The main story of Corpus Christi day closed with the Ascension of Jesus into heaven, some plays about Mary that I’ll get to next, and last and at the very end of time: Judgment Day. The last stories had a good chance of being played out under darkening skies. The sun set at approximately 8:30 pm in Northern England in June; the play cycle had been running since just after dawn, making full use of the long day, but with 48 plays, the last ones probably didn’t start their turn to perform at the first stop until the afternoon. Each pageant wagon probably spent at least 8 hours on the road and “The Last Supper” must have retired before the final wagon had a slot to begin. It may be that these final plays took place essentially in the dark.
We know a lot about how “Doomsday” was produced because the Mercers’ Guild left us a contract from 1443 in which the Pageant-Master committed to having the Mercers’ wagon returned to its storage shed. It lists all of the removable, portable (stealable) props and costumes that needed to go to the Mercers Hall. (My source for this is an article by Alexandra Johnston and Margaret Dorrell, published by Leeds University.) Johnston and Dorrell make the point that the Mercers may have been more than usual dependent on hiring clerks and directors to handle their play, because many of their leading members were also on the City Council, therefore seated in a place of honor (Common Hall) to watch the cycle while nibbling on their special shield-shaped cookie. They were also one of the richest guilds, including all merchants both local and international. Their pageant-wagon may have been the best, and they certainly chose the last play to have the last impression on the crowd.
In the Doomsday play, Jesus is the judge of souls, dressed in a tunic that bears the marks of his wounds on the cross. His speech in verse opens the play—but that’s not all. He entered on a seat that could be raised or lowered; he was lowered from the clouds at the top of the wagon. The seat was made of an iron frame, and it was hung from a larger iron frame. This larger frame stood in sockets on the wagon’s stage, holding all of the weight of curtains, angels, hanging seat, and wind-up mechanism.
Behind the seat of judgment, there was a large cloud hanging from the iron frame, with a rainbow made of “timber.” There were twenty angels. The seven large ones each held the “passion,” though I’m not sure what that meant. (Was it a crucifix?) The smallest ones were attached to the top rail and could be moved by pulling on a cord; maybe they circled around a pulley system? This made them “renne aboute in the heuen.” Johnston and Dorrell speculate that the angels were made of straw and covered with fabric, but that perhaps their heads and hands were made of wood or plaster to look more realistic. A straw body would certainly be lighter in weight than a whole wooden one. There were also banners with symbols of the Trinity.
In 1463, the Mercers paid to have some new equipment for the play. Johnston and Dorrell’s best interpretation of the financial records is that starting then, and over the next few years, the main pageant-wagon probably added two things that sat separately on the street. They may have been mounted as carts, that is, with two wheels, or they may have been carried from stop to stop on the main stage and then set down onto the street. One was a “Hell Mouth,” into which damned souls would have to descend. The other was some kind of structure for four dead souls to rise out of, when the trumpet called them. It may have been shaped like a tomb, or it may have just been a smaller stage that linked to the main one. Before they had this additional piece, the souls who came to be judged may have walked from around back of the wagon when the trumpet sounded. They would have been concealed even so, because the wagon had a curtain around all of the wheels, on all four sides.
In the play, Jesus/God as Judge opens with a long speech, then two angels announce that they will fetch souls. These angels wore wings, which were noted in some later records, because at least one of the Mercers’ sets of wings was lost or damaged. In 1462, they hired wings for the production, perhaps using some from a Creation wagon that had long since ended its run. The second angel may have been a hired trumpeter, since his “Therfore rise uppe!” must have been spoken just before or after the trumpet blast.
Then four souls step forward out of the tombs, which must have been a dramatic moment. If they were at street level, then they stood almost among the audience. This was good for dramatic effect, because the purpose of this play was to remind each man that someday he would stand before a judgment seat. The first two souls are good, and each makes a short speech of trust in God’s mercy. Then the bad souls speak at length, crying “Allas, allas, and welaway!” The first one says that they have abjured the Host, while the second goes a step beyond, saying they sacrificed to Satan while everyone else was asleep. They have no hope, and they’re right. The angel tells the souls to separate:
The goode on his right hande ye goe,
The way till hevene he will you wisse [guide].
Ye weryed [accursed] wightis, ye flee hym froo,
On his lefte hande as none of his.
Two Apostles join Deus in making the final judgment, while three devils stand by to receive the wicked. Probably the Apostles stood on either side of the hanging seat, while the devils were at street level. Their “Hell Mouth” may also have had room to conceal them until it was time for them to come out and speak their lines. What else did the Hell Mouth have? I’ve read elsewhere that Doomsday plays took advantage of the darkness to make the most of fire or even primitive fireworks. They probably had iron pots with fire, at the least.
In the final judgment, Jesus speaks to the souls as sketched out in the Gospel of John:
Whenne I was hungery ye me fedde,
To slake my thirste youre harte was free,
Whanne I was clothles ye me cledde;
Ye wolde no sorowe uppon me see.
The good souls respond that they didn’t see Jesus, but he says that whenever they did good to “any that nede,” he was there. The wicked souls, of course, hear that they left Jesus in prison, starving, naked, or in pain, and did nothing about it. They ask where he was? and of course he replies that when they were unkind to anyone,
To me was that unkyndines kyd;
Therefore ye bere this bittir blame.
To leste or moste whan ye it did,
To me ye did the selve and the same.
And so the good souls are invited to come up with Jesus, and the bad souls are dragged into the Hell Mouth by gleeful devils. The play closes with music from the angels, perhaps a larger choir than could fit onto the stage. And so closed the York Corpus Christi Cycle, as the last wagon played out Doomsday at each stop.
The wagons collected on Toft Green, at the end of the route, and probably long before the last ones were in play, the first ones had been packed up and returned to storage, where their directors went over a check list of movable props and costumes. The Mercers’ Guild notes additional expense for a dinner for the players; Johnston and Dorrell speculate that this was a festive dinner served at the Mercers’ Hall late at night. It’s likely that every guild put on a dinner like this for their pageant’s personnel.