Medieval Drama
Everyman
Why is the period after the fall of Rome
known as the “dark ages”?
• The period after the fall of Rome is known
as the “dark ages” because
– Much political turmoil
– The reliable political structure
– The Church became the only stable
“government”
How did the Church gain so much influence
in the area of drama?
• The Church exerted increasing influence
based on Bishop of Rome’s claim as
successor to St. Peter
– Established supremacy in Church matters and
in secular concerns
– Many Church edicts against mimes,
histriones, ioculatores—terms for secular
performers
What fact can be found related to the early
development of drama in the Church?
• Little is known about the theatre between
600-1000 AD
– References to actors (histriones), jugglers,
rope dancers in nomadic tribes
– Remnants of Roman mimes, popular pagan
festivals and rites
– Teutonic minstrels or troubadours (scops)
became the primary preservers of tribal
histories
– After tribes converted to Christianity (7th-8th c),
scops denounced; branded as bad as mimes
• Church was the literate area of society, so
what we know about theatrical
performance is greater in the relgious
domain
– Plays by classical Roman authors were
transcribed in monasteries, but were not
performed
– Classical Roman dramas were curated and
studied for their to the learning of Latin
• Church has its own form of performances
in the mass, the divine office, music,
processions, and Easter rituals
– All these had elements of theatre, but much
conducted out of sight of the general public
behind the screens of the chancel
– Elements of theatre found in Church services
included costumes, a written script, singing,
sounds, smells, and the richly decorated
interior of the Church
• Between 925 and 975, drama introduced
into the church services, reborn in the very
institution that shut it down
– Church music become more elaborate with
increasingly intricate variations added to the
simple monophonic music known as the
Gregorian chant
– Elaborations known as topes
(figurative/symbolic language) were added to
certain significant passages
• Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester, wrote
instructions for the earliest recorded form
of liturgical drama (part of the church
service of liturgy)
– At a significant point in the celebration of
Matins at Easter, during the performance of
the tropes, four brothers (monks) were to
enact the three Maries and the angel at the
empty sepulcher of Christ
• Sung performance, and actors wore ecclesiastical
vestments
• Earliest extant [still in existence, not destroyed]
drama from the Middle Ages
– Four-line dramatization of the resurrection, with direction
for its performance
– Comes from an Easter trope (interpolation into existing
text, originally lengthened musical passage with words
eventually added)
– Sung by a choir at first
– Called the “Quem Quaeritis”
– Three Maries come to the tomb of Jesus, and the angel
asks them whom they are seeking:
» “Whom seek ye in the tomb, O Christians?”
» Jesus of Nazereth, the crucified, O heavenly beings
» He is not here, he is risen as he foretold;
Go and announce that he is risen from the tomb
– Little by little this Easter scene was enlarged
– Similar attention was given to the birth of
Christ in a manager
– By 975, it had become a little drama within the
service, probably played by altar boys
• Practice blossomed—many playlets developed
dealing with Biblical themes—mostly Easter,
Christmas, the 12th night (feast of the Epiphany)
– Usually serious, but at Feast of Fools and the
Feast of the Boy Bishops, much dancing,
foolishness, and parodies of church practices
occurred
– Eventually other Biblical scenes and lives the
saints were added
• Before 1200, most drama still being done
inside the Church
– Plays still recited in Latin, the language of the
Church
– Two main areas for the performances:
• Mansions—church structure usually served as
mansions (choir loft might serve as heaven; the
altar the tomb of Christ)
• Platea—general acting area
– Machinery used
• Could fly Christ up to heaven or have angels come
down to earth
– Costumes were probably ordinary church
vestments
• Between 1200 and 1350, most dramas were
outside
– Recited in the vernacular (language of the common
man), rather than Latin
– Stimulus for the development of vernacular religious
drama performed outside the church—the
establishment of the Feast of Corpus Christi
• Announced by Pope Urban IV in 1264
• Instituted by Clement V in 1311
• Required exposition of the themes of the Fall, redemption,
and Judgment
• Held in midsummer when days were long and the people, in
general, were in festive mood
– Laymen were actors—male members of the community—unpaid
– Stories began to widen in scope when not part of the liturgy
– Church seemed to support these dramas
• While Church began to lose control over the
dramas, they remained basically religious in
nature.
Guilds or trade/craftsmen groups took over in
some cities
Guilds were like trade unions combined with a
social club
Guilds cooperated in staging cycles of plays
that dramatized the whole history of human race
as then understood: creation by God, fall
through the wiles of Satan, life in Old Testament
times, redemption by Christ, and final judgment
at the end of the world
•
Certain guilds retained control over certain
plays/stories—usually those based in some way on that
particular guild’s arts
Bakers’ Guild would control the play about the Last
Supper
Shipwrights’ Guild would control plays about Noah
and the Flood
Municipalities took over productions in some cities
Church still reserved the right to approve scripts, even
when its role diminished
Plays performed in cycles—the most famous in
England: York, Chester, Coventry, and Wakefield
Each guild had its own play to perform in the cycle
Cycles might include up to 48 plays
Comic elements appeared in plays that were
otherwise very serious
•
Three kinds of religious plays existed.
Mystery plays – about Christ or from the Old
Testament (Second Shepherd’s Play is one of the most
famous)
Miracle plays – about lives of the saints, historical and
legendary
Morality plays—didactic allegories, often of common
man’s struggle for salvation (Everyman is most famous)
Common characteristics of religious plays
Aimed to teach or reinforce Church doctrine
Melodramatic: good rewarded; evil punished
God and his plan were the driving forces, not the
characters