Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Introduction Civic Drama and Worship
- Part 1 Corpus Christi Play
- Part 2 The Selection and Organisation of the Cycle
- Part 3 Feast of Feasts
- Chapter 5 The Christmas Season
- Chapter 6 Holy Week and After
- Chapter 7 The Sacraments of the Church
- Part 4 … or Feast of Fools
- Select Bibliography
- Index of Liturgical References
- General Index
Chapter 5 - The Christmas Season
from Part 3 - Feast of Feasts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Introduction Civic Drama and Worship
- Part 1 Corpus Christi Play
- Part 2 The Selection and Organisation of the Cycle
- Part 3 Feast of Feasts
- Chapter 5 The Christmas Season
- Chapter 6 Holy Week and After
- Chapter 7 The Sacraments of the Church
- Part 4 … or Feast of Fools
- Select Bibliography
- Index of Liturgical References
- General Index
Summary
The Nativity sequence in the York Register begins with the Spicers' pageant (XII) of The Annunciation and the Visitation. This is followed by the Pewterers' and Founders' pageant (XIII) of Joseph's Trouble about Mary, then by the Tilethatchers' Nativity (XIV), and the now incomplete Chandlers' pageant of the Shepherds (XV). There is then a complex co-operative pageant of Herod and the Magi, presented respectively by the Masons and Goldsmiths (XVI). After that, the Hatmakers, Masons, and Labourers contributed the long pageant XVII, The Purification, followed by the Marshals' brief Flight into Egypt (XVIII). The sequence concludes with the Girdlers' and Nailers' Slaughter of the Innocents (XIX). The chronological order in which the pageants occur in the cycle differs markedly from liturgical order. The latter, after the double feast of the Nativity at Christmas, celebrates the feasts of the Holy Innocents, then the Circumcision, Epiphany, and finally the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. These feasts and their octaves are interspersed with the high concentration of saints' days and their octaves in the same period. Many elements of the liturgy, particularly the liturgy of Christmas itself, are repeated across following feasts, giving the season a coherence that overrides historical verisimilitude. In the cycle, on the other hand, chronological sequencing is attended to and each episode is largely self-sufficient.
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- The York Mystery Cycle and the Worship of the City , pp. 93 - 129Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2006