Trope: A literary trope is a common pattern, theme, motif in literature, or a figure of speech in which words are used in a sense different from their literal meaning. For more information click here
Easter Trope = Easter Drama
Drama is being part of the church liturgy. Men in women's clothes playing .the Three Marys This is a little dramulett.
If drama takes one and half hours, we can say that a dramulett takes twenty or thirty minutes. It is shorter than drama.
You cannot put a longer play in the church liturgy. New games were getting longer, and nonsensical elements were making it impossible to play it in front of the people in church.
Another Genre is: The Miracle & Mystery Play
Mystery comes from the Latin word ministere. Ministere means "holding divine service."
First important dramatic sub-genre developed from liturgical tropes;authors presumably clerics.
"Miracle Play" plays especially dealing with saints' miraculous lives.
"Mystery Play" from Latin ministere(holding divine service).
dramatising, biblical episodes. Examples are: Adam and Eve, The Fall, Kane and Abel, Noah's Flood, Abraham and Isaac, King Herod, Crucifixion, Ascension, Last Judgement.
Noah`s Tale is the master tale of our culture. Men's lives are worth saving even though the God destroyed and punished the human being.
Unicorn is holy, because Noah ate it.
In many plays we can see the salvation of the human beings.
Arranged in cycles (e.g. Chester Cycle consists of 25 plays from creation of mankind to Judgement Day). Since 1311 staged together on Corpus Christi Day or Whitsunday.
Plays move out of church:
-no longer part of divine service, but still religious instructions.
-adopt popular vernacular of English
-staged by worker's guilds on two-storey "pageants" (i.e. wagons, but also the plays themselves).
Pageant cycles: relation of guilt to the plays which are staged.
NOAH'S FLOOD
Starts with the long monologue by the God. God complains about the mankind. After saying this sentence Mr. Professor expressed that foe means
enemy. Foe is much softer than enemy...
When using enemy you picture
someone all dressed in black..lurking around the corner..drooling and slobbering...waiting to come and get you...
Whereas, with foe you picture someone that just does not agree with you. A fiend is a descriptive adjective that you would apply to one person. You require two or more people to
have foes or enemies, but a fiend applies to one person.
We turn back to our topic again. In Noah's flood , God is complaining about his creation. In the next scene, there comes the flood,and Noah's
building his ship.
These plays were written by monks, because monks did not like women. So they came up with woman satire. Noah's Flood is a woman satire.
Comic Relief: Plays were played by the populists. They were not very educated people. Till the 17th century, there was no female actress on the scene. Female actresses appeared after the restoration.
There were no monks among the actors. Main point was to instruct. It was a way of illustrating biblical stories.
THE SECOND SHEPHARD'S PLAY
It is about stealing of a sheep. Mac steals a sheep, and hides it in his house. Mac is Scottish. Shepherds follows him, and see the sheep in his house. However, Mac says that this is his newly born son, because his wife is ugly. This is a woman satire. There are three shepherds in this play. "Bairn" means child in Scottish. You use this term as an endearment when you address a child.
14th and 15th centuries are late middle ages.
Characteristic of such stories is their sublime and serious tones. Plays were written by clerics, and they were staged by common people.
Next Genre is: MORALITY PLAY
In the second half of the 16th century, mystery play went out of population. 1532-1534-1536--->These years are very important for English reformation. Under Henry VIII reformation took place. Separation from the catholic church. Mystery plays are thought to be catholic. That is why, they were out of fashion in the second half of 16th century. In the morality play. the focus is on the fate of individual human soul.
regret, conversion, penitence, mercy, salvation : sorriness about his sin.
These plays were staged by professional, and paid actors in theaters, pubs. Plays were no longer dependent on church holidays.
In the 16th century, patronage gave actors a place to live in. Household gave actors place, so they played for him. King's men, Queen's men.
These are my notes from the lecture, and now I would like to jot down my notes from the tutorial on Friday, 27 March with Timo.
2 questions will come from this section. Development of English Drama.
trope means transposing. Stage zero is the beginning of the drama.
1. liturgical tropes
2. folkloric traditions(fertility rights, pantomime,etc.)
These are the stage zero phases of the English drama.We cannot argue that the drama has yet started, because liturgical tropes were not written texts. Then the next stage comes. It is:
Mystery / Miracle plays.
trope--------mystery/miracle plays. We come from trope to mystery/miracle plays.
Liturgical tropes:
trope= texts were taken from the Bible. Bible is a narrative fiction. Biblical texts were dramatised. Language is Latin. Latin Biblical texts were acted by priests, clergymen, ministers(people working for the church).
These were acted in the church on the holidays. Place is church, time is holiday(Sunday holidays)
Mystery / Miracle Plays: Bible text was rewritten, reshaped by clergymen. Language is vernacular... It means Middle English, and later early modern English. eModE, because it was still acted in the 16th century which is already the eModE period. These plays were acted by workers' guilds(association, actors played in their free time). Plays were acted on stage wagons on holidays. Place is stage wagons, time is holidays( on festival days and particularly on CORPUS CHRISTI)
Miracle plays: Saints' legends.
Mystery plays: Biblical episodes like Noah's flood, Egyptians and Jews, Salvation, until the judgement day.
1. moves out of church
2. language is vernacular
3. authorship
4. actors. ( at least more professional than clergymen)
reason: they did not want to wait for the people to come to the church. They brought the church to them. Go into them, and speak their language. In these plays, the things were made more interesting for the people, and funny. In a way comical.
From the reader page 30 Noah's Flood:
God says : "I am disappointed by men. I am going to eradicate, kill them." Fleshly Liking=Sex. It was their sin.
Noah`s wife is rewritten from the Bible in a very comical way. She is a quarreling wife. The play is very close to the Bible, but there are some autonomous and artistic issues. THIS IS WHERE ENGLISH DRAMA STARTS.
In the Bible, there is a hierarchy. God, Noah, wife,etc. and everyone is obedient. However, in this mystery play wife is not. This is comic. The text is not artistic. Noah says, Christ's Blessing, but Christ comes after him.
Reason of mystery/ miracle plays is religious education.
Miracle plays: Martyrs killing for their faith violently. There are comical elements, but not as much as in mystery plays. Saints/martyrs kills because of their believes.
Information for myself, not related to the plays: Easter is the highest christian holiday. Celebration of resurrection of Christ.
In the Exam: Talk theoretically, and give example. For example write like this: Noah's flood is a mystery play which was reshaped by the monks. As you know, mystery plays were reshaped biblical texts. Mystery plays are regarded as woman's satire. So Noah's flood is a woman's satire, because in the bible Noah's wife is obedient to him, but in the play she is quarreling. The text is not artistic. To give an example of this, in the play Noah says: "Christ's Blessing" but Christ lived after him.
I suggest you to read this homepage from internet: click here
Definition
guild For the source click here
noun [C]
an organization of people who do the same job or have the same interests:
the Writers' Guild
the Fashion Designers' Guild
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