English Mystery Palys: The Killing Of Abel

The English Mystery Plays are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe. The plays were written as part of a theological message and were intended to be an act of teaching and worship combined. Moreover the aim of these plays was to celebrate the Christian story from the Creation to Doomsday, with two central peaks in the Nativity and the Passion of Christ. There are four complete or nearly complete extant English biblical collections of plays (referred to as "cycles"): the York, the Ludus Coventriae, the Chester and the Towneley cycles. This last cycle includes The Killing of Abel, the play that will be analized in this essay.

In order to have a better understanding of this play one should be acquainted with the account of the fall of Lucifer to Hell. In fact Lucifer is the instigator of the fall of man from the Earthly Paradise, (Genesis 3: 1-7, 13-15). Moreover, in the Holy Bible everything which goes against God's will is explained by mean of Lucifer. He is depicted as the instigator, the tempter (Matthew 4: 1-11), the accuser, (Job 1: 9-11; Zechariah 3: 1-5; John's Apocalypses 12: 10) and the evil (John's First Letter 5: 18-19). Even the story of Adam and Eve could be explained as a consequence of the fall of Lucifer (the rebel angel takes revenge on God by persuading Adam and Eve to pick the apple from the forbidden tree) and also the account of Cain and Abel is a completion of the Fall. It shows how the corruption of man -and society too- intensifies. This idea of the beginning of a corrupted society is extremely evident in The Killing of Abel and everything culminates in the murder of Abel.

The first rather odd fact one learns by reading the opening stanzas of The Killing of Abel is that Cain is a master and that has got a servant. Where does this servant come from? Is he a son of Adam and Eve? This could only be clarified by thinking that the English Mystery Plays are a reinterpretation or, even better, a reinvention of the Holy Bible. In fact one does not find any further explanation all along the play and even in the Bible there are no references to any possible Cain's servant.

The Killing of Abel opens as Cain's saucy ploughboy Garcio (also called "Pykes-harnes") enters the scene and says:

All hayll, all hayll, both blithe and glad, For here com I, a mery lad!

Be peasse youre dyn, my master bad,

Or els the dwill you spede. (ll 1-4)

These opening words have two purposes: to prepare the audience for Garcio's contentious master (he warns the listeners not to pick a quarrel with Cain) and for a comedy. The characters of Garcio and Cain often show some irony all along the play. The first good example of that can be found in the first stanza where the expression "He must blaw my blak hoill bore" (l 7) is the first of a series of obscenities (cf. ll 59, 63-4, 88, 238, 287) which are grotesque, comic and indicate the picture of human corruption.

In stanza three Cain makes his first appearance. The first impression he gives is that is extremely vulgar. Moreover by cursing his mere one has the feeling that Cain is quite rude and a severe master:

Io furth, Greynhorne! And war oute, Gryme!

Drawes on! God gif you ill to tyme!

Ye stand as ye were fallen in swyme.

What, will ye no forther, mare?

Yit, shrew, yit, pull on a thraw. (ll 25-30)

As one might expect, a quarrel between Garcio and Cain begins. In fact Garcio refuses to help is master who cannot both hold the plough and drive the mere at the same time. The two prepare to fight as Abel enters. The first sentence pronounced by Abel is: "God, as he both may and can" (l 57). This allows the audience to understand that he is very devoted. Moreover, since the first word he states is "God" one could suppose that Abel might also be afraid of God's great power. The difference of behaviour between the two protagonists of the play becomes extremely evident as Cain replies to Abel's first cue:

Com kis myne ars! Me list not ban,

As welcome standys the route.

Thou shuld have bide til thou were cald;

Com nar, and other drife or hald,

And kys the dwillis toute. (ll 59-63)

In the play Abel is shown as a type of obedience. His devotion is so strong that he exhorts his brother to worship God by offering him a part of cattle or corn:

Com furth, brothere, and let us gang

To worship God; we dwell full lang;

Gif we hym parte of oure fee,

Corne or catall, wheder it be. (ll 73-76)

Cain does not understand the reason why he should offer some goods when in actual fact God has given him nothing but sorrow and woe.

Shuld I leife my plough and all thing

And go with the to make offering?

Nay, thou fyndys me not so mad!

Go to the dwill, and say I bad!

What gifys God the, to rose hym so?

Me gifys he noght bot soro and wo. (ll 91-97)

So far Cain does not seem evil. He is a severe master but works hard too. He is complaining against his brother's will because he considers God just as another normal person. He believes God has not done anything concrete in order to deserve some goods. Cain could be considered the same as many others among the audience: poor medieval farmer people who work hard for a living. Probably the tough workers among the audience would have reacted the same as Cain.

In a play two characters with opposed personality and behaviour might create comic entertainment. In The Killing of Abel Cain always sarcastically replies his brother. Thus the debate between them is rich of humour. In stanza fifteen Abel believes that: "Yis, all the good thou has in wone / Of Godys grace is bot a lone." (ll 116-117). Cain answers that he does not consider God a friend but an enemy instead:

For he has ever yit beyn my fo;

For had he my freynd, beyn,

Other-gatys it had beyn seyn. (ll 119-121).