English Dramatic Interludes, 1300-1580: A Reference Guide (review)

In English Dramatic Interludes Darryll Grantley offers a comprehensive guide to non-cycle drama in the years from 1300 to 1580. In that category Grantley includes not just plays usually described as interludes but also texts commonly labeled farces, history plays, saints' plays, and neoclassical drama, among others. While the genre sweep is broad, the linguistic scope is limited to plays in the English language; plays written in English are included, while those written in Latin, French, or Cornish have been left out, with the partial exception of the Anglo-Norman fragment known as The Cambridge Prologue. Also excluded are liturgical plays, single plays that might once have been part of the urban cycles, and closet plays, although an appendix lists extant plays in the latter two categories.

Grantley provides an entry for each of one hundred or so plays or fragments, which are arranged alphabetically by title. The historical range extends from the Interludium de Clerico et Puella and The Pride of Life, early fragments from the fourteenth century, through a handful of fifteenth-century plays (The Castle of Perseverance, Mankind, Wisdom, and The Croxton Play of the Sacrament) and on to plays from the sixteenth century, which make up the bulk of the entries (among them are Hick Scorner, Godly Queen Hester, Cambises, Jack Juggler, Gismond of Salerne, and The Bugbears). In addition to such basic information as date and authorship, editions and manuscripts, sources, and length of the play, each entry contains a list of dramatis personae followed by a brief plot summary designed to suggest the shape of the play while recounting its story; a short commentary discusses social issues, verbal and dramaturgical features, songs and music, allusions and place names, stage directions, and modern productions. A bibliography suggests further reading for each play.

To supplement that already substantial information, the book includes an "Index of characters," an "Index of songs," "Biographical notes on authors," and a "List of closet plays in English and non-cycle drama not in English." A bibliography covers facsimiles, collections, and editions of plays, as well as critical and biographical works. Finally, a section of "Further reading" points readers toward related topics of interest, such as staging, art and iconography, and music.

An enormous amount of reading and thinking has clearly gone into the making of this book. Grantley's choice of information is sensible and bespeaks an awareness of the various interests that inform the study of early drama. In spot-checks of a few entries, I found the information to be accurate; and it is arranged in an uncluttered and readable layout on the page. The layout aids browsing and makes it possible to skim the entries quickly in order to find whatever you happen to be looking for.

One might quibble about the selection of plays, even if selectivity is a requirement for any reference guide. Lydgate's Mumming at Hertford, for instance, is omitted on the grounds that it was a part of larger entertainments, a criterion that may also have ruled out other household performances, which, like the Hertford mumming, were likely to have been surrounded by music, dancing, or other festivities. Also omitted are single plays, such as the Norwich Grocers' Play, that may—or may not—have been part of the urban cycles. Such omissions do not take into account scholars' increasing skepticism that the extant individual biblical plays were ever part of larger cycles; neither do they address the absence of any evidence that even groups of plays long regarded as cycles, such as as those in the N-Town and Towneley manuscripts, were ever performed as cycles. While Grantley can be forgiven for declining to open the floodgates by annotating biblical history plays, many readers would have welcomed some discussion of the dilemmas involved in trying to maintain a neat division between cycle and non-cycle drama, and especially of individual plays' relations to the cycles. Likewise, acknowledgment of the overlap between drama as...