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Medieval Drama

Medieval drama developed out of liturgical ceremonies in the Church in the 15th century. Mystery plays dealt with Gospel events and themes of redemption, while Miracle Plays focused on saints' lives. Moralities were also religious but explored the conflict between good and evil to improve morality. The plays grew popular and moved from the Church to open spaces, performed using pageant wagons. They appealed to all classes and instilled a love of drama. The best known cycles were from Chester, York, Coventry and Wakefield and Everyman is the most famous Morality play.

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Jason DiGiulio
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780 views10 pages

Medieval Drama

Medieval drama developed out of liturgical ceremonies in the Church in the 15th century. Mystery plays dealt with Gospel events and themes of redemption, while Miracle Plays focused on saints' lives. Moralities were also religious but explored the conflict between good and evil to improve morality. The plays grew popular and moved from the Church to open spaces, performed using pageant wagons. They appealed to all classes and instilled a love of drama. The best known cycles were from Chester, York, Coventry and Wakefield and Everyman is the most famous Morality play.

Uploaded by

Jason DiGiulio
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Medieval Drama

Which Stories are Essential?


Medieval drama
General features

 Medieval drama flourished in the 15th century; it developed


out of liturgical ceremonies: the origin of medieval plays can
be found in the Church and in its rituals
 After music was introduced into churches (6th century) and
words were later fitted to the melodies, a dramatic dialogue
began to take place in the form of an alternation of chants
between the priest and the choir
 Later processional and scenic effects were added which
increased dramatic action: liturgical drama evolved into
Miracle and Mystery plays and these ones into Morality
plays
Medieval drama
Themes

 Mystery plays usually dealt with Gospel events: their main subject
was the redemption of man

 Miracle Plays were concerned with episodes from the lives of saints

 Moralities too were religious plays, but they focused on the conflict
between good and evil; their aim was to improve people’s moral
behaviour
Medieval drama
Structure
 The Miracles grew in popularity, so
the plays left the Church to be
performed first in the Church yard,
then in other open spaces of the
town

 Each play was repeated several times


in different parts of the town with
the help of a pageant, a carriage in
the form of small house with two
vertical rooms: in the lower room the
actors prepared themselves, in the
upper one they played their parts
Medieval drama
Language

 In the Miracles, Latin that was slowly replaced by


vernacular, and secular elements became more and more
frequent

 The Morality plays were didactic in content and allegorical


in form. They presented personifications of vices and
virtues and generalized characters. The lines were rhymed
as in the Miracles, but the atmosphere was more
melancholy
Medieval drama
Audience

The cycles of Mistery plays appealed to all social


classes, from royalty to peasants: they all came in
to watch the plays. Cycles instilled a love of drama
in the people

Moralities were intended for more learned


people, with some cultural background
Medieval drama
Authors and works

 The Myracle plays were


grouped in 4 cycles, known by
the names of the towns where
they were performed: Chester,
York, Coventry, Wakefield

 The best Morality play is


Everyman (about 1500)
A Pageant Wagon Design
Christ before Pilate, Chester

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