Rhetorical Allegory and Scriptural Exegesis in the York Plays
Elza C. Tiner
Lynchburg College
The York Plays, performed annually on the Feast of Corpus Christi inYork from the late fourteenth
century through the sixeenth century, were a popular event, involving the civic guilds and drawing
audiences from the city and surrounding regions. A popular production that lasted over 100 years,
performed before a civic audience, is not likely to survive on the basis of logic alone. Something
else must be holding the crowd’s attention, in a way that can be applied to themselves—as a civic
body or as individuals. These plays, based on events from Scripture starting at the creation of the
world and ending at doomsday, connect their audience, allegorically and emotionally, to the
teachings of the Bible. (1)
In order to understand how allegory and emotional appeal function in the language of the
fifteenth-century York Plays, a critical system is needed that is based on material available at the
time when the plays were written. This problem is twofold: First, it is necessary first to arrive at a
definition of allegory in terms that might have been available to the playwright(s), using rhetorical
theory available at the time, from texts known to have been in York by 1415, the date of the first play
list in the York Ordo Paginarum (REED York 1, ed. Johnston, 16-24; Beadle, ed., York Plays
23-24). Second, a critical system to explain emotional appeal is also needed, based on the sources
available to the playwrights.(2) Traditionally, in the study of rhetoric, theory to explain persuasion
by way of emotional appeal, or pathos, is sought in Aristotle’s Rhetoric, a text that was not widely
available in England until the late Middle Ages. The solution to this problem is to be found in the
devotional literature which relates allegorical interpretation of Scripture to affective piety in private
worship and public performance.
For the purposes of this discussion, let us consider language as a multilayered concept in a
composition, ranging, like the visual elements in a painting, from the small details of individual
words to the broad structures and images of the composition as a whole. Allegory is both a figure of
speech and a manner of narration, based on transference of meaning. At the most detailed level, in
the Rhetorica ad Herennium, one of the common composition schoolbooks in the Middle Ages and
listed in the Augustinian Friary library catalogue, allegory is classified among the tropes, forms of
language in which the words have more than one level of meaning. At the broadest level, it is an
extended metaphor. From this basis in classical rhetoric, two forms of allegory developed in the
Middle Ages: literary and biblical.
In literary interpretation, allegory is saying one thing (the base text) and meaning another
(transferred meaning), with the base text fictional and the transferred meaning a universal truth of
some kind (Robertson 291). In scriptural exegesis, allegory is saying one thing (the base text) and
meaning another (transferred meaning), with the base text historically true and the transferred
meaning also a universal truth of some kind.
This definition can be further broken down into subdivisions. According to Robertson, "Those
principles in a text which referred to the Church were called allegorical; those which refer to the
spiritual consitution of an individual tropological, and those which referred to the afterlife,
anagogical" (Robertson 293). These three subtypes of transference, together with literal
interpretation, are commonly known as the four senses of exegesis.
For the purposes of this discussion, we will use the broader definition of allegory to include the
tropological and anagogical principles of textual analysis: all of them figurative, saying one thing
and suggesting another, a universal truth of some kind.
The York Plays, based on scripture, can be viewed as a form of biblical allegory on the one hand, but
also as literary allegory on another, where the playwright(s) have inserted amplifications, events and
characters not in Scripture to render the story plausible to a York audience, to point to truths
affecting that audience in particular.
In her dissertation, "The Allegorical Mode and the Medieval Dramatic Tradition," Marilyn Phyllis
Sutton writes of the several levels of allegory in the plays, mirroring the medieval world-view of the
cosmic hierarchy, "The idea that the cosmos functioned on a number of levels simultaneously, a
notion so fully assimilated into the medieval pattern of life as to be commonplace, provided the
basis for regarding creation and Scripture as massive allegories" (4). Creation mirrors the eternal
order, just as Scripture proves a polysemous verbal message regarding man's conduct in the world
(Sutton 3).
The plays reveal God's plan for salvation, both historically and figuratively: "It was because the
cycles were written in the allegorical mode that they could justly represent the Incarnation and the
Virgin Birth as both historical facts and spiritual mysteries" (5). Sutton points to Augustine's De
Doctrina Christiana II.3 as the "basis for understanding allegory both as a method of writing and a
mode of thought." She then analyzes the plays on three levels: overall pattern, showing the progress
of salvation history from Creation to Doomsday, within plays, with allegorical references forward
and backward in time, pointing to this grand plan, and within groups of plays, such as the Nativity
through the Resurrection plays, where the larger pattern is echoed in miniature (70).
Following the process of biblical interpretation, allegory operates on several levels: in the cycle as a
whole, as in scripture, when earlier events prefigure later ones. An example in the plays are the
references to the coming of Christ, the Crucifixion, and the Last Judgment in earlier plays. Time,
in biblical allegory, as in the plays, is Boethian, and also liturgical, as Pamela King demonstrates in
her article "Calendar and Text: Christ's Ministry in the York Plays and the Liturgy." She points out
that liturgical reading is "not sequential, not narrative or historical in focus, but thematic,
meditative, and above all recurrent" (2, e-text version). However, the audience, like God, lives
outside of time, as it observes sacred history unfolding in honor of the feast of Corpus Christi, or the
Body of Christ, central to the entire sequence of plays.
In individual plays, allegory also operates in the sense that the audience transfers events in the plays
to their own lives, a) literally, through civic participation—their city as setting, their citizens as
actors, their guilds as producers and sponsors; b) allegorically, through those same individuals
communicating the didactic elements in the plays, whose message is teaching the audience to
amend their lives to follow the good, or God. The dichotomy between good and evil characters in
the cycle reinforces the importance of each citizen, and the city as a whole, following the truth, the
higher level of allegorical meaning.
In the language of the plays, metaphoric references to the broad structure of sacred history and to
the application of those events to the lives of the audience members reinforce the first two levels of
allegory.
A. Classical Rhetoric: Rhetorica ad Herennium
In the Rhetorica ad Herennium (c. 86-82 BCE) a common schoolbook used to teach writing during
the Middle Ages, allegory is included among the figures of speech dependent on transferred
meaning (4.46, trans. Caplan, 345-7):
Allegory is a manner of speech denoting one thing by the letter of the words, but another by their
meaning. It assumes three aspects: comparison, argument, and contrast. It operates through a
comparison when a number of metaphors originating in a similarity in the mode of expression are
set together...An Allegory is presented in the form of argument when a similitude is drawn from a
person or place or object in order to magnify or minify....An Allegory is drawn from a contrast if, for
example, one should mockingly call a spendthrift and voluptuary frugal and thrifty. Both in this last
type, based on a contrast, and in the first above, drwn from a comparison, we can through the
metaphor make use of argument [4.46, trans. Caplan 345-7].
This definition of allegory is important to understanding the York Plays, in that it shows how
figurative thinking can apply to the broad structural (argument) level of a text, as well as to the
detailed language (word, phrase) level.
