Article Review: “Theatrical Pragmatics: The Actor-Audience Relationship from the Mystery Cycles to the Early Tudor Comedies” by Hans-Jürgen Diller

In the article, Hans-Jürgen Diller argues that actor-audience relationships that were extremely important in the mystery plays. These relationships manifest in actors addressing their audience, “an important strategy to establish and sustain the W^d,” (Diller 157) or the “dramatic world” (156). Because the medieval dramatists did not have the technology to establish W^d (switch-off lighting, curtains, controlled and regulated seating), dramatists had to rely on spoken word and staging for W^d. The three types of actor-audience relationships are as follows: straddling, framing, and homiletic. Diller gives definitions and evidence (from the mystery plays and some comedies such as Magnyfycence) for each of these categories.

I recently received this article via Inter-Library Loan. Given its accessible (and interesting) theory-based discussion of medieval theater, it is likely relevant to all discussions of the N-Town Plays. So, if you’d like to read it let me know and I’ll send you the PDF!

Diller, Hans-Jürgen. “Theatrical Pragmatics: The Actor-Audience Relationship from the Mystery Cycles to the Early Tudor Comedies.” Comparative Drama 23 (1989): 156-165. Print.

"Gloria laus et Honor": Worshipping in the N-Town Plays

Hello, All,

I hope you are well and that most of you are weathering the aftermath of the storm with power and heat rather than without. Hopefully, when you have access to Wi-Fi, this post may be helpful for anyone whose interested in the "Passion Plays" section of N-Town.

I imagine that some of you, like myself, were curious as to what "Gloria laus et Honor" is--the song sung as Jesus is entering into the city of Jerusalem (218). I thought, to make it easy for us, I'd post the English and Latin lyrics together:

All glory, laud, and honor
to you, Redeemer, King,
to whom the lips of children
made sweet hosannas ring.
You are the King of Israel
and David's royal Son,
now in the Lord's name coming,
the King and Blessed One.


The company of angels
is praising you on high;
and we with all creation
in chorus make reply.
The people of the Hebrews
with palms before you went;
our praise and prayer and anthems
before you we present.


To you before your passion
they sang their hymns of praise;
to you, now high exalted,
our melody we raise.
As you received their praises,
accept the prayers we bring,
for you delight in goodness,
O good and gracious King!

(cf. hymnary.org; All Glory, Laud and Honor; http://www.hymnary.org/text/all_glory_laud_and_honor)

In Latin, as it would have been sung for the play:



(et. al, http://www.hymnary.org/text/gloria_laus_et_honor_tibi_sit)

And, lastly, if you'd like to listen to the hymn, originally written by Theodulf, Bishop of Orleans:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmyCH4sPm6U

Interestingly, reference to the Hebrews, who "with palms before you went" (v. 4 in the Latin version; v. 2 in the shortened English version), is actually in the past tense. Thus, like much of the N-Town text, the song was sung as though those singing were already Christians. To some extent, of course, this was true because those who would have been singing the hymn would have been either Christians in the audience or the Christian actors. Significantly, then, the entrance into Jerusalem was being played in such a way that it was at once an act and an opportunity to worship God for the audience members. As is evident when audience members are invited on stage, too, N-Town was not meant to be a mere performance; it was, in fact, to encourage proper participation in the drama and in the Christian life.

Article Review: At Home; Out of House

So I've gotten a few emails regarding the article I presented on (that I forgot to publish on here). It is from The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Women's Writing book on reserve at the library, but I have a PDF of the chapter if anyone would like it! It focuses on women as a representation of the home. Some of the main points focus on how women were to be a literal representation of the home, even if they were outside of it. They needed to be clothed in "proper" attire, surrounded by servants/maids, and even her speech had to point back to her house. Another interesting point was that the woman was not to travel far from the house which is in contrast with the Wife of Bath's pilgrimages (which she did even while married). A woman outside of the house was seen as a sexual deviant. Also, a woman located next to a window was seen as a sexual object because she was flaunting herself as outside of her home- which is also interesting when considering the Canterbury Tales and how the lover (or criminal) comes to the window.

Salih, Sarah. "At Home; Out of House". The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Women's Writing.

Article Review: “The Audience-Interactive Games of the Middle English Religious Drama” by Peter Ramey

Ramey’s article creates a framework for understanding medieval religious drama using a very unlikely source—videogame design theory. Borrowing videogame design theory’s understanding of multiplayer internet-based games as “systems of uncertainty,” (56) Ramey builds a definition of the medieval game as “meaningful play” (57) within an interactive and rule-governed encounter, which given religious drama’s emphasis on audience response, can be understood as the play itself.

Using this framework, Ramey analyzes three “dramatic games” (57): the Coercion Game as utilized by tyrant characters, the Subversion Game as utilized by “underlings” (63), and the Conversion Game as utilized by the Christ character. Each Game has a different understanding of meaningful play: Coercion Game as power, Subversion Game as pleasure, and Conversion Game as presence. Ramey expounds on each of these games and definitions of play throughout the article, using the York, Towneley, and Chester cycles as support. While the article is more explorative than conclusive, Ramey ultimately argues for a revision of how modern viewers understand medieval theater; it is a participatory experience that requires the audience member to be more than a passive spectator.

Ramey does not explicitly quote or reference the N-Town Plays. However, his article is useful in its thorough treatment of other plays and of medieval audience writ large, and is therefore a worthwhile read!

