Literature Analysis

Drama Origin Growth and Development of The English Drama

The origins of the drama, it has been said, "have always been deeply rooted in the religious instinct
of mankind". This is true of the drama of all countries and english drama was no exception. The "cradle
of the drama rested here too on the altar". It was distinctly a creation of the church and was born of the
service in the church. The clergy felt it necessary to educate the ignorant common masses on the truths
of religion and on the salient facts of the life of Jesus Christ and of the facts and the personalities in the
Bible. The services of the church were in Latin and few people could understand them. The Bible was
accessible to the few. Hence in very early times, as early as the tenth century, we hear of the Gospel
stories being illustrated by a series of living pictures in which the performers acted the story in dumb
shows at first and in the next age spoke as well as acted the parts. Special plays were written by the
clergy for special festivals, for instance Christmas or Easter. The actors were mostly the clergy and the
performance was given in the interior of the church. This was the first stage in the history of drama.

The origins of the drama, it has been said, "have always been deeply rooted in the religious instinct of
mankind".

Origin of Drama

With time progressing, the crowds became more interested and thronged in increasing number in
those shows. As a result the locality of the performance was changed from the interior of the church to
the open spaces round it or the market place. In place of French, vernacular English was used as the
language. "This change of locality added to the introduction of the vernacular marked the clear
breakaway of the primitive drama (the Liturgical drama) from that of which it originally formed a part
the service of the Mass". A clear advance to the Modern English Drama was thus made.

In the beginning of the twentieth century Poetic Drama the trade guilds were entrusted with the
performances of these plays and each guild represents plays according to its craft; for instance the
Fishermen present the Flood (Deluge) or the Bakers the Last Supper and so on. The work was taken
seriously by the guilds and unpunctuality was punished with heavy fines. The plays were performed on a
stage or platform divided into two storeys - the upper, standing for the stage proper and lower, serving
as the scene of hell or as the tiring room for the actors. Some platforms were fixed in a particular place
and the audience went from one place to another to see the series of the plays. Sometimes the platform
was mounted on wheels and was moveable and the spectators stayed in one spot or station, while the
moving stages passed before them in succession, gave the performance and passed on to another to
repeat the performance. There were generally eight to twelve such stations, so that the whole
performance of a cycle of plays took several days. Performance began at 4.30 A.M. and went on until
the daylight failed. The passion for the theatre was widespread.
 These early plays based on Biblical stories are known as Mysteries or Miracles. It has been the
fashion to call the Biblical plays Mysteries and those dealing with the Saints lives Miracles but there is no
evidence to justify this distinction in England, though seems to have been used in France (Albert). All
out-of-door liturgical dramas in England were known as Miracles. Four cycles or sets of these plays have
been preserved those of Chester, Conventry, York and Towneley. The purpose of these plays was to
make the common people familiar with the sacred stories. As such there was little scope for freedom of
invention. But mediaeval religion was not solemn and though it would not tamper with the Biblical
story, it tolerated jokes or comic elements in the Biblical scenes, which were the inventions of the play
wrights.

Thus in the play Noah Dame Noah, Noah's scolding wife was at first unwilling to enter the ark, leaving
her gossips and had to be beaten soundly by Noah to lift to the ark, where she cracked Noah over the
head. In the Second Shepherd's Play there is a cunning scamp, named Mak who steals a sheep and
conceals it in the bed of his wife and passes it off as a baby in the cradle. These comic episodes seems
incongruous today, but they did not jar on the simple faith of the mediaeval people. This blending of the
comic and tragic, the light and serious in a play is a great legacy of the Mysteries to the Elizabethan
drama. Even Shakespeare himself adopted it for dramatic effect. The plays 'combined instruction with
amusement' and spread throughout the land a love for drama,

