There is no fall of the angels in the Norwich play; it is a Creation and
Fall of Adam and Eve. There is one angel that stands guard at the gates
of Eden after the expulsion. this is the 1565 version. There is a gap in
the MS of the earlier version between God's appearance in Eden and the
scene with A&E after they have been expelled. So it would appear that the
ape skinns are part of the costume of the angel at the gates of Eden.
Larry
On Wed, 16 Feb 2000, Gloria J Betcher wrote:
> Does the Norwich Creation Play include a Fall of the Angels along with the
> Fall of Man? If so, perhaps these "over hose" were shaggy and ape-like (if
> not made of ape skin) and were meant to be pulled on over a fallen angel's
> original hose when this angel became a devil. Some sort of costume change
> would certainly be required. I can't explain, though, why the inventory
> includes only one angel's coat
>
>
> Gloria Betcher
>
> At 01:48 PM 2/16/00 -0500, you wrote:
> >Angels' legs might have feathers, but were never hairy. Furry legs were
> >reserved for devils.
> >
> >Cliff Davidson
> >
> >On Wed, 16 Feb 2000, Gloria J Betcher wrote:
> >
> >> At 12:44 PM 2/16/00 -0500, Alan Baragona wrote:
> >> >Well, the Norwich inventory does pair "apis skinns" with an "angel cote,"
> >> but I
> >> >took it to be a contrast. Perhaps not. That's a very interesting
> >> possibility.
> >> >
> >> >Alan B.
> >> >
> >>
> >> I tend to agree with Larry that these over-hose might have been used to
> >> give the angel's legs a shaggy appearance. It doesn't seem likely that this
> >> entry contains a contrast of costume items. If one looks at David
> >> Galloway's _REED: Norwich, 1540-1642_, one will find a number of other
> >> pairings of cotes and hose in the same 1565 (I think) inventory for the
> >> Grocers, which seems to suggest these were sets of costume pieces.
> >>
> >> Gloria Betcher
> >> ***************************
> >> Dept. of English
> >> Iowa State University
> >> 206 Ross Hall
> >> Ames, IA 50011
> >> (515) 294-3026
> >> http://www.public.iastate.edu/~gbetcher
> >>
> >
>
