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The Towneley Harrowing of Hell

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Mendal G. Frampton*
Affiliation:
Pomona College

Extract

The Towneley play on the Harrowing of Hell, play xxv, derives throughout most of its length from the York play on the same subject, York xxxvii. Towneley, however, varies from York constantly in wording, omits some Y lines, and transmits others in varied degrees of confusion. It also contains considerable writing in septenar quatrains and trimeter double quatrains which, in form and content, have no relation whatever to Y xxxvii as it has come down to us. As the York play is composed of thirty-four perfectly regular stanzas of twelve lines each, the variations of T have given rise to many suggestions in an effort to account for them. It is the purpose of this paper to study these suggestions and the play itself in the hope that from such a study a solution of the complex problem offered by the composite nature of T may emerge with sufficient clarity to warrant belief.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1941

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