The next stage in the evolution of the drama was the Morality, which flourished in the fifteenth
century. The Morality did not supersede the Mystery. The two kinds existed side by side and in fact
Miracles outlived the Moralities by many years. The Morality supplemented the Miracle. The Miracles
"familiarised the people with the story of redemption but it did not instruct them in the means of
redemption". This later, namely the doctrinal or moral side of Christianity was taken up by the
Moralities. They may be called dramatized allegories"; they replaced the Biblical personages of the
Miracle play by personified abstractions. Vices and Virtues etc., are presented as allegorical creations,
often of much liveliness. There is thus an attempt, however crude, at characterisation and psychological
analysis of the human qualities. Vice is a favourite comic character in these plays and the comedy
provided enough mirth to the audience.
 There was a great scope for invention of situations there was also an attempt at plot construction
and securing a unity of story. Thus though the religious spirit of the Miracle is still there, a gain in
intellectuality is a clear mark of these plays. The Moralities thus mark a clear and considerable advance
in the progress towards modern drama, are a step ahead of the Miracles in Merit. The best example of a
Morality play, indeed, the masterpiece in its kind is Everyman. Like a Greek drama it starts upon a crisis;
God sends Death to summon Everyman (who represents the Soul). He prays for a respite which Death
refuses. Everyman appeals to Friends, Kinsmen, Strength, Beauty, etc. who desert him in his supreme
moment. It is only Good Deeds who accompany him in his last journey. The dialogue of the play has a
life and go, Its pathos is impressive. It has been recently revived in Great Britain and the United States, a
fact which bespeaks its beauty and vitality. In England in the age of religious controversy, the Morality
plays were made the instruments of propaganda and many plays were written for that purpose

The last of the predecessors of the regular drama in England was the Interlude, which flourished
about the middle of the sixteenth century. As the name implies it was a short play, designed to entertain
a company of guests during or after a banquet. This was the first purely secular drama.

"It had several distinguishing points: it was a short play that introduced real characters, usually of
humble rank, such as citizens and friars; there was complete absence of allegorical figures; there was
much broad farcical humour, often coarse and there were set scenes, a new feature in the English
drama. It may be observed that the Interlude was a great advance upon the Morality play in many
respects John Heywood, who lived in the latter half of the sixteenth century, was the most gifted writer
of the Interlude." (Albert). His The Four P's i.e.. Palmer, Pardoner, Pothycary and the Pedlar, is the best
known of all Interludes. It is written in doggerel verse. It describes a lying-match among these four to
find out which of them can tell the greatest lie. The Palmer wins the palm in the race for lying. The
underlying satire is thus expressed with a great pleasantry.

By the middle of the sixteenth century the Renaissance influence from Italy came to give a new and
vigorous impetus to the drama in England. The renewed study of the classical dramas, especially of
Seneca and Plautus gave the English scholars models on which the English drama could be built up. The
drama was thus born anew under the germinating influence of the Renaissance. English genius
vindicated its claim to independent life and power The classical drama gave the English drama its five
acts, its set scenes, its division into comedies and tragedies and many other features, Regular comedy,
tragedy and history plays thus appeared in succession and the modern English drama was almost
established.
 The first extant English comedy of the classical school, Raiph Roister Doister was written in 1541 by
Nicholas Udail. Another comedy, Gammer Gurton's Neetile appeared in 1575. Its authorship is
uncertain. The plot is slight but the play gives interesting glimpses of contemporary life, The dialogue
has go and originality. In tragedy the alien force was more aggressive. The influence of Seneca was
conspicuous and powerful. The first English tragedy, Gorboduc by Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville,
was acted before Queen Elizabeth in 1562. It was the first drama written in blank verse. Gascoigne's
Jocasta, an adaptation of Euripides Phenissoe was acted in 1566. Many other blank verse tragedies
followed and they preserved the peculiarly English feature in the exhibition of the comic vice and the
blending of the comic and serious, a legacy of the Miracles and Moralities and which passed to the
Shakespearean drama much to the dismay of the classical Ben Jonson.

As Albert has observed: "this union of tragedy and comedy was alien to the classical drama and was
the chief glory of the Elizabethan stage". Along with the classical plays were the native breed of
historical plays. The first crude attempt in writing historical play was made by one John Bale in the play
King John, which is in essence a morality play in which allegorical characters are mingled with real
figures during the reign of King John. Early historical plays were The famous Victories of Henry (before
1588), Troublesome reign of King John (before 1591), and The Chronicle History of King Lier (before
1591). These plays are the predecessors of the historical plays of Shakespeare. Thus by the third quarter
of the sixteenth century the drama passed the experimental stage and made much headway towards
establishing itself as the National drama. Its material was abundant and vital and what was needed was
the genius of a master to give shape and impulse to these diversified materials. This genius appeared
first in the person of Marlowe, and then in his great successor Shakespeare, the greatest dramatist, not
only of England but of the world. The drama was the culminating glory of the Elizabethan age.