2. What are we talking about?
• Plays (decreasing popularity
through the Roman empire)
• Mime
– Women performers
– No masks
– Talking
– Included graphic sex and
violence (simulated and real)
• Plus: Chariot and horse races,
gladiators, animal vs. animal,
man vs. animal, naumachia
(sea battles)
3. Rise of Christianity in Roman
Empire
• Issue of monotheism
• Persecution by Roman
authorities
– Scorn and mockery
• Final crackdown in early
300’s
• Conversion of Constantine
in 312
4. Fall of Rome (When in Rome,
get out…)
• 410 CE - Rome sacked
by the Visigoths
(German “Barbarians”)
• Catholic church became
unifying force in
Western Europe
– Most “theatre” that we
study is derived from
Church
sources/authors/events
5. Hroswitha (aka Hrosvita)
c. 950
• Benedictine Nun
• Wrote plays based on
Terence’s work
– Saw Terence as impure
– Praised the sobriety
and chastity of women
• First known post-
Roman playwright
• Plays probably not
done, but can’t say for
sure.
6. Quem Quaeritis (c. 975)
• The Trope: a liturgical
embellishment
• This one had stage directions
indicating a couple of things:
– Simultaneous: Several locations
visible at once
– Emblematic: Hell mouth, revolving
globe
– Environmental: Found space
(church), rather than permanent
performance space
• Performed in the church, and
then outside the church…
7. And we’re back ...
• 1200: Plays performed outside the church
• 1311: First recorded Feast of Corpus Christi
• 1375: Religious drama developed
independent of liturgy (service)
8. Key characteristics of Non- Liturgical
drama
• Performed outside the church
• In the vernacular (French, Spanish, English,
German) rather than Latin
• Performers were not churchmen
• Performances tended to be grouped around the
Feast of Corpus Christi
• Full range of biblical and religious stories
9. Non-Liturgical drama?
MMM…
• Mystery Plays: Stories from
the Bible and life of Christ
• Miracle Plays: Stories from
the lives of saints and
Christian miracles
• Morality Plays: Allegorical
tales about how to get to
heaven, live a good life, stay
out of trouble, keep from
temptation, etc.
10. Building a Mystery
• Cycle plays were collections of individual
plays covering the entire span of biblical
history (Creation to Doomsday)
• Individual plays were sponsored/adopted
by specific guilds
– Noah and the Flood adopted by
shipbuilders, fishers, mariners, etc
– Crucifixion: Carpenters
– Gifts to the Christ Child: Goldsmiths
• Theatrical spaces throughout the town
• Towns had their own plays, which is how
we organize the extant scripts (the
Yorktown cycle, the Chester Cycle)
11. Staging the World
• Two key components: Mansion and
Platea
– Mansion: A tiny façade or indicative
piece of set that would “set the stage”
– Platea: Open space in front of the
Mansion where the action could take
place
• Two options: Fixed or Moveable
– Fixed: Mansions set up in order
– Moveable: Mansions paraded through
the streets on pageant wagons. Each
play performed several times at various
locations (the play comes to the people).
12.
13. Mysterious Acting
• Actors could be drawn from
anywhere (didn’t have to be a
member of the sponsoring
guild)
• Most costumes were everyday
clothes
– Angels: Base costume was
church robes (God would
dress a lot like the Pope
was dressed, for example)
– Devils: Special costumes,
special effects (often the
most popular)
• Special effects handled by a
‘Master of Secrets”
14. What could you see?
The production lasted twenty-five days, and on
each we saw strange and Wonderful things…
We saw Truth, angels, and others descend
from very high up, sometimes by visible and
sometimes by invisible means. Lucifer flew
out of Hell on a dragon without anyone being
able to tell how…Jesus was carried to the top
of a wall forty feet high by the Devil…The fig
tree, when cursed by Our Lord, dried up and
its leaves withered in a minute
Account of Valenciennes, France
cycle play c. 1547
15. Noah and His Sons
• Towneley Text (by the
‘Wakefield Master”)
• Three parts
• First: Noah praying to God,
God speaking to Noah
• Second: Noah’s wife berating
him for being a lousy good-
for-nothing
• Third: Noah builds the ark (in
25 lines). More wackiness
with the wife. Rain. Time on
the ark. Waters recede.
• Next play was Abraham and
Isaac
16. Morality Plays
• Everyman: the prime example of
the Morality play
• Characters were named after traits
or qualities (“Everyman”, “Good
Deeds”, “Vice”) rather than people
• In Everyman our hero learns:
– “Fellowship”, “Kindred”, and “Cousin”
will not accompany him to the grave.
– “Good Deeds” will go along, but first
he must do penance, as advised by
“Knowledge”
– Then “Doctor” (a learned man)
comes in to explain everything
18. And yet another version… this
one is for realz
• http://www.musearts.com/cartoons/pigs/every
19. Losing my religion
• By about 1560, religion and
current politics were forbidden
subjects for theatre to present
on stage across Western
Europe
– Protestant split from Catholic
church had made theatre a
battle ground for each side
– Morality plays about evils of
Catholicism/Protestantism
• Elizabeth I takes the throne in
1558 (held till her death in
1603)
20. Feast of Fools / Boy Bishop
• Inversion of the power of the
church for a day. Reminiscent of
earlier pagan festivals.
• Celebrants rang the church bells
improperly, sang out of tune, wore
strange garments and masks, and
used puddings, sausages, and old
shoes as censers.
• The Festivities were accompanied
by much revelry, some of which
passed over into licentiousness.
The feast influenced of comedy
both religious and secular.
21. Rise of Professional Secular Theatre
• Permanent, commercial theatre
buildings begin to open 1580
• No longer “found” environments
• Two main types for England
– Public: Open air, Thrust stage,
No seating for “groudlings” in
“The Pit”. 3 levels of seating
around the outside
– Private: Closed (roofed), but
open to the public. More
expensive than Public theatres
• In each case, scenery was scarce
• Stage normally had two stories
(think the balcony scene in
Romeo and Juliet)
Editor's Notes
1 st female playwright 1 st post-roman playwright Proof of an intellectual continuity from Rome to the Middle Ages
Latin music drama Quem Quaeritis? (literally, "Whom do you seek?") refers to four lines of the medieval Easter liturgy that later formed the kernel of the large body of medieval liturgical drama. It was introduced into the liturgy in the tenth century, as a new genre of liturgical ceremony:[1] Interrogatio. Quem quaeritis in sepulchro, o Christicolae? Responsio. Jesum Nazarenum crucifixum, o caelicolae. Angeli. Non est hic; surrexit, sicut praedixerat. Ite, nuntiate quia surrexit de sepulchro Translation: Question [by the Angels]: Whom do ye seek in the sepulcher, O followers of Christ? Answer [by the Marys]: Jesus of Nazareth, the Crucified, O heavenly ones. The Angels: He is not here; he is risen, just as he foretold. Go, announce that he is risen from the sepulchre. — John Glassner, editor, Medieval and Tudor Drama.
