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A SHORT HISTORY OF THE

ENGLISH DRAMA

CHAPTER I

BEGINNINGS OF THE ENGLISH DRAMA

1. Origin.-The English Drama, of which we now think as a highly developed form of entertainment, found its origin not in any accepted centers of amusement but in the dignified service of the Church. While moreover in later centuries the drama of Greece and Rome had considerable influence on the English stage, there was no real connection between the classic drama and the origins of the new form that arose in the Middle Ages. If in the earlier mediaeval centuries in England people could not go to anything like a modern theatre, the theatre could at least come to them; and it came in the shape of the minstrel, the scop, or the gleeman, who went from one great home to another, and of whom we hear so much in early song and story. The minstrels gave entertainments that we should now term recitals, and into their work the idea of impersonation was frequently introduced. Toward the end of the ninth century, however, there began on the Continent a development that was destined ultimately to revolutionize all such means of passing tedious hours away. "The Church, though it had sternly repressed the classic drama, in time came itself to use dramatic action to enrich its

Elaboration of the

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liturgy and to enforce its teachings."
liturgy developed by means of " tropes," which are defined
more generally as "any interpolations of liturgical texts,"
and more specifically as "texts appropriate for special
days, adapted for choral rendering in the musical portions
of the Mass." 3 "Some of these tropes were simply lyric,
or hymnal, in character; some, involving dialogue, were
from the first dramatic in character. Certain tropes used
at Easter, Christmas, and Ascension were of special im-
portance as starting points of dramatic expansion." * Of
first importance is the Quem Quaeritis, an Easter trope
based on the words of the angel who addressed the holy
women who went to anoint the body of Christ and an-
nounced to them the Resurrection, and preserved for us
from the Benedictine Abbey of St. Gall. "It was origi-
nally sung as a choral addition to the music of the Introit
of the Mass, that is, the procession with which the Mass
begins. In course of time, however, as its dramatic pos-
sibilities were developed, it was detached from this posi-
tion, where elaboration in the way of action was impos-
sible, and inserted in the services preceding the Mass."
The words of the trope were as follows:

Quem quaeritis in sepulchro, O Christicolae?
Iesum Nazarenum crucifixum, O caelicola.
Non est hic; surrexit sicut praedixerat:
Ite, nuntiate quia surrexit a mortuis.

These four sentences appear in all Easter plays. At first they were of course not produced dramatically, but even in

1 Child, Introduction to The Second Shepherds' Play, Everyman, and other Early Plays, xii.

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the tenth century they passed the boundary of non-drama and drama.5

2. Artistic Connections.-From such a germ as the Quem Quaeritis one can easily see that expansion could take place in various ways. Especially could there be introduced various preliminaries to the actual dialogue at the tomb. As the service of the Church moreover was so universal in the western world in the Middle Ages, any innovation that was countenanced on the Continent would in course of time naturally find a place in England. Dialogue seems to find its ultimate origin in the antiphons, or choral chants, of the sixth century, in which the two sides of the choir alternately responded to each other. Along with dialogue developed dramatic action, tableaux being recognized as a means of impressing upon the unlearned the principles of Christian truth. Everywhere, from the tenth century on, the production in churches of a certain species of alternating song was combined with some kind of theatrical staging; and, simultaneously with the progress of this staging, the texts of the songs were enlarged by free poetical additions." "Most of the literary monuments that enable us to reconstruct the gradual rise of the Christian drama are of German or French origin; " but one, Concordia Regularis, composed during the reign of Edgar (959-975) and containing rules for divine service in English monasteries, furnishes us in the Quem Quaeritis "the oldest extant example in European literature of the theatrical recital of an alternating song in church.""

"Manly.

•Creizenach: "The Early Religious Drama," Cambridge History of English Literature (hereafter referred to as C. H. E. L.), V, 40. " Creizenach.

Upon all of the very earliest plays, however, severe limitations were everywhere placed; the language was always Latin, the subject was always taken from the Scriptures, and the performance was in a church. Unconsciously everybody waited for the day when removal to the outside of the sacred edifice would do away with a severely repressive atmosphere and give freer play to genuine dramatic emotion.

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3. Miracle Plays.-A few definitions may now be in place. A Mystery play is one originating in the liturgy and presenting an event or series of events taken from the Holy Scriptures. A Miracle play is a dramatization of an event or legend from the life of a saint or martyr. A Morality is a dramatization of an allegory intended to inculcate some useful lesson of religion, morality, or science. With the Morality we shall deal in our next chapter. The word mystery was not originally in use in England; on the other hand, as compared with France, strict miracle plays were very few in number. In England, however, the name of the thing of which the country had little became attached to that of which it had much, so that for this country at least it is generally best to speak of the early productions as miracle rather than mystery plays. In course of time the early religious plays came to consist of three main groups of scenes: from the Old Testament, scenes of the Creation, the Fall of Man, the Death of Abel,

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To be credited in substance to Manly. Note this editor's Specimens of the Pre-Shaksperean Drama, the best and most accessible collection of early English plays. For general discussion, in addition to the work of Ward and Creizenach, note for a brief and popular study Bates: The English Religious Drama, and, for further study, Chambers: The Mediaeval Stage.

'Ward: “The Origins of English Drama," C. H. E. L., V, 15.

and the Deluge; and, from the New Testament, scenes centering around the Birth of Christ, such as the Annunciation, the Visit of the Shepherds, the coming of the Three Kings and the Flight into Egypt, and also scenes connected with the Resurrection, such as those of the Entry into Jerusalem, the Crucifixion, and the Walk to Emmaus. The chronological order of development in the three groups, however, was exactly the reverse of the order just given.

4. Early Development.-It took in England more than two hundred years (or until about 1250) for all the changes to be made from the little dialogue that was simply a part of the liturgy to Bible scenes or plays that were regularly presented for public instruction or entertainment. As the presentation of liturgical plays became more elaborate, and as more space was required both for them and for the audience, the place of performance changed from the church to the churchyard, and then to the street or marketplace or convenient open spaces about the town. "Latin gave way to the vernacular, and the priests to laymen; and miracle plays representing the lives of patron saints were given by schools, trade gilds, and other lay institutions." 10 While moreover the scenes gathered around the Birth of Christ were especially appropriate to the Christmas season, and those of the Resurrection to Easter, more and more it became evident that because of the weather at these seasons, some day in the late spring or early summer would be preferable for the most elaborate productions. In course of time Corpus Christi day (the Thursday after Trinity Sunday) came to surpass all other

10 Neilson: Introduction to Julius Caesar in Lake English Classics,

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