Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/618

 THEATRE

560

THEATRE

or nugatores, who may for a while have survived the downfall of the Empire and become strollers, tum- blers, joculatores (jongleurs), and even minstrels, cannot be shown to have inspired any new dramatic developments. Their connexion with the Norman eslrifs, one of the forms of the old French debals or dialogues, is quite problematical. Moreover, the Teutonic races had their scop or gleeman, who wa.s just as hkely as these strollers to have evolved ulti- mately a dialogue form for some of his compositions. Again the Christian imitations of Terence by the Abbess Hroswitha of Gandersheim (d. 1002) or "the Suffering Christ" (xp'<r-r6s iricrxwp) of Byzantine literature inspired no imitators and apparently were not even intended for representation. Thus there is a consensus of opinion that the modern drama has sprung out of the mystery or miracle plays of the Middle Ages and is ultimately reUgious in its origin (see Miracle Pl.ws and Mysteries). We can even put our finger vrith some confidence upon the primitive germ of the whole subsequent development. It is to be found in a trojie which Frere and others have printed from a St. Gall MS. of the ninth century, attached to the Introit of the Easter Mass. In the earliest English tropes written before 1016 it appears thus, the dramatic form being clearly indicated by the headings:

Angelica de Christi Resurreclione. Quern queritis in sepulchro christiocle?

Sanctarum Muiierum Responsio. Ihesum Nazarenum crucifixum o ceUcole.

Angelice vocis consolatio. Non est hie, siirrexit sicut prsedixerat; Ite nuntiate quia surrexit, dicentes;

Sanclarum muiierum ad oninem clerum modulatio. Alleluia. Resurrexit dominus hodie, Leo fort is, christus filius dei, deo gratias dicite; eia.

Dicat Angelus. Venite et videte locum; etc.

This dialogue was transformed at an early date into a sepai'ate interlude following the third lesson of the Easter Matins and representing the visit to the Sepulchre. The Sepulchre itself had been previously constituted on Good Friday by curtaining off a vacant altar and depositing there the crucifix and sometimes the Blessed Sacrament. The whole rite is fully de- scribed in the " Concordia regularis" of St. jEthelwold (tenth century), where the compiler remarks by way of introduction: "since on this day we celebrate the interment of the body of our Saviour, if it seems good or pleasing to any to follow on similar lines the use of certain of the rehgious which is worthy of imitation for the strengthening of faith in the unlearned vulgar and in the neophytes, we have ordered it in this wise". These scenes of the deposition on Good Friday and the visit to the Sepulchre on Easter morning became grad- ually more and more developed and less and less dis- tinctly hturgical. until we reach a stage when we have a dramatic representation performed by lay folk, out- side the Church. Great hght has recently been thrown on the transition stages in England by the discovery of the Shrewsbury fragments, which show how the matter was brought to the level of the people by the insertion of vernacular verses in Latin songs. Equally "for the strengthening of faith in the un- learned vulgar and in the neophytes" there were kindred dramatic tropes adopted at Christmas time. The form of one of the tenth century Tropes of St. Martial at Limoges seems to show direct imitation of the Paschal interlude: Quern guaritis itt prcesepe pas- loresf (Whom seek ye, shepherds, in the manger?) So the dialogue began. There were also ntlier influ- ences besides the tro])es which led to the same result. For example portions of a sermon, wrongly attributed to St. Augustine, used to be read among the lessons at the Christmas matins. It introduced various Prophets who bore testimony to Christ. A separate

voice was assigned to each, much as in the Gospel of the Passion when read in Holy Week, and this at once supplied the elements of a promising Christmas drama (see Sepet, " Prophet es du Christ", 10).

We may probably, with Mr. Chambers, distinguish three stages in the whole evolution: (1) the liturgical stage, i. e. the development of these dramatic dia- logues, aided as they were by impersonation and ges- ture, within the Church ceremonial itself; (2) the transitional stage, i. e. these Latin plays were trans- lated into the vernacular or interpolated with ver- nacular passages, while different incidents coalesced to form one representation and other new elements were added, until the whole cjcle of the matter treated extended from the Creation to the Judgment: (3) the final stage in which the plays were completely secu- larized. They fell into the hands of the guilds, some plays being assigned to one guild and others to an- other, while there were constant changes in the dia- logue and rearrangement of incidents to suit new conditions; but the cychc form was firmly adhered to. On the other hand, these stages in the evolution of the drama were not of course sharply defined and they merged into one another. For further details the reader must be referred to the articles Miracle Pl.\ys and Mysteries and Moralities, but it should be noted that an important influence in the process of secularization was supphed by the Latin plays, partly scholastic exercises and partly diversions, which the cathedral and monastic schools acquired the habit of performing, more particularh' at the Christmas and Easter seasons. It is easy to see how readily such representations addressed to a young or miscellaneous audience might come to be interpolated by passages in the mother tongue, particularly those of a more humorous character. RIoreover, it was natural to extend the scope of such diversions and we have evidence that in the twelfth century, in France, England, and Germany, dramatic compositions were represented dealing with such subjects as the life of St. Nicholas, the martyrdom of St. Catherine, the resurrection of Lazarus, the parable of the virgins, or a ludus prophelarum ornatissimus, which included Gideon and the Philistines, David and Herod. But the further transference of such representations to the guilds must have taken place early, for it is generally agreed that the play of "Adam", written in Anglo- Norman French of the twelfth century, was probably first represented by a guild and upon English soil (.sec Grass, "Das Adamsspiel", 1907). In Germanj', however, the religious pla3-s seem to ha\e remained almost entirely in the hands of the students, though in Italy the main impulse came from the laudesi confraternities, the survivors of the Flagellant move- ment, who met together in their own chapel to sing laudi (canticles) in honour of the Blessed Virgin, which gradually assumed a dramatic form and grew into rappreseniazioni sacre. A play in the Roman dialect of the fourteenth century, edited bj- \'attasso (Studi e Testi, no. 4), ex-plicitly bears the title lauda (loc. cit., p. 53). But in every country of Europe, Spain and Poland not excepted, a new drama seems to have arisen which sprang into existence in dependence on the Church. Only by slow degrees did the subjects of such plays in the vernacular lose touch with anj' rehgious purpose. An entirely new source of inspira- tion came into play contemporaneously with the humanism of the expiring Middle Ages. In Italy especially it began as early as the fourteenth century, with the revival of the study of the tragedies of Sen- eca and, what was more important, with the compo- sition of original Latin tragedies upon tliemes supplied by medieval history. From tliese it was but a step to the plays called mcsciduli, in which t!ie influence both of the mpprcxenlazioni sacre, which were the final de\elopniont of the religious drama, and also of classical models may be clearly discerned. But it