Medisæval Drama

The ancient dramatic art expired with pagan Rome, and in its first age Christianity was inimical to the theater. Any person connected with the dramatic art was not allowed baptism. The connection of the ancient theater with heathen superstition, and the profligacy of some of the entertainments exhibited offended the primitive Church. With the extinction of literature and art every trace of dramatic composition or performance was for many centuries lost. The modern drama, like the ancient, had its foundation in religion; with this difference, that in place of the worship of Bacchus, miracle-plays and mysteries were produced. The revival of the drama in this form is said to have taken place in Italy, though this is by no means certain, the Frerch claiming priority. The Chester Mysteries, the earliest plays acted publicly in England, were performed from 1268 to 1276. The meaning attached to the word "mystery" may be gleaned from the quotation of two of the verses of the proclamation, or prologue, to the famous Chester Mysteries or Whitsun Plays. The "moonke" mentioned is one Done Randali, of Chester Abbey, the deviser of the Mysteries: "This moonke, moonke-like in Scriptures well seene, In storyes travelled with the best sorte; In pagentes set fourth, apparently to all evne, The Olde and Newe Testament with livelye comforte Intermyngline therewith, onely to make sporte, Some things not warranted by any writt, Which, to glad the hearers, he woulde men to take yt. "Now, you worshippfull Tanners, that of custome olde The fall of Lucifer did set out Some writers awarrante your matter; therefore be boulde, Lustily to place the same to all the rowtte; And yf any thereof stande in any doubte, Your author his author hath, your she we let bee, Good speech, fyne players, with apparill comelye." Rude parodies of sacred history being inconsistent with the purity of the Christian religion, the Mysteries were succeeded by the Moralities, a sort of performance that bore considerable resemblance to the Old Comedy of the ancients, as they were founded upon allegorical subjects, almost always bore allusion to the events of the day, and abounded with strong and biting satire. Upon the revival of letters Latin plays were composed by the learned in avowed imitation of the productions of ancient Greece and Rome; but the general public, to whom the cla ic drama was a sealed book, showed a strong partiality to a new sort of representation, a union, or rather compound of tragedy and comedy, which was called History or Historical Drama. These generally told the exploits of a king from his manhood to his death, with such points of history as were the most marked and striking of his reign. These dramatic chronicles were so popular in England that hardly a single subject upon which Shakespeare wrote had not been appropriated by his predece ors; the majority of his historical plays were, therefore, altered by him from the plan of old dramatic chronicles.