See my "sacred Blood and the late Medieval Stage," in my History, Religion, and Vilence: Cultural Contexts for Medieval and Renaissance English Drama (Ashgate, 2002), esp. 189-91.
Clifford Davidson
----- Original Message -----
From: Michael O'Connell <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Friday, May 14, 2010 7:26 pm
Subject: Query about blood
> Does anyone know of records that indicate how the portrayal of the
> shedding of blood was managed on the late English medieval stage?
> There
> are of course a good many references to the blood that Christ sheds
> in
> the passion through last judgment pageants, and I'm assuming this
> was
> graphically represented. And the slaughter of the innocents was
> another
> likely scene of grotesque bloodshed. Were animal bladders or
> leather
> sacks used?
>
> There are a number of references to French theater in John Spalding
> Gatton's 1991 essay, and Abigail has put me on to a reference to
> blood
> in a leather sack in a Becket play in Canterbury.
>
> Are there other records in English sources?
>
> Michael O'Connell
>
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