The material listed below is available for reference in the Wakefield Local Studies Department, and a few items are available for loan. The staff of the Department are always willing to give help and advice. 

Mystery and Miracle Plays: General  

CLARKE, S W. The miracle play in England: an account of early religious drama. c 1900.
CRAIG, H. English religious drama of the Middle Ages. 1955.
DAVIDSON, C. Studies in the English mystery plays. 1892. (Reprinted 1965).
HONE, W. Ancient mysteries described, especially the English miracle plays. 1823.
KOLVE, V A. The play called Corpus Christi. 1966.
NELSON, H. The medieval English stage: Corpus Christi pageants and plays. 1974.  

The Wakefield Plays: Text and Versions  

BROWN, J R. The complete plays of the Wakefield Master. 1983.
CAWLEY, A C ed. Everyman and medieval miracle plays. 1956. (An anthology, including "Herold the Great" and "The Second Shepherds' Play", from the Wakefield cycle).
CAWLEY, A C ed. The Wakefield pageants in the Towneley cycle. 1958. (The text of six of the plays, with an introduction, glossary and notes).
CAWLEY, A C. A modernised version of the Wakefield Shepherds' Play; in Transactions of the Yorkshire Dialect Society , Part 51, Vol IX, 1951. (With introductory note) .
CAWLEY, A C. A modernised version of the Wakefield Second Shepherds' Play; in Transactions of the Yorkshire Dialect Society, Part 50, Vol VIII, 1950. (With introductory note)
EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY. The Towneley Plays; re-edited from the unique MSS by George England, with side-notes and introduction by A W Pollard. 1897 (Reprint 1952).
HAMLEY, Dennis. Three Towneley plays. 1962. (The Killing of Abel; Noah and his Sons; and The First Shepherds' Play, in modern English).
HENRI, Adrian. The Wakefield Mysteries: a modern adaptation. 1991.
ROSE, Martial ed. The Wakefield Mystery plays. 1961. (A complete edition of the plays in modern English, with an introduction).
The six pageants in the Townley Cycle; ed from the Huntington Library MS ... by ... Tsuyoshi Hashimoto [and others]. 1987. (Introduction and notes in Japanese).
SURTEES SOCIETY. The Towneley mysteries. 1836.
TOWNELEY CYCLE, The. A facsimile of Huntington MS, HMI; with an introduction by A C Cawley and Martin Stevens. 1976.
Wakefield Mystery Plays: Photostat copy of the manuscript - dated c 1460 - with an introduction by Martial Rose. (The original manuscript is in the Huntington Library, San Marino, California, USA).  

Literary Criticism  

GARDNER, J. The construction of the Wakefield cycle. 1974.
WILLIAMS, A. The characterisation of Pilate in the Towneley Plays. 1950.  

Historical Background and Local Connections  

CAWLEY, A C & others. References to the Corpus Christi play in the Wakefield Burges Court Rolls, the original rediscovered. 1988. (The original Burges Court Rolls, now in the possession of Mr John Goodchild, do not have all the specific Wakefield references given in J W Walker's transcript, listed below).
FORRESTER, Jean. Wakefield Mystery Plays and the Burgess Court records: a new discovery. 1974.
FORRESTER, Jean. The Corpus Christi play of Wakefield: a new look at the Burgess Court records. 1974. From Leeds Studies in English; new series. Vol VII.
GOODCHILD, John. Aspects of Medieval Wakefield and its legacy. 1991
HAMLEY, Dennis. Pageants of Despair. 1974. (A story for older children about Wakefield and the Mystery Plays).
HUDSON, W H. The Wakefield Mysteries. pp 103-117 in Yorkshire in olden times by W Andrews. 1890.
MOOR.MAN, F W. The Wakefield Miracle Plays. in Transactions of the Yorkshire Dialect Society, Part 7, 1906. (Not in Wakefield MD Library stock ).
PEACOCK, Matthew H. Towneley, Widkirk, or Wakefield plays? 1898.
PEACOCK, Matthew H. Wakefield Miracle Plays: a lecture delivered at the Wakefield Mechanics' Institution. 1901.
PEACOCK, Matthew H. The Wakefield Mysteries: the place of representation. Reprinted from Anglia, Vol 12. 1901.
PEACOCK, Matthew H. The Wakefield Mysteries. 1926.
QUINN, Michael. Wakefield Mystery Plays - three articles published in the "Wakefield Express", 13, 20 and 27 May 1977.
WALKER, J W. Wakefield, its history and people. 2nd ed. 1939. (Reprinted 1966). Vol 1 contains a chapter on Guilds and Mystery Plays.
WALKER, J W. The Burges Courts, Wakefield, 1533, 1554, 1559. Reprinted from the Yorkshire Archaeological Record. Vol LXXII. (The evidence drawn from these is questioned in the publications by Jean Forrester.)