in the Chester Plays,' p. 1), and was a natural consequence after the Mysteries had passed from the Church into the hands of the people. From this point of view the mixture of the two elements acquires a certain ideal importance, for regarding it in this light sacred history appeared to rise above time and space; it was one continual present; actual life with all its small and great events, was a part of it, and therefore became naturally connected with it. In actual life, as in sacred history, there was a continual struggle between the kingdoms of light and darkness; the devil, in both cases, was an ever present personage. But to the healthy popular mind the evil spirit always appears ridiculous as well; hence the comic parts are in all cases played only by the devil and his demons, or by the dignitaries of his kingdom on earth, such as Herod, Cæsar, Augustus, and their servants. (As regards the sacred characters it is only upon Noah, and perhaps upon Joseph, where the latter complains about his imaginary cuckoldom, upon whom a ray of the ludicrous falls.) 6 The choice of the Biblical events in the three extant collections is the same with but slight deviations. This proves that the Old Testament was drawn into the circle of representations on account of the Fall and the Flood, that is, as the ideal basis of the great fact of the Redemption upon which turn the events of the New Testament. For in all three collections no mention is made of the history of the Jewish nation from the time of Moses; it is only the Processus Prophetarum' in the Towneley collection, and The Prophets' in the Coventry collection -an arrangement of the genealogy of the House of David -which form the transition from the time of Moses to the birth of Christ. The plays from the New Testament, of which there are a much greater number, give the principal incidents of the life of Christ in chronological order, intermixed with some features from the apocryphal gospels (which are probably subsequent additions to give the charm of novelty to the performances). The story of the Passion of Christ forms the centre, and is treated comparatively far more in detail, almost every step being represented by a separate play. The Resurrection, Christ's appearing to Mary Magdalene and to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, the Ascension, the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost (and the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, in the Coventry collection)-events in which sacred history has already left this earth-form the transition to the Last Judgment, the key-stone to the old and to the beginning of the new world, and which is the last play in all three collections. Regarded from an artistic point of view, the English plays are the best, especially those of the Towneley and Chester collections; they are superior to the German, and in most cases to the French plays, by their greater drastic animation and a certain skilfulness in the arrangement of the events represented, as well as in the dramatisation of the subject in general. While the German Mysteries, down to the time of the fifteenth century, still continue to show the half lyric, half plastic element (out of which they arose), and endeavour to bring more and more animation into it, as had at first been attempted by the musical performance, and, at a later period, by the poetic expression of the sentiments and contemplation-the English Mysteries, on the other hand, from the very commencement, exhibit more of a dramatic character. Of the long speeches which still frequently occur in the French plays, and of the lyric effusions in which the Germans delight, there are but few and occasional traces, most of which are found in the Coventry collection; the dialogues are better, at least they possess a more rapid and a freer movement, but the main point is that the action is brought more into the foreground. Hence we see that the strong feeling for action, and thus for the vital principle of dramatic art -that genuine dramatic spirit, which the English stage at the time of Shakspeare possessed and fostered-commenced its youthful flight upwards in the first beginnings of the English drama. The action, however, in all cases and also in the English Mysteries, still bears an essentially epic character. It is still a purely external occurrence, the reasons and motives of which lie beyond the stage, nay, generally beyond this earthly life; no action is derived from the life and character of the dramatic personages, or results from pre vious conditions and relations; every character appears unexpectedly and unprepared, like an accidental occurrence in nature; every action appears but as the special incident of the plan designed by God in Bible history, and consequently, as in the epos, depends more or less upon the invisible threads with which the Divine Power directs the lives of mortals; in short, the action takes place more for men than through men. The latter are merely tools in the hand of God, or the vessels which have to receive the Divine will, and to carry out the Divine act; the whole story still passes by them, like a mere occurrence, their personal participation consists only in the feeling, sympathy, and