Major Writers during the age of revival

John Lydgate

John Lydgate was a prolific poet and monk known for his extensive body of work, which included a variety of poetic forms such as ballads, lyrics, and allegorical tales. His contributions were significant in helping to establish English as a literary language, moving away from Latin and French dominance. Lydgate’s poems often catered to a popular audience, and his works like “The Fall of Princes” and “The Siege of Thebes” were widely read. His emphasis on narrative and vivid descriptions contributed to the development of a distinct English literary tradition.

Thomas Malory

Sir Thomas Malory’s most enduring contribution to English literature was “Le Morte d’Arthur,” a compilation of Arthurian legends. This work played a vital role in popularizing the Arthurian mythos and shaping the chivalric and heroic ideals that would later influence the works of writers like Spenser and Sidney. “Le Morte d’Arthur” served as a bridge between medieval romances and the emerging Renaissance literature, showcasing themes of heroism, honor, and moral dilemmas.

Thomas More

Sir Thomas More’s “Utopia” was a groundbreaking work that contributed to the development of philosophical fiction and political allegory. This satirical narrative described an ideal society on an imaginary island, exploring issues of social and political justice, communal living, and the role of government. “Utopia” introduced a new dimension to English literature by using fiction as a means to explore deeper philosophical and societal concepts, setting a precedent for later authors to engage in social commentary through their works.

Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

Wyatt and Surrey played a significant role in introducing the Italian sonnet form to English poetry. Their adaptations of the Petrarchan sonnet with three quatrains and a concluding couplet influenced the later development of English sonnet sequences. These sonnets explored themes of unrequited love, courtly longing, and personal emotions, laying the foundation for the emotional depth and introspection that would become a hallmark of Elizabethan poetry.

John Skelton

Skelton’s unique contribution lies in his use of satire, humor, and colloquial language in his poetry. He employed a diverse range of forms, including ballads, satires, and lyric poems, often addressing contemporary issues and critiquing the social and political landscape. His work demonstrated the potential of poetry as a means of commentary and protest, foreshadowing the development of satirical and socially engaged literature in the centuries to come.

These writers, along with others of their time, played crucial roles in shaping the literary landscape during the transition from the medieval period to the Renaissance. Their contributions helped establish English as a language of literary significance, diversified the forms and themes explored in literature, and laid the groundwork for the more well-known figures of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras.

The Development of Drama

First Stage

Scriptural scenes

(i) in connection with the church service
(ii) mysteries and miracles
(Performed inside the church)

Second Stage

Mysteries and Miracles

(i) Shifting of the stage to the market-place

(ii) Processional plays

Third Stage

(i) Moral Plays

(Stationary stage)

(ii) Interludes, Moral Interludes

Fourth Stage

(i) Early tragedies and farces

(ii) Romantic tragedies and comedies and chronicle plays

The Mystery and the Miracle plays

In the Middle Ages, drama in England began and developed from the activities of the church. The church used plays to teach religious stories to common people.

These early plays which dramatized stories from the Bible were based on religious stories from the Bible and the lives of saints. There were two main types of these plays: Mysteries, which focused on Biblical events, and Miracles, which told stories about saints. 

The Mystery and the Miracle plays were performed during medieval times. These plays were different from the Moral plays, which were more focused on teaching ethical lessons.

Mystery plays dramatized stories from the Bible while Miracle plays depicted the lives and martyrdom of saints. They were both written in verse.

Originally,  these plays were performed in Latin inside churches, produced under the guidance of the church with churchmen acting as the performers. Later, they moved to the marketplaces, stages on wheels moving to different spots in the town. This shift of venue allowed the content and style to become more secular, no longer bound by religious limitations. With public performances, local guilds took over organizing and managing the productions, rather than the church.

The church opposed this rise of secular drama. However, these efforts couldn’t stop the popularity of the plays, which were organized by different guilds in towns like Chester, York, Coventry, and Wakefield. During Corpus Christi festivals, entire Biblical “Cycles” were performed across multiple pageant wagons. 

The production quality was fairly crude, with minimal props, scenery or lighting effects. Imagination had to compensate for realism. Actors were amateurs – guild members paid for their time. 

Supernatural elements were portrayed through symbols, influencing how Elizabethan drama handled ghosts and spirits. Writers aimed for faithful adaptations with creative embellishments and humor. Comic scenes and figures, like Noah and shepherds, were added for variety, impacting the low humor in later drama. 

At first, these religious plays were in Latin, but after the Norman conquest, plays in the English language were produced following the French style. The earliest plays like “Adam” and “The Resurrection” were in French.  English vernacular plays like Jacob and Esau emerged later. 

