Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/246

* MYSTERY. 208 MYSTICISM. petus to a revival of popular dramatic literature came from the Church. The clergj- wished to pro- vide some uieans of making tlic gxeat events on which their teachiug was based more vivid and real to their unlettered tlocks. Tliis was the more natural because the service of the Church was iu its very nature dramatic. Its chief act of worsliip was, in no abstruse sense, a represen- tation of the sacrifice of Christ; and both the symbolism of the ritual and the responsive na- ture of the liturgy shared the same character. Kspecially at the great festivals of Christmas and Easter it was customary to make it still more dramatic by representing the events then com- memorated as actually taking place before the congregation. Traces of tliis procedure are found as early as the closing years of the tenth century. The words used, the directions to the performers, hynuis and anthems, were at first in Latin ; but as dialogue was introduced, they were naturally turned into the vernacular. In the thirteenth century, in fact, mysteries and miracle plays lost the favor of the Church. Where they were not still a part of the ritual, they were banished by various decrees from the sacred building, and the clergy were forbidden to take part in tlicm. They passed first to the churchyard, and then to the streets and public squares, where they were per- formed on movable stages drawn from place to place. The actors in England were frequently members of the trade guilds, who arranged for these performances at Christmas, Easter, and Corpus Cliristi, supplemented by strolling play- ers. In France the}- came under the control of the Confr/rics de la Passion, which were estab- lislied in many of the leading towns — societies half religious, half literary, and wholly secular- ized by the fourteenth century. The plays devot- ed to the exposition of special niy.steries were combined, in England at least, in an immense cycle, covering the entire range of the Scriptural narrative from the Creation to the Day of .Judg- ment. In texts belonging to the fourteenth, fif- teenth, and sixteenth centuries, four of these cycles, more or less complete, have come down to us. They are the York cycle (48 i)lays), the Towneley (32 plays), the Chester (2.") plays), and the Coventry (42 plays) ; of other cycles there are fragments. The mystery plays died slowly as the regular drama came into existence. As late as 1.580, we hear of one being represented nt Coventry. Consult for both mysteries and mira- cle plays: Bates. English AV/iV/ioH.« Drama (Xew York, 189.3) ; Hase. Das iiristlirhc .S'c/iStu(Ients of Mirnele Plai/s anresrnta::ir>ni dri seeoli I'l-KI (Florence, 1872) ; Ward. I'nfilish Dramatic Literature (Lon- don, 189!li: .lusserand. l.iterar;/ llistorii of the Enr/lish People ( ib.. 189.5): Petit de .Tulleville. Les mtistr'res (Paris. 188(5) ; Davidson. Studies in the Enfilish Mustrni Plays (New Haven, 1892) : and for reprints, besides the si)ecimens given above, York Plays (ed. L. T. Smith, Oxford. 1885) ; Chester Plays (ed. Wright. London. 1843- 47) ; Toanelcy Mysteries (ed. Raiue, Newcastle, 183(i) ; Diyby Mysteries (ed. Furnivall, London, 1882); Miracles de notre Dame (ed. U. Paris and Kobcrt, Paris, 1870-81). See Drama; JIiba- CLE Play; Passion Pi^^vy. MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD. VW- last and unfinished novel liy Charles Dickens. The first numl)cr appeared iu 1870 and only six were finished when he died. The scene is a cathedral town, where live a music teacher, .John .Jasiji-r, and his young nepliew, Edwin Drood. Both love the same girl, Rosa. Di'ood suddenly vanishes, and Neville Landless is accused by Jasper of mur- dering him. The story breaks olf. and the mystery was never solved. Notes furnished by Dickens's son-in-law indicate that .Jasper was the murderer, but that Rosa finally married Tartar, a sailor. MYSTERY OF MARIE HOGET, nuVrr' rO'- zhli'. A talc by Edgar A. Poe. published iu three parts in Snoirdeirs Lady's Companion. { 1842). It is a sequel to Murders in the Rue Morgue, the ac- counts of the murder of a beautiful Paris grisette, and a parallel, with other localities and names, of the murder of ilary Rogers at Weehawken, N. J. MYSTICISM (from mystic, from Lat. mys- tic us, from tik. fivariKSs. mystikos, relating to mysteri(js, from jhuo-ttjs, mystes, initiate). The name given to certain forms of religious expe- rience, in which man, transcending the ordinary limitations of time and sense, seems to hold direct commiuiion with the Deity, ilysticism may be philosophical as well as religious, in which case its speculations are usually pantheistic in their tendency. Religious mysticism exhibits two wholly different qualities, curiously combined, viz. pure individualism aud the sinking of per- sonality. The mystic may have fervently striven to attain the exalted .state of communion with God, yet when once it has been reached, con- scious activity ceases, and through a sort of passive rapture the subject seems merged in the object of his yearning. Direct intuition super- sedes reason. The mystic is not unconscious, yet he seems to be no longer self-conscious in the ordinary sense. The satisfaction which he feels is wholly dillerent from that derived from ceremonial observances, for the true mystic is the opposite of a legalist. His attitude, indeed, is a protest against formalism. He feels hini'^elf to be indejiendent of external authorities, whether of rite, creed, priesthood, or Scripture, though, of course, the religion of the Catholic mystic precludes this .separation from externals. In one or another of its forms, mysticism is a very ancient i)henonienon, finding illustration in India both in Brabmanism and Buddhism, in Persia among the Sutis, and among the Creeks in NeoPlatonism. It passed over into Greek Christianity from Plotinus, through the writings of pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita (see Dioxv.sirs TIIK Abeopaoite), and his great commentator. Jlaximus Confessor (seventh century). .John Seotus Erigena (ninth century) translated the pseudo-Dionysius into T^atin, and thus introduced (ireck mystical theology to Western Europe, where, superimposed upon the mysticism of Saint .ugustine, it enjoyed increasing popiilarily. Monasticism proved a congenial soil for the cul- tivation of the mystic spirit, and some of its most perfect types are found among the monks, e.g. in the Eastern Church the Hesychastn> of Mount Athos (sec IIesychasts), and in the Western,