Medieval Theatre

INTRODUCTION

© 2015 Joshua E. Polster. All Rights Reserved. No part of this work or any of its contents may be reproduced,
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Origins Of Medieval Drama

• Early Church Fathers

tried to suppress
spectacles of later
Roman empire

• Christian emperors
banned public acting
Medieval History
• In the 4th Century came
disorder in Western Europe from wars, famine and disease.
• Political turmoil – no reliable political structure.
• The Church was the only stable "government". The church
exerted increasing influence.
• In the 4th Century, the Bishop of Rome, claiming to be the
successor to St. Peter, established supremacy in religious and
secular concerns.
• In the 8th century, Muslims were defeated by Carolinian kings
and Europe briefly returned to stability, along with a revival in
the arts. The Pope pronounced Charlemagne the legitimate
successor to Constantine and began the Holy Roman Empire.
Spread of Christianity: first appeared in major cities of Empire, then into countryside
Feudalism
• After Charlemagne’s death (814), the Holy Roman Empire
was lost to Viking invaders and Europe broke into units.

• The Manor (large estate):

- Main non-church political entity.
- Lords of manors were vassals (subjects) of
king (ruler of a state).
-The king’s knights protected the lords and
their land.
- Vassals had authority over serfs, (peasants)
who worked the land.
 Theatre (500 to 900 CE)
• After the disintegration of the Roman Empire, organized
theatrical activities greatly decreased in Western Europe
• Theatre survived in Roman mimes; Teutonic minstrelsy,
popular festivals, pagan rites, and Christian ceremonies

Pagan Ritual or Entertainment (1340)

 Medieval Dramatic Forms
• Liturgical Drama (975-1500): Theater was
rejuvenated with liturgical drama - written in
Latin and dealing with bible stories - which would
be performed by priests or church members.

• Vernacular Drama (1200-1600): Then came

vernacular drama, spoken in common language, a
more elaborate series of one act dramas called
Corpus Christi Cycle Plays that took place in
town squares or other parts of city.

• Secular Drama: Alongside religious dramatic

forms were farces, moralities, Chamber of
Rhetoric, interludes, mummings and disguisings,
Robin Hood plays, tournaments, and royal entries.
 The Church
• The major preservers and place of learning. Monasteries
were a safe haven for manuscripts during times of violence.

• Between 925 and 975, drama became re-introduced into the

church services - the very institution that helped to shut it
down.

• The church had little choice?

- It couldn’t stop the popular pagan rites?
- Many aspects of pagan rites found their
way into Christian ceremonies.
- In the 4th century, Christmas supplanted the
winter festivals; Easter supplanted the spring festivals.
Drama Inside the Church: Liturgical Drama
• Before 1200, most dramas were being done inside the church
as part of the liturgy, and were in Latin (language of Church).
• From ritual to drama
• Dramatic elements in services
• Sets of visualized signs - objects
and actions - to help communicate
- Church vestments, altars, censers
and the pantomime of priests
- Emblems associated with biblical
characters
- Conventionalized costumes
- Dialogue added to songs
Quem Quaeritis (925 CE)
• Earliest extant liturgical drama
• Four-line dramatization of the resurrection, with
performance directions
• Musical passages that later added tropes (new text and music to
pre-existing chants)

• Sung by a choir of altar boys called the Quem quaeritis

Angles: Whom seek ye in the tomb, O Christians?
3 Marys: Jesus of Nazereth, the crucified, O heavenly beings,
Angles: He is not here, he is risen as he foretold;
Go and announce that he is risen from the tomb.”

