ENGLISH DRAMA

 Like Greece and Rome, the English drama too had its origin in religion, in the religious practices and rituals. 

THE COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH DRAMA

 However, the course of development of drama is not at all simple. Throughout the early centuries of the Catholic Church in England, the priests preached the mass service through dramatic forms. By the ninth century, various writers wrote Tropes on ecclesiastical matters. The writers often introduced dialogues in these Tropes to give them a dramatic form. On occasions like Christmas and Easter, the churchmen displayed dramatic representations from the Holy Writ inside the church premises. With the passage of time, these Tropes got detached from regular service. Tropes individually came to be associated with dramatic rituals. In those Scriptural forms, the writers introduced dramatic dialogues and actions. Since the church was the primary center for the presentation of such plays, the churchmen took active participation in those plays. 

DEVELOPMENT IN ENGLISH DRAMA

The early plays were initially in Latin. It was only after the Norman conquest that vernacular plays came into existence. These vernacular plays followed the French pattern.

THE MYSTERY AND MIRACLE PLAYS

From that sacramental emergence of the English drama came its earliest race – the Mysteries and the Miracles. These were two types of scriptural plays. Obviously, the Mystery and the Miracle were not of the same genre. The Mystery plays are plays dealing with Biblical themes, while Miracle plays are plays dealing with the lives of Saints. These Mystery and Miracle plays developed only after the place shifted to the marketplace from the church.

DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH DRAMA

In spite of this, we can not claim these Mystery and Miracle plays to be as excellent dramatic works. 

THE THIRD STAGE

The third stage in the English Drama is the transition of the Mystery and Miracle plays to the Morality plays. While the theme of the Mystery and the Miracle plays were based on religion, the Morality plays were allegorical in theme. However, the Morality plays were constructed for the aristocratic section of the society. Morality plays in length were even more than the Miracle and the Mystery plays. Mostly the professional actors enacted the Morality plays. 

DEVELOPMENT IN ENGLISH DRAMA

The Morality plays were a sort of dramatized form of allegory based on the life of man, his temptations and other moral problems, and finally his salvation. English Literature saw its first real moral plays, perhaps, in the middle of the fifteenth century. Three Moralities, – The Castell of Perseverance, Mankind, and Mind, Will, and Understanding, found in one manuscript, is most probably the beginning of Morality plays in England. All these plays had a common theme. It was an allegorical struggle between the good spirit and the evil spirit for triumphing over man’s soul. 

DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH DRAMA

However, the discussion on Morality plays will remain incomplete without the mention of the play Everyman. We cannot decide the specific date of composition of the play. However previously there was some controversy regarding the original source of the play.  Like all other Morality plays of the age, Everyman is an allegorical presentation with a doctrinal message.

MORALITY PLAYS IN ENGLISH DRAMA

In this play, the writer has treated the hour of death in an allegorical manner.  In the play, Everyman symbolizes a right sort of Christian, is summoned by Death, in accordance with God’s directive, to a long journey from which there is no return. Of course, he looks for friends to accompany him, but none of Fellowship, Goods, or Kindreds agrees to go with him. This signifies that nothing of friendship, relationship, or material possession remains in death. However, Good Deeds agrees to accompany him and advises him to take the help of knowledge in his venture. Knowledge leads Everyman to Confession, and thereafter he advances with Death in the company of Good Deeds, Strength, Discretion, Five Wits, and Beauty. But, at the final hour, when Everyman is to creep into his grave, other companions, except Good Deeds, decline to go with him.

The implication is that man’s beauty, knowledge, strength, intelligence, and similar qualities fail completely at the hour of death. The play ends with the announcement by an angel of the entry of Everyman’s soul into the heavenly sphere.

INTERLUDES IN ENGLISH DRAMA

In the course of time, the Moral plays had a new wing, known as Moral Interludes or simply Interludes. Interludes is a Latin term, which means “between the play”. However, we actually apply this term to a variety of short entertainment, including secular forces and witty dialogues. These Moral Interludes were much shorter, needed little accessories, and mostly four to five actors performed them. The main concern of the moral aspect of these Interlude plays was the temptation of youth. Some of the worth mentioning Moral Interludes include Hickenscorner, Youth, Welth and Helth, The Nature of the Four Elements, The Play of the Wether, and so on. 

CONCLUSION

The Moral plays play a very significant role in the development of the drama in England. In their theme, tone, and technique, we can well consider the Moral Plays as the harbingers of the regular English drama. And with the evolution of regular tragedies and comedies came the fourth stage in the development of drama in England.