1. Medieval Drama and Everyman
Dramatic Literature

2. 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

3. 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 AD

4. Medieval Drama Emerges
During the years of 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

6. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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”

17. 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

18. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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