Devotional Themes in the Violence and Humor of the Play of the Sacrament

Devotional Themes in the Violence and Humor of the Play of the Sacrament Richard L. Homan The Play of the Sacrament has long been regarded as a historical curiosity but not as a work of art worthy to be compared with the best English plays of the fifteenth century. William Davenport's assessment in his recent book, FifteenthCentury English Drama, exemplifies the position of most critics. After summarizing the plot, he says, "This material is presented in a very odd way; it sounds in outline like a devout miracle play, but in fact it is, for much of the time, farcical."! Davenport echoes the many critics who have interpreted the admittedly sensational events of the play as intentionally comic.2 Though Davenport applauds the author's effort to employ comedy toward teaching a lesson, he concludes that this playwright does so poorly: "When a dramatist controls the relationship between slapstick and exemplification better, as in Mankind, then it is no longer at all a matter of the 'addition' of comic effects to serious subject matter ..." (p. 76). This then is the gist of the complaint against the Play of the Sacrament, that its comedy is not integral. The scenes most at issue constitute the central third of the play in which Jonathas and his four companions witness a series of miracles occasioned by their torturing of a Host, and Doctor Brundyche and his boy Colle call upon Jonathas. Because the principals are Jews and because the events are so violent as to be gruesome, most critics have assumed an underlying tone of ridicule, and indeed the play derives from a traditional antiRICHARD L. HOMAN is an assistant professor in the Department of Fine Arts at Rider College, Lawrenceville, New Jersey. 327 328Comparative Drama Semitic tale. Also, the Doctor's scene appears tangential at best to the main action. Hence, critics have charged, the play's violence is unintentionally comical, and its intentional comedy is irrelevant. My analysis will concentrate on these three scenes: the dismembering of Jonathas (11. 385-524), the introduction of the doctor and his boy Colle (11. 523-652), and the climax which includes the appearance of Christ (11. 653-797).3 Preceding these scenes is the circumstantial sequence which results in Aristorius delivering the Host to Jonathas. Following is the sequence in which Episcopus takes over and performs a series of liturgical actions. I will suggest that the scenes with the Jews could have been taken quite seriously by the original audience, both because of the skill with which they are written and because they incorporate devotional sensibilities popular in the art and prose of the fifteenth century. Furthermore, I will show that the admittedly comic interlude with the doctor and his boy reflects the serious message of the main action in ways not previously detected. In doing so, I do not pretend to solve ultimately the problem of interpreting the play, but I hope rather to add another layer of meaning to our reading of it. A similar purpose was accomplished by Sister Nicholas Maltman, who traces the liturgical references throughout the scenes in which the Jews appear to show that their actions are not simple, physical farce, but a detailed re-enactment of the Passion with the Host taking the place of Christ himself. Her study is significant not only because it shows a pattern behind the Jews' actions (the banns which accompany the play explicitly call their actions a "new passyon "), but also because it establishes the continuity of the scenes of torture with the liturgical scenes which end the play. Though arguing that "The Croxton play deserves greater respect than it has received," these central scenes must, according to Maltman "strike the modern reader as crude and grotesque" (p. 162). Yet, perhaps like much that we admire in the Corpus Christi plays, they need only to be seen more fully within the sensibility of the fifteenth century. Any performance which hazards the use of horrific special effects risks appearing ludicrous. If the audience has any doubt about their justification in terms of the overall theme and action, the effects cause laughter or, if they are quite vivid, revulsion. Such apparently was the...