receptive activity of their minds; the individuality, the freedom of will, the character of the persons represented, do not come the least into play; in other words, they still have no share in the dramatic construction of the subject. The result of this, however, of necessity also excludes from the dramatic action the other and practical side of religion, morality, which presupposes the freedom of the will. Religion-in its one-sided conception of the Deity as acting and suffering for mankind, and as a passive belief on the part of man, who has only to receive what is offered him-rules the whole. It is the next world, according to medieval idealism, that either absorbs within itself the natural reality of this world, or excludes it from itself by means of a sharp contrast, but in both cases does not allow it to express itself in words. This one-sidedness of the ecclesiastical plays had to be overcome, if the drama was to advance a step in its development. But the one-sidedness lay in the matter itself, in the first germs, in the inmost essence of the Mysteries. The progress, therefore, could not proceed from a further development of the Mysteries, but required the creation of a new species of drama, by the side of, and in contrast with, the religious plays. It was this new species which appeared in England, as elsewhere, under the name of Moral Plays. CHAPTER II. MORALS, OR MORAL PLAYS. THE rise of these so-called Morals or Moralities about the middle of the fifteenth century, must be regarded as marking an epoch, and the second period of the history of the English drama may be dated from this point. If we wish to comprehend the first germs and elements from which they arose, we must not overlook the fact that, even at an early date, a secular element was added to the oldest ecclesiastico-religious beginnings of dramatic art, to those Mysteries which were written in a strictly ecclesiastical style. When once the love for scenic representations was awakened, the Mysteries were introduced into all kinds of festivities arranged for secular occasions, in honour of, and for the gratification of kings, princes, and the nobility. Profane mummings and mimic plays, as already intimated, were no doubt as old, or even older than Mysteries. They formed, so to speak, the starting point, and received more and more dramatic form and colouring with the development of the religious plays. In the fourteenth century we first meet in France with the Drame muet, the English Dumb-show, probably the result of the further development of the secular element, even although its matter was frequently taken from Bible History. Simultaneously, and so far as their first elements are concerned, there arose in France the so-called Entremets, which soon became so popular with princes and nobles that none of their festivals were allowed to pass without the performance of one of them. According to the accounts that have been preserved regarding these, they seem at first to have been more calculated to delight the eye, and to have been a species of tableaux vivants, with an allegorical significance, * * Jubinal, l.c., i. p. xxx. ff. gorgeous representations with skilful transformations, grotesque appurtenances within animated scenery, and accompanied by short explanatory speeches; extensive machinery certainly played an important part. Dumbshows or entremets of this kind were probably those plays which were so much in favour with the Court of Edward III., and are mentioned under the name of Ludi domini regis; to judge from an extant list of the dresses, masks, etc., required for their representation, they evidently were of a dramatic character. Similar pieces were ordered by Richard II. in 1389, and in 1401 twelve London aldermen and their sons played a great 'Mummyng' before the king and the Emperor of Constantinople; this also was probably a play in the style of the French Entremets.t As in France, so in England, kings and princes were greeted on their arrival in towns and castles by historicosymbolical and allegorical figures, who recited speeches and discoursed in dialogue. Thus in 1377 the citizens of London gave a Mumming in the streets of London for the disport of the yong prince Richard, son of the blacke prince;' and Queen Margaret, upon her entry into Coventry in 1455, was received by the Prophets Jeremiah and Isaiah, and when in the town was at first greeted by St. Edward and St. John, and afterwards in another street by the four Virtues, Righteousness, Temperance, Strength and Prudence, &c.§ The word Interlude or Enterlude is probably but the English translation of the French Entremet. The word was in common use as early as the reign of Edward IV.; and although we do not know exactly what the term originally signified, yet the circumstance that many of the oldest Moral Plays bear the same name, proves that the Moralities in their first origin very likely arose from these so-called Interludes. This was, however, but one circumstance which contributed to their origin. On the other hand the Morals, in England at least, no doubt have their roots in religious plays, and appear to be a variety of Mystery. A beginning The same, p. 16 f. § Sharp, l.c., p. 145 f. * Collier, i. 15. Collier, ii. 271. |