Transcript Medieval Period Notes

III. The Medieval Period
III. The Medieval Period
A. By 900s the Church included playlets in
masses, especially Easter & Christmas
1. Clergy & altar boys were actors
2. Performed in Latin [language of the
Church and only language allowed inside
the church building]
B. Move to church steps
B. Plays move to the church steps [1200-1350]
1. Performed in the vernacular (language
people speak in everyday life)
2. Added mansions (sets)
a. Heaven
b. Hell
C. Guilds
C. Performance of plays was taken on by
religious or trade guilds
What is a guild?
Can you think of modern uses of the word?
What might a trade guild have been?
Medieval trade guilds were
made up of people who shared
an occupation. In England, the
trade guilds produced plays.
1.
All Sacred
(C. Performances . . .)
1. Sacred topics (religious)
a. Miracle & Mystery – Bible stories & stories
of saints [Second Shepherds’ Play]
b. Morality – allegories (symbolic plays) in
which vice & virtue fight for or within a
man’s soul [Everyman]
2. Performed in cycles [autos in Spain]
3. Amateur actors
Plays in Townley or Wakefield Cycle, England (published 1460)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
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15.
16.
Townley Cycle
The Creation
17.
The Killing of Abel
18.
Noah and the Ark
19.
Abraha[m]
20.
Isaac
21.
Jacob
22.
The Prophets
23.
Pharaoh
24.
Caesar Augustus
25.
The Aunnunciation
26.
The Salutation of Elizabeth
27.
The First Shepherds' Play
28.
The Second Shepherds' Play
29.
The Offering of the Magi
30.
The Flight Into Egypt
31.
Herod the Great
32.
The Purification of Mary
The Play of the Doctors
John the Baptist
The Conspiracy
The Buffeting
The Scourging
The Crucifixion
The Talents
The Deliverance of Souls
The Resurrection of the Lord
The Pilgrims
Thomas of India
The Lord's Ascension
The Judgement
Lazarus
The Hanging of Judas
D. Production Elements
D. Production Elements
1. Types of stages
a. Fixed [temporary sets built for an entire
cycle of plays to use]
Stage used in the Valenciennes Passion Play, 1547
Hell Mouth in a colored drawing of the same set
b.
Pageant Wagons
b. Pageant Wagons
The Triumph Archduchess Isabella of Brussels, 1615,
included pageants of the Annunciation, followed by Diana
and her Nymphs, and the Nativity, with an angel on the roof.
[text from The Theatre: A Concise History, by Phyllis Hartnoll]
What is odd about the inclusion of “Diana and her Nymphs”?
The painting of the ommegang (procession) The Triumph of
Isabella [previous slide] shows a procession of pageant wagons
in Brussels in 1615. Annual processions similar to this took place
all over Europe, and had done so since at least the 14th century.
Among the performers are three black figures suggesting that
there was a community of people of African lineage in Brussels at
the time. There is a man riding a camel at the bottom left of the
painting, a drummer behind the nativity and a servant holding the
umbrella of feathers over ‘King Psapho’ in the cart behind the
camels.
The next 11 slides show close-ups of sections of this large oil
painting, probably completed in 1615.
This pageant wagon depicts The Annunciation, when an angel told Mary that she
would give birth to Jesus.
Pageant wagon drawing
Middle English
pageant wagon;
Scene of Christ
before Pilate
2. Special Effects
2. Special effects
a. Flying with ropes & pulleys
b. Trap doors
c. Effigies [like big dolls representing human
beings] for scenes of torture
d. Transformations [Moses’ stick to a snake,
Jesus turning water to wine, etc.]
The Medieval plays attempted to be as realistic as
possible. There are stories of complicated feats, such as
representations of the Deluge (great flood) with
enormous amounts of water.
Fire was used extensively.
Effigies were filled with animal entrails and burned in
hell fire.
While most actors were amateurs, the machinists—the
people who did special effects—were well paid.
Unlike during the Roman time, the players were not
harmed.
In England the plays were assigned
to guilds by appropriateness to their
occupations.
This is a list of
the guilds of
York, England,
and their play
assignments.
Which do you
find interesting?
The officially sanctioned drama of the Medieval Period
was religious, but there were players who traveled about
and presented non-religious drama. These were people
outside of the feudal system, who moved about from
place to place constantly.
E. Secular theatre
E. Secular (non-religious) theatre, apparently farce
1. Traveling troupes of actors
2. Masks & costumes hid identities of troupe
members who apparently committed criminal
acts, such as pick-pocketing
3. Outlawed in most of Europe in 14th & 15th
centuries
These traveling troupes performed inside, when invited. This picture shows
performers in a manor house or castle.
Troupe members,
called mummers
in England, often
performed in the
streets.
Where will you see mummers in literature?
In Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, a group of traveling
players arrives at the Danish castle. Hamlet requests
them to perform a play that reenacts the murder of his
father by his uncle, now the king and married to
Hamlet’s mother.