The Digby Conversion of Saint Paul
Encyclopedia
The Digby Conversion of Saint Paul (or The Conuersyon of Seynt Paule) is a Middle English
miracle play of the late fifteenth century
. Written in rhyme royal
, it tells the story of the conversion of Paul
the Apostle.
for poet).
The first station represents Jerusalem. After the prologue
there follows a dance, the direction for which has been added in by a later hand, seemingly in an attempt to make the piece more exciting. The play proper begins with Saul
, dressed in rich apparel, boasting of his power and of the fear which he inspires, doing so "a little in the Herod style". The priests Caypha
and Anna give him letters to take to Damascus
, where he is to suppress heresy (i.e. the worship of Jesus
). Saul then gathers together his knights and servants, who agree to follow him. There follows a comic scene, not present in other versions of the Conversion, between one of Saul's servants and an hostler
, who ready a horse which Saul then rides off on. Poeta re-enters to "mak a conclusyon" of this first station, and again the stage direction "daunce" has been written in a later hand.
In the next station, on the road to Damascus, God
, amidst thunder and lightning, visits Saul and rebukes him for persecuting His followers and tells him to enter Damascus. When the visitation is over Saul finds that he is blind and lame. God also visits Ananias
, an inhabitant of Damscus, and tells him to go and cure Saul, assuring him that from now on Saul will advance, rather than persecute, Christianity. As Ananias visits Saul the Holy Spirit
appears above them, and Saul is healed and baptised
.
In the third station Saul's knights have returned to Jerusalem, where they tell an angry Caypha and Anna of Paul's conversion to and preaching of Christianity. At this point three leaves have been inserted in a different hand. They make up a comic scene between the demon Belial
(whose first line is "the usual Satanic exclamation of the mystery writers 'Ho ho'") and his messenger, named Mercury. Again, Joseph Quincy Adams
believes this has been included to make the play more exciting. The choice of Belial as the chief demon seems to have been influenced by Saul's swearing "By the god Bellyall" in his first scene. The interpolated text also contains material that could be seen as anti-Semitic and which is not mirrored in the main text – Belial claims that he is worshipped "In the temples and synogoges" and that Caypha and Anna are his "prelates" and are planning to persecute Saul on his suggestion. Heather Hill-Vásquez, however, interprets Caypha and Anna (in the 16th-century version) as standing for Catholic bishops
and their link to Belial as a Protestant Reformation
attack on the old religion in a play that is an appropriation of one of its forms of dissemination, the (processional) Saint play.
The play proper resumes with Saul (the play does not include his renaming as Paul), now dressed as a disciple of Jesus, delivering to the audience a rather lengthy sermon on the Seven Deadly Sins
. Saul is taken to Caypha and Anna, who order the gates of the city to be locked that they might kill him shortly. However, an angel appears and tells Saul that he will not die yet, and that a place for him in heaven is assured. Saul's escape from the city in a basket is described, not staged. The play ends with Poeta inviting the audience to sing the hymn
Exultet caelum laudibus. While Scherb praises the swift ending and finds its reliance on words rather than images appropriate to the play's thematic focus on faith and the movement from iconography to rhetoric, Coldewey simply finds it abrupt.
, having been bequeathed to it by Sir Kenelm Digby in 1634. Though critics sometimes write of a "Digby playwright" (particularly when examining the Conversion alongside the Mary Magdalene, the other surviving English Saint play derived from the New Testament
), the pieces are in fact independent; though the plays' first modern editor, Thomas Sharp, sees in the Conversion "a considerable resemblance in general structure and composition to [The Digby Massacre of the Innocents]" The plays date from the late fifteenth century and have a transcription date of 1512 on the first page. As well as the Conversion and The Digby play of Mary Magdalene there are plays on the Massacre of the Innocents
and the resurrection of Jesus
, and an incomplete version of the morality play
Wisdom entitled Wisdom, Who is Christ.
