Middle English Literature

Plays and Representations
Lollards often objected to any visual representation of religious subjects,
including paintings, illuminations, and sculptures (even crosses) (see “Loll-
ardy Trials,” p. 59, “Censorship,” p. 242, and the “Chaucer portrait: Thomas
Hoccleve, Regiment of Princes,” p. 141). Such a rejection of images was
part of a more general late medieval desire for unmediated communication
with God and a relationship that was also outside established institutional
conventions. Criticisms of devotion to images were frequently coupled with
anti-pilgrimage discourse because of a common objection to the veneration
of saints (see “Pilgrimage,” p. 32). Lollards and orthodox Church authori-
ties began reviving the much older iconoclastic controversies before the
1370s, but debates flourished in the last decades of the fourteenth century
and into the fifteenth century.
Written some time before 1425, the Tretise of Miraclis Pleyinge offers an
analysis of plays that is rare for the Lollards, indeed for any medieval English
text, and how much it derives its ideas directly from Wycliffite notions has
been debated. The Tretise, which falls into two parts (of which the first is
included here), appears in an anthology of writings critical of clerical and
other religious customs. The first part on the plays is written in a scholastic
9
William of Malmesbury (ca. 1095–1143), Gesta pontificum Anglorum.
10
piercing, shrill.
11
grating.
12
grain-growing.

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style, with objections raised and then methodically answered (see also
“Enarratio (Analysis and Exposition of Texts),” p. 249).
Primary documents and further reading
Barnum, P. H. (ed.) (1976, 1980) Dives and Pauper, 2 parts. EETS, o.s. 275, 280.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hudson, A. (ed.) (1978) Selections from English Wycliffite Writings. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
—— (1988) The Premature Reformation: Wycliffite Texts and Lollard History. Oxford:
Clarendon Press.
Nichols, A. E. (1994) Seeable Signs: The Iconography of the Seven Sacraments, 1350–
1544. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press.
Nissé, R. (1998) “Staged Interpretations: Civic Rhetoric and Lollard Politics in the
York Plays.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 28: 427–52.
Pecock, R. (1860) The Repressor of Overmuch Blaming of the Clergy, vol. 1, ed.
C. Babington. London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts.
Woolf, R. (1972) The English Mystery Plays. Berkeley: University of California Press.
British Library MS Additional 24202, fols. 14r–17v. In C. Davidson (ed.) (1993) A Tretise of
Miraclis Pleyinge. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute, 93–104.
Language: English (Southeast Midland)
Manuscript date: ca. 1425
Here beginnis a tretise of miraclis pleyinge.
Knowe yee, Cristen men, that as Crist, God and man, is bothe weye,
trewth, and lif, as seith the gospel of Jon
1
– weye to the erringe, trewthe to
the unknowing and douting, lif to the styinge to hevene and weryinge – so
Crist dude no thinge to us but efectuely in weye of mercy, in treuthe of
ritwesnes, and in lif of yilding everlastinge joye for oure contunuely morn-
ing and sorwinge in the valey of teeres. Miraclis, therfore, that Crist dude
heere in erthe, outher in himsilf outher in hise seintis, weren so efectuel and
in ernest done that to sinful men that erren they broughten forgivenesse
of sinne, settinge hem in the weye of right bileve; to doutouse men not
stedefast they broughten in kunning to betere plesen God and verry hope in
God to been stedefast in him; and to the wery of the weye of God, for the
grette penaunce and suffraunce of the tribulacion that men moten have
therinne, they broughten in love of brynninge charite to the whiche alle
1
John 14.6.
Plays and Representations
263