B. Rhetoric and Christian Doctrine
Augustine, De doctrina christiana, is pivotal in adapting classical rhetoric to preaching and
interpretation of Christian doctrine. This book opens with the justification for teaching the subject,
or the need for art and instruction, as opposed to dependence on natural gifts, just as the rhetorical
treatises in the Roman tradition justify the need for precept as opposed to native talent. [For
comparison, see Quintilian, Institutio Oratora, Preface, Cicero, De inventione (or De oratore--need
to check), and Rhetorica ad Herennium.] "There are two things on which all interpretation of
scripture depends: the process of discovering what we need to learn, and the process of presenting
what we have learnt" (Book I, p. 13).
Here, Augustine is referring to the twofold process of exegesis, to which he has applied his
knowledge of rhetoric, as both critical theory and composition process. For both applications, the
word "process" in Green's translation stands for, in the original Latin, modus, or "method," as in
modus inveniendi and modus proferendi.
Straightaway, he puts allegorical thinking at the heart of both processes:
All teaching is teaching of either things or signs, but things are learnt through signs. What I now
call things in the strict sense are things such as logs, stones, sheep, and so on, which are not
employed to signify something; but I do not include the log which we read that Moses threw into
the bitter waters to make them lose their bitter taste, or the stone which Jacob placed under his
head, or the sheep which Abraham sacrificed in place of his son. These are things, but they are at
the same time signs of other things. (13, 15).
Signs are the tools of allegory. He defines signs thus, "those things which are employed to signify
something." (15). The entire corporeal world points to God; our use of signs is to provide a means
to understanding the truth that is God, "to ascertain what is eternal and spiritual from corporeal
and temporal things" (17).
In Book 2, continuing the distinction between nature and art, Augustine classifies signs in two
forms: natural and given. Natural signs are phenomena in the physical world that do not exist for
the deliberate purpose of communication, for example smoke, which signifies fire (57). Smoke is
just happening naturally, not communicating in a form of language. Given signs "are those which
living things give to each other, in order to show, to the best of their ability, the emotions of their
minds, or anything that they have felt or learnt" (57). However, this phrase, "motus animi sui vel
sensa aut intellecta quaelibet," can also be translated as "the movements of their mind, or whatever
they have sensed or understood." The concept of 'emotions' as we use that term today,may not be
implied by motus, but rather, motus is intended to signify the turning of the mind and will towards
God. Yet it is out of this turning or movement, focus on the mind on God, that the medieval
concept of emotional appeal is born.
The purpose of the given signs is to communicate from one mind to another, including
communication through discourse. He next describes a reading process for divine Scripture, the
seven stages that one must pass through to attain wisdom: a) to be moved by the fear of God, to
learn God's will, b) to read at face value, whether or not we fully understand the message of
scripture, c) to read for understanding, to discover the true direction of his love for self and
neighbor: toward God, d) to read with longing for righteousness, e) having discovered his own
inadequacy and distance from God, he purifies his mind and works very hard at loving his
neighbour, f) now with a purified eye, turns his gaze on God, where he can see more clearly and
next, with a purified heart, so that he places the highest value on the truth, g) leading to the highest
stage, or wisdom. (63, 65, 67)
Later, in the context of explaining why people have trouble understanding a reading, he divides
[given] signs (of language or written signs) into two categories: literal and metaphorical,
incorporating the concept of transferred language from rhetoric into the analysis of scripture:
Signs are either literal or metaphorical. They are called literal when used to signify the things for
which they were invented: so, for example, when we say bovem, meaning the animal [ox] which we
and all speakers of Latin call by that name (71).
Allegorical interpretation is rooted in metaphor:
They are metaphorical when the actual things which we signify by the particular words are used to
signify something else: when, for example, we say bovem and not only interpret these two syllables
to mean the animal normally referred to by that name but also understand, by that animal, "worker
in the gospel," which is what scripture, as interpreted by the apostle Paul, means when it says, "You
shall not muzzle the ox that treads out the grain (71).
In Book 3, Augustine discusses the literal and metaphorical in the context of interpretation of
scripture, to clarify ambiguity: "ambiguity in scripture resides either in literal or in metaphorical
usages (as the terms were described in Book 2)" (133). The literal ambiguities are resolved through
examination of editorial matters and context. He then warns readers not to take metaphorical
language literally, to get it backwards, interpreting signs as things (141), or to interpret literal
language as if it were figurative -- to impose other meaning where there is none (147). To aid
students in determining which is which, he gives a Christian formula for discovering metaphor, and
thereby, adds another path of interpretation to exegesis, application to morals, or what later
became the tropological sense:
We must first explain the way to discover whether an expression is literal or figurative. Generally
speaking, it is this: anything in the divine discourse that cannot be related either to good morals or
to the true faith should be taken as figurative. Good morals have to do with our love of God and our
neighbour, the true faith with our understanding of God and our neighbour (147, 149).
In the context of this discussion, Augustine first uses the word allegory, in enjoining readers not to
read metaphor into literal statements. He gives this example,
In cases where the realm of lust is overcome by a person once dominated by it, this perfectly clear
saying applies: 'Those who belong to Jesus Christ have crucified their flesh along with its passions
and desires.' Even here, admittedly, some words are used metaphorically, such as 'wrath of God' [in
a passage earlier in this section] and 'crucified', but they are not so many, or so unclear in
expression, as to hide the sense and create allegory or obscurity, which is what I mean by figurative
expression in the strict sense. On the other hand, Jeremiah's phrase, 'Behold today I have
established you over nations and kingdoms, to uproot and destroy, to lay waste and scatter' is,
without doubt, entirely figurative, and so must be related to the aim that I mentioned above (151).
Later in Book 3, he reminds readers that Scripture contains all of the figures of speech based on
transference of meaning, used by literary authors. These figures include allegory: "In the divine
books we find not only examples of these tropes, as of everything else, but also the names of some of
them, like 'allegory,' 'enigma,' and 'parable.' (171).
C. Scriptural Exegesis
The history of allegory in scriptural exegesis is rooted in classical rhetoric, adapted to Christian
teaching, Augustine's mission in writing De doctrina Christiana. In his essay, "Figura," Erich
Auerbach, traces the development of allegory from its origins among the tropes and figures of
classical rhetoric, handed down to medieval schools through the Rhetorica ad Herennium, and
adapted to Christian exegesis in the writings of the fathers of the Church; for example, Tertullian,
on Old Testament prefiguring of the coming of Christ and the salvation of mankind in the New
Testament (see Adversus Marcionem 3, 16, on Oshea as a figure of Jesus).
Auerbach also writes that Augustine viewed allegorical thinking on several levels:
The whole classical tradition was very much alive in St. Augustine, and of this his use of the word
figura is one more indication. In his writings we find it expressing the general notion of form in all
its traditional variants, static and dynamic, outline and body; it is applied to the world, to nature as
a whole, and to the particular object.... (37).
Augustine explicitly adopted the figural interpretation of the Old Testament and emphatically
recommended its use in sermons and missions (citation is to De catechizandis rudibus, III, 6), and
developed on the method (38).
However, at the same time, he did not recommend that the only method of interpreting scripture
be allegorical, dismissing its historical truth (Auerach 39). Scripture looks forward figuratively, to
the promise of fulfillment of man's salvation, and backward, through historical process whereby this
salvation was achieved: both allegory and history are operating simultaneously.
