Durham E-Theses `Lo, he merys. Lo, he laghys': Humour, Laughter, and Audience Response in the York and Towneley Plays. BECKETT, JAMES,IAIN,ROSS How to cite: BECKETT, JAMES,IAIN,ROSS (2018) `Lo, he merys. Lo, he laghys': Humour, Laughter, and Audience Response in the York and Towneley Plays. , Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/13114/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Abstract Humour is generally regarded as a means to entertain, but it should not always be considered superficial. This thesis explores the use of humour in the ‘mystery plays’ of the York Corpus Christi Cycle and the Towneley MS, moving away from a consideration of the use of humor as little more than an aesthetic embellishment on otherwise serious biblical dramas, towards an appreciation of the range of meanings located in comic forms. Rather than merely functioning as a pleasing distraction, the humour of these plays was rooted in devotional trends and broader lay concerns of Yorkshire and north-east England in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Its analysis offers fruitful insights into the complex and competing discourses of contemporary lay society, and how a varied demographic of spectators considered their relationship with God. Drawing on established critical approaches and utilising theories from the field of Humour Studies, the following work argues that comic forms were utilised as a way to prompt a cognitive process in spectators, playing on incongruities between the biblical narrative and elements of contemporary life brought into performances. Rather than timeless evocations of biblical history, these plays were defined by their contemporaneity. The surviving play-texts encode tensions through their use of humour, drawing attention to apparent inconsistencies between the biblical and the contemporary, rather than masking them. By this means, those experiencing the dramas were motivated to consider the relationship between their own lives and the arc – or cycle – of biblical history. The first chapter considers the ‘lost’ York Funeral of the Virgin pageant, which prompted the only record of laughter as a response to the cycle: though not for the reasons producers might have hoped. A new speculative context is offered for the play, reflecting the sense in which narratives beyond performances could inform audience response. A similar approach is presented in the second chapter on the Noah plays of York and Towneley; it reassesses the much-discussed comic relationship of the patriarch and his wife. Chapter three looks to plays associated with the ‘shepherds’, considering the humour of the plays as a reflection of specific devotional and commercial interests vested in the region where they were produced. In chapter five the comically-inflected performances of Herod and the tyrants are reconsidered, within a discursive context of temptation and superficiality. Finally, chapters six and seven look to the use of humour in plays involving Joseph, Mary and Christ, where comic elements mediate between the ‘earthly’ and the divine. ‘Lo, he merys. Lo, he laghys’ Humour, Laughter, and Audience Response in the York and Towneley Plays James Beckett Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English Studies Durham University 2018 ii Table of Contents Front Matter ............................................................................................................................................... i List of Illustrations ..................................................................................................................................... iv List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................... v Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1 The York Funeral of the Virgin: Laughter, Response, and Discord ................. 19 Section 1.1 Fergus on the Streets ............................................................................................................... 24 Section 1.2 ‘Disagreements, Quarrels and Fights’ as Audience Response .................................................... 36 Chapter 2 ‘Overeflowen with floode’: Marital Practice and the Noah Plays .................... 44 Section 2.1 Noah, Uxor, and Marital Paradigms ..................................................................................... 46 Section 2.2 Sour Grapes and Troubled Waters: a New Perspective on Noah.............................................. 63 Section 2.3 Flooding the Marketplace: Isolationist Dream or Civic Fantasy? ............................................. 87 Chapter 3 ‘With myrth and gam’: Commerce, Devotion, and the ‘Shepherds’ Plays ....... 98 Section 3.1 Wool, Cloth, and the Shepherds ............................................................................................ 100 Section 3.2 Devotion, Magic, and the Agnus Dei .................................................................................... 119 Chapter 4 Tyrannical Performances: Looking to the (North) East ................................. 139 Section 4.1 Monsters and Marvels: Herod and Christ ............................................................................. 141 Section 4.2 Deviant Speech: ‘Mahounde’, Herod and Heresy ................................................................... 154 Section 4.3 Laughter as Threat : Herod’s Problematic Authority ............................................................. 168 Chapter 5 Laughter and the Virgin: Humour Between the ‘Hevenly’ and ‘Erthly’ ......... 176 Section 5.1 Humorous Liaisons with Joseph and Mary ............................................................................ 178 Section 5.2 The Virgin Mary as a Comic Character ............................................................................... 187 Chapter 6 Conflicting Passions: Humour and the Crucifixion ........................................ 196 Section 6.1 Pleasurable Affect ................................................................................................................. 199 Section 6.2 Reformations of Suffering ...................................................................................................... 211 Conclusion: Humour and Cognitive Play ........................................................................ 221 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................... 227 Primary Sources ...................................................................................................................................... 227 Secondary Sources.................................................................................................................................... 232 iii List of Illustrations Figure 1: Funeral of the Virgin, St. Peter Mancroft Church, Norwich. ............................................ 34 Figure 2: Funeral of the Virgin, Church of SS. Peter and Paul, Pickering ....................................... 34 Figure 3: Noah Building the Ark, in the ‘Holkham Bible’ .................................................................. 66 Figure 4: Noah and the Flood, in the ‘Holkham Bible’....................................................................... 67 Figure 5: Noah Tending his Vineyard, in the ‘Holkham Bible’ ......................................................... 67 Figure 6: Noah’s Vineyard, and his Drunkenness, in the ‘Holkham Bible’...................................... 68 Figure 7: Noah’s Drunkenness, detail, ‘Egerton Genesis’ .................................................................. 70 Figure 8: ‘St Omer Psalter’, Yates Thompson MS 14, f.7r ................................................................. 72 Figure 9: The Building of the Ark, detail, ‘St Omer Psalter’, Yates Thompson MS 14 ................. 73 Figure 10: The Boarding of the Ark, detail, ‘St Omer Psalter’, Yates Thompson MS 14 .............. 73 Figure 11: Noah’s Drunkenness, detail, ‘St Omer Psalter’, Yates Thompson MS 14 .................... 73 Figure 12: Noah’s Ark, East Window, York Minster .......................................................................... 75 Figure 13: Noah’s Drunkenness, East Window, York Minster ......................................................... 75 Figure 14: The Building of the Ark, St. Michael’s Spurriergate, York .............................................. 78 Figure 15: Noah’s Drunkenness, St. Michael’s Spurriergate, York ................................................... 78 Figure 16: Noah’s Vineyard, Great Malvern Priory ............................................................................