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264
Textualities
thing is light, yhe to suffere dethe, the whiche men most dreden, for the
everlastinge lif and joye that men most loven and disiren of the whiche
thing verry hope puttith awey all werinesse heere in the weye of God.
Thanne, sithen miraclis of Crist and of hise seintis weren thus efectuel, as
by oure bileve we ben in certein, no man shulde usen in bourde and pleye
the miraclis and werkis that Crist so ernystfully wroughte to oure helthe. For
whoevere so doth, he errith in the byleve, reversith Crist, and scornyth God.
He errith in the bileve, for in that he takith the most precious werkis of God
in pley and bourde, and so takith his name in idil and so misusith oure byleve.
A, Lord, sithen an erthely servaunt dar not takun in pley and in bourde that
that his erthely lord takith in ernest, myche more we shulden not maken oure
pleye and bourde of tho miraclis and werkis that God so ernestfully wrought
to us. For sothely whan we so doun, drede to sinne is takun awey, as a
servaunt, whan he bourdith with his maister, leesith his drede to offendyn
him, namely whanne be bourdith with his maister in that that his maister
takith in ernest. And right as a nail smiten in holdith two thingis togidere, so
drede smiten to Godward holdith and susteineth oure bileve to him.
Therfore, right as pleyinge and bourdinge of the most ernestful werkis of
God takith aweye the drede of God that men shulden han in the same, so
it takith awey oure bileve and so oure most helpe of oure savacion. And sith
taking awey of oure bileve is more venjaunce taking than sodeyn taking
awey of oure bodily lif, and whanne we takun in bourde and pley the most
ernestful werkis of God as ben hise miraclis, God takith awey fro us his
grace of mekenesse, drede, reverence, and of oure bileve; thanne, whanne
we pleyin his miraclis as men don nowe on dayes, God takith more venjaunce
on us than a lord that sodaynly sleeth his servaunt for he pleyide to homely
with him. And right as that lord thanne in dede seith to his servaunt, “Pley
not with me but pley with thy pere,” so whanne we takun in pley and in
bourde the miraclis of God, he, fro us takinge his grace, seith more ernestfully
to us than the forseid lord, “Pley not with me but pley with thy pere.”
Therfore, siche miraclis pleyinge reversith Crist. Firste in taking to pley
that that he toke into most ernest. The secound in taking to miraclis of
oure fleyss, of oure lustis, and of oure five wittis that that God tooc to the
bringing in of his bitter deth and to teching of penaunse doinge, and to
fleyinge of feding of oure wittis and to mortifying of hem. And therfore it is
that seintis myche noten that of Cristis lawghing we reden never in holy
writt, but of his myche penaunse, teris, and scheding of blod, doying us to
witen therby that alle oure doing heere shulde ben in penaunce, in disciplining
of oure fleyssh, and in penaunce of adversite. And therfore alle the werkis that
we don that ben out of alle thes thre utturly reversen Cristis werkis. And

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therfore seith Seint Poul that “Yif yee been out of discipline, of the whiche
alle gode men ben maad perceneris,
2
thanne avoutreris yee ben and not
sones of God.”
3
And sith miraclis pleynge reversen penaunce doying as they
in greet liking ben don and to grete liking ben cast biforn, there as penaunce
is in gret mourning of hert and to greet mourning is ordeinyd biforne.
It also reversith dissipline, for in verry discipline the verry vois of oure
maister Crist is herd as a scoler herith the vois of his maister, and the yerd
4
of God in the hond of Crist is seyn, in the whiche sight alle oure othere thre
wittis for drede tremblyn and quaken as a childe tremblith seing the yerde
of his maister. And the thridde in verry dissipline is verry turning awey and
forgeting of alle tho thingis that Crist hatith and turnyde himsilf awey heere
as a childe undir dissipline of his maister turnith him awey fro alle thingis
that his maister hath forbedun him and forgetith hem for the greet minde
that he hath to doun his maistris wille.
And for thes thre writith Seint Petur, seyinge, “Be yee mekid
5
undur the
mighty hond of God that he henhaunce
6
you in the time of visiting, all
youre bisinesse throwinge in him.”
7
That is, “be yee mekid,” that is, to
Crist, heringe his voice by verry obeschaunce to his hestis; and “undur the
mighty hond of God,” seeing evere more his yird to chastisen us in his
hond yif we waxen wantown or idil, bethenking us, seith Seint Petre, that
“hidous and ferful it is to fallen into the hondis of God on live.”
8
For right
as most joye it is to steyen up into the hond of the mercy of God, so it is
most hidous and ferful to fallen into the hondis of the wrathe of God.
Therfore, mekely drede we him heere evere more seing and thenkinge his
yerde overe oure hevyd, and thanne he shal enhauncyn us elliswhere in time
of his graceous visiting.
9
So that alle oure bisinesse we throwyn in him, that
is, that alle othere erthely werkis we don not but to don his gostly werkis
more frely and spedely and more plesauntly to him tristing, that to him is
cure over us, that is, yif we don to him that that is in oure power, he schal
mervelousely don to us that that is in his power bothe in dylivering us fro
alle perilis and in giving us graciously al that us nedith or willen axen of
him.
2