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

Self Assessment Notes

Fill in the blanks:
1. Drama traces its origins to religious observances both in .................... and .................... traditions.
2. Medieval religious drama existed primarily, then to give religious instruction, establish
faith and .................... .
3. Plays in the church were very popular on holy days (holidays) and .................... .
4. In everyman, the most famous morality play, some of the characters include fellowship,
knowledge, Goods and .................... .
5. The medieval Roman catholic church in particular was .................... .

3.4 The Interlude

The interlude, which grew out of the morality, was intended, as its name implies, to be used more
as filler than as the main part of an entertainment. At its best it was short, witty, simple in plot,
suited for the diversion of guests at a banquet, or for the relaxation of the audience between the
divisions of a serious play. Unlike the pageants, it was essentially an indoors performance, and
generally of an aristocratic nature. In its development it tended always towards greater refinement
and concentration. At first the flavor of the morality clung to it, as is seen by such titles as The Four
Elements, or The World and the Child. In the early part of the sixteenth century political subjects
began to be used, and public officials were satirized under allegorical names. It will be remembered
that this was the century of Luther and much dissension in the Church; and religion was often
criticized under cover of the interlude. Cardinal Wolsey imprisoned an author, John Roo, and an
actor, for alleged satire against himself in a play called Lord Governance and the Lady Public
Weal, presented at Gray’s Inn at Christmas time, 1525 or 1527. The author pleaded that the play had
been “compyled for the moste part” twenty years before, at a time when the Cardinal had not yet
come to any position of authority; consequently the culprits were released. In a Latin play given
before the king and the French ambassador in 1527 unflattering portraits of “Lewter” and his wife
were presented, other characters in the piece being Religion, Veritas, Heresy, and False
Interpretation. In the Protestant camp John Bale, author of God’s Merciful Promises and other
interludes, was one of the strongest of the anti-popish writers.
The best of the interludes, however, were not those used for the purpose of propaganda. As the
species developed, abstract characters gave place to recognizable human beings, didacticism
disappeared, and a spirit of genuine comedy emerged. Life was no longer like the morality, a
battlefield between Virtue and Vice, with the betting chances strongly in favor of Vice, but an
opportunity for amusing and diversified experiences. The engaging quality which characterizes
Chaucer and Piers Plowman was little by little transferred to the stage, partly at least through the
interlude.

Task Write short note on the interlude.

3.5 The Early Renaissance- Beginning of the Era: Age of Queen Elizabeth I

The Elizabethan era was a time associated with Queen Elizabeth I’s reign (1558–1603) and is often
depicted as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia was first used in 1572 and
often thereafter to mark the Elizabethan age as a renaissance that inspired national pride through
classical ideals, international expansion, and naval triumph over the hated Spanish foe.

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