But the 'heavenly' fulfillment is not complete [in the Old Testament], and consequently, as in certain
earlier writers but more definitely in Augustine, the confrontation of the two poles, figure and
fulfillment, is sometimes replaced by a development in three stages: the Law or history of the Jews
as a prophetic figura for the appearance of Christ; the incarnation as fulfillment of this figura and
at the same time as a new promise of the end of the world and the Last Judgment; and finally, the
future occurrence of these events as ultimate fulfillment (41).
A reflection of the divine plan, Scripture transcends time, and becomes a multilayered and
multidirectional universe, one that is reflected in the York Plays.
Auerbach gradually shows the development from the term figura, the concept of historical or literal
truth and in opposition to it, the allegorical prefiguration of events to come. "Figura is not the only
Latin word used for historic prefiguration; often we find the Greek terms allegoria and still more
frequently typus; allegoria generally refers to any deeper meaning and not only to phenomenal
prophecy, but the boundary is fluid, for figura and figuraliter often extend beyond figural
prophecy" (47).
Is this process of analysis in the writings Church Fathers based in Scripture? Auerbach shows that
"The Church Fathers often justify the figural interpretation on the basis of certain passages in early
Christian writings, mostly from the Pauline Epistles" (49). Thus, "the figural interpretation changed
the Old Testament from a book of laws and a history of the people of Israel into a series of figures of
Christ and the Redemption, such as we find later in the procession of prophets in the medieval
theater and in the cyclic representations of medieval sculpture" (52).
Auerbach defines figural interpretation:
Figural interpretation establishes a connection between two events or persons, the first of which
signifies not only itself but also the second, while the second encompasses or fulfills the first. The
two poles of the figure are separate in time, but both, being real events or figures, are within time,
within the stream of historical life.... (53)
Since in figural interpretation one thing stands for another, since one thing represents and
signifies the other, figural interpretation is 'allegorical' in the widest sense. But it differs from most
of the allegorical forms known to us by the historicity both of the sign and what it signifies. Most of
the allegories we find in literature or art represent a virtue (e.g. wisdom), or a passion (jealousy), an
institution (justice), or at most, a very general synthesis of historical phenomena (peace, the
fatherland)--never a definite event in its full historicity. Such are the allegories of late antiquity and
the Middle Ages, extending roughly from the Psychomachia of Prudentius to Alain de Lille and the
Roman de la Rose. We find something very similar (or diametrically opposite if one prefers) in the
allegorical interpretation of historical events, which were usually interpreted as obscure illustrations
of philosophical doctrines. In biblical exegesis this allegorical method long competed with the
figural interpretation; it was the method of Philo and the catechetical school of Alexandria, which
was under his influence. It was rooted in a much older tradition. Various philosophical schools
had long interpreted the Greek myths, particularly Homer and Hesiod, as veiled expositions of
their own physico-cosmological system (54).
Henri de Lubac traces the development of the fourfold senses of scriptural exegesis, of which
allegory is a part. Possible candidates for this system include Clement of Alexandria, whom de
Lubac argues is not the source for the fourfold system (121-22). St. Augustine is next, whose writings
influenced the medieval patristic tradition of the fourfold classifications of scriptural exegesis. As
explained by Augustine in De utilitate credendi, section 5, also available in the medieval library of
Augustinian Friary at York, allegory is one part of a fourfold system of biblical exegesis, in which
one discovers the spiritual sense of sacred language.
Therefore all of that part of Scripture that is called the Old Testament is communicated in the
following fourfold way to those who are eager to know it thoroughly: historically, etiologically,
analogically, and allegorically....Etiologically, when the reason is shown for its being said or done.
Analogically, when it is demonstrated that the two Testaments, the Old and the New, are not
opposed to each other. Allegorically, when it is taught that certain texts are written not to be
accepted literally, but are rather to be understood figuratively.[C. 3, n. 5-6 (PL 42:68; Pegon,
216-28)
These four terms do not exactly correspond to the traditional fourfold system. The first three,
according to Lubac, are "genres of text, each one of which demanded a particular kind of
explication" (124), but theologians of the Middle Ages strove to fit them into the general system:
"To this end, they construed the first three terms distinguished by Saint Augustine as three varieties
of the literal sense alone and the fourth term as the genre that encompasses their three spiritual
senses (allegory, tropology, anagogy)," (124).
Lubac comments that analogy and allegory go together in Christian exegesis, "What we have in this
rendition of "allegoria" as found in the De utilitate credendi is something ambiguous. It does not
correspond either fully or exclusively to any of the kinds of understanding which would eventually
be distinguished--or which were already distinguished in another way. Among the four 'modi' that
Saint Augustine enumerates here, we must combine 'analogia' and 'allegoria' together in order to
obtain Christian allegory" (126). Lubac cites Augustine's De Genesi ad litteram imperfectus liber
against the Manicheans:
There are four ways of explaining the Law that are conveyed by certain students of the Scriptures.
The names of these four ways can be articulated in Greek and defined and explicated in Latin:
historically, allegorically, analogically, and etiologically. History is when a deed that has been done
on the part of either God or man is recounted. Allegory is when the words are understood
figuratively. Analogy is when harmonious agreement between the Old and New Testaments is
shown. Etiology is when the causes of the words and deeds are rendered (126).
Another text that served as the basis for attributing the traditional four senses of Scripture to
Augustine is this, from the beginning of De Genesi ad litteram, according to Lubac:
In all the holy books one must consider what matters of external significance are being
communicated, what deeds are being recounted, what future events are being foretold, and what
actions are being counselled or advised. " (Lubac 127).
However, Lubac argues that "There is, however, no doubt at all here either that Augustine's thinking
is of another kind. He wants to indicate the four sorts of subjects that the Bible deals with by turns,
the diverse and divinely apportioned matter of its teachings--without, however, excluding the
notion that one of these subjects that the Bible deals with might be the announcement of 'future
events' and that this announcement may often take place by way of facts and figurative events" (127)
For the purposes of this discussion, we will look at allegory both from the rhetorical definition in
the Ad Herennium and from Augustine's spiritual perspective. We may also add to this critical
framework, based on De vera religione and De utilitate credendi, the interpretation of Thomas
Aquinas, from the Summa Theologica, the idea that allegory, itself a spiritual sense of exegesis
(transferred meaning "when it is taught that certain texts are written not to be accepted literally, but
are rather to be understood figuratively,") includes as well two other spiritual senses of exegesis:
anagogy (time transference of meaning "from the visible realm of things that are more ancient to
the visible realm of things that are more recent," "all the way to the domain of an unchangeable
eternity") and tropology (transferred meaning to "the realm of the affections and nature of the
soul").
And it is in this definition of allegory, with its multiple dimensions reaching back into time, forward
into the future, reflecting actions and emotions on earth and in heaven, that we find theory to
explain the practice of affective piety in devotional literature and in the plays. The York Plays
combine both systems of allegory: the literary and the biblical, to persuade the audience to follow
the good and turn away from evil, through Scripture, on which the plays are based.
D. Affective Piety
Another dimension is important in our understanding of allegory in the late fifteenth century: the
concept or movement of affective piety, as suggested in by Alexandra Johnston in her paper "The
York Cycle and the Libraries of York." Johnston shows that this movement was in part didactic, in
response to the decrees of the fourth Lateran Council, 1215, mandating improved Christian
education of both laity and clergy. In addition to this practical dimension, Franciscans took up the
decree in their own tradition: (Johnston 5).
