Medieval Drama and Everyman Dramatic Literature

The Dark Ages Rome falls around 600 AD This period is known as The Dark Ages “Medius Aevum” During this time, there was no relieble political structure and the church started to exert its influence The church became the only stable form of government

The church objected drama because of: Its innapropriateness Actors pretending to be other people (“lying”) The promotion of transexuality (men dressing up as women) The suggestions made to overthrow the government if you do not like it Not much is known about drama between 600-1000 AD

Medieval Drama Emerges During the years of 925-975 AD, drama re-emerged in the church service Tropes: easy-to-understand dramatic reenactments of the liturgy and popular Bible stories Quem Quaeritis is one of the earliest recored tropes performed at Easter in the 10th century Dialog with Mary and angels at Christ’s tomb

There were two areas that these types of drama were performed at: Liturgical Drama This type of drama arose around the 12th century Represented aspects of the life of Christ There were two areas that these types of drama were performed at: Mansions: small scenic locations for indicating actors Plateas: general acting areas next to the mansions

Popularity Grows These plays were being performed in the vernacular (everyday language) instead of Latin by the year 1350 As popularity grew, Medieval drama moved from small indoor acting areas to outdoors Because of an expanding need for a larger area to hold more people However, as popularity grew, the church began to lose control

Loss of Control The church lost control of the drama Parts played by religious clerics and alter boys were now being performed by community members Trained performers now began to emerge into these dramatic performances

The “M” Plays There were three types of plays that emerged during this time period, and they all began with the letter M: Miracle Plays Mystery Plays Morality Plays

Mystery Plays Mystery Plays were stories based on the new testament Communities often produced Mystery Cycles Festival days where the were numerous decorated carts on which plays were being performed Could take days to get through watching the whole cycle

Miracle Plays Miracle Plays were stories from the scriptures of the life of a saint Also known as “Saint’s Plays” Particularly the life of Saint Nicholas and Saint Mary Drama started to focus on the life of an ordinary person and not biblical characters

Morality Plays Morality Plays did not deal with biblical stories but with personal views and morals These plays untilized a moral lesson to members of the audience These plays were dramatized allegories of the life of man Man trying to get to Heaven The general theme of a Morality Play is the conflict between good and evil for the soul These plays always ended with the saving of the soul Everyman was, and still is, one of the most known Morality Plays

Everyman Everyman was written at the end of the 15th century The play is anonymous There are four surviving versions of the play, but two of them are only exist in fragments The play contains seven scenes

Background of Everyman Everyman is very different from of Morality Plays in that it does not contain any humor It is also short: only 900 lines long All characters in the play are abstractions (not individualized but represent all people) Usually the main character of a Morality Play would be “Everyman” or “Mankind”

Everyman Summary Scene 1: Everyman is told by Death that he has to die and make a pilgrimage to the afterlife Everyman starts to go through a grief cycle, exactly following a theory proposed by Kubler-Ross in her book, On Death and Dying

Grief Cycle Denial: Everyman says he feels fine and is not ready to go to the afterlife Anger: Everyman becomes enraged asks why this is happening to him Bargaining: Everyman starts to bargain with Death and ask him if he can have more time Depression: Everyman begins to understand the inevitability and starts to “fear pains huge and great” Acceptance: Everyman accepts the fact that he has to make a pilgrimage and begins to prepare

Scene 2: Scene 3: Everyman asks his friends to go with him Fellowship: he says no He says he will gladly go drink with Everyman and have fun, but not to die Scene 3: Everyman asks his family to go with him Kindred and Cousin: they say no Cousin has a cramp in his toe

Scene 4: Scene 5: Everyman goes to his money and wealth Goods: says no Goods has to stay; he is a temporary aspect of the world Scene 5: Everyman goes to his good deeds Good-Deeds: says no Sick because Everyman has never done any good deeds

Scene 6: Everyman learns about the doctrine of the church to try and revitalize his good deeds Scene 7: Everyman’s soul is saved and he ascends into Heaven

Medieval Drama Declines The Medieval Drama began to become less popular This decline was due to changing political and economic factors The Protestant Reformation started to target drama in an effort to stamp out the allegiance to Rome

Another aspect of the death of Medieval Drama was the creation and building of permanent theaters These permanent theater allowed for more sophisticated story-telling and staging Medieval Drama cycles and touring groups lost popularity because of this