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Secular plays of the Middle Ages poets and singers. Hans Sachs, a
Secular plays were not exclusive to cobbler-poet of Nuremberg (1494-
the cities. In England the Mayday 1576) is perhaps the finest example.
games and Mumming plays proved About 4,000 of his 6,000 works are of
popular. The Mumming plays portrayed the Meistersinger category. In the days
the struggle between good and evil. St. of Hans Sachs, a play would not be
George is all that is virtuous as he considered a tragedy unless it included
battles some sinister force, usually a a fight sequence.
Turkish Knight. Questions to the The Legacy of Medieval Drama
community are posed, such as “Are you
The loosening of Church authority
with us or against us? Are we not part
with regard to theatrical performance
of the same cause?”
brought greater freedom into both the
Performers invariably blackened writing and production of liturgical
their faces to conceal their true identity plays and the technical achievements of
and wore brilliant costumes. The plays medieval theatre are significant.
generally occurred around the religious However the writing never rises to the
festivals of Easter, All Saints and equivalent of an Oedipus the King, or a
Christmas. They were a traditional part Hamlet. This absence of a work of
of Christmas in the court of Edward III genius to serve as a talisman of the Age
(reign 1327-1377). Most Mumming inevitably clouds our appraisal of the
Scene from Pierre Pathelin c.1465. plays are in the form of rhyming era. The literature does not convey the
Pathelin pretends to be dying while his couplets. Some include songs and struggle with life and destiny as
wife deals with a defrauded shopkeeper. dances. profoundly as that of the Greeks. Nor,
Scholars have interpreted carnivals for instance, does it attain the artificial
A Devolution of Church authority such as the Feast of Corpus Christi, beauty of the Japanese No plays.
Eventually the Church turned its from 1311, in different ways. Some
Those sympathetic to Petrarch’s
back on liturgical drama when the so- believe them to have expressed counter- view of the Middle Ages might contend
called biblical plays began to culture ideas. Others maintain that they that the theatre barely managed to limp
emphasise bawdiness at the expense of operated strictly within the authority of from a lamentable era to the rarefied
true religious feeling. The French poet the Church. The period from May Day sanctuary of the Renaissance. A more
Joachim Du Bellay (1525-1560) to the solstice was a popular carnival balanced assessment is to conclude that
advocated a return to the Greek and time for the English. the theatre emerged from the Middle
Roman masters to re-energise the
Across the Channel France held the Ages somewhat enhanced, yet by no
theatre.
Fetes des Fous (Feast of Fools) on New means fulfilled. ★
Catholics and Protestants alike Year's Day. Masked crowds filled the
approved the move. Neither could streets in what was a continuation of References
accept the banality and coarseness that the Roman festival of Saturnalia. Cambridge Illustrated History - British
had become commonplace. Even the Theatre. Simon Trussler
Puppet shows might have began in
guilds, which once gladly contributed A Concise History of the Theatre.
Florence early in the fourteenth
their time and money, now pondered Phyllis Hartnoll
century. Magicians and jugglers were
the wisdom of doing so. By the latter A Short History of the Drama. Martha
also prominent amongst the ranks of
part of the sixteenth century, Fletcher. Bellinger
the wandering entertainers. The Middle Ages. Longman Secondary
performances in France were forbidden,
The Meistersingers of Germany Histories by R. J. Cootes.
although they continued somewhat
probably evolved out of the wandering
longer in Germany, Spain and Italy.
troubadour tradition. They flourished
Henry VIII (reign 1509 to 1547) This is the third in an occasional series
from 1450 to 1600 and were present in
forbade them in England, before they on the western theatrical tradition.
all important German towns. Their
were briefly restored under Mary (reign
members were mainly professional
1553 to 1558). There were few English
tradespersons, most of them amateur
performances after 1600.
Whatever the shortcomings of
liturgical drama, it must have been
nightmarish to sustain the theatre in
fourteenth-century England. A mini-Ice
Age saw the Thames freeze over twelve
times. The Black Death terrorised the
population. Richard II faced down the
Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. The Hundred
Year War with France was followed by
the War of the Roses.

Medieval entertainers dressed as Fools, Flanders c.1340.
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