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Unit 3: Medieval Drama and the Early Renaissance: Age of Queen Elizabeth I

group of minstrels and dressed them in the town livery and crests. As these groups stabilized in Notes
towns, they formed around guild or crafts societies and were regulated by law. Church policy
often continued to hold these groups at arm’s length, yet many clergy embraced them and thought
how to use the many gifts of the minstrels in service to the church. The most obvious benefit to the
church in the use of the minstrels was a teaching medium. The Bible, inaccessible to common folk
who could not read, is filled with dramatic episodes. The clergy thus found it easy to adapt drama
into the life of the church as a way of teaching basic Biblical truth and church doctrine.
Early plays in the church may have been no more than dumb shows with actors moving mutely in
harmony with the sermon. For instance, on Easter a play focusing on the adoration of the cross
may have been acted out before the altar; at Christmas, a play celebrating the Nativity; on other
feast or holy days, some other event may have been celebrated. In class I will show an early
example of this.
Eventually this kind of crude form was replaced by grander versions and laymen rather than
priests became the actors. However, what is clear is that the cradle of English drama rests on the
church altar.

3.2 Mystery Plays

Medieval religious drama existed primarily, then, to give religious instruction, establish faith,
and encourage piety. There were two dramatic forms used by the church: mystery (miracle) plays
and morality plays. Mystery plays derive their name from the French mystere or ministere because
the ministerium, the clergy were the first actors. Mystery plays are primarily concerned with
Scripture narrative with prominence given to the story of man’s fall and redemption; miracle
plays deal with the lives of the saints and martyrs. Actually, however, the terms are used
interchangeably.
Plays in the church were very popular on holy days (holidays) and fairs. Inevitably they became
filled with humor and even buffonery as a way of capturing the audience’s attention. The church
reacted by throwing out all those kinds of actors and troops and instead produced full and
complete performances themselves. The effect was electric the church building proper was too
small to contain the crowds so plays moved from the altar to the porch to the church yard and
eventually to public streets and open spaces. Every foot the plays moved from the church
weakened the ability of the clergy to control the performances; as a result, more and more
comedy and buffonery were introduced and the church eventually withdrew its support and
backing for the plays.

Notes By 1210 a papel edict forbade the clergy to act in churches.

Comedy gradually became more and more a part of these plays as the various guilds sought larger
audiences. Nevertheless, it must be underscored that within the mystery plays comedy was almost
always incidental; it never overshadowed the dramatic story itself. The comic elements of these
plays are worth noting, especially since many of them passed down into Elizabethan and
Shakespearean drama:
1. The simplest and most primitive form of comedy is that of action sudden, incongruous,
and laughter moving (e.g., Chevy Chase’s falls, the old pie -in- the- face play, etc). The
action is for the most part naively realistic, emphasizing a kind of rough and tumble,
almost slapstick mode.
2. Action combined with the spoken word, in particular, dirty language. Indeed, many of the
plays are filled with profanity, much of it having to do with oaths and inappropriate
swearing. Language, like the action described above, tends to be simple and realistic.
There is no attempt to play with the subtitles of the spoken word.
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