The Beginning of English Drama

From instruction to entertainment

Liturgical Plays• They assumed the form of

Liturgical plays : written, directed and acted the by church people and were performed inside the church.

• They were the dramas based on the major events of Christ’s life.

• Gradually the plots evolved and to accommodate the increasing number of actors and spectators the locale was first shifted to the churchyard and then to the marketplace.

• In 1210 Pope passed a law forbidding the clergy to appear on a public stage.

Origin• The drama in England had a religious

origin.• The church felt the need of religious

teachings so that people could be emotionally attached to the Christianity.

• Everyday after worship ceremony they took little incidents from the Bible and narrated them to the

people. • Gradually this narration took the form

of dialogues and action.• The earliest liturgical dialogue

comprises 3 lines.

Miracle and Mystery Plays• The drama was passed over to

the town guilds or trade unions of towns .

• In the hands of these laymen the drama developed significantly.

• Two kinds of plays became popular : Miracle and Mystery plays.

• The first deals with the life of saints.

• The second handle the incidents from the Bible.

• The language became vernacular . They introduced non-biblical passages for the purpose of entertainment but basically they still served as tools of instruction.

Morality Play Drama went one step away

from religion in Morality plays.• They focused the moral

conflict of an ordinary man between good and bad.

• But they represented the struggle of soul in Christian terms.

• They still centered on religion.

Interludes Drama moved towards realism

in the form of Interludes in the 15th century.

These were the short dramas performed during the intervals of elaborated dramas.

It generally attacked the people, professions and society .

The emphasis of interludes was more on amusement than on instruction.

Regular Tragedy and Comedy• In the 16th century the exposure to

Greek and Roman literature gave English drama a new direction. .

• Human emotions, life and situations became the theme of drama.

• The first regular tragedy Gorboduc (1562) was based on the revenge theme.

• The first regular comedy Ralph Roister Doister (1550) was based on Roman comedy.

• So this was the way the English drama travelled from instruction to entertainment.