It is here that the medieval rhetorical theory of emotional appeal is to be found. The school
manuals of rhetoric, such as the Rhetorica ad Herennium, Cicero’s De inventione, and the poetic
manuals do not discuss this aspect of persuasion, since they are largely derived from the Ciceronian
tradition of rhetoric, which does not discuss Aristotelian pathos, or persuasion by way of appeal to
the emotions of the audience in detail. The main source today for the theory of emotional appeal in
early rhetoric is the detailed treatment of the effects of the emotions on an audience in Book II of
Aristotle’s Rhetoric.
In the Middle Ages, Aristotle’s Rhetoric was not widely available, even after its translation into Latin
by Hermannus Alemannus, from Arabic, and William of Moerbeke, from Greek, in the late
thirteenth century. More translations began to appear in the late fifteenth century. Aristotle’s text
is not mentioned among surviving evidence of books York prior to 1500. [See HultzJn, Sisson.
"Aristotle’s Rhetoric in England to 1600." Ph.D. Diss. (Ithaca: Cornell University [add date]): 38-39,
42-43; Tiner, Elza C. "Evidence for the Study of Rhetoric in the City of York to 1500." M.S.L.
Research Report. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1985.]
Roger Bacon (c. 1214-1294), may provide part of the link between the traditions of classical rhetoric
and affective piety. He wrote a work on rhetoric, the 5th part of his Moral Philosophy, but it does
not survive. He describes the contents in Ch. 14 of his Opus tertium, and there he mentions that his
book is about persuasion through preaching, and this section, like the fourth book, discusses style,
not only in words, but also in thoughts (sententiis), gestures, and emotions (animi motibus). Roger
Bacon had access to Hermannus Alemannus' Arabic-Latin translation of Averroes paraphrase of
Aristotle's Rhetoric and possibly also William of Moerbeke's translation of the Rhetoric from Greek.
Roger Bacon links his concept of emotion to Augustine. (All cited from Hultzén)
Roger Bacon, whose Opus Maius was in York (Item 456f), says that "there are two forms of
conversion, one of them that moves the mind to believing and feeling and empathizing
(credendum et consentiendum et commiserandum) and calming and their opposites as needed.
This is called rhetoric, and applies to practical intellect, just as dialectic applies to speculative
intellect. And that which turns us to the love of good work is obtained through poetic argument."
(my translation, Opus Majus, Part 3, l. 71-2 quoted on 61 of Hultzén) In Bacon's Opus tertium
chapter 75 (also quoted in Hultzén 64), he says that these arguments of preaching not only consist
of the beauty of language nor the magnitude of divine wisdom, but in the emotions (in affectibus),
[and all the methods of delivery taught to preachers so that people respond with devout tears as
Augustine teaches in the fourth book of the De Doctrina Christiana.]
The library of the Augustinian Friary of York had a good supply of works in the devotional
tradition of Franciscan meditation, including Bernard of Clairvaux’s sermons on the Song of Songs
(Items 91, 106n), No. 20 of which Sargent characterizes as "the first prominent description of this
meditational technique" (x), Bonaventure’s Lignum Vitae (Item 148b, 285b), and the Stimulus
Amoris (Item 107a ), attributed to him, and De passione Christi (Item 75v), attributed to Bernard of
Clairvaux (note to Item 75v, p. 25).
The York Augustinian Friary library list includes several "meditaciones," for example"meditacio
Alredy abbatis" (82b), which is identified by Anselm Hoste as the De institutione inclusarum of
Aelred (1110-1167), third abbot of Rivaulx in Yorkshire (76). Sargent suggests that it is possibly the
Forma meditacionum in Part 3 of this work.
Other devotional treatises in the Augustinian Friary library include "meditacio Ambrosii de
passione Christi" (Item 82c), which Humphries suggests is probably a mistaken attribution like 75v
above, and "Meditacio Anselmi" (Item 144c). David Knowles, translator of Aelred of Rivaulx’s De
institutione inclusarum, points out that this text was often attributed to Augustine or Anselm during
the Middle Ages (xii). The York library also had five copies of "meditaciones Bernardi" (Items 95d,
106t, 108a, 144a, 147f), plus tables (indexes?) to Bernard’s sermons on the Song of Songs and
meditations (Item 250b).
The widespread program of Christian education set off by Lateran IV had profound impact on
vernacular literature, since much of the teaching, if it was to reach its audience, had to be given in a
language that they could understand: English. Archbishop Thoresby (Archbishop of York
1352-1373) decreed that the basic elements of Christian teaching to the laity be given in English
(Johnston 6).
A prime example of such teaching in English through affective piety is Nicholas Love’s translation
of the Meditationes Vitae Christi. In addition to Michael Sargent's edition, studies by Elizabeth
Salter and Laurelle LeVert provide a good introduction to the background of this text.
The Latin text was attributed to St. Bonaventure, but it was probably the work of Johannes de
Caulibus, a friar of the Franciscan foundation of San Gemignano in Tuscany [Sargent ed., intro. ix].
While there is no evidence that his translation was housed in the Augustinian friary library, A. I.
Doyle suggests that Nicholas Love was very likely the same person who was prior of the Augustinian
Friary in York c 1400, as the one who was appointed prior of the Carthusian Mount Grace
Charterhouse in Yorkshire at its foundation in 1410. [Sargent xxii-xxiii; see A. I. Doyle, "Reflections
on Some Manuscripts of Nicholas Love’s Myrrour of the Blessed Lyf of Jesu Christ." Leeds Studies in
English ns 14 (Essays in Memory of Elizabeth Salter) (1983): 82-93; 82; and Johnston typescript 9]
While I have not yet had a chance to examine these manuscripts, several manuscript descriptions in
Sargent’s edition, three of which are listed below, suggest that this text was in Yorkshire. Despite its
date after Love’s association with the Friary, 2) below is interesting as possible evidence of the
connections between citizens of York and the Augustinian Friary, as suggested by Johnston: "It is
the Augustinian friary with its library, its studium and its close connection with the affairs of the city
and its citizens that most readily fills the requirements of a continuing community with a natural
interest in the didactic purpose of the play" (22).
1) Cambridge University Library MS Additional 6578, with ex libris at the head of f. 2, "Iste liber
est de domo Assumpcionis Beate Marie in Monte Gracie," c. 1400; possibly the copy submitted by
the author to Archishop Arundel c. 1410. (Sargent lxxiii). This manuscript is the base text for
Sargent’s edition. He observes that it "was read by someone aware of the problems that northern
dialectal forms could present to southern English readers or copyists" (lxxiii)
2) Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Bodley 131 (SC 1999), ff 1-121. Written c. 1440 by John Morton
of York. The volume includes bound in "a recommendation of John Morton and his wife Juliana to
the spiritual help of the Austin friars, by William, prior provincial of the order, dated York, 1438"
(Sargent lxxxii).
3) Tokyo, Prof. T. Takamiya MS 8. First quarter of fifteenth century. "Originally belonged to
Joan, Countess of Kent, widow of Thomas de Holand, the founder of Mount Grace; given by her to
Alice Belacyse." (lxxxiv).]
