The Preaching Fox: Festive Subversion in the Plays of the Wakefield Master

First published 2005 by Routledge.

New readers of the Wakefield Master's work are invariably struck by the festive nature of the plays. Characters threaten the audience with comic bravado, engage in mocking tomfoolery, and parody any number of sacred forms; it is behavior unexpected by modern students of the drama, especially from what we assume was a serious and religious medieval past, and it is unlike what we find in the other mystery cycles. The comic elements have drawn a variety of reactions, from denunciation to acclaim, but critics have been unable to reach a consensus as to how they actually function in the plays. Beyond the odd stage direction and what we can occasionally glean from the dialogue, we have no idea how the plays were staged or how the medieval audience might have interacted with them, and lacking such contextual dues, we are left to speculate on the significance of the festive forms. In this text, I present a study of how festive elements allow a variety of subversive readings, while not, of course, asserting that these are the only possible readings of the plays. Whether or not readers accept these interpretations, they must, if they are truly to appreciate the plays, come to some understanding of the role festive forms play in the drama.