MEDIEVAL DRAMA
Origins: religious celebrations
 In the nave of the church
 In Latin
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13th-15th MYSTERY AND
MIRACLE PLAYS
shape to the sotory of the Bible
 Staged by members of trade guilds
(Amateur actors)
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moving “pageants” (stage wagons) in
town
15th century MORALITY PLAYS
personifications of human vices and
virtues (eg. Everyman)
 actors: members of a specific association
under a lord’s patronage
 performances in lords’ mansions or
travelling actors
 Introduction of interludes (disguise, comic
elements, witty game of words)
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The Medieval Ballad (popular 13th-15th c.)
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Popular Story with rapid flashes
Mixture of dialogue and narration
Told and sung at the communal ring-dance
Impersonal narrator
4-line stanzas (ABCB or couplets)
Use of alliteration, assonance, similes and
metaphors, symbols, hyperbole, etc..
Refrain, repetition, incrementation
Simple language, conventional vocabulary
Classification of ballads
Ballads of magic : fairies, ghosts, witchcraft,
etc.
 Ballads of love and tragedy
 Ballads of outlaws (e.g. Robin Hood)
 Border ballads (Scotland vs England)
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Giordano Dell’Armellina,
Lord Randal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMR55HoeSG4
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Scarborough fair
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiZJP_XLmrQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BakWVXHSug (with lyrics)
(simon& garfunkel)
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Fabrizio De André, Geordie:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prIFn8ZZb3w
In English:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aFKuxBhoNI
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The Medieval Narrative Poem
A story in verse
 Often a collections of stories
 Purpose: entertain and instruct
 Insight into individual characters
 Shift from a religious to a lay outlook
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Geoffrey Chaucer (1343?-1400)
The father of English literature :
Use of heroic couplet
(rhymed iambic pentameters)
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Subject matter: new English society
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East midlands dialect (spread of standard
English)
The Canterbury Tales
General Prologue + Epilogue
 + 24 Tales (of the 120 expected)
 Description of Pilgrim + his/her story
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From the Tabard Inn
(Southwark)…
…in spring…
…to Becket’s shrine in
Canterbury
Characterisation
Social/human types =>
no hierarchy
 Feudal types:
all walks of life,
except nobility and
peasants (realism)
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“Showing” individuals (movement, relations,
reactions => dynamism)
Style
narrative poem
 run-on lines
 heroic couplet
 concrete, realistic descriptions
 realism and allegory
 popular, learned and courtly traditions
 Variations in tone: Irony (awareness),
Humour (laughter), Satire (contempt)
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