Nicholas Love was writing in a tradition of Yorkshire devotional literature. An early example can be
traced to Aelred of Rivaulx, who, in writing the De institutione inclusarum to his sister (c. 1160-62),
describes in the third part the process of meditation on a series of scenes from the life of Christ
[possibly the Forma Meditacionum in the York Library, Item 82b above]. This treatise was later
translated into Middle English; the two manuscripts edited by Ayto and Barratt are dated
c1382-1400 (Vernon manuscript), and from1418 (Bodley 423) (xxv). [Note from Ayto and Barratt
xxxii-xxxiii: The Latin text survives in six complete manuscript versions described in C. H. Talbot,
Analecta Sacri Ordinis Cisterciensis vii (1959), 175-76; revised collation is in Revue d’histoire des
textes viii (1978), 195-211.] The scribe who copied the Bodley manuscript, Stephen Dodesham (d.
1481-2), a Carthusian, also transcribed in 1475 a copy of The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus
Christ (xxx).
Here is the method in the Middle English version of Aelred of Rivaulx’s De institutione inclusarum:
And as to speken of affeccioun, gostly and bodyly, zu most nursche hit wit holy and hoolsum
meditacioun....Wherfore, dire suster, zat ze swete affeccioun of loue of swete Ihesu mowe wexe in zyn
herte, zu most haue zre maner meditacioun: zat is to seyn of zyngges zat ben apassed, of zinges zat
bez present, of zyngges zat bez comyngge. (MS. Vernon [MS. Bodley Eng, poet. a.l., S.C. 3938-42],
Ch. 14, ll. 548-551)
This three-part view of time also takes place in the York plays. The viewer is presented
simultaneously with past time, historical events from Scripture, beginning in the Creation and Fall
of the Angels, direct address in present time to the audience, who may see themselves in the
characters in the process of plays, and a conclusion in future time that looks to the outcome of each
person’s soul and all mankind, the Last Judgment play.
Aelred of Rievaulx then advises his sister to become a participant in the dramatic process,
envisioning herself there with Mary at the Annunciation, complete with dialogue, dramaturgy for
prayer:
And ferst goo in-to zy pryue chaumbre wit oure lady Marie, wher schee abood ze angel message, and
zer, suster, abyd ze angel comyngge, zat zu mowe isee whanne he comez in, and hou graciously he
grette zilke gracious mayde; and soo zu, as it were irauesched of al zy wittes, whanne ze angel
begynez is salutacioun [t]o zilke blessede mayde and modur, cry zu as lowede / as zu my3t grede to zy
lady and sey: Aue Maria, gratia plena, dominus tecum; benedicta tu in mulieribus et benedictus
fructus ventris tui Ihesus, amen. And zis rehersyngge ofte and many type be-zenke ze how muche was
zilke fulsumnesse of grace in Marie, of whom al zis wordle borwede and beggede grace, whanne
Godys sone was maad man, ful of grace and soozfastnesse. (ll. 555-566).
Next, through direct address to Mary, he shows his sister how to become one, emotionally, with her
experience:
A, swete blessyd lady, wit how much swetnesse were zu ivisited, wit how hoot brennyngge vier of loue
were zu iset aviere, whanne zu vieledest in zyn herte and in y wombe ze presence of so greet a
maieste, whanne zat Crist took flehs of zy flehs, whanne of zy clene maydenly blood he made hym
blood, whanne of zy menbres he made hym menbres, in ze whyche was ze fulle godehede bodyly. (ll.
570-576)
Next, he shows her how to concentrate on action and gesture:
Now after zis stee vp wit zy lady to ze hul wher zat Eli3abeth and blessede Marye wit sw[e]te
kleppynge and kissynge mette togydere; and hir take heede, suster, of ze manere of gretyngge in ze
which Ihon Baptiste in his moder wombe, hoppynge for ioye, new and saluede as a seruaunt his
lord, as a criour his verray iustyse, as a kni3t is verrey kynge....What dost zu, suster? I prey ze, ren
forth wit alle hast, and among so muche ioye antermete ze sumwhat, val adoun by-foore ze feet of
zyse blessyd wymmen, and in zat onys wombe honoure zyn husbonde Criste, and in zat ozrys
wirschipe his frend, sein Ihon. (ll. 580-592).
With detailed mental staging, he shows his sister how to meditate from the point of view of Mary,
and from the point of view of a woman who has taken religious vows, a bride of Christ. The process
continues through the events of Christ’s life, including betrayal by Judas and the trial before Pilate,
where Jesus stands silent, through the Crucifixion, ending with Mary Magdalen mourning at his
tomb, a scene with which Aelred identifies with his sister, as bride of Christ.
A similar process is presented to the readers of The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ and to
the audience watching the York plays. The dramatization of events from the life of Christ does not
simply repeat the words of Scripture or other sources on which the plays are based. Amplification
by the author becomes a means to aid the audience in identifying emotionally with persons in
Scripture and in the plays, and in particular, with the good characters, followers of Jesus. Johnston
makes the parallel between the meditative and dramatic visualization in these texts: "It is an easy
step to see how the plays, the dramatic representations of the events, were conceived as another way
in which believers could be brought to feel ‘zere present in zi mynde, beholdyng alle zat/shale be
done a3eynus zi lorde Jesu’ as the Incarnate Christ suffered, died and rose again" (10-11). Beadle
points out the significance of audience involvement in the dramatic process of the plays, not just as
distant observers, but as recipients of direct address. (12) They are the people in the plays, hence
the allegorical transfer.
Love makes his purpose clear:
Wherfore at ze instance & ze prayer of some deuoute soules to edification of such men or women is
zis drawynge oute of ze foreseide boke of cristes lyfe wryten in englysche with more putte to in
certeyn partes & wizdrawyng of diuerse auctoritis [and] maters as semeth to ze wryter hereof moste
spedefull & edifying to hem zat bene [of] simple vndirstondyng to ze which symple soules as seynt
Bernerde seye contemplacion of ze monhede of cryste is more likyng more spedefull & more sykere
zan is hy3e contemplacion of ze godhed ande zerefore to hem is pryncipally to be sette in mynde ze
ymage of cryistes Incarnacion passion & Resurreccion so that a symple soul zat kan bot zenke bot
bodyes or bodily zinges mowe haue somwhat accordynge vnto is affecion where wiz he maye fede &
stire his deuocion" (Proheme, Sargent 10).
In these writings, visualization of events in scripture becomes the basis for meditation and worship.
Invention, or addition, in the process of visualization is acceptable, provided that it enhances the
stirring of devotion. Here we see the medieval rhetorical technique of amplification, or inventive
expansion, at work in emotional appeal.
And so what tyme or in what place in zis boke is writen zat zus did or zus spake oure lorde Jesus or
ozer zat bene spoken of, & it mowe not be preuet by holi writ or grondet in expresse seyinges of holy
doctours’, it sal be taken none ozerwyes zan as a deuoute meditacion, zat it mi3t be so spoken or
done (Proheme, Sargent 11)
Licence to amplify is taken to dramatize the events of Christ’s life so that the reader can identify with
them. In this process of identification, this text becomes a mirror, not only of Christ’s life, but also
of the reader, who can look into it to discover, and transform, the state of his or her own soul:
And so for als miche as in zis boke bene contynede diuerse ymaginacions of cristes life, ze which life
fro ze bygynnyng in to ze endyng euer blessede & withoute synne, passyng alle ze lifes of alle ozer
seyntes, as for a singulere prerogatife, may worzily be clepede ze blessede life of Jesu crist, ze which
also because it may not be fully discriuede as ze lifes of ozer seyntes, bot in a manner of liknes as ze
ymage of mans face is shewed in ze mirroure (Proheme, Sargent 11).
