| • |
History article 1
What's in a name. |
This variety of names is highly suggestive of the social, commercial
and ritual functions of a dramatic tradition that flourished in England's
major urban centres for over two centuries until, in the sixteenth
century, they became obsolescent, economically unviable and theologically
suspect. |
| • |
History article 2
MEDIEVAL CHURCH PLAYS |
The remarkable fact that the revival
of the drama in modern Europe was due to the Christian Church has
been abundantly proved and illustrated. At first, certain parts
of the church ritual were expanded in action, and especially at
the great religious festivals of Christmas and Easter attempts were
made to exhibit vividly before the faithful what the service was
intended to commemorate. |
| • |
History article 3
The Old, the New & the Saints |
The mysteries may be grouped under three cycles, that
of the Old Testament, that of the New Testament, and that of the saints.
It must be borne in mind that in all these the authors mingled truth
and legend without distinction. |
| • |
History article 4
Aesthetic Representation and Technic. |
As regards the aesthetic side of this drama, modern standards
should not be applied. This theatre does not even offer unity of action,
for the scenes are not derived from one another: they succeed one
another without any other unity than the interest which attaches to
the chief personage and the general idea of eternal salvation, whether
of a single man or of humanity, which constitutes the common foundation
of the picture. |
| • |
History article 5
Waylaid |
As the liturgical dramas became
increasingly secularized, they began to be performed entirely in
the vernacular, and eventually they moved out of the church and
into the churchyard, and then into the nearby marketplace. Soon
the plays were taken over by the religious and professional guilds,
with each guild taking responsibility for a particular episode or
set of episodes from scriptural history. |
| • |
History article 6
Mystery Plays in England. |
There is no record of any religious drama in England
previous to the Norman Conquest. The earliest religious plays were
undoubtedly in Latin and French. The oldest extant miracle in English
is the "Harrowing of Hell" (thirteenth century). Its subject
is the apocryphal descent of Christ to the hell of the damned, and
it belongs to the cycle of Easter-plays. |
| • |
History article 7
Coventry’s medieval mystery plays. |
Only two play-texts are
known to have survived from Coventry’s famous and once-comprehensive
cycle of late medieval mystery plays, the Pageant of the Shearmen
and Taylors which covers the Nativity story from the Annunciation
to the Massacre of the Innocents, and the Weavers’ Pageant which
follows on with the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary and
Presentation of Christ in the Temple, and Christ and the Doctors |
| • |
History article 8
Your in good company |
The Coventry Mystery Plays were the most famous in England
and this is reflected in the number of royal visitors they attracted.
Henry V, Henry VI, Richard III and Henry VIII are all known to have
attended the annual performances. |
| • |
History article 9
Chester Plays |
Of the Chester Plays (twenty-five parts), five complete
MSS. from the period between 1591 and 1607 have been preserved. They
were doubtless intended for representation on perambulating pageants.
|
| • |
History article 10
Towneley Mysteries |
The characteristic feature of the Towneley Mysteries collection
is a certain realistic buoyancy and, above all, the abundant display
of a very robust kind of humour. Thus, the merry devil Tutivillus
has found access into the last judgment scene; the family quarrels
in Noah's household are nowhere else depicted so realistically; and,
in the shepherds' Christmas Eve scenes, the adventures of Mak the
sheep-stealer take the foremost place. |
| • |
History article 11
OBERAMMERGAU PASSION PLAY |
Surely one of the greatest
passion plays in the world is that which is performed in Oberammergau,
Austria. The Passion Play, based on the life of Christ, dates from
the 17th Century. It was first performed in 1634, following a vow
taken by the people of Oberammergau during an outbreak of bubonic
plague, which killed 15,000 nearby Munich residents in 1634 - 1635
alone. |