Adams believed the play to have been written by an author from the East Midlands
, to be performed at stations in a small village on January 25, that being the Festival of the Conversion of St. Paul. And while A. M. Kinghorn has it that the play was performed in a fixed locality and was the responsibility, not of the town's guilds, but of the church; Glynne Wickham
, citing the text's many apologies for its "simpleness", argued that the play, in its final form at any rate, belonged "to a Guild of artisans who were willing to travel and to adapt their script and presentation to the environment offered by their sponsors and hosts in exchange for hospitality and a small fee" and thus, while the Digby plays may have originated, like the so-called Macro plays – The Castle of Perseverance
, Mankind
, and Wisdom –, in or near Bury St Edmunds in East Anglia
, they were able to migrate to Chelmsford
in the 16th century.
Furnivall could see little in the play that pointed to a specific dialect, other than a few instances that inclined him more to a Midlands
dialect than anything else. A later editor, Coldewey, described the dialect as East Anglian
, though note that the East Midlands
border on East Anglia.
Sarah Salih has speculated that The Book of Margery Kempe
, written in East Anglia, could have provided inspiration for the Digby plays of conversion, that is the Conversion of Paul and the Mary Magdalene.
The interpolations to the original text (the marginal "daunce" stage directions and the three leaves containing the scene between the devils) seem to come from an early sixteenth-century revival of the piece, and were possibly the work of a man named Myles Blomfylde (whose exact identity is unclear), who may have played the role of Poeta.
The play was not much admired by its 19th- and early 20th-century editors: Furnivall wrote that it (and the Digby mysteries as a whole) pointed to "the decay of the old religious Drama in England" and Manly found it "uninteresting" and of only historical value. Adams has sympathy with the later author's attempt to introduce more excitement to the piece and goes so far as to omit almost entirely Saul's long sermon on the Seven Deadly Scenes on the grounds of its having "no dramatic value". For Chester N. Scoville, however, it is just this sermon, rather than Saul's actual conversion, that is at the heart of the play. In this Scoville is typical of late 20th- and 21st-century critics, who have found richness in the play and, in its unclear staging, strategies for interpretation.
It was not until the 1970s that Glynne Wickham, first in an essay and then in his edition of the play, challenged this conception, arguing that the three stations had taken the form either of mobile "pageants" or fixed "mansions" grouped together on a single acting area, or "platea". As William Tydeman points out, much hinges on how one interprets "processyon" in line 157 – as referring to a physical procession, or to the procession of the stage action. As this line is part of a passage marked "si placet" (i.e. optional) in the text, Wickham believes it hardly likely to have been a direction to the audience, and that it should be interpreted, along with "proces" in line 9 and 14, as signifying the thrust of an argument, and not physical movement. In his edition of 1993, Coldewey takes up a revisionist stance, believing that the play was processional in nature and clearly unconvinced by Wickham's argument.
Victor I. Scherb, taking the processional staging as read, builds from it an interpretation that sees the play as a theatrical triptych
that uses framing devices which serve to draw the audience's focus on the central scene, that of Saul's conversion. This station is framed spatially not only by the procession, but also in terms of "high" and "low", thanks to scenes involving God, devils and ostlers. Indeed the ostler with ideas above his station being seen thrown in dung is taken as a reflection of Saul's own pride, for which he is cast down on the road to Damascus. The purpose of these devices is to provide the audience – turned, thanks to the amount of direct address in the play, into a congregation – with a spiritual model of the turning away from worldliness.
the stage direction "daunce" was interpreted as a means of moving the audience across stations.
The Digby Conversion of St. Paul was also performed in 1994 by Poculi Ludique Societas
in Toronto
.
In November 2000, The Marlowe Project, a production company devoted to early theatre, performed "The Conversion of Saint Paul" at Church for All Nations in New York City. The text was modernized and slightly adapted by director Jeff Dailey, who also wrote about the problems performing the play in his article, "Saint Paul's Horse and Related Problems" in the 2001 edition of Research Opportunities in Renaissance Drama.
Middle English
Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
miracle play of the late fifteenth century
15th century in literature
See also: 15th century in poetry, 14th century in literature, other events of the 15th century, 16th century in literature, list of years in literature.-Events:* 1403 - The Yongle Encyclopedia is commissioned in China....
