The short answer is... nobody knows.
The long answer is... very long indeed!
One branch of scholarship suggests that the mystery plays had a strong didactic element - that they were, alongside the churches’ stained glass windows, the means of teaching the illiterate masses their faith. Robert Huntingdon Fletcher’s take on medieval congregations and the development of the mystery plays is gloriously patronising and quite startlingly simplistic:
We must try in the first place to realize clearly the conditions under which the church service, the mass, was conducted during all the medieval centuries. We should picture to ourselves congregations of persons for the most part grossly ignorant, of unquestioning though very superficial faith, and of emotions easily aroused to fever heat. Of the Latin words of the service they understood nothing; and of the Bible story they had only a very general impression.
We must try in the first place to realize clearly the conditions under which the church service, the mass, was conducted during all the medieval centuries. We should picture to ourselves congregations of persons for the most part grossly ignorant, of unquestioning though very superficial faith, and of emotions easily aroused to fever heat. Of the Latin words of the service they understood nothing; and of the Bible story they had only a very general impression.
(Robert Huntingdon Fletcher, A History of English Literature (Boston: Richard G. Badger, 1916), accessed at http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/medievaldrama.htm.)
For such poor ignorami it was necessary “that the service [the Mass] should be given a strongly spectacular and emotional character,” which led slowly but inevitably to “the process of dramatizing the services.” Two very common forms of liturgical drama were Easter sepulchures (the church crucifix, after it had been venerated on Good Friday, would be 'buried' beneath the altar to symbolise Christ's death, then 'resurrected' on Easter morning and restored to its rightful place, either above the altar or on the rood screen) and the Quem Quaeritis trope (this was a dramatisation of the angel's speech to the three Marys at the empty tomb - 'Quem Quaeritis' means 'whom do you seek?'). Parts of the Christmas liturgy were also dramatised, but the Easter ceremonies were the main ones.
For such poor ignorami it was necessary “that the service [the Mass] should be given a strongly spectacular and emotional character,” which led slowly but inevitably to “the process of dramatizing the services.” Two very common forms of liturgical drama were Easter sepulchures (the church crucifix, after it had been venerated on Good Friday, would be 'buried' beneath the altar to symbolise Christ's death, then 'resurrected' on Easter morning and restored to its rightful place, either above the altar or on the rood screen) and the Quem Quaeritis trope (this was a dramatisation of the angel's speech to the three Marys at the empty tomb - 'Quem Quaeritis' means 'whom do you seek?'). Parts of the Christmas liturgy were also dramatised, but the Easter ceremonies were the main ones.
These dramatisations of the liturgy, says Fletcher, morphed gradually into the complete vernacular cycle of Bible stories when “the people... ceased to be patient with the unintelligble Latin." Originally also part of the liturgy and performed inside the churches, eventually
the churches began to seem too small and inconvenient, the excited audiences forgot the proper reverence, and the performances were transferred to the churchyard, and then, when the gravestones proved troublesome, to the market place, the village-green, or any convenient field. [...] Gradually, too, the priests lost their hold even on the plays themselves; skilful actors from among the laymen began to take many of the parts; and at last in some towns the trade-guilds, or unions of the various handicrafts, which had secured control of the town governments, assumed entire charge.
This evolutionary approach, very popular in the early to mid twentieth century, is today seen as somewhat outdated, although it lives on in popular culture (i.e. Wikipedia entries). And Fletcher's over-simplistic take on medieval drama (published in 1916) is, worryingly, still used by the Luminarium website as a general introduction to medieval plays.
the churches began to seem too small and inconvenient, the excited audiences forgot the proper reverence, and the performances were transferred to the churchyard, and then, when the gravestones proved troublesome, to the market place, the village-green, or any convenient field. [...] Gradually, too, the priests lost their hold even on the plays themselves; skilful actors from among the laymen began to take many of the parts; and at last in some towns the trade-guilds, or unions of the various handicrafts, which had secured control of the town governments, assumed entire charge.
This evolutionary approach, very popular in the early to mid twentieth century, is today seen as somewhat outdated, although it lives on in popular culture (i.e. Wikipedia entries). And Fletcher's over-simplistic take on medieval drama (published in 1916) is, worryingly, still used by the Luminarium website as a general introduction to medieval plays.
Most scholars now suggest that liturgical and vernacular drama developed separately but in tandem, each influenced by the other but each with its own particular purpose and function. Although both were forms of worship, liturgical drama belonged to the church and the mystery plays to the city. The structure of each reflects this. Liturgical drama used only the ecclesiastical Latin and was played by the church hierarchy; suiting the enclosed, sacred space of the church, it was highly ritualised and fairly static. The vernacular mystery plays, whose cast and playing space was the entire city, had far greater scope for colour, movement and theatrical energy.
And why were the plays called mystery plays? No one really knows that either, but here are the main theories:
- In Latin - the language of the church - mysterium meant "mystical or religious truth" (OED Online: mystery, n.1). Because religious truths were a main focus of the plays, the Latin may have been anglicized to mystery and associated with the plays.
- There is a very similar Latin word, misterium, which originally meant "duty, service, office" (OED Online: mystery, n.2), but which by the Middle Ages meant "occupation, trade" (ibid) in association with the craft guilds. Since the guilds were the primary producers of the plays, this may be why the plays became known as mystery plays.
Which is correct? Take your pick!
 |
| Mystery plays were not uniquely English; they were widespread throughout Europe. The four main English cycles are those from are York, Chester, Wakefield, and the so-called N-Town; three Cornish plays also survive. On the continent, France, Germany, Spain and Italy all had their own plays. |
No comments:
Post a Comment