Structure, Characterization, and the New Community in Four Plays of Jesus and the Doctors

Kline, Daniel T.

doi:10.1353/cdr.1992.0036

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…While it is now widely accepted that four out of the five Doctors pageants from the English Cycles draw on a common source, Daniel Kline notes that each version is distinct in its structure and 'subtly nuanced' portrayal of Jesus. 41 For example, Kline notes that before Christ enters the temple there is a unique description of the young Jesus as Joseph and Mary describe him as a 'goodly... childe' whose 'lymys... waxith feyre and large' (W. 724, 732). 42 That this unique addition should have to do with the Christ's age, thereby further underscoring the disparity between his youth and the Doctors' age, is difficult to accept as mere coincidence and thus would contribute to the heightened emphasis that the Coventry Doctors pageant places on age and its role as a means of allocating authority within the various social groups in the biblical (and contemporary) polity.…”

Section: W 75-8)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Seniority and Mastery: The Politics of Ageism in the Coventry Cycle

Alakas¹

2006

Early Theatre

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Colophons following the two extant plays from Coventry's Corpus Christi pageants indicate that Robert Croo, 2 a member of the Cappers' guild whose career became increasingly tied to the theatre, 'nevly correcte[d]' (ST. col) and 'nevly translate[d]' (W. col) 3 both companies' plays in the mid-1530s. This date is significant for a variety of reasons. Pamela King and Clifford Davidson note that, in a city known for its toleration of Lollardy, Protestant sympathies were already taking root in Coventry when Croo was commissioned to make copies of the Shearmen and Taylors' and Weavers' pageants; King and Davidson go on to speculate that Croo may have even had a hand in 'Protestantizing' the plays based on certain theological assertions within the pageants that are more consonant with Wittenberg than Rome. 4 Careful attention must also be paid to the relationship between the Coventry Corpus Christi Plays and the events of the previous decades, which placed great stress on the city's economic position as a centre of convergence for a provincial urban network as well as on its institutional hierarchy. Indeed, this period from 1500 to 1530 coincided with the city's economic collapse. With a serious shortage of currency already existing, Coventry's economic difficulties reached the point of crisis when compounded by a local recession, the increasing price of food, a national trade depression, and the sudden withdrawal of huge sums of capital from the city. In light of these considerable events and their impact on the city's socio-political horizons, this discussion will examine Coventry's Corpus Christi plays. Crucial to tracing the evolution of Coventry's social fabric is Charles Phythian-Adams' groundbreaking study, Desolation of a City: Coventry and the Urban Crisis of the Late Middle Ages. This work, which locates the rapid movement toward catastrophe in the years 1518 to 1525 and begins by placing the city's rapid economic decline within a larger context that embraces contemporary socioeconomic trends witnessed by a range of urban centres throughout England, carefully maps out Coventry's social organizations by examining the city's various formal and informal social groupings and the Early Theatre 9.1

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Section: W 75-8)mentioning

confidence: 99%