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PILATE(S). Pontius Pilate, fl. first century A.D., was the prefect of Judaea from A.D. 26-36 who condemned Jesus to death. In medieval drama, he appears in plays of the Trial, Flagellation, and Passion of Christ.

The drunken Miller cries out "in Pilate's voice" that he can tell a tale equally as good as the Knight's, MillT 3124. "Pilates voys" was a high voice, something like a counter-tenor falsetto, which medieval actors used for the role in the cycle drama.

Pilates, the ME genitive case, appears medially.

The Chester Mystery Cycle, ed. R.M. Lumiansky and D. Mills, 284-324; L. Ellinwood, "A Further Note on 'Pilates voys.'" Speculum 8 (1933): 526-528; The South-English Legendary, ed. C. D'Evelyn and A.J. Mill, II: 697-706.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.
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