• By 975, it had become a little drama within the service

Regularis Concordia (Monastic Agreement)
• Earliest extant playlet is
found in the Regularis
Concordia, compiled
between 965 and 975 by
Ethelwold, Bishop of
Winchester.
• Designed to establish uniform
practices and to encourage a
sense of purpose and order in
English monasteries.
• Device to stimulate and
educate the monks.
 Liturgical Dramas
• The practice of liturgical dramas increased – many playlets
developed dealing with biblical themes—mostly Easter,
Christmas, the 12th Night (Feast of the Epiphany).
• Most lines were chanted rather than spoken.
• Actors were members of clergy or choir boys.
• Usually serious, but at the Feast of
Fools and the Feast of the Boy
Bishops, much dancing, foolishness
and parodies of church practices.
- Inversion of status that allowed
lesser clergy and choir boys to
ridicule superiors and routine of
church life.
Nonliturgical Plays
• Non-liturgical dramatizations of other stories from the
Bible (ex: Raising of Lazarus)

• Significant embellishment of
Biblical text

• Sophisticated creations of
learned men; works of wisdom
and piety, not designed to
educate laity
Nonliturgical Plays
• Hrosvitha (935-973), a nun from the monastery of
Gandersheim, wrote non-liturgical religious plays
based on Terence's plays.

• Most likely "closet dramas.”

• First known female dramatist.

• First known Western dramatist of

postclassical era.
 Staging
• Two main areas for performance:
1. Mansions (“little house”): Small scenic
structures for indicating location (a throne
might signify the palace of Pilate).

2. Platea (“Platform”): General acting area,

adjacent to the mansion.
• Church structure served as mansions
(choir loft could be heaven; altar might
be the tomb of Christ, crypt might be hell)

• Machinery: Christ’s assent to heaven,

angels come down, etc.
 Decline of Feudalism
• Kings and princes gained more control
over subject lords - nations of modern Europe
began to take shape.
• Formation of towns and guilds.
• Guilds were protective organizations against local feudal lords and for
traveling merchants. Regulated working conditions, wages, quality of
product, etc.
Master: owned shop and supervised work
Journeyman: skilled in trade but worked for wages
Apprentice: young men and boys who received room and board while
learning trade for around seven years.
• Townsmen gave taxes for ruler’s protection and favorable commerce.
 Vernacular Drama

1. Mystery plays (cycle plays): Short

dramas based on the Old and New
Testaments organized into historical
cycles (Second Shepherds’ Play)

2. Miracle plays: lives of saints,

historical and legendary

3. Morality plays: secular, didactic

allegories, often of common man’s
struggle for salvation (Everyman)
 Common Characteristics
• The plays have little sense of history – reflecting the limited knowledge of
the people. Anachronisms were quite common.
• The medieval mind looked at the temporal world (Earth) as transitory;
Heaven and Hell were the eternal realities.
• Episodic, little sense of chronology, a mixture of comic and serious,
mostly anonymous authors.

• Many individual plays were rewritten, added and dropped.

• Teach or reinforce Church doctrine: show human failings set against larger
framework of divine commandments.
• Melodramatic: good rewarded, evil punished
• God and his plan were the driving forces, not the characters
Drama Outside of the Church: Cycle Plays
• By 1200, some of the religious dramas were being performed
outdoors. The short liturgical plays were brought together to form
long plays which were then translated into the vernacular and
performed by laymen.
• Called “mystery” plays because they were performed by the
medieval craft guilds (mysterium, latin for handicraft)
• Also called “cycle” dramas because they portray the cycle of the
Christian history of the world from Creation to Doomsday
• Performances were as long as 16 hrs/day and divided into episodes
(pageants). Usually performed for several days (York in 1 day)

* The church supported these dramas. Why did they move outdoors?
* Why nonclerical actors?
 Corpus Christi Cycles
• Substitution of spoken for chanted dialogue
• Movement from international to national
drama (from Latin to vernacular)
• The stories began to range even further than when they were
part of the liturgical services.
• Staged primarily during the spring and summer months to
celebrate major religious festivals and special occasions.

- Corpus Christi
- Easter or Whitsuntide (7 weeks after Easter)
- Deliverance from a plague, draught, or other disaster
 Corpus Christi Cycles
• Feast of Corpus Christi was established in 1264 by Pope Urban VI

• Observed on the Thursday following Trinity Sunday (varies from

May 21 to June 24)

• Honored the union of the human

and divine in Christ and the
promise of redemption through
his sacrifice

• Cosmic drama which portrayed

the biblical events from the Mystery Play at St Mary's Abbey, Yorkshire (1951)

Creation to the Day of Judgment

Corpus Christi Cycles
• Mixture of sacred and
profane

• Conscious use of
anachronism

• Powerful instruments of
social criticism
 Corpus Christi Cycles
• At first, the church had control of the drama outside of the church,
but then it gradually became more controlled by secular groups.

