English Literature / Unit 5 ENL 0410 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Mystery Plays and the Cycles
Captions available
The idea
Mystery plays dramatized the Bible from Creation to the Last Judgment in cycles, staged on wagons by town trade guilds; "mystery" once meant guild. Four cycles survive, from twenty-five plays at Chester to forty-eight at York. In York the shipwrights played Noah.
In practice
The Bible in order, staged by guilds.
Where people slip
Mystery here means guild, not puzzle.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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