Secular Medieval Drama

Abstract

This article examines the nature of secular medieval drama in England. It explains that the medieval Mystery Cycles, with their vibrant presentation of scriptural narrative, dominate discussion of medieval drama. The presentation of ecclesiastical power in the cycles is strategically anachronistic and aligned with the oppressive power of biblical tyrants such as Herod. This article also comments on Henry Medwall's Fulgens and Lucres.

Protestant place, Protestant props in the plays of Nicholas Grimald

“…11 Of course, conflations of time and space are a marked feature of medieval drama, both secular and scriptural, too: the York Cycle, performed in the streets of York, both draws attention to the real streets and simultaneously transforms them into the streets of Jerusalem; in Fulgens and Lucres the dining hall in which the play is presented is sometimes just a dining hall, here and now, and sometimes Ancient Rome. 12 But those are logical enough bi-locations; Foxe is doing something different. His audience veers exhilaratingly from Old Testament Jerusalem, to Rome, Oxford, Hell, the time of Christ, the history of the early Church, and the English Reformation.…”