"Sacral Parody" in the Secunda Pastorum

Abstract

ALTHOUGH modern conceptions of Antichrist may be rather generalized, consisting perhaps of images derived from Renaissance pamphleteering, or at least of an evil figure who inverts Christ, medieval notions about this personage are much more particular. A modern playgoer, for example, will discern that Mak in the Secunda Pastorum of the Towneley Cycle is the focus of an obvious parody of the Nativity, and that his character, speech and actions constitute a certain humorous diabolism suggestive of the inversion of Christian motifs; but this apprehension of Mak's nature will probably not depend upon a specific knowledge of the legend of Antichrist, and will arise from the parodic structure of the play rather than from intimacy with certain details of correspondence between Mak and his archetype. On the other hand, a member of a medieval audience might well have been alerted to the nature of Mak not only by means of the structure of the play, but also by an accumulation of particular details which imaginatively link Mak with Antichrist, and, more generally, by a knowledge of the relationship of the Nativity to prophecies concerning the Second Coming of Christ. I think that it is essential for the modern reader to attempt to regain this perspective on Mak, not only to clarify his role in the Secunda Pastorum, but also to make more intelligible the dramatic importance of the Nativity in relation to both the beginning and the end of the cycle, which presents in shrunken form the entire span of cosmic history. Such a perspective on the Secunda Pastorum may suggest, as well, methods of staging the play for modern audiences in such a way as to declare spectacularly Mak's symbolic role, realized in the minutest detail of realistic dramatic representation. To insist upon Mak's symbolic role is not to impose abstract conceptions upon his human nature, but to reveal more particularly the reality of his character in the Christian drama.' The figure of Antichrist had for medieval Christians definite configurations and an historical future; he was not for them merely an inversion of Christ, but the focus of certain predictable actions. Based on various scriptural passages2 and commentaries, and patterned as well by history, legend and myth, the medieval