Medieval Blog Entry Nine

Lin, Erika T. "Popular Festivity and the Early Modern Stage The Case of George a Greene." Theatre Jounal Volume 61.2 (2009): 271-97. Web. 7 Dec. 2010.

The following scholarly article discusses the Cycle plays and their commonality (or lack of) in English theatre.

Popular Festivity and the Early Modern Stage The Case of George a Greene

Erika T. Lin

Theatre Journal, Volume 61, Number 2, May 2009, pp. 271-297 (Article)

Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press

"Recent work associated with the Records of Early English Drama (REED) project, however, has demonstrated the persistence of popular festive performance. Although the demise of the biblical cycle drama certainly took place, it has become increasingly evident that these plays were, in fact, never as widespread as has been generally assumed and were enacted only in urban centers such as Chester and York. Far more common across the whole of England were various kinds of theatrical and paratheatrical activity at the parish level." (Lin 271- 272)

This was new information to me. I did not realize that more study had been done, and that scholars were finding that the cycle plays were actually not as common as people originally believed.

Lin goes on to say that the parish festivals were generally unscripted. While cycle plays have more textual traces. Because of this the cycle plays are more studied and there is more known about them. The Festivals were given much less critical study than the Cycle plays.

  

"Yet if regular participation in amateur performance was commonplace in early modern England, its impact on the growth of professional theatre must have been significant." (Lin 272) How did the other festivals impact the growth of theatre in England? Lin states examples where later plays had festivals in them. Such as The Winter's Tale where there is a sheep shearing festival.

I thought that Lin brought up a subject that could be a whole blog in itself.