A Little Literature!!

### Comment on Middle English Drama.

Nascent was the stage for play in medieval England. By Chaucer’s times, the-then-known ‘drama’ had already slipped out of the womb of the liturgical church. The members of craft guilds took over the clergymen. Hence, Corpus Christi, a cycle of plays, came into being, since larger interests of the masses were taken into consideration by doing away with the selected ‘events-for-the-sake-of-messages’ and adopting the whole ‘biblical-stories-for-the-sake-of-amusement’ in succession.

After trope and liturgical plays, Mystery, Miracle, Morality plays developed, and the transitional drama called Interlude marched way forward to the arena of Tudor drama. 

  

MYSTERY PLAYS:

First performed by the clergy, these religious plays dramatized the mystery of Christ's Passion. Later the plays were produced by members of craft guilds, and they became known as CRAFT or MYSTERY PLAYS. Beginning in the medieval period, the word mystery was used to describe a skill or trade known only to a few who apprenticed and mastered its special techniques; it also referred to religious mysteries.

By the fifteenth century, mystery plays and the feast of Corpus Christi were popular almost everywhere in England and certain towns produced exceptionally elaborate cycles with unusually complex and ambitious plays. The CYCLES were groups of plays numbering from twenty-four to forty-eight. Four cycles have been preserved: the Chester, York, Towneley (Wakefield), and N-Town cycles, named for their towns of origin. N-Town plays were a generic version of plays that any town could take and use as its own, although the plays were probably written near Lincoln.

The plays were performed again and again during annual holidays and feasts, and the texts were carefully preserved. Some of the plays, such as The Fall of Lucifer, are very short. Others are more elaborate in length and com­plexity and resemble modern plays: Noah, from the Wakefield Cycle, which has been produced regularly in recent history; The Slaughter of Innocents; and The Second Shepherds' Pageant, one of the most entertaining mystery plays. The producers of the plays often had a sense of appropriateness in their choice of subjects. For example, the Water-Drawers guild sponsored Noah's Flood, the Butchers (because they sold "flesh") Temptation, The Woman Taken in Adultery, and the Shipwrights The Building of the Ark.

MIRACLE PLAYS:

Miracle plays, or Saint's plays, are now distinguished from mystery plays as they specifically re-enacted miraculous interventions by the saints, particularly St. Nicholas or St. Mary, into the lives of ordinary people, rather than biblical events; however both of these terms are more commonly used by modern scholars than they were by medieval people, who used a wide variety of terminology to refer to their dramatic performances.

Few examples of Miracle plays exist today. Miracle Plays were eventually banned in England because of their Roman Catholic leanings.

MORALITY PLAYS:

Continuing the development of Medieval Drama, Morality Plays emerged during the 15th century. The Castle of Perseverance is often described as the first and most complete Morality Play while Everyman is the best known. Morality Plays differ from Mystery and Miracle in that they focused neither on The Bible nor the saints but on the common man. The main character in a Morality Play represents all humanity: Everyman, Mankind, Humanum Genus. The theme of every Morality Play dealt with the struggle for salvation – What can man do to be a Christian and save his soul? The main character must make a conscious decision against temptation to be saved, thus showing the free will of man. It's the universal battle between good and evil. It was Vice versus Virtue. Which will mankind choose?

Morality Plays used allegory. Allegory is often seen in Medieval Drama, where a message or meaning is expressed through symbolic representation: ideas and values, vices and virtues become personified. Some examples: the character of Knowledge in Everyman, The Seven Deadly Sins in The Castle of Perseverance, Mercy and Mischief in Mankind.

And it is remarkable to note that these Morality plays seeded in themselves, as times passed by, more pronounced realistic and comic elements which, in the form of Interlude, gave birth to secular Elizabethan drama.