"Towneley Plays" or "Wakefield Cycle" Revisited

"Towneley Plays" or "Wakefield Cycle" Revisited Barbara D. Palmer During the last decade, the traditional picture of English medieval drama has been unsettled by the systematic collection of dramatic records and relevant ecclesiastical art, by modern performances, and by exceptionally open and generous scholarly discussion. That traditional picture saw English medieval drama governed by the great Corpus Christi cycles, civic guild productions of a Creation to Doom biblical history performed processionally during the Corpus Christi festival some two months after Easter.1 Such a tidy picture of the norm is not supported by the dramatic records surveyed to date: of some 630 plays or games with known titles or subjects—not including London professional productions—performed prior to 1642, at most some dozen could be considered "cycles."2 Further work on the records no doubt will alter these numbers, which of course are only the extant fraction of a lost whole, but the sample clearly implies that "cycles" are a rare, peculiar phenomenon when measured against the preponderance of other dramatic activity. Neither can one assume a norm of content or performance from the extant Corpus Christi dramatic records. Some towns displayed elaborate pageants without plays; some, plays without pageants; and some both, varying the activity from year to year.3 In Bungay, Suffolk, the pageants of heaven, the world, paradise, Bethlehem, and hell were carried about town on Corpus Christi day "in the honor of the blissyd Sacrement"— until demolished "in Riottous maner" by the town bailiff and "other evil advised persons." Great Yarmouth had a single BARBARA D. PALMER is an Associate Professor of English and chair of the English Department at Chatham College. She is currently at work on a subject index of the early art, including that which is relevant to early drama, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. 318 Barbara D. Palmer319 play, whereas Creeting St. Mary had a procession but no play. In various years, Ipswich entertained players from outside of the town as well as city actors, implying multiple plays by multiple groups; produced a single-stage "ludus vocatus Corpus xpi' Playe" in the afternoon; or carried guild pageants ranging from a St. George to a Dolphin in procession. One is hardpressed to construct a Corpus Christi norm, much less a Creation to Doom standard, from these pageant records, which are certainly not unique in their diversity and ambiguity.4 In short, the more one uncovers about the "ludus \ocatus Corpus xpi' Playe," the less sweeping one's generalizations are likely to be, particularly in light of the four surviving "cycle" texts. Although comparisons can be made among them, each is a unique literary collection which holds its own manuscript history, performance history, provenance, and developmental circumstances , however opaque some of these aspects now are and perhaps perpetually will remain.5 In particular, the Towneley cycle deserves an evaluation which clearly distinguishes fact from speculation. Because of its connections with the York cycle and unreliable information about its history, Towneley has suffered from generalized presumptions, which in turn have obscured yet another version of the multi-faceted Corpus Christi activity. The Towneley manuscript's provenance and date have been controversial since it surfaced in the early nineteenth century, and the controversy certainly has not abated in the last few years.6 Because the issue is complicated and many of the relevant materials not readily accessible, a review of the case may prove helpful, although hardly new.7 The creation and early history of the unique manuscript are unknown, and attempts to connect Wakefield residents with the Lancashire Towneley family are tenuous.8 In 1814 it was sold by auction at the six-day sale of John Towneley's library and described by Francis Douce in the sale catalogue as follows: 894. A Collection of English Mysteries or Theatrical Pageants. A volume, very fairly written upon vellum, in the reign of Henry VI. or Edw. rv.; and, as it is supposed, formerly belonging to the Abbey of Widkirk, near Wakefield, in the county of York. It contains several mysteries, or theatrical pageants, constructed from incidents in the Old and New Testaments, differing entirely in language from the celebrated Chester and Coventry Plays, though agreeing...