The Black Death gripped Europe in the years 1348-1350, wiping out nearly half the population in cities and frequently every man, woman and child in villages and towns. People could be healthy in the morning, feverish at noon, covered in boils, spitting blood and writhing in agony in the evening and meet their death that very night. Not even close to understanding the true biological cause of this blackest of plagues and perceiving the ugly, stinking buboes popping up on family and neighbors as the wrath of God, inhabitants of Europe lived in a collective psychological paralysis. The aftermath of the great pestilence left the surviving population in chaos: fields lay waste since there were fewer peasants to farm, murdering brigands terrorized the countryside and the traditional protectors of the oppressed, nobles, knights, monks and priests, frequently became the oppressors. Not surprisingly, disease and the fear of disease did not go away; rather, more fears piled up: fear of being the victim of such things as famine, torture, rape or hacked to death by bandits or soldiers were all very real, ongoing possibilities. In a word, not a happy, feel-good time to be alive. Thus, taking place a dozen years after the Black Death hit England, we have the backdrop of Barry Unsworth’s gripping novel of a band of traveling players, including a renegade priest turned player (the story’s narrator) entering a town and, half-starved, resorting to playing out the town’s current event: the murder of a 12 year old boy by the name of Thomas Wells. Unsworth’s tale has the intrigue, suspense and pace of a hard-boiled detective novel, a storyline simply too good to give away any of the details. Since Mr. Unsworth did his homework on the historical facts and fine points of the 14th century, I will focus on several colorful scenes the author includes in his portrayal of these turbulent times.Decked out in their costumes and ready to take the stage, the band of actors has to deal with some medieval competition. We read, “While we were preparing to put on our play a band of jongleurs came to the inn to the sound of drums and bagpipes, and began at once to set out their pitch against the wall of the yard, opposite the entrance – the best place. . . . Jongleurs traveled in groups and entertain people wherever they can, in great halls, at tournaments and archery contests, at fairs and marketplaces. In this they resemble players, but unlike us they have no leader and there is no general meaning to what they do, they can combine together or break away.” Darn, life is tough for a poor 14th century acting troupe; if it isn’t abuse and scorn from the innkeeper and town officials, it’s another band of entertainers invading your space.Sitting around a fire at night, the head player, Martin by name, recounts how small traveling groups of players such as theirs are being squeezed out not only by jongleurs but by all the big, powerful, wealthy acting guilds who stay in one place and perform an entire cycle of elaborate plays. Rather than playing a set piece like ‘The Play of Adam’, Martin comes up with a new idea; he tells the group they should play the murder of Thomas Wells. Such a unique approach provokes much discussion and debate but the troupe senses all the townspeople will show up for such a play and pay handsomely. From this point, the tension and drama of the novel builds chapter by chapter. Throughout the story there is telling detail of the way the 14th century players acted their parts, which adds real spice to the reading of this novel. For example, here is a description of one of the players, Straw by name, “But there was in Straw an instinct for playing, or rather a meeting of instinct and knowledge, a natural impulse of the body. I do not know what to call it, but is something that can neither be taught nor learned. For the part of the temptress he had devised a strange and frightening way of bending the body stiffly sideways with the head held for a moment in inquiry and hands just above the waist, palms outward and fingers stiffly splayed in a gesture of his own invention. So for a moment, while he made the pause to see the effects of his tempting, he was frozen in wicked inquiry. Then he broke again into sinuous motion, gesturing the delights that awaited Thomas Wells . . .”.On a road some way from the town, the priest/player/narrator relays what he sees when he looks down the road: “The snow made a mist and at one moment there was nothing but this mist and at one moment there was nothing but this mist and at the next there were dark shapes in it, advancing slowly up the hill, two riders and with them a great black beast whose head rose high as theirs and it had red eyes and above its head there moved with it a shape of red, dark red in the white of snow, and I knew this for the flame of the Beast’s breath and I knew what Beast it was and what manner of riders there were and I crossed myself and groaned aloud in my fear, seeing that the Beast had come and my soul was unprepared.” Turns out, this is only a knight and his squire and horse traveling to a joust. But the tenor of the times is in the projection -- in his fear, the priest sees the fourth horseman of the apocalypse. I can’t imagine a more powerful and compelling story of what it was like to actually live in the wake of the Black Death.
