RITUAL, DRAMA AND SOCIAL BODY IN THE LATE MEDIEVAL ENGLISH TOWN

Abstract

This article aims to discuss a specific late medieval cult as practised in a specific context: that of the late medieval town. The kind of town to be considered falls typically into the category of “provincial capital”, or at least of “county town”, in terms of a recently suggested classification. The cult in question is the cult of Corpus Christi. Corpus Christi was celebrated annually on a day which fell sometime between the end of May and the end of June. What I propose to discuss are the various rites which were celebrated on Corpus Christi Day, the various dramatic, theatrical manifestations which took place in connection with the occasion, and the mythology associated with both. By and large, Corpus Christi has received more attention from literary scholars than from historians. This is because the famous Corpus Christi play cycles developed in connection with the Corpus Christi cult. The mythology of Corpus Christi has been very interestingly discussed by, for example, V. A. Kolve and Jerome Taylor. Much has been written about the ways the plays were presented and produced, some of this by scholars with a strong historical sense, as more recently Alan Nelson and Margaret Dorrell. Nevertheless, there does seem to be lacking amongst most of these writers anything more than a very generalized idea of the late medieval social background against which the cult was practised and the plays performed; and very little sense of the specific social needs and pressures to which both responded.