15th Century Drama and Literature

Drama

The Coventry Nativity Play

Allen, John (ed)

From: Three Medieval Plays

Published: 1965

Text of the play.

The York Mystery or Corpus Christi Plays

Brunskill, Elizabeth

Booklet

Published: 1969

A history and description of the plays.

The Plays of the Religious Guilds of York: The Creed Play and the Pater Noster Play

Johnston, Alexandra F

From: Speculum, Vol 50, No 1

Published: January 1975

A history and description of the Creed and Pater Noster plays.

The London Pageants for Margaret of Anjou: A Medieval Script Restored

Kipling, Gordon

From: Medieval English Theatre, 1982, Vol 4, No 1

Published: 1982

Sets the pageants in their historical and cultural context. Includes script and route map.

Medieval Natural Plays

Margetson, Stella

From: History Today, Vol 22, No 12

Published: December 1972

On the development of the genre from its humble beginnings in simple church tableaux.

The York Cycle of Mystery Plays

Purvis, Canon J S

Programme

Published: 1963

Programme of the 1963 Festival production of the plays, with explanatory introduction by Canon Purvis

The York Corpus Christi Play: Some Practical Details

Rogerson, Margaret

From: Leeds Studies in English, New Series, Vol 10

Published: 1978

Concentrates on the details of financing the productions and storing the pageant wagons, with evidence drawn from extant records.

The York Mystery Play

White, Eileen

Booklet

Published: 1984

On the history, organisation and performance of the plays, based on information from the York City records.

Literature

The Political Bias of Malory’s Morte d’Arthur

Griffith, Richard R

From: Viator, Vol 5

Published: 1974

The author challenges the accepted scholarly view that Malory was Lancastrian in sympathy and that the model for his King Arthur was Henry VI.

Learning to Die in Yorkist England: Earl Rivers’ Cordyal

Harry, David

From: The Yorkist Age: Proceedings of the 2011 Harlaxton Symposium, ed. H Kleineke & C Steer

Published: 2013

On the demand for religious works aimed at preparing the reader to meet with death, with special reference to the translation by Anthony, Earl Rivers of a French version of one of the most popular of these, named in the original Latin De Quattuor Novissimorum, in French Les Quattres Choses Dernieres, and in Rivers’ English translation the Cordyal.

An English Pilgrim in Compostela

Hogarth, James (translation)

From: Medieval World, March-April 1992, pp 15-19

Published: 1992

Translation from the Itineraries of William Wey, fellow of Eton College, of his account of his journey to Compostela in 1456. (Library Note – filed under Social History).

The Abbey of the Holy Ghost

Perry, G (ed)

From: Religious Pieces – Early English Texts Society, Old Series, No 26

Published: 1867

Transcription (in original spelling) of a devotional work on how those not in religious orders should arrange their spiritual life; Margaret of Burgundy is known to have owned a copy.

Banner image of King Richard III’s Book of Hours (MS 474f.7v) reproduced by kind permission of Lambeth Palace Library.