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Animal bladders were use -- see Preston's Cambises for a pretty graphic depiction of spurting blood, along with a specific stage direction clarifying the process.

Helen Ostovich

On 14 May 2010 19:26, Michael O'Connell <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
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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Dr H M Ostovich
<[log in to unmask]>
Editor, Early Theatre
Professor, English and Cultural Studies
McMaster University
Hamilton ON L8S 4L9  
Canada