The Digby Plays (Early English Text Society Original Series)

There’s nothing here as good as The Castle of Perseverance. I think I might have mined out the best of medieval drama some time ago. However, Mary Magdalen is well worth a go. It’s a proper biopic. A bit clunky at a couple of points, the introduction of the King of Marseilles for example, but the author’s control of tone is really impressive, and the range of them, everything from funny to sad. The seven devils could be really sinister if staged well.

There’re a couple of plays that are quite astonishing. The Conversion of St Paul, a completely serious play into which a later author has interpolated dance numbers and a scene in which two devils come on and do a comedy routine. Or The Killing of the Children in which the whole show more thing is played for laughs. Real gallows humour, but I suppose it was written at a time when corruption and human ights offences were a sign of a smoothly working government.

The two plays from E Museo 160 might not be good stagecraft, but there’s something about the way the author writes that’s just really enjoyable. The account in the introduction of the manuscript these come from is really interesting. If someone were to edit the whole thing they can have a doctorate and a guaranteed sale.

As usual with these EETS editions, the whole thing is really well done with an excellent glossary and notes… with the exception of the notes to Wisdom which just refer you to those in The Macro Plays. Annoying. show less