THE COMPOSITION OF THE CHESTER ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS

Abstract

This play has frequently been commented upon for the comic scenes which it contains and which make it stand out from the normally serious and devout rest of the Chester cycle. As is well known, the pageant contains a /Zi/£ingr-cumwrestling-bout between the three Shepherds and their servant, Trowle, äs well äs a parody by the Shepherds of the Angel's Gloria in excelsis. Since the play is metrically much more heterogeneous than other parts of the cycle, the obvious eonclusion is that the Shepherds Play has been reworked and that the comic parts are later additions. This is, in fact, the view held by the most respected authorities. But not only does this theory enjoy the backing of such eminent scholars äs E.K.Chambers and Hardin Craig, it is also in line with the general opinion, most succinctly expressed by Craig, that the oldest sections of the English mystery play s "have a simple fidelity to religious story and religious feeling" and that "all redactions of which we have any knowledge are in the direction of secularity humorous, didactic, or narrative". This paper endeavours to suggest that the rather simplistic distinction between comic and secular on the one hand and aerious and religious on the other, must be modified and that some comic action has been part of the original structure of our play. The demonstration will have to start from a rather