• The Guilds: Tradesmen or Confraternaties (“religious guilds”)

took over in some cities.

• The Bakers’ Guild would control the

play about the Last Supper, and
Shipwrights’ Guild would get plays
about Noah.

• Municipalities took over in some cities. But the church still

needed to approve the scripts, even when its role diminished.
 Corpus Christi Cycles
• Town Council: decided if performances would happen, assigned
plays to individual guilds, fined guilds for not producing plays or
performing them well, chose playing places

• Guilds largely responsible for work and expense.

- Providing a pageant wagon, scenery, costumes,
properties, special effects, actors and supervisors

• Two small or poor guilds might be given a joint assignment.

• City sometimes gave a grant, those cast in play sometimes had a

fee, clergy might provide money, sometimes charged admission

• Direction of cycle came under one person or committee

 Corpus Christi Cycles
• The Pageant Master - secured actors, arranged rehearsals,
and took charge of every phase of production (on moveable
stage, hired by guild and responsible for play; on fixed
staging, responsible for entire cycle).

• The Register was the master copy of the script– sometimes

the producing company / guild could monopolize or censor
it or ban it.

• The Master of Secrets – was in charge of the machines

(secrets) – the special effects. Often very intricate (need 17
people to operate Hell machinery in Belgium in 1501).
Actors
• Unpaid actors drawn from the local population.
• Guilds did not confine casting to their own members.
• Chosen from the merchant or working class.
• Clergy and nobility sometimes participated.
• Most were men or boys, but women and girls
occasionally appeared.
• By 16th century, actors were skilled to be employed as
coaches.
• By the end of the Middle Ages, the professional actor
began.
 Extant Cycles
• In the British Isles, plays were produced in 127 different
towns

• York = 48 plays
Wakefield (Towneley) = 32 plays
Chester = 24 pageants
N __ Town (place unknown) = 42 pageants

• Each differs in style, selection, and

interpretation of material
Staging of the York Cycle

• Pageant wagons drawn in a procession through the town

PAGEANT WAGON
 Special Effects
• Flying was a major technique commonly used
• Platforms covered with cotton (the "glories") held angels.
• Realistic effigies used for scenes of violence
• Animals (live, impersonated or effigies)
• Trapdoors
• Water
• Light
• Transformation scenes
• The hellmouth – a fire-
breathing structure
representing face of a devil
Costumes and Music
• Most characters dressed in contemporary garments
• Choir boys (dressed as angels) sang hymns
• Trumpets introduced God
• Scene transitions had instrumental or vocal music
• Popular secular tunes
 Staging
• Two major kinds of stages: Fixed and Moveable

• For both types of stages, the mansion and platea were

borrowed from the church services

• Simultaneous staging of several locations was a

distinctive characteristic of medieval theatre.

• Performed in Church cemeteries, courtyards of private

residences or monasteries, and public squares.
 Fixed Staging

• Mansions set up in available

spaces (courtyards, town
squares), usually arranged in
straight lines, rectangles or circles
- Heaven and Hell were usually at
opposite ends.
-Technical tricks more
extensive than moveable staging
Lucerne Passion Play (1583)
• Paradise: top building
• Garden of Eden: base
• Mansions: each side
• Hell Mouth: lower left
• Booth Stage
raised platform on trestles
back by a colorful curtain

• Indoor platforms were used

occasionally.
Valenciennes Passion Play (1547)

• Heaven mansion at the left, Hell mansion at right. Mansions in

between were changed each day as needed. 25 days were required
to perform the entire work.
 Moveable Staging
• Pageant wagons moved through the streets
while the audience stayed in one place –
like parade floats.
• The term "pageant" is used to refer to the
stage, the play itself, and the spectacle.

• Plays performed in sequence, so each play

was performed several times.

