The York Play of the Crucifixion

I have to begin by saying that I greatly enjoyed Shaina's presentation and the video Dr. Hall showed on Thursday. Both of these refreshed my memory and led me to a greater understanding of the mystery play genre in general, and I feel like my appreciation of this particular York play has deepened because of that understanding.

So, Middle English . . . here we are. Yikes. :) I realized very quickly that these readings are going to be much more challenging than I first expected, but I have great hope that as we immerse ourselves in the language, they will get easier.

My comments about the York play will be brief (I hope). I found it interesting that although the subject of the play is the Crucifixion, Jesus seems to be almost a marginal character. The soldiers' dialogue and action are the focal point--they are the entertainment. We "learn" what we learn about the Crucifixion not through Jesus' perspective or a perspective that sympathizes with Him but through the perspective of outsiders who seem to care more about the political implications of their involvement in His crucifixion than they do about the actual event. Where is the theological depth? If this play was constructed to teach the masses the biblical story, shouldn't it have contained more? The only truly moving moment is when Jesus speaks of His affliction and asks the Father to forgive the unknowing soldiers--and it almost seems out of place from the rest of the dialogue. Then again, can you imagine us all standing there on the streets in York around 1415, watching the drama unfold as the wagons rolled by? We wouldn't have been highly educated, most likely, so we probably would have needed all of the comic relief just to stay interested. And with all the other plays in the cycle, I suppose we would have gotten our share of the "real" story.

But still. . . . It was funny, and I appreciated its historical/literary significance, but I couldn't help feeling that it was somewhat lacking in quality. That's my take on it, anyway. What do you think?

The Discarded Image

Welcome to Medieval Wanderers!!! This is the blog site for our English Medieval period class. Please feel free to post as often as you like, staying focused on the topic for the blog. For our first blog, we are commenting on The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature. Make sure you proof your writing well so that the site looks like it is written by English majors.

Please comment on the following quote from the Epilogue, especially noting the distinction Lewis makes between the words "know" and "truth." Explain what Lewis means, and apply these ideas to a postmodern culture in light of his entire discussion of the medieval model of the universe. After you discuss this, feel free to bring up anything else you want to about the book.

"I have made no serious effort to hide the fact that the old Model delights me as I believe it delighted our ancestors. Few constructions of the imagination seem to me to have combined splendour, sobriety, and coherence in the same degree. It is possible that some readers have long been itching to remind me that it had a serious defect; it was not true."

"I agree. It was not true. But I would like to end by saying that this charge can no longer have exactly the same sort of weight for us that it would have had in the nineteenth century. We then claimed, as we still claim, to know much more about the real universe than the medievals did; and hoped, as we still hope, to discover yet more truths about it in the future. But the meaning of the words 'know' and 'truth' in this context has begun to undergo a certain change."