Mankind and Its Audience

M an kin d and Its Audience Lawrence M. Clopper The moral play Mankind has maintained an important posi­ tion in the history of pre-Shakespearean drama because it is regarded as our earliest indisputable example of the popular professional theatre and because its performance in innyards has allowed theatre scholars to make rather direct connections be­ tween the shape of the innyard and Renaissance theatres.1 Al­ though there has been considerable modification of Hardin Craig’s assertion that this is a crude play presented before a group of local yokels, the assumption still remains that the play is of popular, indeed of provincial, origin because it contains some rough humor and is stopped before Titivillus’ entrance so the actors can collect the “gate” from the innyard audience.2 In effect, these critics argue, the presence of obscenity and levity “places” the drama in the popular or less sophisticated tradition. It is true the lively dialogue is marked by the inclusion of utter­ ances reminiscent of those used by the Towneley Cain and the demons of the Castle of Perseverance, but it also is made up of witty word play in Latin. This “learned” content, coupled with the dubious dramatic principle of stopping the play to collect the “gate,” challenges our traditional attribution of the play to the popular canon as well as our assumptions about the criteria for defining audiences. Before Titivillus enters, the play is stopped, we have come to believe, while the Three N’s—New Gyse, Now-a-days and Nought—go through the audience collecting money. But one must question whether this method for obtaining the “gate” is necessary—the English apparently love plays and need not be flummoxed into paying admission—profitable, or dramatically defensible. If these three characters alone collected money from an innyard of people, then we must assume the play was halted for a considerable time. There are some indications in the text that the play, in fact, was performed indoors: 347 348 Comparative Drama Nought. Go we hens, a deull wey! Here ys pe dorè, her ys pe wey. (158-59) [Mankyrtde.] All heyll, semely father! 3e be welcom to J>is house. (209) Mankynd. I wyll into pi gerde, souerens, and cum ageyn son. (561)3 [Nought.] I xall goo and mende yt, illys I wyll lost my hede. Make space, sers, lett me go owte. (700-01) The first illustration is the most specific; the other three more general and could simply refer to an offstage area. Nevertheless, the references suggest the possibility of indoor performance and the lack of any necessity to stop the play to collect a “gate” since it would be simpler and more profitable, assuming an ad­ mission was charged, to collect money at the door. It is possible the interruption before Titivillus’ entrance there­ fore is a begging joke, a tongue-in-cheek appeal to the “souerence ” of the audience and the “goodeman” of the house to in­ crease the players’ pay: NEW GYSE. 3e, go pi wey! We xall ga]>er mony onto, Ellys J>er xaÙ no man hym se. Now gostly to owr purpos, worschypfull souerence, We intende to gather mony, yf yt plesse yowr neclygence, For a man wyth a hede pat ys of grett omnipotens. NOWADAYS. Kepe yowr tayll, in goodnes I prey yow, goode broker! He ys a worschyppull man, sers, sauying yowr reuerens. He louyth no grotys, nor pens of to pens. Gyf ws rede reyallys yf ge wyll se hys abhomynabull presens. NEW GYSE. Not so! 3e pat mow not pay pe ton, pay pe tojjer. At pe goodeman of pis house fyrst we wyll assay. Gode blysse yow, master! 3e say as yll, jet ye wyll not sey nay. Lett ws go by and by and do pem pay. 3e pay all alyke; well mut je fare! (457-70) If we assume the play was directed to a popular audience, then Lawrence M. Clopper 349 we must read “goodeman” literally to mean “innkeeper” and “souerence” as a compliment intended, without hope of success, to raise the tally from “grotys” to “rede reyallys.” If, however, the speech is directed humorously to an audience of...