I discovered the MUMMERS PLAY while researching SUICIDAL MANIACS, and would love to have it performed here in this house in Northern California where I’m spending Christmas, but that isn’t going to happen in this isolated farmland, so I send the script out to my readers hoping someone takes up the tradition. It’s all play. Merry Christmas.
“Eliza prints out versions of the Mummers play that cover the floor like fresh fallen snow. She plans that she and her friends will perform the cycle of plays, trite old pieces, and Shauna wonders if it’s not almost a séance Eliza’s planning.
“Shauna reads the play as she picks up the pages strewn on the carpet:
1. When righteous Joseph wedded was,
Unto a virtuous/virgin maid,
A glorious angel from heaven came,
Unto that virtuous/virgin maid,
Unto that virtuous/virgin maid.
2. O mortal man remember well,
When Christ our lord was born,
He was crucified betwixt two thieves
and crown’ed withe thorn,
And crown’ed with the thorn.
3. O mortal man remember well,
When Christ died on the rood,
’Twas for our sins and wicked ways,
Christ shed his precious blood,
Christ shed his precious blood.
4. O mortal man remember well,
When Christ was wrapped in clay,
He was taken to a sepulcre,
where no man ever lay,
Where no man ever lay.
5. God bless the mistress of this house,
With gold all/chain round her breast,
Where e’er her body sleeps or wakes,
Lord send her soul to rest.
6. God bless the master of this house,
With happiness beside,
Where e’er his body rides or walks,
Lord Jesus be his guide.
7. God bless your house, your children too,
Your cattle and your store,
The Lord increase you day by day,
And send/give you more and more.
