theatre, ed. By Richard Beadle and Alan J. Fletcher (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008) p. 34
[22] Everyman and Medieval Miracle Plays, ed. By A.C. Cawley (Great Britain: Clays, 2004) p.137
[23] Everyman and Medieval Miracle Plays, ed. By A.C. Cawley (Great Britain: Clays, 2004) p.137
[24] The Crucifixion, in Everyman and Medieval Mystery Plays, ed. By A. C. Cawley (Great Britain: Clays, 2004) ll. 113-114
[25] Greg, Walker, Medieval Drama: An Anthology (India: Blackwell Publishing LTD, 2000) p.12
[26] Sarah Beckwith, Signifying God: Social relation and Symbolic Act in the York Corpus Christi Plays (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001) p.66
[27] Greg, Walker, Medieval Drama: An Anthology (India: Blackwell Publishing LTD, 2000) pp.196-200
[28] The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Theatre, ed. By Richard Beadle and Alan J. Fletcher (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008) p. 77
[29] Sarah Beckwith, Signifying God: Social relation and Symbolic Act in the York Corpus Christi Plays (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001) p.59
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Cawley, A.C., eds., The Crucifixion, in Everyman and Medieval Mystery Plays (Great Britain: Clays, 2004)
Cawley, A.C., eds., The Second Shepherds Play, in Everyman and Medieval Mystery Plays (Great Britain: Clays, 2004)
Secondary Sources
Bartlett, Robert, eds., Medieval Panorama (London: Thames and Huson LTD, 2001)
Beadle, Richard, and Fletcher, Alan J., eds., The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Theatre (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008)
Beckwith, Sarah, Signifying God: Social relation and Symbolic Act in the York Corpus Christi Plays (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001)
Cawley, A.C, ed., Everyman and Medieval Miracle Plays (Great Britain: Clays, 2004)
Walker, Greg, ed., Medieval Drama: An Anthology (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2000)