Chester Cycle

Abstract

The Chester cycle includes 24 pageants selectively dramatizing biblical episodes from Creation to Doomsday, over half of them taken from Christ's life. Although the nature of the spectacle changed considerably over its period of performance, some form of episodic biblical drama was staged in the northwest English city of Chester from the early fifteenth to the late sixteenth century, making this cycle an extraordinarily long‐lasting public event. The content and form of Chester's cycle were closely intertwined with the city's political, economic, and religious histories.