The Hierosphthitic Topos, or the Fate of Fergus: Notes on the N-Town Assumption

Abstract

Asked to identify fate of Fergus, many students of medieval drama would be apt to cite fate of York play, known variously as portado, the arrest [arret] of Virgin's or simply after Jew who attacked bier being carried by apostles. Although York records are not altogether straightforward, certainly guild charged with performing this play was, at various times, discharged of its duties. In 1431 crowd control was raised as an objection to play, but reformist ideas were also afloat, for another argument against play was that death and funeral of Mary had no basis in scripture. Although special pleading of goldsmiths in 1431 makes their evidence suspect, fifty years later guild assigned to produce Fergus still wanted to be quit of their responsibility. They succeeded, a success that probably accounts for ultimate loss of text.l The loss is unfortunate because we would like to know more about York play. Was Fergus indeed beaten in play as documentary evidence suggests? Certainly there is no such beating in typical apocryphal sources; neither does any such action occur in only extant English play preserving arrest of funeral, N-town Assumption. There fate of attacking Jew corresponds to details of apocryphal texts: hands by which he intended to overthrow bier of Virgin Mary are instead fixed to it. It is this fate that one critic has referred to as the strange miracle of Fergus's hand. 2 In fact it is not so strange at all: such miracles are a commonplace of shrine literature.