Creative Response to The York Corpus Christi Play: The Last Judgement
The sound of trumpets, calling everyone forth; the Last Judgement had come. It was becoming dark, the sun disappearing behind the horizon, producing the illusion of a fiery hell across the sky. People where gathering around the pageant wagon, all eager to see the play by the Merchants who, with little doubt, where the richest and most influential of all the guilds. People where pushing, trying to find a good point of view, talking to each other, ever so slightly drowning out the voices of the actors.
God had been speaking, sitting tall with his golden mask, higher up than any other. He had been lifted into the air, into Heaven. Below him they could see the earth on the locus, with Jesus as the judge, surrounded by his red-faced angels, bringing the message of Doomsday. ‘Good and ill, every-ilka ghost, / Rise and fetch your flesh that was your fere, / For all this world is brought to waste. / Draw to your doom, it nighs near.’[1] People were being brought forth, all looking so alike, but then divided between the right and the left side of God. In the distance, I could hear the chiming of the church bells, ringing in the hour. People were mumbling, pointing at the actors, commenting on who they knew and who they did not recognize.
Now it was Jesus who was speaking, preaching of the good and the bad, of each individual’s faith. A gust of wind passed along, causing a few in the audience to shiver, bringing with it a slight foul smell from down the street. In addition to that, all crowded together, you could smell who had most recently received a bath and who had not. Looking around the crowd, one could see faces from all the different social classes, gathered together to witness a play of God, to hear his words spoken in their native tongue. One could also spot a few drunks every now and then, stumbling their way back and forth, celebrating a day free from labour.
The Apostles and the Devils spoke, each in their own stunning costumes. The Apostles were to join Jesus by his side, while the devils stalked across the platea, closer to those who watched. Beneath the wagon was the Hell Mouth from which they had come, and through which the sinners would leave. Looking up, I could see the wounds our beloved Christ had suffered for them, wearing a white cloth stained with blood, five wounds on display. It was now time for the last judgement: ‘My blessèd children on my right hand, / Your doom this day is ye thar nit dread, / For all your comfort is command, / Your life in liking shall ye lead.’[2] They were now closing in on the passage in the Holy Bible, on which the play itself was based, when Matthew tells the story of The Sheep and the Goats: ‘All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.’[3]
The good souls who had earlier begged Jesus for his mercy, where now asking when it was that they had fed him, had stopped his thirst, when they had given him clothing and felt sorrow and pity for his troubles, when it was they had comforted him in his illness. ‘Lord, when did we thee this deed?’ they asked.[4] His response to this seemed to have a soothing effect on the audience, on those souls who knew in their heart they had done good. Those who had been charitable, who had with bread fed those who were starving and who had helped those who were lost find their way again. This was something their individual parish priest had taught them, how a true Christian cares for all of God’s children, all of whom were created in his image and whom he loved equally. And it was from this love that he had sent his own son down to earth to sacrifice his life for them. And to then harrow Hell to give the trapped spirits, pure of faith, a chance of life in Paradise.
He was now addressing the bad souls, their faces now lit only by candle light as the sky had fallen dark. And while he spoke, the Devils began to dance, eager to collect their harvest, the wicked souls promised when Christ himself had spoken to Satan: ‘When did we thee this wickedness?’ the bad souls asked. [5] While Jesus responded to their question, answering how they had ignored the cry of those in need, a few shifted uneasy amongst the crowd. Now came the moment they all had waited for, the moment in which the good souls followed Jesus into heaven, while the Devils dragged the bad ones through the Hell Mouth. The Devils came running through the crowd, people shying away as they closed in, and then grabbed a few at random who were to follow them down into damnation. Amongst them a young boy who cried as the scary monsters dragged him away from his mother, who now screamed, forgetting for just a second the reality of the moment.
And then it all came to an end, angel song filling the air. Those who had lived according to the Church received their reward in Paradise, while those who did not, those who sinned, where taken down into Hell for their punishment. There was something reassuring in the idea of a just God, although many felt frightened by the potential consequences of their actions. Heading home in the dark, many thoughts about what I had seen crossed my mind, wondering in which of the two I would end, if I had been as charitable and faithful as I should.
Bibliography
Primary sources:
The Last Judgement, in The Boradview Anothology of Medieval Drama, eds. Christina M. Fitzgerald and John T. Sebastian (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2013), pp. 129-139
Secondary sources:
Davidson, Clifford, Corpus Christi Plays at York: A Context For Religious Drama, (AMS Press, Inc., 2013)
Matthew 25:31-46, The Sheep and the Goats, (Holy Bible, New International Version, 2011)<ttps://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+25%3A31-46&version=NIV>[accessed 5th November, 2014]
Notes
[1] Fitzgeerald, Christina M., and John T. Sebastian, The Boradview Anothology of Medieval Drama (Broadview Press, 2013), p. 131, l. 85-88
[2] Ibid.,p.. 134, l. 277-280
[3] Matthew 25:32-33, The Sheep and the Goats, (Holy Bible, New International Version, 2011) <ttps://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+25%3A31-46&version=NIV> [accessed 5th November, 2014]
[4] Fitzgenerald, Christina M., and John T. Sebastian, The Boradview Anothology of Medieval Drama (Broadview Press, 2013), p. 135, l. 308
[5] Ibid., p. 135, l. 356