Recycling the Cycle: The City of Chester and Its Whitsun Plays (review)

Reviews DavidMills.RecyclingtheCycle: TheCityofChesterandIts Whitsun Plays. Studies in Early English Drama 4. Toronto: University ofToronto Press, 1998. Pp. xiii + 281. $55.00. In recent years research on dramatic and ceremonial activities in English cities and towns has redirected itself—partly under the influence ofcivic historians like Charles Phythian-Adams—towards a consideration of ceremonial within the lives ofcities and their citizens. David Mills' study is an extension of this line of research. Rather than focusing on the Chester plays as significant phenomena in themselves, Mills places them within the physical city and its political and ceremonial concerns. His is a kind of sociology of the biblical drama in Chester. The introduction gives a good accounting of how his study fits within the critical tradition ofthis century. Mills says that he has in a sense returned "to Chambers's social and economic priorities," but that his "purpose is to set the Chester plays in their local context and to examine how they are redefined and reconstructed within that context as it changes" (18). Because records prior to 1500 are sparse, his description is largely restricted to sixteenthand seventeenth-century Chester. Chapter 2, "Time and Space in Tudor Chester," provides a good introduction to the public spaces of Chester and their political significance. Chapter 3, "Writing the Record," gives a textual history of Chester: it considers texts about and associated with Chester, the Abbey, and so forth, and the antiquarians who promoted the interest in the city's past. Mills describes the city's own records and the Rogers' Brevarye, one of the most important of the antiquarian documents about the city's history. The Brevarye also provides the only nearly contemporary descriptions of the production of Chester's biblical plays. Chapter4 surveys the ceremonies and entertainments in the city. Mills posits two extremes—the "official end" with activities designed to present an ideal 109 1 10Comparative Drama image of the ruling hierarchy (civic processions, the Christmas Watch, and mayoral and other feasts) and the popular end (games of chance, illicit football ,bull- and bear-baitings). The latter were often thought to be threateningto proper governance, and the city, like the Tudor monarchs, sought various controls and reforms. The most ambitious ofthe reforms were those instituted by Mayor Henry Gee in the early sixteenth century. He wished to put down the unruly football race and to reform other traditional ceremonies such as the Shrovetide homages by promoting archery and other more suitable and profitable recreations. Chapter 4, in conjunction with chapters 5, on the Midsummer celebrations (the Dutton's licensing ofminstrels and whores and the civic Midsummer Show),and 6,on religious feasts andfestivals ofCorpus Christiand Whitsuntide, provides the foundation for the discussion of the plays within the context of annual lay and religious festivities. Mills describes the development ofthe cycle of plays to c.1540, its shift from Corpus Christi to Whitsun, its mode of production , the procession route and playing places, and the civic theory of its origins. Chapter 7, "Professionalism, Commercialism, and Self-Advertisement," contrasts the productions of professional traveling troupes with those of the city, the latter ofwhich, Mills argues, constitute statements about civic power and pride. For scholars ofthe drama, perhaps Mills' most significant contribution is his account of the Puritan opposition to the last performances of the Chester plays. Mills discovered a letter-book ofChristopher Goodman, a Puritan preacher, that contains letters to the Earl ofHuntington, the lord president of the Council of the North, and Archbishop Grindal ofYork, with regard to the performance ofthe plays in 1572. Goodman complained that the plays contained papist material and had not been properly read and authorized. The Archbishop attempted to stop the plays, but according to some of the civic annals , the inhibition came too late. Goodman testifies, however, that he gave the mayor and the bishop of Chester the Archbishop's letters before the plays were performed and that the two authorities were willful in producing the plays and negligent in their duties. Apparendy, Goodman also complained about the 1575 performance, and his complaint perhaps added to the pressure to bring Mayor John Savage to account before the privy council Unfortunately, he did not copy all of...

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