Medieval
Theatre – Liturgical, Mystery, Miracle, Morality, Mummers, Manners, Farce and
Masque Plays
When the
Western Roman Empire finally collapsed after the death of Roman Emperor
Justinian I in 554, governance and culture throughout Western Europe came
firmly under the control of the Church. Greek and Roman performance traditions
and plays were preserved for some time in the Eastern Roman Empire (now known
as the Byzantine Empire) through popular entertainments, mimes and a massive
encyclopaedia called the Suda. Initially in Western Europe, theatre and drama
was branded as immoral and Roman drama and dramatic forms were banned. There
are some records of travelling troupes performing mimes and crude comic dramas
reminiscent of Ancient Roman comedies and farces and there seems little doubt
that these Ancient Roman traditions were kept alive and informed the commedia
del arte many centuries later.
With the
Church trying to convert so many primarily illiterate people to Christianity,
more moral drama and plays started to become seen as a way to enact and demonstrate
aspects of Christianity. Biblical events were acted out and staged on specific
religious occasions and these liturgical dramas included elaborate sets built
on the altars, costumes and specially decorated vestments and pantomimes
performed by priests of specific biblical events.
One of
the earliest liturgical dramas that we still have records of is Quem-Quaeritis
(Whom We Seek), an Easter liturgical drama from 925 which is
primarily sung by two groups and probably involved moving or ‘Living’ tableaux.
Quem-Quaeritis centres around a dialogue between an angel at the tomb of
Jesus Christ and the women seeking his body.
Around
960 a German aristocratic born canoness called Hrosvitha of Gandersheim (935-1005), wrote
six dramas which she based around some of Terence’s comedies. These are the
first known dramas that are acknowledged to be written by a female. Because
plays based on Terence could have been counted as immoral for reading and
performance, Hrosvitha prefaces her collection by stating that the works are
moral and parables whose purpose was to save Christians and that her
representation of some less than moral deeds and people were meant to act as a
moral lesson for Christians. In this sense her plays ultimately put down the
immorality, weakness and over emotionality of some women compared to the
chastity, strength and intellect of Christian women. Her comedies concentrate
on the love stories of Terence’s work and the plays are didactic in their style
and are dialogues more than character and story based dramas. The most famous of
Hrotsvitha’s comedies include Gallicanus, Dulcitius, Callimachus,
Abraham and Paphnutius. We do not know whether Hrotsvitha’s plays
were performed, read with accompanied moving or ‘living’ tableaux or simply
heard in readings.
In
England in around 965 Æthelwold of Winchester (the Bishop of Winchester)
started to compose Liturgical dramas and short plays (which contained dialogue,
music and stage directions) which he included in his treatise Regularis
Concordia.
By the 11th
Century, Liturgical Dramas and the Festival or Feast of Fools started to become
popular dramatic forms throughout most of Western Europe. Liturgical dramas
were probably held four to six times a year while the Feast of Fools (a
festival including comedy, parody and burlesque where status was inverted and
peasants and actors were allowed to dress up as and mock clergy and authority)
were only allowed to happen once a year or sometimes once every couple of years
in some towns. Some academics see the Feast of Fools as the precursor to the
Italian Commedia del Arte. Secular traditions like the Feast of Fools also give
rise to Mummers and Masque dramas in the 15th and 16th
centuries.
Liturgical
dramas were normally short and were sometimes performed in churches during or
after church celebrations or sometimes were performed in the squares or courts
outside of churches. These liturgical dramas started as short playlets
(sometimes acted and sometimes sung) and eventually emerged into longer plays.
They were normally performed not in Latin but in everyday language or dialect
and are sometimes known as vernacular liturgical drama.
Around this time the second great female of drama and one of the first great female composers started to write and compose. Saint Hildegard of Bingen was a German Benedictine abbess who wrote Ordo Virtutum one of the oldest surviving Morality Plays along with incredible early church music. Ordo Virtutum is a musical Morality Drama in Five Parts concerning the struggle for a human soul between the Virtues and the Devil. The drama may have first been performed in 1152 at the opening and dedication of St. Rupertsberg Church.
In the 12th
and earlier 13th Centuries, on the whole, Mystery and Miracle plays
were performed in church as part of the liturgy and Morality plays were
performed outside the church or in the streets often on Pageant Wagons,
although these differences eventually became blurred until such clear division
no longer apply.
As these
plays became longer and more popular, they started to be performed outdoors
with purpose built temporary staging and costumes to attract a larger audience.
