The Origin of English Drama, Mystery Plays, Miracle Plays and Morality Plays - UGC NET ENGLISH PAPER II UNIT 1, MODULE 2

The Origin of English Drama:

1. Drama originating in Greece, performed as religious rites to Dionysus, the God of Wine and Religious Ecstasy
2.  Aeschylus (father of Tragedy, only seven out of seventy of his plays survived), Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes and Menander as great dramatists of ancient Greece
3. The Persians as the earliest surviving Greek Tragedy by Aeschylus, winning first prize in Athens City Dionysia Festival in 472 BC
4. The Oresteia , a trilogy of Greek tragedies  by Aeschylus in the 5th century BC - dealing with the murder of Agamemnon by Clytemnestra, the murder of Clytemnestra by Orestes and the trial of Orestes - winning first prize in the same festival in 472 BC
5. Drama, then nurtured by Roman Empire in between 27 BC and 476 AD
6. Seneca, the Roman Stoic Philosopher and dramatist as the greatest master of that time - his nine plays as inspirations for the dramatists from England later - Phaedra produced before 54 C.E as his best drama
7. in the Medieval ages, Churches performing liturgical dramas based on biblical themes - Whom Do You Seek? as the earliest Medieval trope in 925
8. Hrostsvitha, the female dramatist in the 10th C, writing 6 dramas following Roman dramatist Terence's Comedies
9. The Play of Adam as the 12th C liturgical drama in Anglo Norman dialect dealing with the story of Adam and Eve and that of Adam's first two sons Cain and Abel
10. Robin and Marion (1282) as the earliest French secular play 

Mystery Plays, Miracle Plays and Morality Plays:

Mystery Plays: 

1. The term mystery derived from the term mestier that refers to the trade of the actors, not literally any mystery
2. Based on the events from the Bible from Creation to Ascension
3. Performed from 13th to late 16th C.
4. Usually performed on the occasion of Corpus Christi Day that refers to Thursday after Trinity Sunday
5. Each play, performed on a cart moving through the city, each cycle taking upto 24 hours and thus taking many days to complete a cycle - Only three cycles to have survived: York Cycle (48 plays), Chester Cycle (25 plays) and Towneley or Wakefield Plays (32 plays) - cycles named after the places where they were performed
6. Second Shepherds'Play as the best Mystery Play - dealing with sheep stealing by Mak and his wife who are put in trial by the shepherds Coll, Gib and Daw - Angel calling the shepherds to go to Bethlehem to see the new born Jesus -the theme: two fold nature of man's mundane life on Earth and the spiritual life

Miracle Plays:

1. a subdivision of mystery play, based on the miracles and lives of Saints in the Bible
2. The Conversion of St.Paul and the Play of Sacrament (written in East Midland dialect in 1461) as best examples of Miracle Plays

Morality Plays:

1. performed in the 15th C. with personified human qualities known as allegories 
2. The Castle of Perseverance (1425) as the earliest surviving complete Morality Play written in 3700 lines - one of the three plays forming a group called Macro plays ( the other two plays: Mankind and Wisdom) - divided into 4 parts deals with a battle between virtues and vices -  Story: man born in the castle of perseverance, becomes a servant to World who sends him to Seven Deadly Sins. Man after punished by Penance takes refuge in the castle again. Influenced by Backbiter, man's enemies World, Flesh and Devil try to siege the castle. Avarice succeeds in bringing back man to the worldly pleasures. At the advent of death, Man cries for Mercy. Though taken to Hell first, the four daughters of God, Truth,Justice, Peace and Mercy debate his case before God and brings Man to Heaven.
3. Everyman written in 921 lines between 1509 and 1519, as the best morality play- Popular lines: "Everyman, I will go with thee and by thy guide/ In thy most need to go by thy side" - Story: Every man neglecting Good Deeds in the beginning realises at the arrival of Death that his friends Fellowship, Kindred, Cousin  and Goods cannot come with him, but only Good Deeds.
4. Magnificence (1519) written by John Skelton in 2500 lines as the first political morality play - Story: Magnificience, the prince is wrongly guided by Liberality and Bad Counsellors is redeemed at the end by Good Hope and Perseverance - The play as a veiled attack on cardinal Wolsey.