The emergence of drama as a literary art - Mindy Ploeckelmann

Key Takeaways

[Music] in the 11th and 12th centuries most English commoners were illiterate since they had no way to learn the Bible the clergy came up with an inventive solution they'd create plays out of certain Bible stories so even people who couldn't read could learn them these were called mystery plays because they revealed the mystery of God's word at about the same time the clergy also developed plays about the Saints of the church called Miracle plays in the beginning the clergy members acted out Bible stories on the steps outside the cathedral the audience reacted so well that soon they needed to move out to the street around the town square by building moving carts to put on each play and by lining up one after the other they could put on cycles of stories which would take the viewer from Genesis to Revelation these movable carts called pageants looked like huge boxes on Wheels each was two stories tall the bottom story was curtained off and was used for costumes props and dressing the top platform was the stage for the performance Spectators assembled in various corners of the town and the pageant would move around in the cycle until the villagers had seen the entire series soon the plays required more actors than the clergy could Supply so by the 13th century different guilds were asked to be responsible for acting out different parts of the cycle the assignments Were Meant to reflect the Guild's professions for example the Carpenters Guild might put on the story of Noah's Ark and the baker's Guild might put on the Last Supper can you imagine what might happen to the story if the butcher Guild put on the crucifixion of Christ yes without the clergy the plays soon started changing from their true Bible stories by the end of the 14th century a new form of drama called the morality play had evolved Faith truth charity and Good Deeds all became characters on the stage and at the same time the opposite Virtues Of falsehood covetousness worldly flesh and the devil became the antagonists the morality plays were allegorical stories in which these characters battled for the control of the Soul audiences loved the immoral characters and Spectators were encouraged to interact with the actors throwing rotten food and even getting into scuffles with other Spectators became very common the character of the devil often would roam through the crowds and pull unsuspecting watchers into a hell that was depicted as a dragon's mouth The Virtuous biblical stories had morphed into crude and sometimes comic stories the clergy intended to teach against immorality how ironic then that the morality plays actually encouraged vices as more popular than virtues by the mid-5th century the church started to Outlaw these performances Town Charters required that any theater must be built outside the city wall one of the first theaters was built like a larger version of a pageant with tear of gallery seating and circling a grassy area in front of the stage sound familiar a young William Shakespeare developed his craft here at the theater that was eventually renamed the globe the medieval morality play had led to Renaissance playwrights who were inspired by the inner struggles and the conscience of man and that in essence is how drama emerged as a literary art form