The Wakefield Master's Dramatic Art: A Drama of Spiritual Understanding by Liam O. Purdon (review)

Abstract

104ARTHURIANA and action, seems excessively facile (94-5). Holding the volume together are suggestions that 'the legendary figure of Arthur was remarkably consistent' and that there is a single Arthurian tradition (1). Yet only without complication can the diverse span of literary Arthurs treated in this volume be considered 'remarkably consistent.' Essential to this book's force is its broad, comparative approach to material much more frequently treated in isolation, its introduction to and elucidation ofa cross-cultural and cross-generic exchange on the character and nature of literary insular kingship. Yet perhaps misleading to a student audience is the underlying assumption ofa steady, regular, 'local' British folklore version ofArthur— the 'intrinsically comic character,' the humorous, 'slow-witted' yet 'essentially goodnatured ' giant ('comparable with Obélix in the Astérix cartoons')—that defies the remarkably inconsistent figure ofearly Welsh and Latin written tradition (122-3). KRISTEN LEE OVER Northeastern Illinois University LiAM 0. purdon, The Wakefield Master's Dramatic Art: A Drama ofSpiritual Understanding. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2003. Pp. xii, 321. isbn: 0-8130—2603-2. $55. Whether we teach it in a survey ofMedieval literature or English drama, the [Secunda] Pagina Pastorum, or Second Shepherds'Play, is a marvelous piece ofdrama. Its vivid language, characterization, and plot make it a favorite of students and helps them to see the possibilities of Medieval dramatization. If we are using an anthology of early British literature, however, this is likely to be the only play we read by the Wakefield Master, which, as Liam Purdon points out, is a shame. His goal here is 'to place the Wakefield Master in the correct literary pantheon—that is, among the great dramatic geniuses leading up to Marlowe, Jonson, and Shakespeare...' (xi). He further adds that he wants to demonstrate 'the Master's uniqueness, which makes this playwright an artistic rival, not of Shakespeare, but of his medieval nearcontemporary Geoffrey Chaucer' (252). The book thus offers six chapters, each exploring a contribution of the Master to theTowneley collection ofplays written some time in the second halfofthe fifteenth century. As part ofthe Corpus Christi pageants, these plays comprise nearly half of the Towneley cycle, taking as their subjects familiar biblical stories: Cain and Abel, Noah and the ark, the birth of Christ and adoration of the Magi (the modusproferandi of the shepherds), Herod, and Christ's buffeting on the cross. In addition, Purdon considers two Passion Group revisions concerning Pilate and Tutivillus. What Purdon wants to argue in his readings of these dramas is spirituality's centraliry to the technological mastery of nature's temporal and spatial dimensions, to theorientation ofthe mind itselfthat both speculativelyand empirically engages nature and artifice in the world about it, and even to the understanding and proper use, as opposed to abuse, of any practical art or techne. As the Master invites Corpus Christi audiences to recognize the expression or denial oftheir own spirituality in and through dramatized moments ofbiblical history anachronistically modified by the things and kinesis of everyday late-medieval life, we and they are afforded REVIEWS105 the singular opporrunity to observe—and, to a limited extent, participate in—what might be called an iconic material anthropology of spirituality, (ix) In each play, we are asked to see the effort by the Master to insert local practice and its attendant technologies into the biblical story being narrated. The placing on stage ofa heavy, team-drawn plow, a technological innovation enabling communal farming through its being shared and operated by a number ofpeople, is meant in the Mactatio Abel to draw attention to Cain's impenitence and sinfulness as related directly to his poor stewardship, misuse of family relations, and so on. In other words, Cain's symptoms, demonstrated to an audience with a sophisticated understanding of proper communal farming practice, prefigure and bear some relation to his fratricide. Purdon's point here is that there is a direct allegorical relationship between the way in which local practice is performed—Cain's bad plowmanship and thusbad fellowship/stewardship—and the individual's relationship with God. Misunderstanding and misuse of nature, including technological innovation, is sinful, and such a correction or reminder is, for Purdon, the Master's purpose...