A Little History of Literature by John Sutherland Read Free Book Online

becoming more urban – but outside the hugely urbanised capital. They were ‘provincial’ not ‘metropolitan’. This tension in literature between what is produced by London (England's literary and theatrical ‘world’, as it likes to think of itself ) and places outside London (‘the sticks’, as some Londoners like to call it), is with us to the present day. The mystery plays were very ‘outside London’. And proud of it.
    In England's large cities the guilds nurtured the skills (and tricks) of their trades. Membership was strictly controlled. Members tended to be literate as well as skilled. The bulk of the population at the time was not (or at best was semi-) literate. The guilds passed their skills on through a master-apprentice system which survives to present times. They also held a monopoly over trades – you couldn't, for example, work as a builder (‘mason’) or a carpenter unless you belonged to the right guild and paid your ‘dues’. So they became rich and powerful. But they retained a strong sense of civic duty to the communities that had made them rich and powerful.
    In the medieval period the most important Book was the Bible. Without it, for people of the time, existence was meaningless. But much of the population could not read their own language, let alone the Latin of the standard Bible. Books were still hugely expensive even after the invention of printing in the late fifteenth century. The guilds took it on themselves to evangelise – spread the good word – by street entertainment. Drama served that purpose perfectly.
    Annually, on some particular holy day in the Christian calendar (usually the feast of Corpus Christi), dramatic ‘cycles’ (that is, the whole biblical narrative) would be staged. Each guild would sponsor a wagon, or ‘float’. Typically they would choose an episode from the Bible which fitted with their profession. The pinners (nail-makers), for example, would tell the story of the crucifixion, while the bargemen might tell the story of Noah and the Flood. Theestablished Church was generally tolerant of all this. Indeed some clergymen, who would have been by far and away the most literate members of their community, probably helped write the plays. The guild stored lavish costumes, props and scripts for repeated use. Prompt-copies have survived for several of the city-based cycles, notably those of York, Chester and Wakefield.
    The mystery plays were immensely popular in their day – and it was, historically, a fairly long day: two centuries long. There is no question but that the young Shakespeare saw them during his childhood in Stratford, enjoyed them, and was influenced by them for the rest of his life. He occasionally refers to them in his plays as something his audience would have been familiar with as well.
    A particularly fine example of the mystery-play genre is the Second Shepherds' Play in the Wakefield Cycle. It is not a catchy title, but it is great drama, early as it may be. It was probably composed around 1475 and performed, with elaborations and topical adaptations, for many decades thereafter annually on the feast of Corpus Christi in May or June. The Yorkshire town of Wakefield was enriched in the Middle Ages by the wool and leather trades. Sheep and cattle grazed on the grassy hills around the town, which had good communication with the rest of the country and could get its wares to markets in the big cities. Wakefield also had a reputation for particularly enjoying itself at fairs and other public events and was nicknamed ‘Merry Wakefield’. The citizens liked a good laugh, and the Second Shepherds' Play supplied it.
    The entire Wakefield mystery cycle encompasses thirty plays, beginning with the Creation in Genesis and winding up with the hanging of Judas in the New Testament gospels. There are two shepherds' plays, celebrating the product (wool) that was the town's principal source of prosperity. The second play opens with three shepherds on