Medieval Drama

Medieval Drama

• between Ancient Greek theater and Roman theater, drama survived and flourished for well over 1,000 years

• the roman catholic church revived the genre as early as the 10th century

• the church began using liturgical dramas to reach its mostly illiterate flock

• the three major genres of medieval drama included morality, mystery, and miracle plays.

  Purpose

• most surviving medieval plays come from the 14th and 15th centuries when drama again flourished

• the authors are unknown, but their purposes and themes were clearly religious

• the authors’ primary audience was not the wealthy, educated elite

• plays were aimed at the common man

  Genres

• Miracle Plays

  ○ portrayed stories from Church saints’ lives

  ● Almost all surviving miracle plays concerned either the Virgin Mary or St. Nicholas, the 4th-century bishop of Myra in Asia Minor ● Few English miracle plays are still in existence; most were subsequently destroyed or lost.

• Mystery Plays

• cycles of short plays depicting biblical stories

  ● Most scholars agree that mystery refers not to the plays’ content but rather to their production.

  ● Guilds were medieval trade associations organized around particular vocations, such as goldsmiths, butchers, or merchants.

  Morality Plays

• told an allegorical story representing a spiritual theme or truth

  ● Characters were usually stock representations of man or abstract ideas.

  ● Allegory is a literary device in which a specific character, place, or situation stands in for a broader concept.

  ● Commonly called Everyman, the protagonist encountered characters such as Vice, Death, Good Deeds, Justice, or even God.

  ● Their interactions explored a common human problem and presented a clear moral lesson for the audience.

  Drama & Community

• Performed on important Church holidays (e.g., Whitsuntide or Corpus Christi)

  ● Acted by a combination of volunteers and professional entertainers, produced by community members, and attended by the entire community.

  ● The plays were staged outside.

  ● Mystery plays demanded the most community involvement.

  ○ Each play was enacted on a movable stage called a pageant wagon.

  ● Pageant wagons were moving stages on which a group of people would perform a section of a mystery play at different locations in town.

  ● Guilds often sponsored a particular pageant wagon as a way of contributing to the play while also advertising their wares.

  ● Notable surviving drama cycles include ones from York, Chester, and Wakefield.

  ● The Wakefield Second Shepherds’ Play has particularly gained notice for its hilarious mixture of farce with a serious retelling of the shepherds’ visit to the newborn Jesus.

  ● A farce is a type of broad, exaggerated comedy.

  Everyman

  • Written in the late 1400s, Everyman is the most widely known and best medieval morality play.

    ● The play reminds the audience that life is temporary; in a final accounting of one’s life, only the spiritual matters.

    ● The play also reveals how even people who know better are never quite ready for Death to visit.