Drama in the Middle Ages

Old English and Medieval Prose

The earliest prose in Anglo-Saxon England was written in Latin, mostly on religious and scientific subjects. Aldhelm (ca 639-709) and Venerable Bede are the excellent representatives of this early period. Vernacular prose developed in the late 8^th and 9^th centuries with the compilation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Among other achievements of Alfred's revival are translations of the histories of Bede and Orosius, Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy, and St. Augustine's Soliloquies.

In the late 10^th and early 11^th centuries Old English prose reached the height of its artistic mastery in the writings of church preachers and reformers. The most outstanding of them was Aelfric (ca 955 — ca 1012), whose sermons and saints' lives combine Christian traditions of teaching with a powerful expression in the vernacular.

Prose writing, though mostly religious in content, also flourished in Britain in the Middle Ages. The reformer John Wycliffe (ca 1330-1384), angered by the abuses of the church, opposed its teachings. Besides writing antireligious treatises, he made the first translation of the Bible into English. Other writers of religious prose such as Richard Rolle (ca 1300-1349), of Hampole, Yorkshire, wrote treatises on mystical devotions in Latin and English. At the end of the 14^th century, many mystical writers described how they overcame the world's troubles by an inward unity with God. The best of these writings are the anonymous Cloud of Unknowing (ca 1380), the Scale of Perfection by Walter Hilton (died 1396), and the Revelations of Julian, or Juliana, of Norwich (1342-1416).

Drama as public entertainment in the Medieval Period began from a religious ritual in the form of mystery plays, or miracle plays. The miracle play was encouraged by the Church in

an attempt to bring to the illiterate the miraculous Bible stories: the Fall of Man, the Flood, and plays on the Nativity, the Crucifixion, the Harrowing of Hell and the Last Judgment. Eventually these amateurs moved from the cathedral to the village green and then to pageant wagons *T bringing early theatrical performances to the neighbouring settlements. The most durable of the surviving English mystery plays was Noah's Flood, which was still sometimes performed when Shakespeare was a boy.

The miracle play was followed by the morality play, in which actors represented virtues and vices, such as Patience and Greed, and the central aspect was the conflict between good and evil. The most widespread morality play is Everyman, which tells how the hero, Everyman, finds out that his only devoted friend is Good Deeds. Performed by wandering players, the morality plays were predecessors of the professional theatre in the reign of Queen Elizabeth Tudor.

Дата добавления: 2014-01-04