§ 134. THE RELIGIOUS DEAMA. 869
§ 134. The Religious Drama.
LITERATURE: W. HONE: Anc. Mysteries, Lond., 1823. — W. MARRIOTT : Col. of Engl. Miracle Plays, Basel, 1838. — J. P. COLLIER: Hist, of Engl. Dram. Poetry, 2 vols. Lond. 1831 ; new ed., 1879. — TH. WRIGHT : Engl. Mysteries, Lond., 1838. — F. J. MONE : Altdeutsche Schauspiele, Quedlinb., 1841; D. Schauspiel d. MtA.,2 vols., Karlsr., 1846. — *KARL HASE : D. geistliche Schauspiel, Leip. 1858, Engl. transl. by A. W. Jackson, Lond. 1880. — E. DE COCSSEMAKER: Drames liturg. du moyen age, Paris, 1861. — E. WILKEN : Gesch. d. geistl. Spiele in Deutschland, Getting., 2d ed., 1879. — A. W. WARD: Hist, of Engl. Dram. Lit., Lond., 1875.— G. MILCHSACK: D. Oster und Passionsspiele, Wolfenbiittel, 1880. — *A. W. POLLARD : Engl. Miracle Plays, Moralities and Interludes with Introd. and Notes, Lond., 1890, 4th ed., 1904. — C. DAVIDSON : Studies in the Engl. Mystery Plays, 1892, printed for Yale Univ. — W. CREIZENACH : Gesch. des neueren Dramas, 3 vols. Halle, 1893-1903. — HEINZEL : Beschreibung des geistl. Schauspiels im deutschen MtA., Leip., 1898. — O'CONNOR: Sacred Scenes and Mysteries, Lond., 1899. — *E. K. CHAM BERS: The Mediaeval Stage, 2 vols. Oxf., 1903. — Art. in Nineteenth Century, June, 1905, Festum stultorum by Mrs. V. HEMMING. — J. S. TUNISON: Dram. Traditions of the Dark Ages, Cincinnati, 1907. See the large list of works in Chambers, I. xiii-xlii.
An important aid to popular religion was furnished by the sacred drama which was fostered by the clergy and at first performed in churches, or the church precincts. It was in some measure a mediseval substitute for the sermon and the Sunday-school. The old Roman drama received hard blows from the Christian Fathers, beginning with Tertullian, and from synods which condemned the vocation of the actor as inconsistent with a Christian profession. In part as a result of this opposition, and in part on account of the realistic obscenity to which it degenerated, the Roman stage was abandoned. According to the two codes of German law, the Sachsenspiegel and the Schwabenspiegel, actors had no legal rights.1 But the dramatic instinct was not dead and after a lapse of time it showed itself again in Western Europe.
The mediaeval drama was an independent growth, a prod uct of the convent and priesthood, arid was closely associated with the public religious services. Its history includes two 1 Eicken, p. 674.
870 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
periods, roughly divided by the latter half of the thirteenth century. In the earlier period, the representations were largely under the control of the clergy. Priests were the actors and the intent was exclusively religious. In the later period, the elements of pantomime and burlesque were freely introduced and priests ceased to be the controlling factors. The modern drama begins in the sixteenth century, the age of Shakespeare.
The names given to the mediaeval representations were ludi, plays, mysteries, miracle-plays, and moralities. The term " morality " is used for plays which introduced the vir tues and vices, personified, and carrying on dialogues teach ing wholesome lessons of daily prudence and religion. The term " mystery " comes from the word ministerium, mean ing a sacred office.1 The earlier period of religious dramati zation was also the age of itinerant singers and jesters who went about on their mission of entertainment and instruction. Such were the troubadours of Provence and Northern Italy, and the joculatores and jougleurs of France who sang de scriptive songs — chansons de geste. The minnesingers of Germany and the English minstrels belong to the same general group. How far these two movements influenced each other, it is difficult to say, — the one starting from the convent and having a strictly religious intent, the other from the people and having for its purpose amuse ment.
The mediaeval drama had its first literary expression in the six short plays of Hroswitha, a nun belonging to the Saxon convent of Gandersheim, who died about 980. They were written in imitation of Terence and glorify martyrdom and celibate chastity. One of them represents a Roman governor making approaches to Christian virgins whom he had shut up in the scullery of his palace. Happily he was struck with madness and embraced the pots and kettles and, covered with soot and dirt, was unceremoniously hustled
1 Not from mysterium. The early French word was misterre. The term "mystery" was not used in England. The terms in use were plays, mira cles, and miracle-plays.