42 
MIRACLE, MYSTERY, AND MORALITY 
PLAYS. 
By Mr. ROBERT S. CRUMP, M.A. 
March \'2th, 1907. 
The subject of Miracle Plays, Mysteries and Moralities 
was one which had interested the lecturer for some years past 
in a vague way, owing to references* to them which one came 
across pretty frequently in the study of Shakespeare. 
Shakespeare was, he thought, far fuller than we were some- 
times inclined to suspect of topical allusions, allusions to 
songs, phrases, fashions, incidents of the day, etc., with 
which his audience were perfectly familiar, but which were 
lost, or all but lost, to us. In support of this Mr. Crump 
gave several interesting examples from “ Hamlet,” “ Twelfth 
Night ” and “ Henry V.” 
The lecturer’s interest in this subject was stimulated as a 
result of witnessing the representation of 11 Everyman,” a 
performance partaking more of the nature of a solemn religious 
service than of a play. A proposal recently made to revive 
the Old Chester Cycle, prompted him to a more detailed study 
of the subject. 
Anyone wishing to study philosophy, theology, science, 
art or statecraft, would inevitably have to go back to the 
Greeks to become acquainted with their origins, and in some 
cases with their masterpieces. This is especially true of the 
drama. The Greek tragedians and the Greek writers on the 
drama form the basis of all scientific study of the drama. 
Unlike philosophy and the other subjects 1 have named, 
there is no direct succession traceable between the dramatic 
outburst of Elizabeth’s reign and the golden age of Greece. 
The taste for gladiatorial exhibitions, for sheer obscenity and 
bloodshed, which characterised the later Roman empire, 
killed the drama, and a long period of utter blankness elapsed 
before a new drama, owing little or nothing to the old in its 
inception, could rise again. 
