ORATOR AND POET, ACTOR AND DRAMATIST. 231 



teries and Miracle plays was to act stories from Scripture or the lives 

 of Saints, or embodying central doctrines such as the incarnation, for 

 the benefit of a populace unable to read for themselves.&quot; 

 But there are confused evidences and conflicting opinions 

 respecting dramatic representations in early Christian days : 

 secular and sacred origins appearing to be mingled. We 

 read that &quot; sometimes, when a sufficient number of clerical 

 actors were not to be procured, the churchwardens . . . 

 caused the plays to be acted by the secular players.&quot; And 

 in the same work we also read that &quot; complaint [to Kichard 

 II] is made against the secular actors, because they took 

 upon themselves to act plays composed from the scripture 

 history, to the great prejudice of the clergy.&quot; But in an 

 other passage the writer, Strutt, says that these acted mys 

 teries &quot; differed greatly from the secular plays and inter 

 ludes which were acted by strolling companies, composed 

 of minstrels, jugglers, tumblers, dancers, bourdours or 

 jesters . . . these pastimes are of higher antiquity than the 

 ecclesiastical plays.&quot; Not improbably such companies may 

 have survived from pagan times, in which their representa 

 tions formed parts of the pagan worship : losing their origi 

 nal meanings, as did the songs of the minstrels. This view 

 seems congruous with the opinion that the secular drama 

 did not directly descend from the mystery-plays, but that, 

 influenced by the familiarity of its writers both with mys 

 tery-plays and with the popular exhibitions, it took its defi 

 nite form mainly by suggestion of the classic drama : a sup 

 position favoured by the fact that in various Elizabethan 

 plays a chorus is introduced. Be this as it may, however, 

 the &quot;general implication remains the same. There arose in 

 Christendom, as in Greece, a sacred drama performed by 

 priests and representing incidents in the lives of Christ and 

 of the saints ; and if our secular drama did not directly de 

 scend from this Christian religious drama, then it indirectly 

 descended from the original pagan religious drama. 



Along with the rise of the secular drama have arisen 

 115 



