For all those studying in the department of English Literature, it is the grand old tradition to fall victim to the very sloth and consuming lesson of the York plays. And for the readers who are unaware of these gruesomely boring plays, you are not missing out on anything unless you would like to see the creation of man to the last judgement over the course of forty-eight plays with the same actors over and over again.
As someone in the English degree path and a survivor of these teachings, I cannot recall a single significant detail of these performances other than the fact that they were popular for their time. Otherwise, they are useful to train one’s mental strength and to drain the life out of those less fortunate. Paired with England’s long history of changing churches and royal families, the York plays only serve to point out the unbalanced power that religion held over the people and the limited mindset of the time. There was no other form of entertainment until the glorious miracle of the early modern period. Can you imagine watching the same plays every year about Christianity and at the same time attending church regularly? It is a form of torture and a prison for those unaware.
Christianity is not the reason for me to harbour such hatred towards these plays. Many forms of literature I have studied are heavily influenced by Christianity, such as Paradise Lost and of course, Shakespeare. However, they both succeed in creating texts that can stand alone strongly and differ enough to actually matter. They are profound and worth conversing over. Meanwhile, the York plays just seem like a dramatised version of the bible. Nothing stands out from them. I think the only interesting thing about them was the fact that they were performed on travelling wagons around England by different guilds. Just hearing about that tired me out.
There is no harm in leaving them out either. They are still really popular today and constantly being performed throughout England nearly every year. There is no sign of them being erased from history. It is more like they are taking up the space of another subject that could be studied and therefore my time would not be wasted. I personally enjoyed learning about the Restoration comedies. It showcased that people back then had a sense of humour outside of religion, even if it was crude.
“York-England” by PnP! is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0