The plays performed for the Corpus Christi celebration were invariably produced, directed, and acted by the members of the various craft guilds. The craft master of each guild organized the play that his guild was to put on. He also was responsible for levying pageant money from guild members (Clark 97). Each craft guild was assigned a play to perform from the cycle of religious pieces. The play assignment was usually based on the wealth and prestige ranking of each guild, and sometimes in accordance with the skill associated with each guild (e.g. the shipwrights invariably performed "The Building of the Ark"). Sometimes there were bitter clashes over guild rank. The hierarchy was often determined by seniority, but wealth and prestige did not often coincide with age (Clark 106).
In York, the responsibility for the play The Fall of Man always fell to the Coopers. It has been posited that this was due to the brashness of a certain Cooper in 1483. He "stood up before the Lord of Gloucester's nominee for mayor of York and shouted, 'The commons will not have him as mayor,' and talked himself out of it with the astuteness of a modern politician" (Kilby 116). Whether this serpentine persuasion was actually the reason for their performing that particular play will remain unknown. The Coopers were barrel makers, their barrels used mainly to transport liquids such as wine, but also as washing tubs, house pails, et cetera (Kilby 1). The earliest evidence of coopering was found in the rock carvings in the ancient Egyptian tombs (Kilby 90). By the end of the thirteenth century craft guilds began to be recognized, the Coopers among them (Kilby 99). The Coopers were at their strongest in York in around 1400, when it was a thriving port city (Kilby 116).
The making of barrels does not seem to have any direct correlation with The Fall of Man. It may be that the trees and plants of the Eden setting were planted in barrels, or that they fashioned a tree of knowledge out of wood strips and iron fastenings. We can only guess as to how the Coopers used the play as an advertisement of their craft. Yet the advantages of being involved in the pageant in general must have been many. Organizing the play would increase the bond among guild members and increase loyalty to the guild itself. The members would become more willing to help each other and work together in their daily craft. Also, performing the play would give the guild a chance to show off their skills (acting, artistry, etc.) to the rest of the town, the guild would create a more widespread reputation. Since all the guilds had to work together to organize the pageant as a whole, connections would be made among members of the different guilds. Unity within the guild and the entire community would be promoted, while preserving the identities of the separate guilds.
Of course, all of these advantages came at a monetary price. The guild would have had to spend money on the stage, costumes, and the payment of actors (if acting was not mandatory for guild members). In the "Fall of Man" the main costs would have been the pageant wagon; a prominent tree of knowledge with a garden setting; costumes including a white robe for God; white robes, wings and halo for the angel; a serpent costume for Satan; and flesh colored clothing for Adam and Eve. It is not a very elaborate setting, and this may have been the reason that the Coopers, if they were a relatively small and poor guild, would perform "The Fall of Man," a simple play with a small cast. Yet even a small guild without much money to put on an ostentatious show would reap the benefits of the Corpus Christi pageant.
Clark, Peter and Paul Slack, eds. Crisis and Order in English Towns 1500-1700: Essays in Urban History. 1972. London. Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Kilby, Kenneth. The Cooper and His Trade. 1971. London. W & J Mackay Limited
.