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Literature Focus III. Miracle and Morality Plays

The prime entertainers in Anglo-Saxon Britain were storytellers and singing poets. Not until later medieval times did drama as public entertainment take hold. Like most forms of culture in those times, the theater had its beginnings in religion.

Rise of Medieval DramaThough the church had condemned plays as immoral in 692, it revived theater later in the Middle Ages for religious purposes. Medieval theater developed in the early 900s from the annual cycle of the church liturgy (religious rites) that presented events in the life of Christ. It began as a dialogue about Christ’s Resurrection performed by priests at Easter services.Later, clerical plays presented the events of Christmasand the Epiphany—the revelation of God to humankindin the form of Jesus—(the latter including amechanical star of Bethlehem).

Miracle and Mystery PlaysBy the 1100s, the church had developed religious drama in order to teach Bible stories and the lives of saints to a mostly illiterate populace. Originally, members of the clergy performed these plays in church sanctuaries, acting out the parts of biblical characters or saints. These short, one-act dramas were called miracle plays,after the miracles performed by the saints. Later, after the performances were taken over by the trade guilds known as “mysteries” (from mystery, meaning “trade” or “craft,” related to the modern English word ministry), they became known as mystery plays.

Although based on religious subjects, medieval drama included elements of secular humor. In Noah’s Flood, for example, Noah has an easy time building the ark but a difficult time persuading his wife to get aboard.

Noah: Wife in this castle we shall be kept:

My children and thou I would in leaped!

Wife: In faith, Noe, I had as lief thou had slept,

for all thy frankishfare [nonsense]

For I will not do after thy rede [advice].

Noah: Good wife, do as I thee bid.

Wife: By Christ not, or I see more need,

Though thou stand all the day and rave.

Noah: Lord, that women be crabbed aye!

And never are meek, that I dare say.

As time went on, the plays grew more popular and the costumes and settings more elaborate—so much so that the churches could no longer hold such large audiences. The dramas moved outdoors and their production was taken over by the trade guilds. Guild members made scenery, props, and costumes and loaded them onto wagons (known as “pageants”) so that the plays could be performed at fairs, in marketplaces, at crossroads and, if the producers were lucky, in the great halls of castles, where people paid good money for entertainment.

Guild records indicate that performances featured music, dancing, and comedy. Some performances even included special effects. For example, to depict the drowning of the Pharaoh’s army in the Red Sea, stagehands covered the actors with a large blue cloth, shaking it to imitate the movement of waves. No feast days were complete without miracle plays, and everyone turned out for these performances. Audiences were anything but silent—cheers greeted heroes and saints, while villains such as Lucifer and Herod were enthusiastically booed and hissed.



Gradually, these short plays began to be presented in day-long cycles, beginning with the story of the creation of the world and ending with the story of Christ. By the late 1300s, cycles that lasted for several days were being performed on wagon stages throughout such English towns as York and Wakefield. As time passed, plays were not limited to biblical stories in cycles. A non-cycle play, Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham, was often presented at May Day festivals.

The Morality PlayIn the early 1400s, a corps of professional actors arose who performed morality plays—plays that dramatized points of religious doctrine. Morality plays, as their name implies, centered on the moral struggles of everyday people. The characters in these plays had names such as Patience, Greed, and Good Works, and their dialogue was designed to teach people important lessons about salvation and the struggle between virtue and vice. As the popularity of morality plays grew, their staging became more sophisticated, while their subject matter moved from the church to the secular world. The morality plays established a theater tradition in England that eventually led to the plays of William Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw.

Reading The following passage comes from a cycle of mystery plays performed in the city of York. from The Creation of Adam and Eve God: In paradise shall ye sam won;Eve: His sign since he has on us set Of earthly thing get ye no need. Before all other thing, certain, Ill and good both shall ye con; Him for to lof we shall not let, I shall you learn your life to lead. And worship him with might and main.   Adam: Ah, Lord since we shall do no thing God: At heaven and earth first I began, But lof thee for thy great goodness, And six days wrought ere I would rest; We shall obey to thy bidding, My work is ended now at man: And fulfil it both more and less.All likes me well, but this the best.
Reading Check 1. What rhyming words do you find in “from The Creation of Adam and Eve”? 2. What slant rhyme is found in the selection? 3. What rhyme scheme do Eve’s lines follow?  



Date: 2016-03-03; view: 1265


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