| <trailer><p> <Westralian Worker,> <12 October 1917> 
| <pb n="2"> </p></trailer> <headline><p> <Our Bookshelf The> 
| <Evolution of the Drama IV ~~ Miracle Plays and> 
| <Shakespeare (By "Vigilant")> </p></headline>
| <p> In approaching the subject of the Shakespearian 
| drama, we must take into account two factors, In the 
| first place the Renaissance, or Revival of Learning, 
| brought about the intellectual atmosphere that made 
| the master dramatist's work both possible and 
| acceptable; and in the second place the Miracle Plays 
| of earlier centuries supplied the shell, or mould, 
| into which the intellectual bronze was cast. That is 
| why the spirit of the Renaissance, which in Italy was 
| expressed in Art, and in Germany in religious 
| discontent, found its voice in England in the Drama 
| of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. </p>
| <p> We saw in our first article on the Drama that the 
| drama of ancient Greece had its origin in the magic 
| ritual of Dionysos. The gradual development of this 
| ritual led eventually to the highly complex comedies 
| and tragedies of Athens and Rome. With the decadence 
| of the Roman Empire the public tastes declined, and 
| the Circus and the Hippodrome <mdash>-</mdash> the 
| gladiatorial contests and the chariot races 
| <mdash>-</mdash> gradually displaced the drama, and what 
| little remained of the latter was debased to the 
| level of music hall performances. Theodora, wife of 
| Justinian, a great Eastern emperor, was an actress on 
| the debased stage of Constantinople, and also a keen 
| partisan in the chariot contests. Her patronage of 
| the "Blues," against the "Greens," resulted in the 
| disastrous Nika Riots in which thousands of people 
| lost their lives. At last the invasions of the 
| barbarians, together with the ascetic moral code of 
| the early church, succeeded in suppressing both the 
| grandeur and excesses of the ancient world. </p>
| <p> But at a later date, especially when her 
| missionary efforts extended to the Northern Races, 
| the church found the stage a very valuable propaganda 
| agent. People in those days, it must be remembered, 
| could not read, and some more vivid method of 
| presenting views than by mere preaching was required. 
| To meet this want legends from the New and Old 
| Testaments were acted. The Deluge, the Tower of 
| Babel, the Return of the Prodigal, were amongst the 
| subjects commonly dealt with and the mode of 
| presentation was both rough and indecorous. Later on 
| legends from the lives of saints, and incidents in 
| the history of the church were introduced. The latter 
| were spoken of as Miracle Plays, the former as 
| Mystery Plays. At first the actors were priests, 
| monks, and novices, and the theatre the Church, but 
| as these performances rapidly grew in popularity the 
| stage was removed to the village green, and the 
| actors became gradually more secular in character. No 
| doubt the performances on the green became confused 
| with the Maypole dance, which, as we have seen in an 
| earlier article, was really, in origin, a magical 
| ritual of the same order as the Mysteries of 
| Dionysos. </p>
| <p> Eventually the plays passed completely from the 
| church to another very interesting mediaeval 
| institution, or set of institutions <mdash>-</mdash> 
| the Guilds. Without discussing minutely the character 
| of the latter, it may be said that they resembled 
| trade unions, although they included both masters and 
| men, and they also functioned as benefit and secret 
| societies. Guild membership, in mediaeval England, 
| was to a large extent the test of citizenship. 