. Written in rhyme royal
Rhyme royal
Rhyme royal is a rhyming stanza form that was introduced into English poetry by Geoffrey Chaucer.-Form:The rhyme royal stanza consists of seven lines, usually in iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme is a-b-a-b-b-c-c. In practice, the stanza can be constructed either as a terza rima and two couplets...
, it tells the story of the conversion of Paul
Conversion of Paul
The Conversion of Paul the Apostle, as depicted in the Christian Bible, refers to an event reported to have taken place in the life of Paul of Tarsus which led him to cease persecuting early Christians and to himself become a follower of Jesus; it is normally dated by researchers to AD 33–36...
the Apostle.
The play
The action is in three well-defined parts, often, following medieval practice, referred to as "stations". Each of these stations is introduced and concluded by "Poeta" (LatinLatin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
for poet).
The first station represents Jerusalem. After the prologue
Prologue
A prologue is an opening to a story that establishes the setting and gives background details, often some earlier story that ties into the main one, and other miscellaneous information. The Greek prologos included the modern meaning of prologue, but was of wider significance...
there follows a dance, the direction for which has been added in by a later hand, seemingly in an attempt to make the piece more exciting. The play proper begins with Saul
Paul of Tarsus
Paul the Apostle , also known as Saul of Tarsus, is described in the Christian New Testament as one of the most influential early Christian missionaries, with the writings ascribed to him by the church forming a considerable portion of the New Testament...
, dressed in rich apparel, boasting of his power and of the fear which he inspires, doing so "a little in the Herod style". The priests Caypha
Caiaphas
Joseph, son of Caiaphas, Hebrew יוסף בַּר קַיָּפָא or Yosef Bar Kayafa, commonly known simply as Caiaphas in the New Testament, was the Roman-appointed Jewish high priest who is said to have organized the plot to kill Jesus...
and Anna give him letters to take to Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
, where he is to suppress heresy (i.e. the worship of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
). Saul then gathers together his knights and servants, who agree to follow him. There follows a comic scene, not present in other versions of the Conversion, between one of Saul's servants and an hostler
Hostler
An hostler or ostler in the horse industry is a groom or stableman, who is employed in a stable to take care of horses...
, who ready a horse which Saul then rides off on. Poeta re-enters to "mak a conclusyon" of this first station, and again the stage direction "daunce" has been written in a later hand.
In the next station, on the road to Damascus, God
God in Christianity
In Christianity, God is the eternal being that created and preserves the universe. God is believed by most Christians to be immanent , while others believe the plan of redemption show he will be immanent later...
, amidst thunder and lightning, visits Saul and rebukes him for persecuting His followers and tells him to enter Damascus. When the visitation is over Saul finds that he is blind and lame. God also visits Ananias
Ananias of Damascus
Ananias , was a disciple of Jesus at Damascus mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles in the Bible, which describes how he was sent by Jesus to restore the sight of "Saul, of Tarsus" and provide him with additional instruction in the way of the...
, an inhabitant of Damscus, and tells him to go and cure Saul, assuring him that from now on Saul will advance, rather than persecute, Christianity. As Ananias visits Saul the Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of the Hebrew Bible, but understood differently in the main Abrahamic religions.While the general concept of a "Spirit" that permeates the cosmos has been used in various religions Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of...
appears above them, and Saul is healed and baptised
Baptism
In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...
.
In the third station Saul's knights have returned to Jerusalem, where they tell an angry Caypha and Anna of Paul's conversion to and preaching of Christianity. At this point three leaves have been inserted in a different hand. They make up a comic scene between the demon Belial
Belial
Belial is one of the four crown princes of Hell and a demon in the Bible, Jewish apocrypha and Christian apocrypha...