Some plays even included detailed stage directions. Famous liturgical dramas
include England’s The Mystery of Adam (1150), the Norman La Seinte
Resurrection and the Spanish The Play of the Magi Kings.
As
liturgical dramas became more elaborate especially around Easter time, the
performance were done increasingly outside the churches until the performances
turned into more pageants than plays. By 1200 many of these pageants and plays
were done on movable stages or large carts known as Pageant Wagons. Many of the
plays were still primarily moving tableaux and pantomimes, Morality plays
depicting various bible stories, especially stories from the Old Testament,
Christmas and the birth of Christ, Corpus Christi and the crucifixion of
Jesus.
Loosely,
Medieval Drama can be divided into Secular Drama (exemplified by farces,
masques, the feast of Fools and some travelling player troupe burlesques and
circuses which survived) and Spiritual Drama (exemplified by Liturgical Drama,
Mystery Plays and Morality Plays). As some economic and political stability
started to come to towns in Western Europe and in the British Isles, Mystery
plays and Mystery Play cycles started to dominate the repertoire of medieval
drama. York produced about 50 plays, Wakefield over 30 and Chester over 25
plays. An even greater number of plays were produced in many large towns in
Germany and France.
There is
some argument over the origin and meaning of Mystery Plays. Mystery plays
derive their meaning from the Latin word misterium which means
occupation, craft or work. Although Mystery Plays initially started during the
10th Century as tableaux and later ‘living’ or moving tableaux to
accompany Old and New Testament Bible Stories (sometimes done with an
antiphonal song) by the 14th Century the mounting and preparation of
performances had been taken over by craft guilds.
Different guilds became known
for their performances of different bibles stories and themes. The Shipwright’s
Guild was known for the mounting of the story of Noah’s Ark, the Goldsmith’s
for the Adoration of the Magi and the Baker’s Guild for The Last Supper. Here
is a short description of the performance of a Mystery Play:
“On
the morning of the performance each pageant would be rolled out of its shed and
dragged in its turn to the first of the ‘stations’ at which the plays were
acted. The first performance over, the pageant would be dragged through the
streets to the second station, and then the play repeated. At York each play
was performed twelve times, and occasionally oftener, the choice of the
stopping places or stations being determined by the liberality of the owners of
the adjacent houses. These contributions were much needed, for the cost of the
plays fell heavily on the guilds; five or six of them had sometimes to club
together to produce a single pageant, while the sharing of the expenses led to
frequent disputes. In a few cases the reason for the assignment of a play to a
particular guild is obvious; thus the Shipwrights or Fishmongers commonly
interested themselves in Noah and the Flood, while the Goldsmiths and
Goldbeaters played the Magi. But as a rule the wealth of the guild and the cost
of the necessary dresses and stage properties were the chief considerations.”
(Chambers 1902. pp47-48)
While
these dramas were Christian and religious in their content, they were not
literally liturgical anymore because they were not performed in churches.
Medieval drama had become by the mid-13th Century, more about the
spectacle than the story itself. These plays were performed in everyday
language, used a large fixed stage or a movable stage like a pageant wagon,
relied on the spectacle rather than the religious accuracy of the action, used
props, costumes and stage machinery.
A number
of factors are responsible for the decline of Mystery, Morality and Miracle
dramas. Within Continental Europe and in England, the rise of the Protestant
Reformation meant that drama and other entertainments were targeted and edited
and even banned. The popularity of Mystery plays and the changing and format
also added to the decline. By the early 15th Century, interludes
(often comic in form) appeared between parts of the cycles of Mystery and
Miracle plays. These interludes became increasingly popular until sometimes the
length of some comic interludes exceeded the actual religious plays themselves.
Some of these interludes started to borrow off other secular forms such as the
Mummers (seasonal performances or parades or festivities where people go from
one place to another dressed and masked as characters normally speaking in
rhyme) and Masques (pageants, pantomimes, mimes or dumbshows where people dress
up as characters and act out scenes).
More
liberal attitudes towards the performances of Ancient Greek and Roman plays
also saw a decline in religious drama. This also saw a rise in popularity for
new secular dramatic forms such as the Commedia del arte and Humanist dramas
(some translations of Greek and Roman histories) such as those created in France
by Jodelle with Cléopâtre Captive (1553) and Grevin with Jules César
(1560). This, along with the building of purpose built theatres, meant the end
of Medieval Drama in Europe and the beginning of a European Renaissance
Theatre.
