A perfectly done little anthology that tours the older, obscurer corners of English drama. The big draw here, and the reason why this volume is a perennial bestseller, is The Pride of Life. According to Wikipedia this is the oldest surviving English play (or at least 500 lines of it) dating from about 1350. The manuscript was blown up by the IRA in 1922, but not before it had been printed. It’s not an easy read, being written in an Anglo-Irish dialect with which I am unfamiliar. It took me five hours to read those 500 lines. I wouldn’t have minded, but it’s not actually very good. The same holds true for much of the stuff in here – the interest outweighs the literary quality, with the possible exception of ‘Reynes Extract A’, about the wonders of nature “and þe bewté of women specyaly, with ther whyte pappys poppyd vp prately”.

There’s also the Cambridge Prologue, on which Wikipedia is silent. This dates from about 1275. The prologue to a lost play, essentially the equivalent to the Prolocutor’s speech in Pride of Life, delivered first in Norman French and then in English. Rather enlightening as to the ethnic split still existing in the country at that late date. Perhaps the entire thing was bilingual.

I’ll not enumerate everything in the volume. You’ll just have to trust me that it’s all very interesting. The editor’s approach is to make the texts readable while interfering with them as little as possible. There’s an excellent glossary, but no explanatory notes. I hardly missed them though as the introductions (which are as long as the actual texts) are so good. I really can’t fault it as an anthology.

It replaces an earlier EETS volume, ‘ The Non-Cycle Mystery Plays’ ES 104. This new version has some extra pieces. I’ve not seen the earlier one, but EETS not being for profit they’re really not inclined to replace volumes unnecessarily. The editor, Osborn Waterhouse, appears to have been a dribbling idiot and comes in for some criticism here. Apparently he lost the manuscript of the Norwich Grocers’ Play. Don’t know if he was also a member of the IRA. ( )