(whose first line is "the usual Satanic exclamation of the mystery writers 'Ho ho'") and his messenger, named Mercury. Again, Joseph Quincy Adams
Joseph Quincy Adams
Joseph Quincy Adams, Jr. was a prominent Shakespeare scholar and the first director of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C....
believes this has been included to make the play more exciting. The choice of Belial as the chief demon seems to have been influenced by Saul's swearing "By the god Bellyall" in his first scene. The interpolated text also contains material that could be seen as anti-Semitic and which is not mirrored in the main text – Belial claims that he is worshipped "In the temples and synogoges" and that Caypha and Anna are his "prelates" and are planning to persecute Saul on his suggestion. Heather Hill-Vásquez, however, interprets Caypha and Anna (in the 16th-century version) as standing for Catholic bishops
Bishop (Catholic Church)
In the Catholic Church, a bishop is an ordained minister who holds the fullness of the sacrament of Holy Orders and is responsible for teaching the Catholic faith and ruling the Church....
and their link to Belial as a Protestant Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
attack on the old religion in a play that is an appropriation of one of its forms of dissemination, the (processional) Saint play.
The play proper resumes with Saul (the play does not include his renaming as Paul), now dressed as a disciple of Jesus, delivering to the audience a rather lengthy sermon on the Seven Deadly Sins
Seven deadly sins
The 7 Deadly Sins, also known as the Capital Vices or Cardinal Sins, is a classification of objectionable vices that have been used since early Christian times to educate and instruct followers concerning fallen humanity's tendency to sin...
. Saul is taken to Caypha and Anna, who order the gates of the city to be locked that they might kill him shortly. However, an angel appears and tells Saul that he will not die yet, and that a place for him in heaven is assured. Saul's escape from the city in a basket is described, not staged. The play ends with Poeta inviting the audience to sing the hymn
Hymn
A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...
Exultet caelum laudibus. While Scherb praises the swift ending and finds its reliance on words rather than images appropriate to the play's thematic focus on faith and the movement from iconography to rhetoric, Coldewey simply finds it abrupt.
Scholarship
The text of The Conversion of Saint Paul is one of five plays (one a fragment) bound together in MS Digby 133, which is preserved in the Bodleian LibraryBodleian Library
The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...
, having been bequeathed to it by Sir Kenelm Digby in 1634. Though critics sometimes write of a "Digby playwright" (particularly when examining the Conversion alongside the Mary Magdalene, the other surviving English Saint play derived from the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
), the pieces are in fact independent; though the plays' first modern editor, Thomas Sharp, sees in the Conversion "a considerable resemblance in general structure and composition to [The Digby Massacre of the Innocents]" The plays date from the late fifteenth century and have a transcription date of 1512 on the first page. As well as the Conversion and The Digby play of Mary Magdalene there are plays on the Massacre of the Innocents
Massacre of the Innocents
The Massacre of the Innocents is an episode of infanticide by the King of Judea, Herod the Great. According to the Gospel of Matthew Herod orders the execution of all young male children in the village of Bethlehem, so as to avoid the loss of his throne to a newborn King of the Jews whose birth...
and the resurrection of Jesus
Resurrection of Jesus
The Christian belief in the resurrection of Jesus states that Jesus returned to bodily life on the third day following his death by crucifixion. It is a key element of Christian faith and theology and part of the Nicene Creed: "On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures"...
, and an incomplete version of the morality play
Morality play
The morality play is a genre of Medieval and early Tudor theatrical entertainment. In their own time, these plays were known as "interludes", a broader term given to dramas with or without a moral theme. Morality plays are a type of allegory in which the protagonist is met by personifications of...
Wisdom entitled Wisdom, Who is Christ.
Adams believed the play to have been written by an author from the East Midlands
East Midlands
The East Midlands is one of the regions of England, consisting of most of the eastern half of the traditional region of the Midlands. It encompasses the combined area of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Northamptonshire and most of Lincolnshire...
, to be performed at stations in a small village on January 25, that being the Festival of the Conversion of St. Paul. And while A. M. Kinghorn has it that the play was performed in a fixed locality and was the responsibility, not of the town's guilds, but of the church; Glynne Wickham
Glynne Wickham
-Life:Appointed in 1948 to the department of drama at Bristol University , he convened a 1951 symposium on "the responsibility of universities to the theatre" to endorse the policy of studying drama in the context of theatre and a 1954 symposium on "the relationship between universities and radio,...