In this way, the meditations become allegories for the spiritual condition of mankind. Richard
Beadle describes the process of persuasion through affective piety thus:
‘Devout imagination’ is an encouragement to the reader’s or listener’s active participation in the
creation of a narrative that extends, as it were, beyond the words set down by Love himself. The
words are merely cues for extensive visualization of a scene at which those using Love’s book are
encouraged to believe themselves as physically present, and emotionally involved. It is this
stimulation, by rhetorical means, of an emphatically devout emotional response through
imaginative recreation that ensures the safe orthodoxy of the procedure, and mitigates the possible
charge of ‘sinful curiousity’ that a Wycliffite critic might bring, despite the fact that many of the
imagined details are not set down explicitly in the scriptures (9).
The parallels in persuasion tactics in Love’s text and the plays were part of a larger tradition in
dramatic composition. Citing Imile M>le, Sargent points out that the "Meditationes Vitae Christi
was also drawn upon as a source for the late medieval mystery plays" and, commenting on the work
of Imile Roy, Sargent writes: "It is indeed interesting to see how this material is augmented in the
later French dramatic Passions, like that of Arnoul GrJban, with material drawn from the ongoing
French tradition of biblical translation on the one hand, and arguments drawn from scholastic texts
on the other (the Debate of the Four Daughters of God, for example, paraphrases Thomas
Aquinas’s commentary on the third book of the Sentences of Peter Lombard), to produce a
particularly resonant type of text." (xx).
Nicholas Love’s translation was one of the sources for some of the East Anglian N-Town plays
[Sargent lxvi; cite also K.S. Block, Richard Beadle, Marian Davis, Elizabeth Salter, and Stephen
Spector], including the Mary Play and those involving the character "contemplacio," who instructs
the audience in meditative concentration, so that affective piety may take place, and in text that was
added as part of later revisions to the plays (Sargent lxvi-lxix).
However, while Sargent comments that "Neither Love’s Mirror, however, nor the Meditationes Vitae
Christi seem to have been employed as a source in the composition of the Yorkshire playcycles"
(lxvi), a similar rhetorical process is taking place in the plays, and thus, Love’s text serves as a good
critical framework for the use of emotional appeal through allegory in the plays. However, Sargent
refutes Jonathan Hughes, who "contends that Love’s Mirror directly influenced the composition of
the York cycle of Corpus Christi plays, although the critics whom he cites in support of this idea say
nothing of the sort" (xxiv).
Here is Hughes’ claim:
By the end of the fourteenth century the Passion was becoming centrally important in the cycle, and
it is possible that Love’s meditations were written with their dramatic potential in mind. Franciscan
preachers were fond of dramatic gestures, and the dramatic and pictorial possibilities of the Latin
version of the Meditationes were enhanced by illustrations in manuscripts of Love’s translation,
which contained many dramatic incidents, passages of dialogue and even costume directions. This
suggests that Love was inspired by the York plays and perhaps hoped to influence their
development. He certainly influenced the latest and most important reviser of the York cycle, who
between 1415 and 1431 contributed a number of original plays in alliterative verse, including eight
on the passion (Qtd in Note 65, Sargent, cxx-cxxi)
While Hughes is inventing a thesis and attributing it to sources that never made such a claim,
leaving aside the influence question, it is clear that both the plays and the translation share a
common rhetorical technique. In reading Love’s translation, the visual scenes are constructed by
the reader, who meditates and becomes one with the events of scripture, and in particular, the life of
Christ. In the mind of the reader or audience, both in the Mirror and in the plays on the wagons,
the scenes are constructed visually and verbally, so that the audience may go on a journey from
creation to doomsday through the life of Christ, the focal point of that history.
Nicholas Love is writing for a range of readers, including "comune peple," or "simple souls," those
not versed in the intricacies of advanced theology, but the average citizen, as well as those in his
order (Sargent xliv). Likewise, the plays were performed in the city streets, and thus made available
to an audience with varied levels of educational background. One of the ways that Love simplifies
his translation of the Meditationes Vitae Christi is through omission of commentary on allegory
(Sargent xxxv).
There is good reason for this abbreviation of commentary: the allegorical instruction is to take
place by another route, the imagination. For example, in the account of the angels’ ministry to Jesus
after his temptation, Love explains:
And zus & in zis manere we mowe zenke & ymagyne ze forseide processe’, to stiryng of oure
deuotion as by wey of meditacion. In ze which processe bene many gude notabilitees touchyng
temptacion of man in zis world, of ze which seynt Gregoury & ozere doctours speken in ze
exposition of zis gospel, Ductus est Jesus in desertum, &c. & specialy Crisostome in inperfecto, ze
whech for zei bene sufficiantly writen not onely in latyne, but also in english’, we passen ouere at zis
tyme... (Sargent 77.6-14).
Too much commentary would get in the way of the emotional experience made possible by
imagination. This principle is common in creative writing today. When a student writes that
someone ‘feels’ a certain way, the effect is more distancing than when the actual events are described
for the reader, leaving him or her to draw conclusions by way of imagination, putting him or herself
in the story. The allegory in these texts is accomplished by way of emotional appeal, as Love says
here, at the end of the chapter on the death of Christ:
zis is a pitevouse siht & a ioyful siht. A pitevous siht in him’. for zat harde passion zat he suffrede for
oure sauacion, bot it is a likyng siht to vs, for ze matire & ze effecte zat we haue zerbye of oure
redempcion. Sozely zis siht of oure lord Jesu hangyng so on ze crosse by deuoute ymaginacion of ze
soule, is so likyng to sume creatours’. zat after longe exercise of sorouful compassion’. zei felen
sumtyme, so grete likyng not onely in soule bot also in ze body zat zei kunne not telle, & zat noman
may knowe, bot onely he zat by experience felez it.
E. Examples from the York Plays
The following examples, which could be expanded extensively, illustrate how allegory and affective
piety function together in the language of the plays.
1. Allegories of Time
Allegories of time mirror events from the past and future across the grand sweep of salvation
history. In Play I, The Fall of the Angels, God opens with the grand plan. As he identifies himself,
his language operates on two levels. It simultaneously refers to his eternity and to his creation,
which in turn refers both to broad unfolding of the play itself and the creation of earth, place for
mankind "to play."
He is telling the audience of the connection between "the visible realm of things that are more
ancient to the visible realm of things that are more recent," "all the way to the domain of an
unchangeable eternity," which the audience ought to heed, as God has ultimate power and
goodness.
