Medieval theatre

Tropes

Trope (Gr.) - a short text, spoken or sung, used
as as an ornament of the church liturgy

Quaem Queritis? (Lat. Who are you looking for?)
- recorded by bishop Ethelwold of Winchester in
a book of rules for the Benedictines Regularis
Concordia (965 – 975)

the dialogue between the angel and the three
Marys on Easter morning

Liturgical drama

very few examples extant in England – 6 stanza
of

Caiaphas

(early 14

th

c.) for the Palm Sunday,

and so-called The Shrewsbury Fragments (bits of
plays about Christmas, Resurrection and the
journey to Emaus)

Inside and outside

Liturgical drama inside the churches and
mystery plays outside them coexisted until the
Reformation.

Different purpose – liturgical drama was used as
an ornament for church services, mystery plays
as Biblia pauperum for educational purposes

Mystery plays

the preaching activity of the Franciscans (est.
1210) and the Dominicans (est. 1215)

the establishment of the Feast of Corpus Christi
in 1311

devotio moderna – establishing personal,
emotional relationship with God

Great Mystery Cycles

York (the longest)

Chester

Wakefield (a.k.a. Towneley, after the name of
the manuscript owners)

N-town (earlier attributed to Coventry, probably
an anthology)

staged by guilds

Pageant Wagons

York Pageant

Wakefield Cycle

at least 5 plays by the same anonymous author
(called the Wakefield Master)

Non-cyclical plays

Especially popular in East Anglia

Non-cyclical plays

Miracles (saints’ lives) – Mary Magdalene

Morality plays – The Castle of Perseverance,
Mankind, Everyman

staged by professional groups led by “property
players”

Place -and-scaffold

Theatre-in-the-round

Morality plays

Psychomachia – the fight for man’s soul

the figures of Vice/Devil – often comical and very
popular

also staged in big halls – no separate stage
helps to involve the audience