The Growth of English Drama | Page 6

valuable result of this was the creation of a
raised stage, made necessary for the first time by the crushing of the
people. But alas, what could be said for the sanctity of the graves when
throngs trampled down the well-kept grass, and groups of men and
women fought for the possession of the most recent mounds as highest
points of vantage? Those whose dead lay buried there raised effectual
outcries against this desecration. To go back into the church seemed
impossible. The next move had to be into the street. It was at this point
that there set in that alienation of the Church from the Stage which was
never afterwards removed. Clerical actors were forbidden to play in the
streets. As an inevitable consequence, the learned language, Latin, was
replaced more and more by the people's own tongue. Soon the festivals
assumed a nature which the stricter clergy could not view with approval.
From miles around folk gathered together for merriment and trading.
There were bishops who now denounced public plays as instruments of
the devil.
Thus the drama, having outgrown its infancy, passed from the care of
the Church into the hands of the Laity. It took with it a tradition of
careful acting, a store of Biblical subjects, a fair variety of
characters--including a thundering Herod and a mischievous Devil--and
some measure of freedom in dialogue. It gained a native language and a
boundless popularity. But for many long years after the separation the
Epiphany Plays continued to be acted in the churches, and by their very
existence possibly kept intact the link with religion which preserved for
the public Mysteries and Miracles an attitude of soberness and
reverence in the hearts of their spectators. The so-called Coventry Play

of the fifteenth century is a testimony to the persistence of the serious
religious element in the final stage of these popular Bible plays.
[Footnote 1: Mr. E.K. Chambers's translation.]
[Footnote 2: Mr. E.K. Chambers's translation.]
CHAPTER II
ENGLISH MIRACLE PLAYS
Most of what has been said hitherto has referred to the rise of religious
plays on the continent. The first recorded presentation of a play in
England occurred in Dunstable--under the management of a
schoolmaster, Geoffrey--about the year 1110. Probably, therefore, the
drama was part of the new civilization brought over by the Normans,
and came in a comparatively well-developed form. The title of
Geoffrey's play, St. Katherine, points to its having been of the St.
Nicholas type, a true Miracle Play, belonging to a much later stage of
development than the early Pastores or Quem Quaeritis?. We need not
look, then, for shadowy gropings along the dramatic path. Instead we
may expect to find from the very commencement a fair grasp of
essentials and a rapidly maturing belief that the people were better
guardians of the new art than the Church.
We know nothing of St. Katherine except its name. Of contemporary
plays also we know practically nothing. A writer of the late twelfth
century tells us that Saint Plays were well favoured in London. This
statement, coupled with the fact that all sacred plays, saintly
wonder-workings and Bible stories alike, were called Miracles in
England, gives a measure of support to Ten Brink's suggestion that the
English people at first shrank from the free treatment of Bible stories
on the stage, until their natural awe and reverence had become
accustomed to presentations of their favourite saints.
Passing over the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, therefore, as centuries
in which the idea of the drama was filtering through the nation and
adapting itself to its new audiences, we take up the story again in the

fourteenth century, before the end of which we know that there were
completed the four great plays still preserved to us--the Chester,
Wakefield, York, and Coventry Miracles. Early in that century the Pope
created the festival of Corpus Christi (about the middle of June). To
this festival we must fix most of our attention.
Glancing back a few pages we shall recall the elaboration of the play of
the Magi from one bare incident to what was really a connected series
of episodes from the scene of the 'Shepherds' to the 'Massacre of the
Innocents'. It grew by the addition of scene to scene until the series was
complete. But the 'Massacre of the Innocents' only closed the Christmas
story. For the festival of Easter fresh ground must be broken in order
that the 'Passion' might be fittingly set forth, and, in fact, we know that
both stories in full detail eventually found a place in the more
ambitious churches, any difficulty due to their length being overcome
by extending the duration of the festivals. Then a time came when,
even as St. Matthew was anxious to lay the foundations of his Gospel