The audience, although mostly poor and not highly educated, enjoyed the plays and responded to their messages. While structurally weak, these plays influenced Elizabethan drama through their creative handling of religious narratives, humor and profound sensibility. Despite limitations, the Mystery and Miracle plays were a vital transitional phase in the evolution of English drama.

Morality Plays

Alongside the religious Mystery and Miracle plays, a new form of drama emerged in medieval England – the “moral plays” or “morality.” This transition from Mysteries and Miracles to Moralities marks the next phase in the development of English drama.

The exact time when English drama shifted from Mysteries and Miracles to Moralities isn’t precisely known. However, around the middle of the 15th century, the first Morality plays appeared. It likely happened after Mysteries and Miracles had gained popularity for about a century and a half. 

These plays were allegorical depictions of the moral dilemmas in human life and the path to salvation. They depicted allegorical stories about human life, struggles, temptations, and ultimate salvation. These plays aimed to teach moral lessons and guidance.

Moral plays shared similarities with Mysteries and Miracles. They aimed to instruct and guide people morally, just as the earlier plays did. The transition from Mysteries and Miracles to Moralities was smooth because the Moralities retained some elements from the earlier plays.

While they borrowed from earlier plays, they had their distinct characteristics. One significant difference was the introduction of allegorical characters instead of relying on biblical figures. Instead of focusing on biblical characters, Moralities used abstract concepts and allegorical figures.

In Moralities, the theater was no longer filled with saints and biblical figures. Instead, it showcased personified abstractions and allegorical characters. This marked a departure from real or supposedly real characters to more symbolic ones. Morality plays were longer, structured with acts and scenes as in regular plays. They were performed by professional actors rather than amateurs. The essence of real drama was more discernible in them than in mystery plays.  

Some examples are Everyman, “The Castell of Perseverance,” “Mankind,” and “Mind, Will and Understanding.” These plays portrayed the battle between good and evil for control of a person’s soul. “The Castell of Perseverance” showed the victory of virtue over sins, and “Mankind” depicted a person’s struggle against temptation.

Morality plays were significant in the evolution of English drama. They introduced longer, more complex plots and characters. These plays were performed in respectable places and had individual authors. “Everyman” and other morality plays influenced later drama, and some were even written in the Scottish dialect.

Major Dramatic Works

Everyman 

Everyman is one of the most remarkable morality plays. The play’s origins are debated, with some suggesting a Dutch play called “Elckerlijk” as its source, while others propose a parable from the legend of Barlaam and Josaphat. “Everyman” is allegorical, meaning its characters represent abstract concepts. The story focuses on the inevitability of death and carries a didactic message.

The play opens with God sending Death to summon a character named Everyman to account for his life. Death approaches Everyman and tells him he must go on a long journey from which he will never return. Everyman is distressed since he is unready for death. 

Everyman first asks Fellowship to go on the journey with him, but Fellowship refuses. Everyman then turns to family by asking Kindred and Cousin for help, but they also refuse to go. Everyman asks Goods for assistance, but Goods will not aid him either. All abandon Everyman because they cannot help on the journey to the afterlife.

Left alone, Everyman becomes sorrowful and asks Good Deeds for company. Good Deeds agrees to go with him. She advises Everyman to take Knowledge along too. Knowledge helps Everyman examine his life and guides him to Confession. Everyman confesses his sins and does penance, gaining strength for his journey.

As Everyman prepares to die, Beauty, Strength, Discretion and Five Wits promise to accompany him. But when the time comes, they all desert Everyman. Only Good Deeds stays with Everyman until the very end, when he dies and his soul is taken to heaven. The play concludes by reminding the audience to focus on good deeds in life, not earthly things.
It uses allegory to show the moment of death and highlights devotional ideals. The play suggests that only good deeds stay with a person until death, while other things like wealth and knowledge leave.

The Contributions of Everyman to the English Drama

The medieval morality play Everyman is an important contribution to the development of English drama. As a quintessential morality play, Everyman played a crucial role in shaping the trajectory of this dramatic genre. Here are some reasons:

1. It represents a transition from religious to secular drama – Everyman incorporates allegorical figures representing abstract ideals, moving away from purely Biblical characters. This paved the way for later moralities and interludes focused on worldly themes.

2. It introduced introspective characterization – Through the characters like Fellowship and Goods act the dramatist explores complex inner psychology. This was a departure from stock types in earlier plays to realistic characterizations. This approach showed the way for the development of realistic portrayal of characters in later plays of in English drama.

