This volume provides a detailed overview of the Towneley cycle of plays, which were written c. 1500. The plays begin with the fall of Lucifer and end with the Last Judgement. Peter Happé examines the cycle's textual and manuscript history and discusses issues of language and style, the structure of the cycle, and its possible sources and analogues. He also addresses the historical and religious context of the cycle and its performance history.
Dr Peter Happé is a Visiting Fellow in English at the University of Southampton.
His first degree was in English at Queens' College, Cambridge (1955); after a Certificate in Education, he gained an MA in English at Birkbeck College, London, followed by a London PhD. He has taught English at a variety of schools and colleges, and was appointed Principal of Rutland Sixth Form College and then later of Barton Peveril Sixth Form College.
He has been a Tutor and Associate Lecturer of the Open University since 1983, as well as teaching undergraduate courses at the Universities of Cambridge, Southampton, and Tours. He has supervised PhD students at both Southampton and Tours. He was a visiting professor of the University of Tours in 1994, and was later awarded the Medal of Honour of the City of Tours in 2002. In 1995-6 he held a Hartley Fellowship at the University of Southampton, and was then a Research Associate at the Open University between 1996 and 1999.
He has published extensively on medieval and early Renaissance drama.