, citing the text's many apologies for its "simpleness", argued that the play, in its final form at any rate, belonged "to a Guild of artisans who were willing to travel and to adapt their script and presentation to the environment offered by their sponsors and hosts in exchange for hospitality and a small fee" and thus, while the Digby plays may have originated, like the so-called Macro plays – The Castle of Perseverance
The Castle of Perseverance
The Castle of Perseverance is a c. 15th century morality play and the earliest known full-length vernacular play in existence. Along with Mankind and Wisdom, The Castle of Perseverance is preserved in the Macro Text that is now housed in the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C...
, Mankind
Mankind (play)
Mankind is an English medieval morality play, written c.1470. The play is a moral allegory about Mankind, a representative of the human race, and follows his fall into sin and his repentance...
, and Wisdom –, in or near Bury St Edmunds in East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
, they were able to migrate to Chelmsford
Chelmsford
Chelmsford is the county town of Essex, England and the principal settlement of the borough of Chelmsford. It is located in the London commuter belt, approximately northeast of Charing Cross, London, and approximately the same distance from the once provincial Roman capital at Colchester...
in the 16th century.
Furnivall could see little in the play that pointed to a specific dialect, other than a few instances that inclined him more to a Midlands
English Midlands
The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...
dialect than anything else. A later editor, Coldewey, described the dialect as East Anglian
East Anglian English
East Anglian English is a dialect of English spoken in East Anglia. This easternmost area of England was probably home to the first-ever form of language which can be called English...
, though note that the East Midlands
East Midlands English
East Midlands English is a dialect traditionally spoken in those parts of English Midlands lying East of Watling Street...
border on East Anglia.
Sarah Salih has speculated that The Book of Margery Kempe
Margery Kempe
Margery Kempe is known for dictating The Book of Margery Kempe, a work considered by some to be the first autobiography in the English language. This book chronicles, to some extent, her extensive pilgrimages to various holy sites in Europe and Asia, as well as her mystical conversations with God...
, written in East Anglia, could have provided inspiration for the Digby plays of conversion, that is the Conversion of Paul and the Mary Magdalene.
The interpolations to the original text (the marginal "daunce" stage directions and the three leaves containing the scene between the devils) seem to come from an early sixteenth-century revival of the piece, and were possibly the work of a man named Myles Blomfylde (whose exact identity is unclear), who may have played the role of Poeta.
The play was not much admired by its 19th- and early 20th-century editors: Furnivall wrote that it (and the Digby mysteries as a whole) pointed to "the decay of the old religious Drama in England" and Manly found it "uninteresting" and of only historical value. Adams has sympathy with the later author's attempt to introduce more excitement to the piece and goes so far as to omit almost entirely Saul's long sermon on the Seven Deadly Scenes on the grounds of its having "no dramatic value". For Chester N. Scoville, however, it is just this sermon, rather than Saul's actual conversion, that is at the heart of the play. In this Scoville is typical of late 20th- and 21st-century critics, who have found richness in the play and, in its unclear staging, strategies for interpretation.
Staging
The play's earliest editors all agreed the original production would have been of the processional sort, with a wagon travelling between three different stations to perform the three scenes of the play, and the audience following, rather as they would performing the Stations of the Cross. The need to accommodate a horse must have meant that the wagon would be fairly large, and with an upper story in order for the Holy Spirit to appear above and from which thunderbolts could be thrown. Lines in Saul's sermon – "thys semely [assembly] that here syttyth or stonde" - led scholars to conjecture that a scaffold may have been erected for this and perhaps other stations.It was not until the 1970s that Glynne Wickham, first in an essay and then in his edition of the play, challenged this conception, arguing that the three stations had taken the form either of mobile "pageants" or fixed "mansions" grouped together on a single acting area, or "platea". As William Tydeman points out, much hinges on how one interprets "processyon" in line 157 – as referring to a physical procession, or to the procession of the stage action. As this line is part of a passage marked "si placet" (i.e. optional) in the text, Wickham believes it hardly likely to have been a direction to the audience, and that it should be interpreted, along with "proces" in line 9 and 14, as signifying the thrust of an argument, and not physical movement. In his edition of 1993, Coldewey takes up a revisionist stance, believing that the play was processional in nature and clearly unconvinced by Wickham's argument.
