James--
I have provided as complete a list as I could compile of all ludi
that scholars have referred to as saint plays in: _Communitas: The Play of
Saints in Late Medieval and Tudor England," _Mediaevalia_, 18 (1995, for
1992), 81-109. The record you cite is the earliest to specify Thomas
Becket; however, the thesis of my essay is that we have identified church
ales and other such activities as dramas because of the use of the words
ludus or pley. There are sufficient numbers of records to indicate that
these terms can be translated as "game" or something of the like and that
the activity takes place _on_ the Saint's day, not that the ludus is a
drama about the saint's life. I classify the record you cite as
"uncertain."
Larry Clopper
On Sun, 18 Jan 1998, J C Cummings wrote:
> Dear REED-L'ers
>
> Clifford Davidson mentions in his article 'The Middle English Saint Play and
> its Iconography' (The Saint Play in Medieval Europe, p. 53) that the earliest
> recorded play of St. Thomas Becket is from King's Lynn in 1384/5. I was
> wondering if this is still the case or whether any records indicating
> an earlier performance of a St. Thomas Becket play anywhere have been
> unearthed in recent research.
>
> Many thanks for your help,
>
> James Cummings
> University of Leeds
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
> --
> James Cummings | School of English, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK.
> E-mail: [log in to unmask] | WWW: http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~engjcc
>
