Feminizing the liturgy: the N-Town Mary Play and fifteenth-century convent drama

Journal article

This essay sets two fifteenth-century vernacular plays which each incorporate key Latin citations from the liturgy alongside one another: the N-Town Mary Play and a piece of convent drama from fifteenth-century Burgundy. The Mary Play's incorporation of the Latin Magnificat, recited by Mary and translated into English by her cousin Elizabeth, dramatizes female "ownership" and transmission of the Word of God, and the power of the female voice to teach and transmit key theological concepts; recent critical approaches to N-Town have also emphasized the importance of seeking northern continental analogues in its features, given the play's likely East Anglian provenance. I respond to both of these critical strands by comparing the Mary Play's "feminized" use of the Latin liturgy to the liturgical citations incorporated into a vernacular Nativity play composed and performed by nuns. I explore the ways in which each play makes careful use of the Latin liturgy as a dramatic tool, and I discuss how and why particular liturgical citations have been incorporated into the dramatic script. I argue that translation of the liturgy into the vernacular can be read as a self-conscious use of the on-stage female voice to comment on its significance as an act of worship.

Authors: Robinson, O

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Swiss Association of University Teachers of English
• Journal: Swiss Papers in English Language and Literature
• Volume: 31
• Pages: 71-88
• Publication date: 2015-11-01
• ISSN: 0940-0478
• ISBN: 9783823369681
• Language: English