Saints and the Audience in Middle English Biblical Drama. by Chester N. Scoville. Toronto, Buffalo, and London: Univ. of Toronto Press, 2004. Pp. vii + 140. $50.

Chester N. Scoville has written an accessible and thought-provoking work, one that raises questions about rhetoric, perception, reception, and alterity. Divided into six compact chapters, Saints and Biblical Drama in Medieval English Theatre counteracts past critical approaches that stressed comic realism in the early English drama; Scoville argues for the biblical drama's important place in the religious life of local communities and for the fundamental rhetorical nature of the plays' appeal to audience sensibilities. He constructs his case in a manner reminiscent of Eleanor Prosser's classic Drama and Religion in the English Mystery Plays (1961), dividing his material into specific chapters on individual saints that appear in a variety of medieval plays: Thomas, Mary Magdalene, Joseph, and Paul. the first three of these are also addressed by Prosser, but rather than taking Prosser's doctrinal approach, Scoville emphasizes how these saints are linked by their flawed humanity and the ways their narratives balance "faith and doubt, virtue and vice, humanity and sanctity" (p. 8). Essentially, the dramatists' artful deployment of rhetoric creates what audiences perceive as dramatic character, although circumstances of production and the expectations of the audience also work to shape what a particular reception of a dramatic performance might be. While acknowledging that responses could vary, the book makes the convincing claim that holy figures such as saints were often the focus of dramatic interest and their primary function was "to unite the community in the desire for holy living" (p. 7).

Victor Scherb
University of Texas, Tyler