ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews certain civic records relating to audiences and the organization of the York Corpus Christi play. It discusses speculation about the varying ways in which the audiences might have perceived the play. 'Heavily policed' implies a kind of modern riot-gear coercion for which there is no evidence in the records of the Corpus Christi play. The craft members may have assisted in demarcating space for the performers of their pageant but this hardly amounts to 'heavy policing', and anyway their presence may have had more to do with adding dignity to the play than with crowd control. Thomas Rotherham was a churchman and statesman of national and international importance. On Corpus Christi day, 17 June 1484, he watched the play from a room hired by the Minster Gates which overlooked the junction of Stonegate and Petergate, one of the stations of the play.
