ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE DRAMA
ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE DRAMA
The dramatic activity in England took its rise, as did the drama of the Greeks, from religion; it was in origin distinctly a creation of the church. The church was everything for the Middle Ages:- rest for the weary, solace for the afflicted, bread for the hungry and succour for the helpless.The church was indeed the schoolz the meeting .place, the centre of art and above all of amusement and entertainment. It was ready and eager to provide for the people delight as well as spiritual uplifting .As early as 1110 A. D. evolved out of the church and the religious instinct of man, a kind of drama known as miracle or mystery play. Later,we find the moralities.
A mystery play presented an event or series of events taken from the Bible, while a miracle play dramatized an event or legend taken from the life of a saint or martyr. In the beginning ,the production of these plays was under the direct control of the clergy. The purpose of these plays .was mainly didactic. The plays gradually grew in popularity, and as on great occasions larger and larger crowds thronged about the church, the stage had to be taken out from the interior of the building to the porch. Later, the place of performance shifted from the church to the churchyard and then to the street or market-place or convenient open spaces about the town. The church lost its exclusive control over the production and performance of the plays. Laymen began to take part in the performance and ultimately superseded the clerical actors. Latin also gave way to vernacular.
In the fourteenth century, the performance of these plays was entrusted to the trade guilds. Each craft enacted plays according to its own trade. Thus the shipwright presented `Noah's Ark', and the fishermen the Flood. Gradually these plays were united in a great cycle begining with the creation and ending with the Final Judgment. Each town had a complete cycle of religious plays of its own, and of theseyfour
The dramatic activity in England took its rise, as did the drama of the Greeks, from religion; it was in origin distinctly a creation of the church. The church was everything for the Middle Ages:- rest for the weary, solace for the afflicted, bread for the hungry and succour for the helpless.The church was indeed the schoolz the meeting .place, the centre of art and above all of amusement and entertainment. It was ready and eager to provide for the people delight as well as spiritual uplifting .As early as 1110 A. D. evolved out of the church and the religious instinct of man, a kind of drama known as miracle or mystery play. Later,we find the moralities.
A mystery play presented an event or series of events taken from the Bible, while a miracle play dramatized an event or legend taken from the life of a saint or martyr. In the beginning ,the production of these plays was under the direct control of the clergy. The purpose of these plays .was mainly didactic. The plays gradually grew in popularity, and as on great occasions larger and larger crowds thronged about the church, the stage had to be taken out from the interior of the building to the porch. Later, the place of performance shifted from the church to the churchyard and then to the street or market-place or convenient open spaces about the town. The church lost its exclusive control over the production and performance of the plays. Laymen began to take part in the performance and ultimately superseded the clerical actors. Latin also gave way to vernacular.
In the fourteenth century, the performance of these plays was entrusted to the trade guilds. Each craft enacted plays according to its own trade. Thus the shipwright presented `Noah's Ark', and the fishermen the Flood. Gradually these plays were united in a great cycle begining with the creation and ending with the Final Judgment. Each town had a complete cycle of religious plays of its own, and of theseyfour