North (1340-1350) North-West YORK TOWNELEY/Wakefield/Widkirk Presented during the Corpus Christi Festivals only.

MIDDLE-WEST CHESTER 1340-50 Enacted at Whitsuntide (7th day after Easter)

SOUTH-WEST COVENTRY (1468) Presented during the Corpus Christi Festival and evidence shows that it was presented by Friars (mendicants) It was purchased by Sir. Robert Cotton in about 1630, according to his librarian Dr. Richard James. It now belongs to the Cottonian Collection in the British Museum. Dr. W.W Greg has shown in (Problems of the English Miracle Plays, 1914) that the greater part written in the year 1468 were a much revised amalgamation from the older three different sources and was meant rather for Private reading and not for acting. Linguistic evidence connects this composite collection not with Coventry but with the Eastern Counties. As because in the 15th century the Miracle and Morality writers were most busily at work in and around the East Midlands. In language, in metre, in tone, in the elaborate stage directions, in the proclamation of the play by banner-bearers this composite collection is linked up with later Miracle Plays, such as the Croxton Play on the Sacrament and the play of Mary Magdalene. The play is more concerned with the didactic part rather than the dramatic part. They are especially concerned with the doctrine of Holy Trinity and the Honour of Blessed Virgin. There is a tendency to resist Humour but they are not without vigour. There is a tendency to personify abstract ideals links it to the later Morality Plays.

Follows the narrative of the Bible very closely

Occasional introduction of apocryphal legends from Pseudo Gospels

Gets its name from the Towneley family who bought it from the Abbey of Wildkirk, with whom had remained the only known manuscript which then passed via M.P Major E. Coates into the H.E Huntington Library Many of the plays were acted by the various trading guilds and the general opinion is of regarding the whole cycle as Trade plays of the town

Manuscript found in the beginning of the 15th century.

The Ordo Paginarum /Order of Pageants-1415, compiled by Roger Burton, the then town clerk shows the close connection of the plays to the guilds. E.g. the mariners took the flood, the goldsmiths took the Adoration

Despite its great variance in style and meter, it certainly is a composite cycle.

Must have been influenced by the Miracle Cycle of the North AND its influence can be unmistakably be seen in Jesus in the temple and Sacrifice of Isaac. However an amount of freshness can be seen in the plays with the introduction of new subjects e.g. Lot and Balaam, Ezekiel, 15 signs of Doom, Coming of Anti-Christ With regards to Metre and form the cycle shows exceptional unity and is believed to be the work one single monk Ranaulf Higden, monk of St. Werburghs Abbey-1299-1364. However, in the latter additions Dr. Hohlfeld points out how the playwright made a manful attempt to content himself with two rhymes (aaabaaab), but ended up drifting into the use of three (aaabcccb)

From literary point of view the York cycle is the least entertaining. The value of the cycle is largely historic and linguistic.

If indeed the entire manuscript was to be found it would bear a close resemblance to the York Cycle. Except that it is characterized by a humour freer and bolder than anything visible in any other Mystery cycles.

It consists of 48 plays

The cycle consists of 32 plays of which 12 leaves have been

However Prof Ten Brink suggests that the Chester cycle is less important and less original than those of York and Wakefield, and even at its best it appears to be borrowed. Humor is kept within bonds, the religious tone is far higher and though the plays are not spoilt by any obtrusive didacticism such as we find in Coventry cycle, the speeches of the Expositor show a real effort had been put into serving the religious object to which all the plays were directed. The cycle consists of 25 plays and whatever the historians

It consists of 42 plays.

lost from the plays concerning Creation and Ascension. The Raising of Lazarus and the Hanging of Judas are later additions

might say for the literary minded no other cycle presents the story of the Abrahams Sacrifice better, the portraits of Abraham and Isaac are well drawn and there is charm in the childlike presentation of this story.