Three categories of Middle English Drama..Trace The Development of Them.
The origin of English drama seems vague. There is no certain evidence proving its origin. However, it can be traced back from century of succeeding Norman Conquest to England on 1066. Many historians believe that drama came to England along with them.
After the Norman Conquest in place of Latin, the liturgical play followed the French pattern and finally in place of French, vernacular English was used as the language.The crowds became more interested and they started to throng inside the church.. What ever it borrowed from other sources it was in origin distinctly a creation of the church.The church was everything for the Middle Ages.The church was indeed the school and meeting place the centre of art ,of amusement and entertainment.As a result the church yard was opened and finally drama came to the open market place. The organization had begun to pass from ecclesiastical to lay hands. The growing secularization of the drama is reflected in an edict of 1210 forbidding clergy to take part in the plays.From the clergy, control first passed to the religious and social guilds and then to the trade guilds under the general control of the council of the town.
. In France, Miracle used to represent the life of the saints and Mystery used to represent any scene taken from the scripture. Meanwhile in England, there was no distinction between this two. The term Miracle play was used to represent any story taken from the scripture or the bible and the life of the saints.
*The four guilds were generally known as Chester cycle, York cycle, Wakefield cycle and Coventry .
Development of Drama
The Miracle plays
were presented in all large town city in England. It was arranged to exhibit the whole story from creation to the Day of Judgment in a cycle. There were four famous cycle existed in England.Chester cycle, York cycle, Wakefield cycle and Coventry cycle. The York with 48 plays, the Chester with 25 plays, the Wakefield with 32 plays and the Coventry with 42 plays. During this religious period drama were written according to the Bible and no change was tolerated. This religious performances lasted till the sixteenth century. All the cycles more or less took the materials from the episodes of the Old and New Testaments
The plays by York cycle deal with-
Creation of the World, Fall of Lucifer, Fall of Man, Cain and Abel, Life of Christ, Crucifixionetc.
Chester cycle ---- Some important plays are- The Sacrifice of Issac, Fall of Lucifer, The Deluge, Balaam and the Ass etc.
Wakefield cycle--- The usual series of plays follow- Noah, Abraham and Issac, Jacob and Easu, Crucifixion, The Visit of Wise Men etc.
Coventry cycle--- plays were acted at Coventry on the festival of Corpus Christi.
The earliest recorded Miracle play in England was “Ludus Santa de Katherina”, which performed in Dunstable around 1110. It was not known who wrote the original play, but the first version was prepared by the French school teacher, Geoffrey from St. Albans. The plays were given in Latin or French.
Morality play the 15th and 16th centuries which registered a further advance were allegories cast in the mold of a play. They were partly an independent growth and partly a development of the didactic side of theMiracle Plays. In such plays, virtues and vices were presented on the stage as allegorical creations. Abstractions such as Justice, Mercy, Gluttony, Death and so on were its commonest characters. The main purpose of the play is didactic. The allegorical characters to be found in some of the earlier Miracle plays owe their importance to religious sources. They are not essential to the story. The remarkable Moralities are- Everyman, Mankind, The Castle of Perseverance, The Three Estates etc.
One of the earliest morality plays was The Castle of Perseverance, a drama of the old faith. The spiritual progress of mankind from the day of his birth to the Day of Judgment is set forth in this drama.
Another examples of such play is Everyman. It is the story of the end of Everyman’s life. When Death calls Everyman, he has to go to face Death. At this time all his friends leave him except Good Deeds. These plays taught Christian morality to the uneducated.
The interlude
is the kind of short, funny and humorous play, which was common in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries were acted away from the church. Such plays were often acted between the acts of long Moralities or between the courses of a feast. Professional actors in colleges or rich men’s houses or gardens showed these little dramas
Other Interludes are- Johan, The Play of Weather, The Husband etc.
To conclude , English drama gradually develop from the liturgical drama to Miracle and Mystery plays, continuously to Morality and interlude followed by the influence of classical model and finally evolve to the regular drama forms which flourish during Elizabethan reign and which known till today.
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Prepared by Chandi Halder ( M.A English) 7699243332.
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