Play 22a, The Marriage in Cana

The Vintenors
	ARCHEDECLYNE1 Loo, this is a yoyfull day For me and . . .

Play 22a, THE MARRIAGE IN CANA: FOOTNOTES

1 Speech heading: Master of the Feast at Cana

Play 22a, THE MARRIAGE IN CANA: EXPLANATORY NOTES

Only a portion of the first speech was entered in the Register. The Ordo paginarum, though in imperfect condition at this point, reported a play about Jesus, Mary, the bridegroom and bride, a steward, a servant, and six containers of water to be turned into wine. The attribution to the Vintners was recorded over an erasure. In the Register the play was to have followed the Temptation, whereas King has pointed out that the liturgical order should have placed it after the Baptism — the original order of the listing in the Ordo paginarum.1 The Marriage at Cana was designated as a reading for Mass at the second Sunday following the octave of Epiphany.

Play 22a, THE MARRIAGE IN CANA: TEXTUAL NOTES

ABBREVIATIONS: Bevington: David Bevington, ed., Medieval Drama (1975); Köbling: E. Köbling, “Beiträge zur Erklärung und Textkritik der York Plays”; LTS: Lucy Toulmin Smith, ed., The York Plays (1885); RB: Richard Beadle, ed., The York Plays (1972) (incorporating numerous emendations from other sources); RB²: Richard Beadle, “Corrections to The York Plays,” in Gerald Byron Kinneavy, A Concordance to the York Plays (1986), pp. xxxi–xxxii; s.d.: stage direction; Sykes: A. C. Cawley, ed., “The Sykes MS of the York Scriveners’ Play”; Towneley: Martin Stevens and A. C. Cawley, eds., The Towneley Plays.

The base text for this edition is London, British Library, MS. Add. 35290, called the “Register” in the York civic records and here identified by the abbreviation Reg. Some variations in lineation from the manuscript are not noted here; see RB and Beadle and Meredith’s The York Play: A Facsimile. In most cases the line numbering in the present text is consistent with RB. Lineation of alliterative verse throughout is based on Reg, with line numbering adjusted accordingly to account for half lines. Scribes are identified as follows: Scribe A; Scribe B: main scribe; JC: John Clerke; LH: later scribal hand (unidentified).

Incipit for this play is only entered in handwriting of JC; subsequent folios blank, with catchword for The Transfiguration on page prior to its opening.

Play 22a, THE MARRIAGE IN CANA: EXPLANATORY NOTE FOOTNOTES

Footnote 1 King, York Mystery Cycle, pp. 35–36.