Poetry and Drama in the York Corpus Christi Play by Richard J. Collier (review)

Reviews 273 reminiscences for many other things. Here we find the forgotten terms in use by the old stock companies in England, like the “walking gentle­ man,” a non-speaking part, but in the theatrical hierarchy of consider­ ably more consequence than the supernumerary. “Theatrical specials” were the Sunday trains which shuttled the touring companies back and forth between engagements in provincial towns, each bright with new hope and readily received by a special breed of “theatrical landladies”; in America, we learn that it was not the practice to book a theatre in advance, but it was not unusual for the manager to go to the railroad depot, spread out all the money he had to spare, and ask the booking clerk how far it would take them. “Day-bills” were the posters which spoke urgently of the hectic daily changes of play offered by the com­ panies who played the “booths,” those who carried their own fit-up theatre with them and were compelled to improvise their lines like sixteenth-century companies of the commedia dell’arte, because there was never enough time to learn them. “The farce” was the appellation given to the short curtain-raiser, no matter whether it was comedy or tragedy, and, further to throw the nomenclature of criticism into con­ fusion, any performance done in the open air was a “pastoral.” And did you know that “ten-twent-thirt” was the name given to the cheap houses of melodrama found on New York’s Lower East Side because they charged between 10 and 30 cents for admission? Some readers will be delighted to learn that “Bill Butler” was W. G. Fay’s private name for the poet Yeats, or that Miss Horniman, the Englishwoman whose money made the Abbey Theatre possible, was quite unable to appreciate the quality of a play beyond its spectacle (although they may be happy to forgive her when they learn that she identified the glorious founders of the Irish Dramatic Movement as “those impossible people in Dublin”). This is an affectionate book to read at one sitting, but Iden Payne will not quickly be forgotten. It is comforting to know that the Queen made him a member of the Order of the British Empire in the year of his death. I. L. STYAN Northwestern University Richard J. Collier. Poetry and Drama in the York Corpus Christi Play. Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books, 1977. Pp. 303. $17.50. Richard J. Collier writes that his book was “first prompted” by “the verse forms of the York plays” (p. 15). Essentially he is attempting here to show how poetry and drama go hand in hand in the creation of a suc­ cessful art form. He concentrates in his criticism on the expository, lyric, and narrative techniques of the playwrights responsible for the great civic cycle of pageants presented in York between perhaps the time of the Black Death and the early portion of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. Unfor­ tunately, in spite of the interest which some of his arguments provoke, his approach throughout seems to be an offshoot of the “close reading” 274 Comparative Drama advocated by the not-so-new “New Criticism”— a critical technique which is liable to get terribly out of hand when the critic drifts out of touch with the current state of knowledge of the religious, social, or theatrical background. It can be successfully argued that, in spite of the visual images which are at the heart of each of the plays in the York cycle, portions of each stand on their own on the level of language; indeed, study of their linguistic context seems very much in order. But such study requires close attention to the liturgy, to the devotional and homiletic literature (including some important items listed in the bibliography of this book), to the commentators and theologians. Further, careful knowledge of the usual iconographic features associated with the various scenes would seem to be a prerequisite for the study since the critic needs to know the sources of such details. Unfortunately, Collier treats the plays throughout in a reading which often examines effects without any serious attention to the cultic expression of which the plays...