Realism in the Medieval Mystery Plays
type: CreativeWork
description: An intensive study and analysis of some of the medieval mystery plays—remnants of the York, Townley, Coventry, and Chester Cycles—will inevitably show that realism was very prevalent in the literature of the fourteenth century. Of course Langland's Piers Plowman and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales are even better evidences of this fact, but somehow the spirit of any age is nowhere in literature as vividly and correctly depicted and reflected as in its plays. To account for this dominant realistic literary tendency, perhaps a brief survey of the political and social background, followed by a short antecedent history of the English drama might here be, both appropriate and enlightening.
abstract: An intensive study and analysis of some of the medieval mystery plays—remnants of the York, Townley, Coventry, and Chester Cycles—will inevitably show that realism was very prevalent in the literature of the fourteenth century. Of course Langland's Piers Plowman and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales are even better evidences of this fact, but somehow the spirit of any age is nowhere in literature as vividly and correctly depicted and reflected as in its plays. To account for this dominant realistic literary tendency, perhaps a brief survey of the political and social background, followed by a short antecedent history of the English drama might here be, both appropriate and enlightening.
author: Barta de, Mary Antoinette N.D.
language: en_US
date published: 1933
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:52:13Z
provider: Creighton University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Creighton University

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/10504/91863