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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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mystery plays
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The outstanding theatrical achievement of the Middle Ages, consisting of short scenes, each enacting an incident from the Old or New Testament, which together tell the Bible story. Throughout Europe plays of this kind developed in the 13C. The form they took in England, particularly in northern regions, was unusual in two respects: the scenes were played on carts which could be moved to different locations in a town, so that the entire sequence unfolded before a succession of audiences during the course of a day; and each scene was acted by a different trade guild, sometimes with an appropriate link (the shipwrights, for example, presenting Noah and the Ark).
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The performances were part of the great festival of Corpus Christi, held on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday and established in the 13C to celebrate the doctrine of transubstantiation (the real presence of the body of Christ in the consecrated Communion wafer). This doctrine was anathema in the *Reformation. The Corpus Christi procession was therefore suppressed in 16C England, and together with it the mystery plays.
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Of many local cycles of plays, only four have survived – those of Chester (probably the earliest), York, Wakefield (also known as the Towneley plays, from the family which owned the manuscript), and Coventry (probably not in fact from there, but of unknown origin). At York and Chester the plays are now regularly performed again.
They have been variously known in the past as miracle plays and as mystery plays (originally from a Latin word for the church service and not, as often said, because they were performed by the 'mysteries' or guilds). The modern convention is to use mystery play for purely biblical sequences and miracle play for dramas which also include the lives and miracles of the saints.
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