Do the English Mystery Plays distort message of their biblical sources in adapting them for outdoor public performance?

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Assignment 2                                                                Karina Malhotra

0227559

Medieval to Renaissance English Literature

Seminar Tutor: Dr. Amanda Hopkins

Do the English Mystery Plays distort message of their biblical sources in adapting them for outdoor public performance? (Refer to at least three plays.)

The word ‘Mystery’ comes from the Latin word “mysterium,” meaning “handicraft” or “office.” Thus, the artisan or working guilds were called “mysteries,” and hence when these guilds took over the performance of the religious dramas based on the bible, those plays came to be known as the “mystery plays.”

The tremendous flowering of such medieval drama had its roots in religion. There developed three kinds of dramatic forms: the mystery, miracle and the morality plays. The morality play developed about two centuries later than the mystery and miracle plays and is different in dramatic structure and purpose. These secular religious plays in turn developed out of even earlier forms of religious drama.

These liturgical plays started out having strong religious foundations and were performed chiefly in Latin – the language of the Bible. The aim of such plays was to familiarize the common man i.e. the artisan and working guilds with the words of God. But as these plays became more and more popular and elaborate, vernacular elements were introduced and the laity also began to participate in the performances. Soon these liturgical dramas became increasingly secularized, and they began to be performed entirely in the local dialects, abandoning Latin, and eventually moved out of the church and into the churchyard, and then into the nearby marketplace.  

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When the production and performance of these plays were taken over by the professional guilds, each guild took the responsibility for a particular episode or set of episodes from scriptural history. One guild, for example, might present the Fall of Lucifer, another the Killing of Abel, and yet another the Crucifixion and so on. To maintain the interest of the performers as well as the audience, which was chiefly the trade guilds as well, there was a growing tendency to incorporate topical and social themes into the plays, even though the emphasis remained on God’s relationship with man and on ...

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