ABSTRACT
The Divinity School with its 'text' bosses, Mankind with his paper, the brasses with their appeals, the Missal with its scrolls, the bench-ends with their prayer, the Lollards with their Ten Conclusions, even Robert Reynes with his book, are all elements in an explosion of text. There are a number of details which bring Reynes's book and the N.town Mary Play together, most strikingly those related to the genealogy of Mary. The overall impression in the action of the play is of God's readiness to respond to prayer; and in what is said of prayer the overwhelming impression is of its crucial importance: prayer is the prompter of mercy; prayer produces knowledge in a dilemma; God responds only to prayer. Reynes records only the court held to affirm allegiances and tenancies, but what a perfect setting that visits would have been for a performance of the Mary Play.
