Charles Davidson — English Mystery Plays. 205 



was made of which we lose sight because our knowledge of their 

 life is vague and general. 



The primary cause for the departure of the play from the church 

 must, as it seems to me, be sought for elsewhere. We have studied 

 the gradual expansion within the church of the mystery from the 

 rudimentary play of the ritual to the independent but condensed 

 oyclic play. Either development must stop here or the play naust 

 leave the church. The nave could not contain the necessary stage, 

 nor the edifice the audience. Great numbers brought confusion and 

 disorder. As a consequence the play moved out of the church into 

 the churchyard, as shown in the Norman play of Adam, or into the 

 open space about the monastery, as the direction " ad januas mon- 

 asterii " of the Orleans play^ indicates. 



Other motives, as is usual, emphasized a tendency. The longer 

 play led to the introduction of interludes and coniic scenes to relieve 

 the tedium. The development of devil-play put upon the fiends, 

 through the traditional license of devilish behavior, the onus of 

 enlivening the people when wearied by the continued play. Their 

 language might be plain, and to us blasphemous, but it was not 

 lascivious, and often contained a telling moral lesson. If we make 

 allowance for the frank realism of the day, we must accept these 

 plays as devout in nature, with the purpose to instruct the people 

 and promote religion. Therefore the priests could encourage them, 

 take part in them, or write them. They could be made the vehicle 

 for sermons upon morals of which the instances, especially in Eng- 

 lish plays, are many, and the papal benediction could be sought and 

 given, as was, probably, the case with the Chester plays. ^ 



Furthermore, as the commercial spirit grew, the concourse of peo- 

 ple at the church on sacred festal days offered facilities for barter, 

 and booths became fairs. These festal days were also the days of 

 the mystery play, and thus in England a connection between play 

 and fair was established ; not, as Warton maintains, that the play 

 was fashioned to draw to the fair, but fair and play depended upon 

 the church holy day. No one will doubt but that merchants and 

 monks were shrewd enough to turn both to their advantage, when 

 once the connection was established. 



1 P. 175. 



2 The text of prohibitions is given by D'Ancona, Origini del Teatro in Italia, vol, 1, 

 p, 51. Hoffmann, vol, 2, pp. 241-4; Mone, vol, 2, pp, 367-8; Wright, p. XII, taken from 

 Hoffman. The subject is discussed in Smith's Diet, of Christian Ant. under Theatre, 

 Actor, closing, however, before the rise of the mysterj^; Prynne's Histrio-Mastrix is 

 important for clues, but the author's bias must be borne in mind. 



