Why you might read the Miracle Plays
For my Self Education project, they fill this role. They allow for a greater understanding of the way in which faith was a part of everyday life in medieval England. This will be important when I get to read more of the church fathers. As a narrative, they show a stage in the development of the play in the English speaking world.
Stories of the Miracle Plays(11-16)
The Crucifixion
The Harrowing of Hell
This starts with a group introducing themselves in hell. This includes people like Adam and David. Then Satan skites that Jesus is coming to hell. When Jesus arrives however he opens the gates and rescues those we have been introduced to.
The next scene is in heaven. We are introduced to those who have never been to hell like Elijah and the thief on the cross.
The final scene is back in hell as Satan reestablishes control and welcomes new sinners.
The Resurrection
The play starts with a devout centurion telling Pilate and the head priests that Jesus will rise from the dead. Pilate and company then decide to have the tomb guarded. They send 4 soldiers to guard the tomb. But they fall asleep. Some women of Jesus' followers come to see the body but it is gone. An angel appears to them and tells them he has risen and is gone.
The soldiers see the empty tomb and decide to tel pilate and the head priests that he rose. The priests pay them to say they were overwhelmed by force and the body stolen.
The play starts with God laying out human creation and fall, as well as redemption through Christ. The angels then go out with trumpets to start the judgement and raise the dead. the devils prepare for more people. Christ sits in judgment and separates the good from the bad. The play paraphrases Christ's comments. These comments are around when I was in need you feed me, clothed me etc. For the Good, he sends them on to eternal bliss and for the Bad, he sends them to hell.
Everyman
The everyman play starts with Death visiting Everyman. He tells him he has come to his time of reckoning. He laments this and turns to his friends but they desert him. He tries again with his family but they also desert him. He tries his goods but they cannot be taken with him. He turns to good deeds but she is sick. she calls knowledge to him and he takes Everyman to confession. After confession, Good deeds is well and companies him the rest of the way. Knowledge then calls in Beauty, Strength, Discretion and his Five senses to join them. They proceed to the priest for the Lord's supper (communion). Then Everyman comes to his death and Beauty, Strength, Discretion and his five senses all fail him and leave. As does Knowledge and he is left with Good Deeds. He is taken to Jesus in heaven for his accounting.
The Death of Pilate
This Apocraphyal play covers Pilates death at the hands of a converted Tiberius Caesar. The Emperor is sick with leprosy and sends to Pilate for Jesus. He believes the prophet can heal him. His messenger arrives and Pilate sends him out looking for Jesus. He stumbles upon Veronica who tells him that Jesus is dead. He laments but she tells him that she might be able to heal the Emperor. She expects to do so using a covering that Jesus used. She is taken to the emperor and he is healed. The emperor declares Jesus his Lord. Veronica asks him to take vengeance on Pilate for Jesus death and he agrees. He sends executioners to retrieve Pilate. Once Pilate is in his presence he is rather slippery. But eventually, the Emperor gets his cloak, which was worn by Jesus. He sends him to the dungeon to await trial and death. Before this can happen Pilate kills himself. The emperor orders him buried but the body won't stay in the ground. He then has it cast into the river but the river starts killing people. So he has him taken to sea and cast into the depths. The devil then takes hold of the body and his soul into hell.
Reflections on the Miracle Plays (11-16)
The Crucifixion
The soldiers in this play seem to spend a lot more time talking. Compared to how much they spend actually at the task of putting Jesus on the cross. The interplays in between them though keep it interesting. One of them even seems to think of himself more as an overseer.
Jesus' few lines are again more indicative of what was known later than at the time. He speaks of saving the sins of the world. We don't hear about that biblically until after the resurrection.
The Harrowing of Hell
This entire play is only hinted at in the bible. I found it interesting that the saints of the past were in hell. I had thought that this would have been within the time frame where purgatory was a doctrine of the church. Purgatory was the in-between place where the dead went before the judgement. Rather than straight to hell to be rescued by christ after his death. Purgatory is no longer a doctrine of the church. There was little in the bible that even hinted at it.
The Resurrection
The fact that it is a centurion at the start that warns them that Jesus will rise is interesting. In the bible, they are just aware of this fact without any particular warning. This telling is rather close to the account in the bible. But we do not see Jesus appearing to the women as we do in at least one of the gospels.
The Judgement
The recap of the history that has led up to this point, allows this play to be stand-alone. Rather than relying on the audiences prior knowledge.
The actual judgment portion fit very well with scripture and is even paraphrasing it closely in places.
The random reference to Jupiter in the middle of the play was a little surprising. To find a god's names from the Roman pantheon used to describe the Christian God was just strange.
It was interesting how his goods did not just desert him but also admitted that they had distracted him from God. While he was still living he loved them more than God. This is the only specifics of his sins that is gone into in the play. For the rest of the play, he just refers to his sins as a whole.
The Death of Pilate
At the very end of the play, three devils discuss the body and soul of Pilate. These are named Beelzebub, Satan and Lucifer. This is interesting because these are generally accepted as three different names of the same being. Rather than as three devils.
In the real world, Tiberius was never a follower of Jesus and instead was the predecessor to Caligula. Caligula was one of the persecuting emperors.
What others have to say about the Miracle Plays(11-16)
From Britannica about Everyman "this short play (about 900 lines) is more than an allegorical sermon because vivid characterization gives it dramatic energy"
From York Mystery plays about The judgement. "This was both an act of worship and ‘community theatre’ for the entertainment of locals and visitors alike, honouring God,"
Comparisons to other texts
Everyman is rather different from all the other Miracle plays. For starters, it is a morality play rather than a biblical one. Also, it is a lot longer than the other plays. Everyman is more about how the Christian lives their life and comes to judgment. This contrasts with the biblical stories of the other plays.
Conclusion
The Medieval miracle plays take us on a journey through the Christian Bible. In doing so they often take liberties and interpolate extra content into the narrative. They have a tendency to be written with current knowledge in mind rather than thinking about what the characters would have known. This leads to some odd statements about Christ before he is even born from characters such as Moses.
The Everyman play is different both in its content and its length. It deals with more of how Christians should live and how they receive salvation through the sacraments.
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