I am gracyus and grete, God withoutyn begynnyng,
I am maker vnmade, all mighte es in me;
I am lyfe and way vnto welth-wynning,
I am formaste and fyrste, als I byd sall it be. (ll. 1-4)
Later he indicates what is to come: "A place full of plente to my plesying at ply," where he
simultaneously refers to the Garden of Eden where man can be "at ply," and the play to follow--on
the pageant wagons, in York, now God's place. Any good citizen who knows what he is about hears
the voice of God and is reminded of who is in charge: allegory at work. These events, in turn
prefigure the Last Judgment, when sinners are damned eternally to hell.
At the opening of Play 47, The Last Judgement, symmetry with Play 1 is established in God's speech,
where he refers to the creation of the world and mankind, followed by his expulsion from paradise,
and the sending of Jesus, God's son, to redeem mankind. Echoing the good and bad angels in Play
1, the good and evil souls address God--and the audience, instructing them about the consequences
of their actions:
1 Anima Bona
Loued be þou lorde, þat is so schene,
Þat on þis manere made vs to rise,
Body and sawle togedir, clene,
To come before þe high justise.
Of oure ill dedis, lorde, þou not mene,
That we haue wroght vppon sere wise,
But graunte vs for thy grace bedene
Þat we may wonne in paradise.
1 Anima Mala
Allas, allas, þat we were borne,
So many we synfull kaytiffs say;
I here wele be þis hydous horne
Itt drawes full nere to domesday,
Allas, we wrecches þat are forlorne,
Þat never 3itt serued God to paye,
But ofte we haue his flessh forsworne--
Allas, allas, and welaway.
In The Annunciation and Visitation, Play 12, the opening speech, given by an expositor, "Doctour,"
perhaps analogous to "Contemplacio" in the N-Town plays, reminds the audience of the allegorical
significance of what is to follow. His opening speech looks back to The Creation, Play 2, and the
expulsion of Adam and Eve in The Fall of Man, Play 5, which in turn, looks back to the fall of the
angels in Play 1, and forward to Play 37, The Harrowing of Hell. His address also echoes the praise
of the good angels, aligning him with the good characters whom the audience should accept and
follow:
Lord God, grete meruell es to mene
Howe man was made withouten mysse,
And sette whare he sulde euer haue bene
Withouten bale, bidand in blisse;
And how he lost þat comforth clene
And was putte oute fro paradys,
And sithen what soruose sor warr sene
Sente vnto hym and to al his; (ll.1-8)
The remainder of this stanza looks forward to the harrowing of hell, overlaying it allegorically on
the expulsion from the Garden of Eden and prefiguring the coming of Christ:
And howe they lay lange space
In helle, loykyn fro lyght,
Tille God graunted þam grace
Of helpe, als he hadde hyght. (ll. 9-13)
The "Doctor" character-designation was added by reviser John Clerke (1510-1580), servant of the
Common Clerk of York from 1538 until death (Beadle 16); a note in the manuscript, f44, states "this
matter is newly mayde whereof we haue no copy" (next to lines 1-3). However, in the 1415 Ordo
paginarum, next to the Spicers, the guild still responsible for this play in the manuscript (dated c.
1475), a "Doctor" is listed, suggesting that this character was an expositor in the play before Clerke's
correction to the register. The 1415 entry reads: "doctor declarans dicta prophetarum de nativitate
Christi futura." (York 1, ed. Johnston, 18)
The last part of the above stanza echoes the advice for contemplacion on the Annunciation as given
by Nicholas Love:
Now take here gude hede & haue in mynde...how alle þe blessed spirites of heuen, & alle þe
ri3twislyuyng men in erþe & alle þe chosen soules þat weren þat tyme in helle as Adam Abraham
Dauid & alle oþer desireden here asent in þe which stode þe sauacion of alle mankynde (Sargent
25.19-23).
In Play 37, The Harrowing of Hell, Jesus opens the play with advice for contemplacion, in a similar
role to that of the Doctour. Jesus explains the significance of what has just gone before in The
Crucifixion, looking back to the Fall of the Angels, in relation to what he is about to do, set free the
prophets from hell. Notice the phrase "in þi mynde" addressed to the audience, counseling them to
listen to him and to concentrate, to become involved in the emotional experience of the play,
linking it to the conduct of their own lives in worship, "be meke to me."
Manne on molde, be meke to me,
And haue thy maker in þi mynde,
And thynke howe I haue tholid for þe
With pereles paynes for to be pyned.
The forward of my fadir free
Haue I fulfillid, as folke may fynde,
Þerfore aboute nowe woll I bee
Þat I haue bought for to vnbynde.
Þe feende þame wanne with trayne
Thurgh frewte of erthely foode;
I haue þame getyn agayne
Thurgh bying with my bloode. (ll. 1-12)
At the end of the speech, he refers to the Last Judgment to come:
Sithen schall I come agayne
To deme bothe good and ill
Tille endles joie or peyne;
Þus is my fadris will. (ll. 32-36)
2. Allegories of Moral Instruction
In allegories of moral instruction, the characters in the plays become mirrors of the human
condition, for improvement in virtue. For example, in Play 32, Christ's Appearance to Mary
Magdalene, Mary sets the pattern for meditative worship, as she is seen mourning for Jesus. This
play has a strong parallel in the meditation for Sunday in Nicholas Love's treatise, "Howe oure lorde
Jesus aperede aftere his Resurrexion to Maudeleyn," which would provide a good preparation for
an actor playing the role of Mary Magdalen. Love gives an overview of the scene where Mary thinks
that Jesus is a gardener and describes her actions and gestures, as well as her emotional state,
setting an example for the reader. He comments that even though "oure lorde was not bodily a
gardinere," he had "plantede in hir herte þe plantes of vertues & trewe loues" (199.38-200.1-2).
Here is the moment of recognition in the play, after Jesus calls Mary by name. As he Jesus warns
Mary not to touch him, he enjoins her to listen to his teaching about his identity as God, thus
drawing the audience into the character, looking back through salvation history:
Maria
A, Rabony, I haue þe sought,
Mi maistir dere, full faste þis day.
Jesus
Goo awaye Marie, and touche me no3t,
But take goode kepe what I schall saie:
I ame hee þat all thyng wroght,
Þat þou callis þi lorde and God verraye,
With bittir dede I mankynde boght,
And I am resen as þou se may. (ll. 70-77)
Later, Jesus explains to her the allegorical meaning of his Crucifixion, through figurative language,
the armor of spirituality:
Jesus
Marie, in thyne harte þou write
Myne armoure riche and goode:
Myne actone couered all with white
Als cors of man behewede,
With stuffe goode and parfite
Of maydenes flessh and bloode;
Whan thei ganne thirle and smyte
Mi heede for hawberke stoode.
Mi plates were spredded all on brede,
Þat was my body vppon a tree;
Myne helme couered all with manhede,
Þe strengh þerof may no man see;
Þe croune of thorne þat garte me blede,
Itt bemenes my dignité.
Mi diademe sais, withouten drede,
Þat dede schall I neuere be. (ll. 94-109)
An interesting difference between the play and Love's text is that, while in both, Jesus warns Mary
not to touch him, Love characterizes them as lovers and comments: "And forþermore þouh oure
lorde so straungely as it semeþ answerede hir at þe byginnyng biddyng hir þat she sulde not touch
him; neuereles I may not trowe, bot þat afterwarde he suffrede hir to touch him, & to kysse boþe
handes & feete, or þei departeden" (200.38-42).