Morality Play by Barry Unsworth tells the story of a troupe of actors in 14th century England who become involved in the murder of a young boy. As they investigate the crime for the purposes of producing a play based on it, they become increasingly aware of the inconsistencies that pervade the case against the girl accused by the authorities. The actors soon find themselves well over their heads, embroiled in a mystery that involves far more than a peasant boy's death, a play whose actors are the most powerful men in all of England. Unsworth's characters make up one of the strongest points of this novel. The narrator, Nicholas, is insightful and philosophical yet not to the degree that he becomes alienating to the reader. He is given a fully fleshed out and flawed personality so that he does not merely become the lens through which we view the novel's world but is instead a character on par with any of the others in the book. Martin Ball, the head of the group is perhaps the most fascinating of the actors. From the outset, Unsworth prepares us for this man's uniqueness and consequent dangerousness. In a time where creativity is not looked highly upon in the ranks of the peasantry, Martin is a dangerous person to be associated with. He is not content to continue performing the same tired out, formulaic Biblical plays and wants to experiment with an entirely new method of theatre. Casting aside convention, he attempts to depict contemporary life through art, a risky move even in today's culture and outrageous in the 14th century. Martin is very much a visionary, and I had the impression while reading this novel that had he been born a few hundred years later, he would have been a successful and famous playwright. Thus, Unsworth adds a sense of mournful irony to the character of Marin Ball, for both author and reader are aware of the subsequent developments in theatre that would allow men like Martin creative liberty in their writing. For his own time however, Martin is an oddity and is the driving force behind the group's investigation of the town's murder.Throughout this short novel, we are presented with fascinating snippets of Nicholas' philosophy. His commentary contains deep insight into issues relevant to his own time as well as the world in general. My favourite of his reflections is this one that he gives as he witnesses a tournament. He says:"We were the people now, in our turn they [the nobles] the players. And the play was their own valor and pride. I had seen jousting before, in courtyards and open fields, combats of single champions and melees with a hundred fighting, sometimes with weapons blunted, sometimes not. It is a spectacle very popular with the people now. They crowd to see it with great advantage to pickpockets and whores. But now, perhaps because I had become a player myself, as the trumpets sounded again and the heralds shouted, it came to me for the first time that this was the greatest example of playing our times afforded. We were players by profession and borrowed roles as seemed fitting. The nobility had only the one but they persisted in it, though denounced by popes and kings for the violence and vainglory of it and the expenditure of money which might have been better spent in maintaining those same popes and kings."In this passage as well as others, Nicholas extols the idea that everyone is an actor, performing upon one of the many hierarchical stages that make up the world. It is a similar sentiment to that expressed by Shakespeare in his famous quotation, "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players." Unsworth takes the often cited analogy of the world being a stage and explores the depths of their likenesses. By the end of the novel, Unsworth has you seeing the world in the same way as Nicholas, who, his transformation to actor complete, views the entire world as a series of ranked stages. Morality Play is more than just a mystery; it is a profound examination of the nature of acting and the effects of role-playing. I highly recommend it as a deep and compelling novel with an unusual take on both historical fiction and mystery.
What do You think about Morality Play (1996)?
An excellent medieval mystery involving a renegade priest, Nicholas Barber, who, having broken his vow of chastity, has run away from his diocese of Lincoln. He tells us his story of how one bleak December he has joined with a troupe of travelling players and his life with them. They give what is termed 'morality plays': on Biblical subjects, and good triumphing over evil. They are on their way to Durham, the castle of the lord of the area, Sir Robert de Guise, to provide entertainment at the lord's Christmas feast. When Nicholas first meets them, one of their number has just died and they stop in a small town in order to have him buried. In the town, a boy, Thomas Wells, has been murdered, and the players decide to investigate and to present as a morality play 'The Play of Thomas Wells' to the townspeople. This will be something new; they feel they will attract a larger audience. The performance is so successful, the players decide to dig deeper into the crime, to prove innocent the deaf-and-dumb girl accused of the murder, and to present 'The True Play of Thomas Wells' to the villagers. In this second performance, apparently they have come too close to the truth and are in danger. They are hauled off to the lord's castle and are forced to give him a private performance in his private chambers...This was very well written and I learned something about the medieval theatre through the players' rehearsals and presentations. I got a good feel for the atmosphere of 14th century England. I liked the description of the jousting tournament in the tilting yard at Sir Robert's castle.This short novel is highly recommended.
—Jane
MORALITY PLAY Hist. Mys-Nicholas Barber-England-1300s) – G+Unsworth, Barry – StandaloneDoubleday, 1995, US Hardcover – ISBN: 0385479530First Sentence: It was a death that began is all and another death that led us on.Young priest Nicholas Barbar has run away from his safe but boring position at Lincoln Cathedral to join a company of players. Deciding to do something different than has been done before, they decide to make a play out of the real murder which has just occurred. A young boy was found dead by the roadside and a girl has been condemned for execution. In order to create the play, the players must learn the truth of the crime and uncover, among other things, that the girl is deaf and mute.Mr. Unsworth has clearly done his research on life in the 14th century. There is wonderful detail about the period and the elaborateness of plays during the time and a case for how plays changed from strictly presenting stories of the Bible into morality plays. The author has an almost philosophic tone, bordering upon, but not quite crossing into preachy. He presents an interesting prospective on who are actors. It is a remarkably insightful book that causes one to think, question and acknowledge. As usual, I had a problem with the overwhelming number of portents in the story. At the same time, I was thoroughly engrossed in the story. Written in a style and cadence which suggests the period, this was not the easiest book to read, but it was well worth the effort.
—LJ
The best of historical fiction is said to comment on the time during which it was written, not just the time being written about. Here, though, the focus is perhaps on a universal theme, the idea that nothing ever changes, especially concerning those in power controlling or suppressing the truth for their own benefit. If you're looking for a mystery (which I didn't read this as), the story might seem formulaic. The nature of the crime and the perpetrator came at me from a mile away and many characters are basically stock figures as befitting a morality play. While it's true the members of the troupe of players (the word 'actor' is never used), along with a woman who travels with them, delve into the mystery as if they were almost detectives, the novel is also a reflection on the nature of art, of storytelling, how it can get at truth even if all the details are not accurate, even if the ending is unknown, even if a first motive is profit. The townspeople do not come out in droves for the players' first offering, a stock morality play, but they pack the area for a play that is about themselves, becoming vocal when something seems wrong. The audience intervention helps the players get at more of the truth, along with showing the benefit (and danger) of questioning a story put out by authorities. The revelatory play-within-the-play (or novel) reminded me of Hamlet's play "wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king".A different form of playing -- jousting for the entertainment of the upper classes -- is seen as a substitute blood-sport for those who send out their underlings to do the actual fighting in actual battles, another reflection on the political world of today, of just about any day.
—Teresa
