On Recovering the Lost Norwich Corpus Christi Cycle

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On Recovering the Lost Norwich Corpus Christi Cycle Alan H. Nelson For the whole of this century, the Corpus Christi plays from Nor­ wich, England, have masqueraded under the title of the Norwich Whitsun plays.1 But it seems certain that the plays were never acted at Whitsun (Pentecost) before 1559, and it is possible that they were not produced at all after that date. The misunderstanding behind this appellation has obscured the true history of the plays, and has led such a sensitive scholar as V. A. Kolve to judge that the civic authority responsible for the plays “never rose to the Corpus Christi occasion with the sustained intelligence characteristic of the six or seven other English towns whose records survive in greater detail.” 2 The document primarily responsible for the confusion is a petition offered by the Norwich Guild of St. Luke, dated St. Matthew’s day (September 21), 1527.3 It reads in part as follows: where of longtime paste the said Guylde of Seynt Luke yerly till nowe hath ben used to be kept and holden within the citie afore­ said [Norwich] upon the Mundaye in pentecoste weke, at which daye and the daye next ensuyng many and divers disgisings and pageaunts, as well of the lieffs and martyrdoms of divers and many hooly Saynts, as also many other light and feyned figurs and picturs of other persones and bests; the sight of which dis­ gisings and pageaunts, as well yerly on the sayd Mondaye in pentecoste weke in the time of procession than goyng about a grette circuitte of the forsaid citie, as yerly the Tuysday in the same weke the lord named the Lord of Misrule at Tumlond within the same citie, hath ben and yet is sore coveted, specially by the people of the countre; beforse wherof yerly at that time more than any other tymes in the yeer the people of the countre have used abundantly for to resort to the said citie. . . . This document has universally been taken as a true account of the Norwich Corpus Christi play in 1527, and “of longtyme paste.” 4 Such an interpretation cannot be correct. The production sponsored by St. Luke’s Guild consisted not of scenes from sacred history, but of disguisings and pageants of the lives and martyrdoms of saints; and also fig241 242 Comparative Drama ures and pictures of people and animals. On Whitmonday these went in procession through the city of Norwich, and on Whittuesday some sort of festivity was conducted by the Lord of Misrule at Tombland, an open area just outside and west of the cathedral close. The events of Monday probably bore some resemblance to the midsummer shows of Chester and London, or to the great procession of Brussels, all of which had pageants, and none of which were plays.5 Having described the pageants which were a traditional part of the procession, St. Luke’s Guild next pleaded present financial impoverish­ ment. The Guild requested that other guilds of the city make a con­ tribution to the procession, in particular “that every occupation wythyn the seyd Citye maye yerly, at the said procession upon the Monday in Pentecost weke, sette forth one pageant . . . .” The civic author­ ity hearing this petition regarded it with favor: “ It is by auctoritie aforeseid agreed and enacted, that every occupacion within the seid Citie shall yerly from thenseforth fynde and sette forth in the said pro­ cession one such pageaunt as shalbe assigned and appoynted by Master Maier and his bretheren aldermen, as more playnly appereth in a boke thereof made.” The pageants to be sustained in the future by the various craft guilds were not listed as part of the petition, but were recorded in­ stead in some other book. Therefore we do not know precisely what was anticipated by St. Luke’s Guild or by the Council. But we can say this: either the craft guilds were expected to take over pageants which had traditionally been presented in the Whitmonday proces­ sion; or they were expected to add new pageants to the procession. If the former, then the procession remained substantially unchanged. If, however, new pageants were to be added...