Victor I. Scherb, taking the processional staging as read, builds from it an interpretation that sees the play as a theatrical triptych
Triptych
A triptych , from tri-= "three" + ptysso= "to fold") is a work of art which is divided into three sections, or three carved panels which are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all multi-panel works...
that uses framing devices which serve to draw the audience's focus on the central scene, that of Saul's conversion. This station is framed spatially not only by the procession, but also in terms of "high" and "low", thanks to scenes involving God, devils and ostlers. Indeed the ostler with ideas above his station being seen thrown in dung is taken as a reflection of Saul's own pride, for which he is cast down on the road to Damascus. The purpose of these devices is to provide the audience – turned, thanks to the amount of direct address in the play, into a congregation – with a spiritual model of the turning away from worldliness.
Performances
For the 1982 production at Winchester CathedralWinchester Cathedral
Winchester Cathedral at Winchester in Hampshire is one of the largest cathedrals in England, with the longest nave and overall length of any Gothic cathedral in Europe...
the stage direction "daunce" was interpreted as a means of moving the audience across stations.
The Digby Conversion of St. Paul was also performed in 1994 by Poculi Ludique Societas
Poculi Ludique Societas
PLS, or Poculi Ludique Societas, the Medieval & Renaissance Players of Toronto, sponsors productions of early plays, from the beginnings of medieval drama to as late as the middle of the seventeenth century....
in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
.
In November 2000, The Marlowe Project, a production company devoted to early theatre, performed "The Conversion of Saint Paul" at Church for All Nations in New York City. The text was modernized and slightly adapted by director Jeff Dailey, who also wrote about the problems performing the play in his article, "Saint Paul's Horse and Related Problems" in the 2001 edition of Research Opportunities in Renaissance Drama.
See also
- Acts of the ApostlesActs of the ApostlesThe Acts of the Apostles , usually referred to simply as Acts, is the fifth book of the New Testament; Acts outlines the history of the Apostolic Age...
the primary source for the play - Conversio Beati Pauli Apostoli a liturgical dramaLiturgical dramaLiturgical drama or religious drama, in its various Christian contexts, originates from the mass itself, and usually presents a relatively complex ritual that includes theatrical elements...
about the conversion of Paul - Paul (play)Paul (play)Paul is a 2005 play by Howard Brenton, which portrays the life and career of Paul the Apostle. It was first performed in the Cottesloe auditorium of the National Theatre, London from 30 September 2005 – 4 February 2006, in modern dress....
a 21st-century dramatisation of the story by Howard BrentonHoward Brenton-Early years:Brenton was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, son of Methodist minister Donald Henry Brenton and his wife Rose Lilian . He was educated at Chichester High School For Boys and read English Literature at St Catharine's College, Cambridge. In 1964 he was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal...
Editions
- Ancient Mysteries from the Digby Manuscripts edited by Thomas Sharp, printed for the Abbotsford ClubAbbotsford ClubThe Abbotsford Club was a publishing society founded in Edinburgh in 1833 or 1834. This was the year after the death of Sir Walter Scott, whose residence of Abbotsford House gave the society its name, and whose literature the club's publications sought to illuminate...
by the Edinburgh Printing Company, 1835
-
- The Digby Mysteries edited by F. J. Furnivall, New Shakspere Society/N. Trübner & Co., 1882
-
- Specimens of the Pre-Shaksperean Drama, Vol. 1 edited by John Matthews Manly, Ginn and Company, Boston, 1897
-
- The Late Medieval Religious Plays of Bodleian MSS Digby 133 and E. Museo 160 edited by Donald C. Baker, John L. Murphy and Louis B. Hall, published for the Early English Text SocietyEarly English Text SocietyThe Early English Text Society is an organization to reprint early English texts, especially those only available in manuscript. Most of its volumes are in Middle English and Old English...
by the Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
, 1982 - The Digby Plays: Facsimiles of the Plays in Bodleian MSS Digby 133 and E. Museo 160 edited by Donald C. Baker and John L. Murphy, Leeds, 1976
- The Late Medieval Religious Plays of Bodleian MSS Digby 133 and E. Museo 160 edited by Donald C. Baker, John L. Murphy and Louis B. Hall, published for the Early English Text Society