Morality and Miracle Plays & Its Important Facts

A Brief Introduction

The Morality play is a genre of (13th Century) medieval and early Tudor “theatrical” entertainment. In their own time, these plays were known as “interlude”. The miracle and morality plays mark the beginning of the British Drama. They are the two most important milestones in the English Drama.

Important Facts to Remember

1. Morality plays are a type of allegory in which the protagonist is met by personifications of various moral attributes who try to prompt him to choose a godly life over one of evil.

2. Morality plays were most popular in Europe during the 15th and 16th Century.

3. One of the earliest morality plays was “The Castle of Perseverance.”

4. Everyman’ one of the most concrete examples of a morality. Other plays that take on the typical traits of morality plays but one rarely given the title of the morality play are “Hickscorner” and “The Second Shepherds.”

5. The Miracle play or Mysterious play is also called saint play. A miracle play presents a real or fictitious account of the life, miracle or martyrdom of a saint.

6. Miracle plays developed in 10th and 11th centuries to enhance calendar festivals. After that they were well established and became very popular in 15th Century of England.

7. Their themes were taken from the Bible, this included the creation of the world, the Flood, the Sacrifice of Isaac and the Exodus from Egypt.

8. The best scenes in the life of the Jesus Christ, the crucification, Resurrection, Ascension and the last Judgment were also represented.

9. Shakespearean tragedy is generally concerned with persons of high degree, often with Kings, princes and sometimes with the leader of men.

10. The works of Shakespeare have been divided into four periods.

11. First Period (1588-1593)-Dowden calls this period by the name of “In the Worship”. Following plays fall under this period 1.Henery VI, 2. Titus Andronicus, 3. Love’s Labour Lost, 4. Two Gentlemen of Verona, 5. The Comedy of Errors, 6. Romeo Juliet, 7. Richard III, 8. Richard II, 9. King John.

12. Second Period (1594-1600)-Dowden calls this period by the name “In the World”. Several comedies were produced during this period- 1.Mid Summer Night’s Dream, 2. Ado About Nothing, 3. Twelfth Night and 4. As you Like it, 5. Henry IV Part I and II, and Henry V.

13. Third Period (1601-1608)-Dowden terms this period as ‘Out of Depth’. During this period Shakespeare wrote great tragedies 1.Hamlet, 2. King Lear, 3. Macbeth, 4. Othello, 5. Antony and Cleopatra. Comedies like “All’s well that Ends well” and “Measure for Measure” also appeared during the period.

14. Fourth Period (1609-1612)-Dowden terms this period as “On the Heights” Last four plays of Shakespeare are 1.Cymbeline, 2. Perciles, 3. The Winter’s Tale, 4. The Tempest.

15. The hero of a Shakespeare tragedy has a tragic trait or a Fatal flaw.

16. The Supernatural machinery plays an important part in his plays (drama). For example-Macbeth and Hamlet.

17. Soliloquy is another device used by Shakespeare in his play. Macbeth is incomplete without soliloquy.

18. On the other hand in comedies heroines play the important role in Shakespearean drama.

19. It is truely said that, “Shakespeare comedies have no heroes but only heroines.”

20. Viola, Oliva, Rosalind, Celia, Portia, Miranda are some of the leading heroines of Shakespearean comedies.

21. Besides Shakespearean drama, classical drama also played a significant role in both tragedy and comedy. For example, A cschylus sophocles and Euripedes were great tragedy writers of (classical) the Greek Tragedy.

22. Classical drama follows the most important of these rules are the three unities of time, place and action. According to Aristotle, plot was the soul of tragedy.