On the other hand, characters can become examples of the human condition to be rejected, such as
Christ's accusers and tormentors in the Passion sequence (developed more fully in my dissertation,
"Inventio, Dispositio, and Elocutio in the York Trial Plays, Ph.D. Diss. University of Toronto, 1987).
3. Direct Address to Audience
While many characters instruct by example, lead characters, in the role of expositors or preachers,
also turn to the audience and address them directly about the allegorical meaning of the action of
the play, transferred to their lives. In Play I, The Fall of the Angels, God himself reminds his angels,
using language referring to the clergy, "mynysters myne," and all citizens, of a personal application:
heaven for those who follow God's will and hell for those who do not:
This graunte I 3owe, mynysters myne,
To-whils 3he ar stabill in thoghte-
And also to thaime that ar noghte
Be put to my presone at pyne. (I, ll. 29-32)
The next section of the play demonstrates this principle at work, when Lucifer tries to assume God's
place, and is thrown out of heaven, along with his cronies. Thus the opening speech prefigures
what is to come in the play, and later on, what will take place in Play VI, The Expulsion of Adam
and Eve from the Garden. The citizens are reminded, through this speech, of the deeper meanings
of the play.
In his speech at the end of this play, God again expounds on the importance of what has happened:
"Those foles for þaire fayrehede in fantasyes fell,
And hade mayne of mi mighte þat marked þam and made þam. (ll. 129-30)
Through this exposition about the angels, the character God becomes a preacher, providing
exegesis on the play: telling the audience not to lose sight of the truth (not to let their minds fall
into vain fantasies) and not to assume power that does not belong to them, the sin of pride: "So
passande of power tham thoght þam" (l. 134). He also promises what is to come if they worship
God, "Ande all that me wyrschippe sall wone here, iwys;" (1. 137): they will dwell with him in
heaven. As he promises to bring light to the earth, by creating night and day, he also reminds the
hearers of their sins: "Sen erthe es vayne and voyde and myrknes emel," through the description of
the earth, which "faded when the fendes fell" signifying a later fall, that of mankind. In this speech,
as in the opening one, God is using allegory in transferring the events of the play to the audience,
and to what is to follow in the rest of the cycle.
In Play 27, The Last Supper, as he is explaining the significance of the washing of the disciples' feet,
Jesus' words briefly echo his identity as God, wielder of all wealth and power, God's self-description
at the beginning of the cycle. Jesus explains to Peter how the action just taken has allegorical
significance. He reminds the audience that he is indeed God, "Youre lorde and maistir 3e me
call/And so I am, all welthe to welde." Yet he has knelt humbly before them, and then he tells the
disciples (and the audience as disciples) to transfer this meaning to their own lives: "Ensaumple of
me take 3e schall" to love and serve others as he has done for them." He also refers to his coming
death--looking forward to the Crucifixion.
Jesus
Petir, þou wotiste no3t 3itt
What þis werke will bemene.
Hereaftir schall thou witte,
And so schall 3e all bedene.
3oure lorde and maistir 3e me call,
And so I am, all welthe to welde.
Here haue I knelid vnto 3ou all,
To wasshe youre feete as 3e haue feled.
Ensaumple of me take yoe schall
Euer for to 3eme in 3ouþe and elde,
To be buxsome in boure and hall,
Ilkone for to bede othir belde.
For all-if 3e be trewe
And lele of loue ilkone,
3e schall fynde othir ay newe
To greue whan I am gone. (ll. 57-72)
In demonstrating to the disciples that they must adopt humility in their lives, Jesus uses a powerful
symbol, the allegory of the child (a real character on stage, but also a metaphor for spiritual attitude,
the mindset that God reminded the audience at the outset).
Structurally, this play follows Nicholas Love's fourfold explanation of the allegorical meaning that
readers might find in meditation on the Last Supper:
We shole vndurstonde þat foure þinges specialy befel at þis sopere, of þe whech inward inward
meditacion, shal by reson stir oure loue to oure lord Jesu, & kyndele þe gostly fir of oure deuocion.
þe first is, þat bodily sopere, & þe maner þerof in fulfillyng of þe lawe. þe seconde is, þe washyng of
þe fete of þe disciples by oure lorde Jesu. þe þridde is, þe ordynance & þe consecracion of þat
preciouse sacrament, of his blessede bodye. And þe ferþe is þat noble & fructuouse sermon þat he
made to hese disciples" (146.30-39)
In the play, Jesus begins by referring to the end of the old law, that of Moses, and the beginning of
the new (ll. 25-36), which he explains applies to "Cristes folke," which includes the audience. Next,
the law is related to the allegorical signficance of the washing of the disciples' feet to follow:
Jesus
A newe lawe vs bytwene,
But who þerof schall ette
Behoues to be wasshed clene. (ll. 34-36)
While a leaf of the manuscript is missing, Richard Beadle suggests that the consecration of the host
probably followed. Jesus' closing speech has similar content, but a different emphasis. Whereas
Love's translation emphasizes the love and faith of the disciplines, as Jesus represents his father, the
Godhead, the play includes a section where Jesus warns the disciples that they will be hated after his
death, and they should gather weapons to defend themselves. Yet, the overall structure of the
meditation and the play are similar.
These examples are but a few of a very rich source of layers of allegory in the York Plays, which can
be explored in a full-length study of affective piety in the cycle. Through allegorical thinking and
meditation on the scenes before the minds and eyes of the audience, persuasion by emotional
appeal takes place. The audience in York, familiar with the tradition of affective piety in their
society, could thus have experienced these plays deeply, identifying with the characters, seeing
themselves in the mirror of sacred history centered on the life of Christ.
Notes
Notes are included in the text of the paper wherever possible.
1) Presentation of this research at SITM Groningen, 2001, is made possible by the Geraldine Lyon
Owen fund at Lynchburg College. Special thanks are expressed to Prof. Alexandra Johnston and
Dr. Laurelle Levert, University of Toronto, for their guidance and suggestions for the research on
this topic.
2) All primary sources for rhetorical theory mentioned in this paper are listed in the extant
catalogue of the Augustinian Friary of York, ed. Humphries:
Aelred of Rivaulx, De institutione inclusarum (Item 82b)
Augustine, De doctrina christiana (Item 66a, 20; 136a, 41)*
--------, De genesi ad litteram (Item 65e, 19; Item 133a, 40)
--------, De utilitate credendi (Item 71g, 22)
--------, De vera religione (Item 71q, 22; 119h, 36)
Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons on the Song of Songs (Items 91, 106n)
Bonaventure, Lignum Vitae (Items 148b, 285b)
Rhetorica ad Herennium (Rhetorica nova, attributed to Cicero: Item 520a, 131)*
Roger Bacon, Opus maius (Item 456f)
Stimulus Amoris (Item 107a)
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica (Items 180-183, excerpts including Part I, 52)
Unidentified:
De passione Christi (Item 75v)
Meditacio Anselmi (Item 144c)
Meditaciones Bernardi (Items 95d, 106t, 108a, 144a, 147f)
*Also identified in Elza C. Tiner. "Evidence for the Study of Rhetoric in the City of York to 1500."
M.S.L. Research Report. Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies (Toronto, 1984) 113.
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