Mediev

al

Key Features of the Middle Ages:

Political turmoil
General lack of education
Feudalism
Religion as political entity
Crusades
Plagues

General Background of the Middle

Ages
(Please refer to the reporter)

The Medieval Theater

Medieval theatre refers to the theatre

in the period between the fall of the
Western Roman Empire in the 5th
century A.D. and the beginning of the
Renaissance in approximately the 15th
century A.D. Medieval theatre covers
all drama produced in Europe over
that thousand-year period and refers
to a variety of genres.

Early Medieval Theater

Faced with the problem of explaining a new religion to a
largely illiterate population, churches in the Early Middle
Ages began staging dramatized versions of particular
biblical events on specific days of the year. These
dramatizations were included in order to vivify annual
celebrations. Symbolic objects and actions (vestments,
altars, censers, and pantomime performed by priests)
recalled the events which Christian ritual celebrates. These
were extensive sets of visual signs that could be used to
communicate with a largely illiterate audience.

Transition from Rome

According to the binary thinking of the Church's early followers,
everything that did not belong to God belonged to the Devil; thus all
non-Christian gods and religions were satanic. Efforts were made in
many countries through this period to not only convert Jews and pagans
but to destroy pre-Christian institutions and influences. Works of Greek
and Roman literature were burnt, the thousand-year-old Platonic
Academy was closed, the Olympic Games were banned and all theatres
were shut down. The theatre itself was viewed as a diabolical threat to
Christianity because of its continued popularity in Rome even among
new converts. Church fathers such as Tatian, Tertullian and Augustine
characterized the stage as an instrument in the Devil's fiendish plot to
corrupt men's souls, while acting was considered sinful because of its
cruel mockery of God's creation.

Under these influences, the church set

about trying to suppress theatrical
spectacles by passing laws prohibiting and
excluding Roman actors. They were
forbidden to have contact with Christian
women, own slaves, or wear gold. They
were officially excommunicated, denied the
sacraments, including marriage and burial,
and were defamed and debased throughout
Europe. For many centuries thereafter,
clerics were cautioned to not allow these
suddenly homeless, travelling actors to
perform in their jurisdictions.

Most organized theatrical activities

disappeared in Western Europe. While it
seems that small nomadic bands traveled
around Europe throughout the period,
performing wherever they could find an
audience, there is no evidence that they
produced anything but crude scenes .

HighViking
and Late
Medievalceased
Theaterin the
As the
invasions
middle of the 11th century A.D.,
liturgical drama had spread from Russia
to Scandinavia to Italy. Only in Muslimoccupied Spain were liturgical dramas
not presented at all. Despite the large
number of liturgical dramas that have
survived from the period, many
churches would have only performed
one or two per year and a larger

comedy. The festival inverted the

status of the lesser clergy and allowed
them to ridicule their superiors and the
routine of church life. Sometimes plays
were staged as part of the occasion and
a certain amount of burlesque and
comedy crept into these performances.
Although comic episodes had to truly
wait until the separation of drama from
the liturgy, the Feast of Fools
undoubtedly had a profound effect on

Performance of religious plays outside

of the church began sometime in the
12th century through a traditionally
accepted process of merging shorter
liturgical dramas into longer plays
which were then translated into
vernacular and performed by laymen
and thus accessible to a wider segment
of society inclusive of the working
class. The use of vernacular enabled
drama to be understood and enjoyed by

The importance of the High Middle Ages

in the development of theatre was the
economic and political changes that led
to the formation of guilds and the
growth of towns. A larger number of
plays survive from France and Germany
in this period and some type of
religious dramas were performed in
nearly every European country

Decline of the Medieval Theater

Its death was due mostly to changing

political and economic factors. First,
the Protestant Reformation targeted
the theatre. Local mystery cycle text
shows signs of Protestant editing, with
references to the pope crossed out and
two plays completely eliminated
because they were too Catholic.

A change of patronage also caused

drastic changes to the theatre. In
England the monarch and nobility
started to support professional theatre
troupes which catered to their upper
class patrons' tastes. These patrons
desired to be entertained, not preached
to, and as time passed the plays
became more secular and refined.

Finally, the construction of permanent

theaters signaled a major turning point
from reliance on church facilities,
touring groups, and inns as stages.
Permanent theaters allowed for more
sophisticated staging and storytelling.

Contribution of the Medieval

Theater
Vernacular Usage
Spectacle
Stage direction
Use of farce

Notable Dramatists and Their Work

Hrosvitha (c.935-973), an aristocratic

canoness and historian in northern
Germany, wrote six plays modeled on
Terence's comedies but using religious
subjects in the 10th century A.D.
Terence's comedies had long been used
in monastery schools as examples of
spoken Latin but are full of clever,
alluring courtesans and ordinary human
pursuits such as sex, love and
marriage.

Hildegard of Bingen (d. 1179), a

Benedictine abbess, who wrote a Latin
musical drama called Ordo Virtutum in
1155. It is an early example of liturgical
drama and arguably the oldest
surviving morality play.

Querolus (The Complainer) or

Aulularia (The Pot) is an anonymous
Latin comedy from late antiquity, the
only Latin drama to survive from this
period and the only ancient Latin
comedy outside the works of Plautus
and Terence.

Le Jeu de Robin et Marion, written by

Adam de la Halle in the 13th century, is
cited as the earliest French play with
music on a secular subject. The
pastoral, which tells how Marion
resisted the knight, and remained
faithful to Robert the shepherd, Adam
also wrote another secular play, Jeu de
la Fueillee in Arras, a French town in
which theatre was thriving in the late
12th and 13th centuries.

Other Surviving works:

La Seinte Resurrection (Norman), The
Play of the Magi Kings (Spanish), and
Sponsus (French).

 The Castle of Perseverance which

depicts mankind's progress from birth
to death.
Everyman receives Death's summons,
struggles to escape and finally
resigns himself to necessity. the most
famous morality play and perhaps
best known in the Middle Ages.