York Mystery Cycle

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York Mystery Cycle

This is a creative assignment/historical research paper on the York Mystery Plays that were performed in medieval England.

3,104 words () | 4 sources | MLA | 2005 United States

Paper Summary:

The paper begins with a historical fictionalized account of a young man apprenticed in medieval York and his first experience in seeing the York Mystery Cycle, one of the oldest and best preserved English cycles. It has a great number of details that were researched from medieval texts, including information on guilds, the city of York, interesting facts, and the actual procession of the York cycle.

From the Paper:

"The York Cycle of Mystery plays (1376-1569), also known in singular form as the Corpus Christi Play, is one of the oldest and best preserved of the surviving English cycles. There are four complete or nearly complete extant English cycles: The York Cycle of forty-eight pageants; the Towneley cycle of thirty-two pageants, the N Town cycle of forty-three pageants, and the Chester cycle of twenty-four pageants. Each pageant was presented by different guilds of craftsmen, which were also known as the 'mysteries', hence the name of the Plays. The feast of Corpus Christi is performed on the second Thursday after Whitsun, and depending on the date of Easter, it could fall any time from 21 May to 24 June*."