• There are few reliable description of pageant

wagons.

• One claims that the wagons must be over 12

feet tall—it would seem impossible to fit
through the streets.
 The Crucifixion
• The Crucifixion, assigned to the pin makers, was a climatic
point in the York cycle plays. Three Roman soldiers crucify
Christ, villainously botch the procedure and cause further
torment, and fight over Christ’s remaining possessions.

• The play, as well as the entire cycle dramas, were a means to

promote Christian ideology and also to suppress any religious
opposition.

• An early extant version of the play

has three Jews surrounding the
soldiers, demonstrating its potential
use as anti-Semitic propaganda.
 Miracle Play (Saint’s Play)
• Popular from 12th century CE
• Dramatization of life, martyrdom or miracles of a saint
• Popular Saints: St. Nicholas, Mary Magdalene, St.
Sebastian
• Emphasis on lurid adventure and miraculous happenings
• Fantastic stories, highly sensational
• Free of Biblical constraints that characterized most church
drama, but combined tale of adventure with act of worship
• Often performed on the saint’s (feast) day
• Implicit sexualization of the saint’s body in martyrdom
scenes
Martyrdom and Medieval Sexuality
• Sexual and
symbolic
undertones

• Naked body of
the Saint
(usually
woman)

• Depictions of
tortures

Martyrdom of St. Catherine

Scene from a
medieval play (1460)
of the martyrdom of
St. Apollonia
Religious Crisis of 1350
• The Black Death: devastating pandemic that
struck Europe in the mid-14th century
(1347-1350), killing about a third of Europe
(34 million people).

• Dissolution of the Institution of Church; cynicism toward religious

officials who could not keep their frequent promises of curing
plague.

• After 1350 European culture in general turned very morbid. The

general mood was one of pessimism, and art turned dark with
representations of death.
 Morality Play
• In response to plague and religious
doubt, Christianity had become
increasingly concerned with death and
the afterlife. Asked followers to “Think
upon their last ending.”

• First appeared in 14th century as

religious plays, but were later secularized
• Dramatization of spiritual crisis in the
life of a Christian
• Allegorical method of presentation -
personified abstractions representing
good and evil
• Instruct the faithful in correct behavior
Castle of Perseverance (1400-1425)
Everyman (1520s)
• In Everyman, one of the best examples of a Morality play, the universal
character Everyman is summoned by Death to journey to God to
account for the life he has been lent.

• His friends Fellowship, Kindred, Cousin,

Goods, and Knowledge will not go with him.

• It is Good Deeds (or Virtue), whom he previously

neglected, who finally supports him and who
offers to justify him before the throne of God.

• Everyman acknowledges and addresses corruption in the priesthood and

disbelief in the Church at the time. “Sinful priests giveth the sinners
example bad” but still “go to priesthood, I you advise,” because “God
hath to them more power given than to any angel that is in heaven.”
 The Decline of Medieval Theatre
1. The Church had been weakened by internal conflicts
- Control lay in the election of the pope, so rulers began to
influence choice and gain control over religious affairs
- Between 1305 and 1377, seat of church was moved from
Rome to Avignon. Between 1378 and 1417 there were
three rival popes.
- Selling of indulgences (spiritual pardons)

2. Rise of Universities brought on a new spirit of questioning.

3. Plague caused people to question church and its ability to

protect
The Decline of Medieval Theatre
3. Protestant Reformation (16th century)
- Dissident groups challenged Catholic church’s
authority and set out to reform religious practice.
Caused civil wars and political and religious
realignments
- Henry VIII’s break with the church of Rome in 1534.
- Drama used to attack or defend particular dogmas

4. To end conflict, Elizabeth I forbade all religious plays in

1558. Her edict silenced the cycles by the 1570s.
 The Decline of Medieval Theatre
• Results of the decline:
- Professional actors still needed, but not amateurs.
- Professional theatre rose, became commercial (no
longer a community venture).
- Active support of the clergy, town councils and
merchant class was withdrawn.
- No longer religious plays – returned to the classics for
new ideas for stories.
- Destroyed international drama. Each country developed
its own national interests and style.