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Cotton MS Vespasian D VIII
- Record Id:
- 040-001103305
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001101582
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001273.0x0002d4
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100165161131.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Cotton MS Vespasian D VIII
- Title:
- The N-town Plays
- Scope & Content:
-
A cycle of plays known variously as the N-town plays, the Ludus Coventriae, or the Hegge plays. There are 41 plays in this cycle (labelled up to 42 by the scribe but play 17 is missing). This manuscript represents one of four surviving English Mystery play cycles.
ff. 1r-9v: The Proclamation.
ff. 10r-11r: The Creation of Heaven; The Fall of Lucifer.
ff. 11v-17r: The Creation of the World; The Fall of Man.
ff. 17r-20v: Cain and Abel.
ff. 21r-25v: Noah.
ff. 25v-30r: Abraham and Isaac.
ff. 31r-34v: Moses.
ff. 35r-37r: Jesse Root (a genealogy of Joachim and Anna is included at the bottom of ff. 37r-v).
ff. 37v-42r: Joachim and Anna.
ff. 42r-47v: The Presentation of Mary in the Temple.
ff. 47v-48r: Contemplacio's Link.
ff. 48v: A passage for insertion in the following play, The Marriage of Mary and Joseph, beginning "This ansuere grettly trobelyth me".
ff. 49r-58r: The Marriage of Mary and Joseph.
ff. 58v-66r: The Parliament of Heaven; The Salutation and Conception.
ff. 67r-70v: Joseph's Doubt.
ff. 71r-74r: The Visit to Elizabeth (with an alternate conclusion offered at the bottom of f. 73v, continuing half way down f. 74r from 'Lystenyth, sovereynys, here is a conclusyon').
ff. 74v-81v: The Trial of Mary and Joseph.
ff. 82r-87v: The Nativity.
ff. 88v-91r: The Shepherds.
ff. 92r-97r: The Magi (f. 96v is blank).
ff. 97v-100v: The Purification.
ff. 101r-104v: The Slaughter of the Innocents; The Death of Herod.
ff. 106r-111r: Christ and the Doctors.
ff. 112r-115r: The Baptism.
ff. 116r-119v: The Parliament of Hell; The Temptation.
ff. 121r-126r: The Woman taken in Adultery.
ff. 127v-135v: The Raising of Lazarus.
ff. 136r-146r: Prologues of Satan and John the Baptist; The Conspiracy; The Entry into Jerusalem.
ff. 146r-158r: The Last Supper; The Conspiracy with Judas.
ff. 158r-162r: The Betrayal.
ff. 163r-163v: The Procession of Saints.
ff. 165r-169v: Herod; The Trial before Annas and Caiphas.
ff. 169v-174v: The Death of Judas; The Trials Before Pilate and Herod.
ff. 175r-179r: Satan and Pilate's Wife; The Second Trial Before Pilate.
ff. 179v-185r: The Procession to Calvary; The Crucifixion.
ff. 185r-186r: The Harrowing of Hell (Part 1).
ff. 186r-191r: The Burial; The Guarding of the Sepulchre.
ff. 191r-196r: The Harrowing of Hell (Part 2); Christ's Appearance to Mary; Pilate and the Soldiers.
ff. 196r-199r: The Announcement to the Three Marys; Peter and John at the Sepulchre.
ff. 199r-201r: The Appearance to Mary Magdalene.
ff. 202r-209r: Cleophas and Luke; The Appearance to Thomas.
ff. 210r-211v: The Ascension; The Selection of Matthias.
ff. 212r-212v: Pentecost.
ff. 214r-222v: The Assumption of Mary.
ff. 223v-225v: Judgement Day (incomplete).
Decoration:
Small initials in red at the opening of a number of the plays.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Cotton Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001101582
040-001103305 - Is part of:
- Cotton MS : Cotton Manuscripts
Cotton MS Vespasian D VIII : The N-town Plays - Hierarchy:
- 032-001101582[0972]/040-001103305
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Cotton MS
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
Paper codex
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100165161131.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Middle
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1450
- End Date:
- 1524
- Date Range:
- 2nd half of the 15th century-1st quarter of the 16th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to consult this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: paper.
Dimensions: 215 × 165 mm.
Foliation: ff. i + 225 (folio i is an early modern flyleaf).
Script: Gothic cursive (Anglicana).
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: East Anglia
Provenance:
Robert Hegge (b. c. 1597, d. 1629), antiquary and writer: his signature, 'Roberti Hegge Dunelmensis' (f. 10r), and the inscription, 'Ego R. H. Dunelmensis possideo' (f. 164r).
Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631), 1st baronet, antiquary and politician: a description of the manuscript (f. i recto) provided by Richard James, his librarian.
Cotton's collection was augmented by his son, Sir Thomas Cotton (b. 1594, d. 1662), 2nd baronet, and his grandson, Sir John Cotton. Sir John Cotton (b. 1621, d. 1702), 3rd baronet, who bequeathed the entire Cotton collection of books and manuscripts to trustees 'for Publick Use and Advantage', 12 and 13 William III, c. 7, which then became one of the foundation collections of the British Museum in 1753.
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
- Publications:
-
Beadle, Richard, ''Devoute ymaginacioun' and the Dramatic Sense in Love's Mirror and the N-Town Plays', in Nicholas Love at Waseda: Proceedings of the International Conference, 20-22 July 1995, ed. by Shoichi Oguro and others (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1997), pp. 1-18.
Bennett, Jacob, 'The Language and the Home of the "Ludus Coventriae"', Orbis, 22 (1973), 43-63.
Block, K. S., 'Some Notes on the Problem of the "Ludus Coventriae"', Modern Language Review, 10 (1915), 47-57.
Boffey, Julia and A. S. G. Edwards, A New Index of Middle English Verse (London: The British Library, 2005), no. 2321 (p. 155).
Clark, Thomas Blake, 'A Theory Concerning the Identity and History of the Ludus Coventriae Cycle of Mystery Plays', Philological Quarterly, 12 (1933), 144-69.
Fletcher, Alan J., ‘Marginal Glosses in the N-town Manuscript, British Library, MS Cotton Vespasian D. VIII’, Manuscripta, 25 (1981), 113–17.
Fletcher, Alan J., 'Layers of Revision in the N-Town Marion Cycle', Neophilogus, 66 (1982), 469-78.
Fletcher, Alan J., ‘The N-Town plays’, in The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Theatre, ed. by Richard Beadle and Alan J. Fletcher, 2nd edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), pp. 183–210.
Gibson, Gail McMurray, 'Bury St Edmunds, Lydgate, and the N-Town Cycle', Speculum, 56 (1981), 56-90.
Granger, Penny, ‘Devotion to drama: the N-Town play and religious observance in fifteenth-century East Anglia’, in Medieval East Anglia, ed. by Christopher Harper-Bill (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2005), pp. 302–17.
Greg, W. W., 'The N-Town Plays', Library, 4th series, I (1920-21), 182-84.
Meredith, Peter, & Stanley J. Kahrl, facs. eds., The N-Town Plays: A Facsimile of British Library MS Cotton Vespasian D VIII, Leeds Texts and Monographs, Medieval Drama Facsimiles, 4 (Leeds, 1977).
Meredith, Peter, ‘A Reconsideration of some Textual Problems in the N-Town Manuscript (BL MS Cotton Vespasian D VIII)’, Leeds Studies in English, new series, 9 (1977), 35–50.
Meredith, Peter, 'Scribes, Texts and Performance', in Aspects of Early English Drama, ed. by Paula Neuss (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1983), pp. 13-29.
Meredith, Peter, ‘Manuscript, Scribe and Performance: Further Looks at the N-Town Manuscript’, in Regionalism in Late Medieval Manuscripts and Texts: Essays celebrating the publication of A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English, ed. by Felicity Riddy (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1991), pp. 109–28.
Meredith, Peter, 'Establishing an Expositor's Role: Contemplacio and the N-Town Manuscript', in The Narrator, the Expositor, and the Prompter in European Medieval Theatre, ed. by Philip Butterworth, Medieval Texts and Cultures of Northern Europe, 17 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2007), pp. 289-306.
Mill, Anna J., 'The Miracle Plays and Mysteries', in A Manual of the Writings in Middle English 1050-1500, ed. by Albert E. Hartung (New Haven, CT: The Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1975), pp. 1338-43, 1586-89 [labelled the 'Ludus Coventriae (Hegge Plays)'].
Spector, Stephen, ‘The Composition and Development of an Eclectic Manuscript: Cotton Vespasian D VIII’, Leeds Studies in English, new series, 9 (1977), 62–83.
Spector, Stephen, 'Symmetry in Watermark Sequences', Studies in Bibliography, 31 (1978), 162-78.
Spector, Stephen, 'The Provenance of the N-Town Codex', Library, 6th series, I (1979), 25-33.
Spector, Stephen (ed.), The N-Town Play: Cotton Vespasian D.8, Early English Texts Society, 11-12 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)