English literature of the XV century. Basic genres of English medieval drama: mysteries, morality, miracles. Popular ballads.

Now it is time to speak about English theatre. The first English plays told religious stories and were performed in or near the churches. Many events of religious history were suitable subjects for drama. These early plays, called Miracle or Mystery plays, were in four main groups, according to the city where they were acted: Chester, Coventry, York and Wakefield.

The subject of the Miracle plays were various: the disobedience Adam and Eve; Noah and the great flood; Abraham and Isaac; events in the life of Christ and so on. They were acted by people of the town on a kind of stage on wheels. This was moved to different parts of the town, so that a play shown in one place could then be shown in another. Often several Miracle Plays were being performed at the same time in different places. Here is a short bit of Noah’s Flood in the Chester plays.

Although the Miracles were serious and religious in intention, English comedy was born in them. There was a natural tendency for the characters in the play to become recognizably human in their behaviour. However serious the main story might be, neither actor nor audience could resist the temptation to enjoy the possibilities of a situation such as that in which Noah’s wife needs a great deal of persuasion to make her go on board the ark.

Other plays, in some respects not very different from the miracles, were the Morality Plays. The characters in the these were not people (such as Adam and Eve or Noah); they were virtues (such as Truth) or bad qualities (such as Greed or Revenge) which walked and talked. For this reason we find these plays duller today, but this does not mean that the original audiences found them dull. The plays presented moral truth in a new and effective way.

One of the best – known fifteenth century moralities is Everyman, which was translated from the Dutch. It is a story of the end of Everyman’s life, when Death calls him away from the world. Among the characters are Beauty, Knowledge, Strength and Good Deeds. When everyman has to go to face death, all his friends leave him except Good Deeds, who says finely:

Everyman, I will go with thee and be thy guide,

In thy most need to be by thy side.

As far as the folk literature concerned it couldn’t stop developing, and the 15^th century witnessed another wave of folklore, especially in the form of ballads. They became popular in England and Scotland and were lyrical poems, recited or sung to the accompanied of a lute or a bag-pipe. Ballads and songs expressed the feelings and thoughts of a people therefore the author is not felt in them. They were handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth and the art of printing helped to preserve them, but didn’t stop their creation. In terms of the content, the ballads can be divided into three main groups:

historical – those which are based on a historical fact.

heroic – about the people persecuted by the law or their own families.

romantic – telling of love and noble deeds.

The most popular ballad cycle is “The Robin Hood Ballads” which consists of about 40 heroic ballads with the element of romance. Robin Hood is believed to have lived in the 12^th century, during the reign of Henry II and his son Richard I the Lion Hearted in Sherwood Forest not far from Nottingham. Robin was known as an enemy of the Norman barons and sheriffs and protector of the poor and oppressed.

“The Robin Hood ballads” consist of four –line starras, usually in the form of a dialogue between Robin Hood and other characters. Paraphrased repetition of lines is quite common and this device serves the purpose of balancing the rhythm and adjusting the lines to recitation or singing.

In the centuries to follow the figure of Robin Hood became a legendary one, his name became proverbial for an outlaw who robbed the rich and strong to help the poor and weak. One of the best-known later “treatments of Robin Hood is in Walter Scott’s “Ivanhoe”, where he is disguised under the name of Locksley. Films and television have also made his story familiar in the 20^th century.

Lecture 4.