Date and Composition of the York Cycle and the York Crucifixion

• written text comes from the collection of plays in the manuscript called the "York Register" of the Corpus Christi play, dated ca. 1463-77
• would have been performed on a pageant wagon, in a procession through the streets of York with other pageants of the cycle
• guild "ownership" ascribed to the Pinners (makers of wooden pegs)
• one of the plays whose author appears to have been an anonymous literary artist who has come to be known to modern critics as the "York Realist" because of his skill at creating dramatic realism through the use of
  • "concrete detail,
  • colloquial speech, and
  • grotesque humor" (Longman, 506).
• focuses on the end of Christ's life
• The ignorant Soldiers responsible for crucifying Christ do not realize the" larger significance of their actions" (506), thus "they can be seen as representing fallen mankind in need of Christ's forgiveness" (506).
• Humor is generated through the banter and physical buffoonery of the Soldiers as they try to make Christ stretch to fit the holes they have bored in the cross.
  • Audience members, laughing at this comedy, are made to feel complicit in the death of Christ.
  • This textual and physical comedy stands in stark contrast to Christ's virtually silent suffering.
    • This moving portrayal of Christ's stoicism balances "the heroic Christ who defeats Satan and the human Christ who suffers" (506-7).
    • Like the five wounds of Christ depicted on Sir Gawain's shield, this portrayal of the suffering Christ was a manifestation of the movement toward personal piety, "intended to inspire the laity to meditation by focusing on Christ's wounds" (507).

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