SOURCE: "The Poetry of the Play," in Poetry and Drama in the York Corpus Christi Play, Archon Books, 1978, pp. 38-61.

In the following excerpt, first published in 1977, Collier analyzes the language and versification of the York plays, emphasizing the flexibility, effectiveness, and appropriateness of both. More than twenty different stanzaic forms appear in the York cycle, he points out, with different forms used for different kinds of episodes, characters, and dramatic action. Collier discerns three levels of style or language in these plays—ornate, formulaic, and colloquial. The use of vernacular language and the prevalence of the formulaic style are wholly in keeping, he remarks, with "a drama which is the most popular and communal we know. "

The Verse Form

At the time the Corpus Christi plays were written, one entrenched authoritarian attitude was that verse was to be condemned and avoided as a way of communicating God's...