Lesson Plan and Practical Activities
Medieval plays
particularly those of a religious nature would be staged on either fixed or
movable stages. If a play was staged was staged in on fixed staging, different
scenes were often depicted on different stages or in different rooms or spaces
in a town square or mansion such as public spaces or courtyards. If the staging
was movable, then often different scenes appeared on different pageant wagons
or carts and these were moved or paraded like parade floats. Some pageant
wagons were described as being 12 foot tall and 40 foot long.
Students are going
to create a single image (still or moving) from a religious story or a story
from the bible. The students will parade this story around the classroom or
around the performance or public space. The students should decide whether
their group uses a still image or moving image which is repeatable. Alternatively
students can break into different guilds and each present a different story.
Students can use props and costumes they find in the classroom or they can try
to access costumes and props that they think would look more authentic.
Some of the stories
which work well for this are listed below (I have put the possible guild which
probably presented the story in medieval times in brackets after the story):
Noah and the Flood
(Shipbuilder’s Guild)
The Journey of Magi
to see Baby Jesus (Goldsmith’s Guild)
Jonah and the Whale
(the Fisherman and Fishmonger Guilds)
The Procession of
the Prophets (the Dressmaker’s Guild)
Joseph and His Coat
(the Weaver’s Guild)
The Garden of Eden
(Farmer’s Guild)
The Last Supper (The Baker's Guild)
Students can find
simple outlines of the stories on some of the websites below. Here is the story
of Noah reduced to the six main events which could be presented in images. Students
can use these or read a religious story and reduce it down to the major events
they want to present in their pageant images.
Noah and the Flood
- God said “Humans have been wicked and I will wipe humans from the face of the earth.”
- One man found grace in the eyes of God and God told Noah that he was going to bring a great flood to the earth and that Noah was to build an ark and gather two of each beast and put it on the ark.
- After a long time, Noah had built the ark and he put his wife and sons and all the animals and birds on the ark.
- Then God brought the rains. The rain kept falling and the waters rose and covered the earth and the ark sailed safely with Noah and his passengers.
- Years afterwards when the waters were dried up, Noah, and all that had been with him, left the ark.
- Then Noah built an altar, and offered sacrifices to God, in thankfulness for God's goodness to him and his family.
References
Æthelwold
of Winchester (ed. and tr. D.T. Symons). 1953. Regularis Concordia,
Regularis Concordia Anglicae Nationis Monachorum Sanctimonialiumque. The
Monastic Agreement of the Monks and Nuns of the English Nation. Cotton
Press. London.
Billington,
S. 1984. A Social History of the Fool. Harvester Press, Sussex.
Brockett,
Oscar G. and Franklin J. Hildy. 2003. History of the Theatre. Ninth
Edition (International Edition). Allyn and Bacon. Boston.
Chambers,
R. 1902. Chamber’s Cyclopædia of English Literature. Chamber’s
Publishing. Edinburgh. pp47-48.
Cohen,
Robert. 2000. Theatre: Brief Edition. Mayfield Publishing Company,
p. 201-203.
Dronke,
P. 1994. Nine Medieval Latin Plays. Cambridge University Press.
Cambridge.
Harris,
M. 2011 Sacred Folly: A New History of the Feast of Fools. Cornell
University Press. Ithaca, N.Y.
Millington,
P. 2013. Historical Database of Folk Play Scripts (website). http://www.folkplay.info/Texts.htm
Styan,
J.L. 1996. "The English Stage: A History of Drama and Performance."
Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
Wilson,
Katharina M (1984), "The Saxon Canoness: Hrotsvit of
Gandersheim", Medieval Women
Writers, Manchester University Press. Manchester.
Website
and Video Resources
Websites
Simple Bible
Stories
Columbia
Gorge Community School. 2008. Medieval Theatre. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxdDoUoFQhM
Lengyel,
C. 2010. Theatre of the Middle Ages. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTpIpcz2Ndk
RTHS.
2013. Drama 9 - Medieval Theatre. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTpIpcz2Ndk
Questions
for Discussion
1.
How did the church use drama for its own purposes in Medieval times?
2.
Why do you think Mystery and Miracle plays were initially performed in churches
and Morality plays were initially performed outside and on Pageant Wagons?
3.
How and why do the types and forms of Medieval Drama change over time?
4.
What do you think the role and function of secular drama forms were during
Medieval times?
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