Ramey, Peter. “The Audience-Interactive Games of the Middle English Religious Drama.” Comparative Drama 71.1 (2013): 55-83. Proquest. Web. 13 Nov. 2015.

A Book Suggestion for Anyone That's Tackling Melibee

In Chaucerian Polity: Absolutist Lineages and Associational Forms in England and Italy, Wallace covers a lot of ground (it's a huge book). I requested this book as an Interlibrary Loan because of a chapter that Amanda Walling referenced in the article we looked at in class. Chapter 8, "Household Rhetoric: Violence and Eloquence in the Tale of Melibee" addresses the influence of Albertano, a popular medieval author, and his work Liber consolationis. In Liber, Prudentia leads her husband into penitence through her rational argumentation, preventing him from impulsively resorting to violence. This persuasion parallels Prudence's argumentation with Melibee. Wallace argues that both Prudence and the Wyf of Bath "threaten to uncover disequilibrium, if not violence and unruliness, within [male] critical discourse" (223).

Wallace goes on to suggest that the Wyf and Prudence have much more in common than scholars usually credit. Both wives are attempting to dissuade men from engaging in violence. In the Wyf's tale, the violence of rape is protested by the court of ladies, but they spare his life in an attempt to prevent further violence. Melibee is distraught over the violence done to his daughter, but Prudence persuades him to not seek revenge through violent means. The way both women go about this is through a feminized "glossynge" of texts. Wallace argues that both women combat the necessarily masculinized (which I'm not sure about) desire to ignore the inherently contradictory nature of texts. In this way, they are able (to varying degrees of success) gain auctoritee through a non-exigetical interpretation of texts. This connects to the discussion that I'm creating in my longer paper. Importantly, they are only able to do so in the private sphere of the home (the Wyf tearing Janekyn's page, Prudence and Melibee conversing in private). A gaining of auctoritee in the public sphere is only possible through the fantasy of the Wyf, where the court is largely ruled by ladies who get to interpret texts (and male understandings of women) as they see fit.

Anyway. Cool book. If you want to borrow it you can!

Wallace, David. Chaucerian Polity: Absolutist Lineages and Associational Forms in England and Italy. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997. Print.

The Hybridity of Melibee

In this article, Foster posits the Tale of Melibee as an embodiment of both oral and literate communication. Many scholars doubt that the Tale of Melibee could be performed, being that it would result in over two hours of talking, but Foster regards this view as anachronistic because that would establish Melibee as a relatively short sermon. The Parson’s Tale was even longer, and was definitely read aloud in front of an audience. Additionally, the lengthy prose of Melibee is “dedicated to citing oral discourse, such as proverbs, sermons, and debates, as well as texts that are themselves mixtures of oral and literate communication, most notably the Bible” (411). Melibee is then a hybrid, which is really interesting historically, as it potentially reflects the messy shift from a strictly oral tradition to that of a fully literate culture. Foster’s positioning of Melibee as so allows the tale to operate in a space of possibility of shifting traditions and uncertain ground. Perhaps this is why Prudence is able to be more successful in her negotiations with Melibee (it doesn’t help that she’s incredibly rhetorically skilled, either). The article also argues that Melibee is ultimately a communal discourse, but I think that ignores the importance of Prudence's radically different interpretive approach to texts, which is especially significant because she is a woman and is actually reading in a way that prevents the "carnal literalism" of the Wyf. 

This intermingling of orality and literate communication has definite connections to the paper that I’m working on right now. I’m hoping Foster’s argument will serve the establish the context of Melibee so that I can talk about the ways in which Prudence utilizes/interprets texts in a way that allows her to prevent the violence of Melibee’s wish to avenge. If anyone else is working with Melibee, this is a really helpful article specifically as it relates to orality and literacy, but also as a historical overview for the various rejections/acceptances of Melibee over the years. 

Foster, Michael. "Echoes of Communal Response in the Tale of Melibee." The Chaucer Review 42.4 (2008) : 409-430. Web. 11 Nov. 2015.

Article Review: “Performing Communities: Civic Religious Drama” by John McGavin from The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Literature in English

The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Literature in English is located in the Whitworth Library: PR 255.095.

McGavin opens his discussion of Medieval Drama with an anecdote about a contemporary performance of a medieval Passion Play in Winchester. He argues that, although not “purely medieval,” the Winchester Passion Play was medieval in “matching its scope to the capacity of the providers and the occasion; its mixed clerical and lay involvement; its processional form; its blending of biblical and imagined discourse, stylized and naturalistic acting, historical and contemporary reference, received and innovative iconography” (201). By using a contemporary example, McGavin creates the space to argue that medieval drama was, in fact, radical.

The article is informative and well-researched, but most importantly, it offers excellent context for our discussions of the N-Town Plays. While McGavin does not give a thorough treatment of the N-Town Plays, he does connect the cycle to the medieval “project” of localization and adaptation of drama to communities (pages 202-203). I hope to utilize this perspective in my paper.

The four sections of the article are: one, “Performing the Medieval” (discussed above); two, “The Show Must Go On”; three, “The Shared Experience”; and four, “Spectatorship.” The fourth section, “Spectatorship” provides an excellent insight into the medieval audience member—what the medieval spectator would expect and how they would respond to certain performances. If you choose to consult this article, this section is perhaps the most worthwhile.

McGavin, John J. "Performing Communities: Civic Religious Drama." Ed. Elaine M. Treharne and Greg Walker. The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Literature in English. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2010. 200-18. Print.