The York Cycle

I have chosen to do six plays from the York Cycle. The York Cycle was a grouping of 48 short plays that were all biblical stories. Each play would be performed on a moving pageant cart that was owned by one company. The companies usually consisted of the cardmakers or the coopers; some sort of workers from the city. (Brockett, p86-87)

When these would be performed they would travel all around the city of York. There would be marked destinations for the plays to be performed and they would move like a parade. This was to make sure that the most amounts of people could see these biblical stories brought to life. So it helped the church get the stories and teachings of the Lord out to the general public.

The York Cycle was named because this certain set of plays was performed in the city of York. This was a town in Europe that was a fairly large city for back then. P.J.P. Goldberg writes in Women, Work, and Life Cycle in a Medieval Economy that, "York was both a provincial capital, on occasion even the seat of royal government, and, since the seventh century, the centre of an ecclesiastical province" (Goldberg, p1). Goldberg continues to talk throughout this book about York and its state of economy and the journey it took throughout the years. The pageant plays would have been a great escape for people and a wonderful source of entertainment.

The plays I have chosen from this cycle are:
1. The Creation, and the Fall of Lucifer
2. The Creation of Adam and Eve
3. The Fall of Man
4. The Crucifixion
5. The Resurrection
6. The Judgment



This is a map of York (Goldberg, p41)



Sources Used:

History of Theatre: Foundation Edition; Oscar G. Brockett and Franklin J. Hildy; Pearson Education Inc.; Boston, MA; 2007

Women, Work, and Life Cycle in a Medieval Economy: Women in York and Yorkshire c.1300-1520; P.J.P. Goldberg; Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 1992