| However, the annual festivals of the guilds closely 
| resembled our own Eight Hours Celebrations. They were 
| marked by processions, with banners and trade 
| displays, sports, and last but not least, the 
| performance of Miracle Plays. Wakefield, Chester, and 
| Coventry were the great gathering centres of the 
| guilds. The usual practice was for each Trade Guild 
| to perform a separate miracle, and the gatherings 
| consequently lasted for several days, and sometimes 
| for weeks. </p>
| <p> From 1100 to 1400 A.D. the Miracle Plays were the 
| only drama performed in England. But from the latter 
| date, which, by the way, was marked by the death of 
| Chaucer, the father of English poetry, a new 
| development was noticeable. Imagination was allowed 
| freer play. Personified abstract introductions, such 
| as Vice, Virtue, Folly, were introduced, and rapidly 
| took possession of the whole stage. The new departure 
| gave us the Morality Play. <title rend="PRE lsquo POST rsquo">
| "Everywoman" </title> is a modern revival of this
| pre-Shakespearian form, and <title rend="PRE lsquo POST rsquo">
| "The Passing of the Third Floor 
| Back," </title> an adaptation of the same type. As 
| both of these plays have appeared in Perth within the 
| past few years, it is hardly necessary to say more 
| about the Morality Play, except to note that, with 
| its appearance, the playwright was freed from the 
| tyranny of the Biblical text, and might use his 
| imagination and creative power as he willed so long 
| as he continued to deal with abstractions. But even 
| this restriction gradually gave way, even before the 
| flood-tide of Renaissance ideas reached England. The 
| temptation to make Vice a caricature of the village 
| drunkard, Virtue a picture of the charitable lady, 
| Folly of the smart young coxcomb, is very obvious, 
| and no doubt many a portly local dignitary came in 
| for a more or less complimentary 
| characterisation. </p>
| <p> Then came the Renaissance. Its first dramatic 
| expressions in England towards the middle of the 
| Sixteenth century took the form of a few plays, 
| written in Latin, and carefully modelled after Platus 
| and Seneca, two Latin writers who lived in the first 
| century A.D. </p>
| <p> These efforts are only important as symptoms of 
| the coming age. In 1574, Queen Elizabeth granted 
| permission for plays to be staged in London, and the 
| first regular theatres were opened in 1576. Very 
| shabby structures they were, compared with the 
| palaces of drama with which we are familiar, but on 
| the other hand their stages were graced, with the 
| most intense products of dramatic genius that the 
| world has seen, either before or since, excepting 
| only those of the great days of Greece. </p>
| <p> The building, as we have seen, was rough. The 
| stage settings were meagre, the scenery imaginary. 
| The stage jutted out into the middle of the "yard" 
| <mdash>-</mdash> the portion occupied by the stalls 
| in modern theatres <mdash>-</mdash> and at the back 
| stood a two storied structure that served as a 
| changing boom, an inner chamber, or a balcony, as 
| circumstances required. Charges of admission were "3, 
| 2 and 1" <mdash>-</mdash> pence, not shillings. The 
| penny patrons stood in the yard, while two penny 
| patrons and "gentlemen" were provided with seats, 
| which were raised on galleries that surrounded the 
| stage on three sides. The acting was, it is believed 
| very rapid, and probably one side of the stage was 
| used for one scene while the other half was being 
| prepared for the next. </p>
| <p> Whether the actors were good or bad we have no 
| means of knowing. Prior to the building of the 
| theatres players were performed in the yards of inns, 
| by companies of "strolling players." No doubt these 
| gentry were in the habit of stealing eggs, etc; at 
| any rate, they were eventually proscribed as "rogues 
| and vagabonds," by an Act that remains unrepealed to 
| the present day. Noblemen who desired to witness 
| plays therefore entailed these strolling players 
| amongst their retainers, and the companies known as 
| "Lord Leicester's Servants,"  "The Lord Chamberlain's 
| Servants," thus acquired a sort of charter, and 
| reputability, and attracted to their ranks both 
| actors and writers of ability. </p>
| <p> There are no women on the Shakespearian stage. 
| Women's parts were taken by boys, and Shakespeare's 
| women were therefore, as a rule, limited to a range 
| of emotions capable of being understood by boys. The 
| costumes were gorgeous, and in some sense compensated 
| for the lack of elaborate scenery. Music and singing 
| also served to relieve the monotony of the drama. 
| </p>
| <p> Such, in brief, were the conditions under which 
| the great dramatic art of the period was presented to 
| the public. The differences between the rough stage 
| of the sixteenth century and the elaborate settings 
| of the present day is vast indeed, by not so marked 
| as the contrast with the simple grandeur of the Greek 
| theatres. </p>
| <p> Here we must, for the time, break off. We have, as 
| it were, set the stage for the entry of Shakespeare, 
| and in our next articles we will proceed to examine 
| his life and work, as well as that of some of his 
| great contemporaries. </p>