SOURCE: "Joseph," in Drama and Religion in the English Mystery Plays, Stanford University Press, 1961, pp. 89-92.

In the excerpt below, Prosser examines York XIII, Joseph's Trouble about Mary, finding in it an innovative and vigorous portrayal of Joseph's doubts about his wife's virtue. Whereas the Chester treatment of this episode is sketchy, Prosser points out, the York play includes extended dialogues between the couple in which Joseph passionately scorns Mary and expresses his personal shame.

The best Joseph plays [in the English mysteries]… are those which most effectively fuse dramatic structure and doctrine…. [The] doctrine of repentance became the playwrights' most useful tool despite the fact that repeantance does not figure in the gospel accounts and medieval sources. In the gospel version (Matt. 1:19-24), Joseph learned of Mary's pregnancy and, "being a just man and not willing publicly to expose her, was minded to put her away privily...