3. It has elegant literary value – The play demonstrates skilled use of verse, rhythm, metaphor and allegory in English to creatively convey its message, giving literary merit.

4. t expanded the use of English in drama – Earlier religious dramas were in Latin, whereas Everyman was in Middle English vernacular, helping develop English as a literary language.

5. Cultural Insights: The play provides valuable insights into the moral and cultural values of its time.  The play wrestles with how one should prepare for death. Its focus on morality and afterlife was resonant in the medieval period. This historical context enriches our understanding of the period and informs the evolution of English drama.

6. Bridge between Medieval and Renaissance Drama: “Everyman” occupies a transitional space between medieval mystery plays and the emerging Renaissance drama. Its fusion of allegory and dramatic storytelling helped pave the way for the more complex and human-centered dramas of the Renaissance period.

The Castell of Perseverance

The Castell of Perseverance is an early 15th century English morality play by an unknown playwright.

The play takes place on an outdoor stage that has a castle at the center. Different characters representing vices and virtues each have their own scaffold surrounding the castle. Humanum Genus, representing all of humanity, starts off sitting outside the castle.

A Good Angel helps lead Humanum Genus into the castle, where he takes shelter and is protected by virtues like Perseverance. But then an evil Bad Angel arrives with characters representing the seven deadly sins. They lay siege to the castle, trying to tempt Humanum Genus into vice.

What follows is a back and forth struggle between the forces of good and evil fighting for Humanum Genus’s soul. Some vices like Folly and Lust try to lure Humanum Genus out of the castle, while virtues like Good Deeds and Penance try to save him.

In the end, the vice of Covetousness causes Humanum Genus to fall. When Death comes, Humanum Genus leaves all worldly goods behind and his soul faces judgment before God. Despite objections from some virtues, Humanum Genus’s soul is ultimately saved and admitted to Heaven because of the protection provided by Perseverance.

Mankind

The play Mankind is an allegorical morality play from the 15th century. It is an allegorical tale about how people can find moral salvation. 

The story revolves around a character named Mankind, who represents all of humanity. Mankind is guided by a character named Mercy, who wants to help him make good choices. There’s also a character called Good Deeds, who encourages Mankind to do the right thing.

However, Mankind faces temptations from characters like Mischief and other companions who represent worldly desires and bad behavior. These characters are like rough troublemakers who try to lead Mankind into doing wrong things.

It depicts the moral struggle between vice and virtue for possession of Mankind’s soul. Ultimately Mercy triumphs and rescues Mankind from temptation. This victory of goodness over badness is an important theme in the play. Like other moralities, it promotes way of getting salvation through Christian virtue while warning against worldly vices and temptation.

What’s interesting about “Mankind” is that it includes some humorous parts. The characters representing worldly temptations engage in silly talk and behave in ridiculous ways, adding a touch of humor to the play. This mix of serious moral lessons and comedic elements is a characteristic of this type of play.

The Three Estates

“The Three Estates” is a play from around 1540 written by Sir David Lindsay in the Scottish dialect.

The ambitious play is in two parts and dramatizes the struggle between good and evil in the human soul. It also satirizes corruption in the church and state at the time.

The play has two parts, although they don’t fit together perfectly. In the first part, it explores the battle between good and evil, which is a common theme in these kinds of plays. The main character, King Humanity, is tempted by bad influences and struggles with making the right choices. The second part of the play makes fun of the wrongdoing of wealthy and powerful individuals in society.

There are two important characters. King Humanity represents people in general, and he faces temptations and challenges from bad influences. Divine Correction symbolizes a higher power that corrects and guides Humanity.

While The Three Estates delivers a moral lesson on shunning vice, it does so with entertaining satire and humor rather than dull sermonizing. It presents human weaknesses and social issues with realistic detail. This creative mixing of moralism and social commentary contributed innovative dramatic techniques.

Interlude

Moral Interludes emerged as a new aspect of the development of drama during medieval times. An interlude is a type of play that is shorter and less elaborate than traditional plays. 

The term “interlude” suggests that it takes place “between” other activities, and it involves interactions among several characters. These interludes were often performed as part of larger events or celebrations. 

Unlike longer plays, Moral Interludes required fewer stage accessories and were typically performed by a small cast of four to five actors. They were concerned mainly with the temptation of youth, though still retaining a didactic purpose emphasizing learning and studiousness. Important examples of moral interludes include Hickescorner, Youth, Wyt and Science, The Play of the Wether, and others. 

Despite their brevity, they retained a didactic nature, emphasizing learning and studiousness. However, they also exhibited more humanistic and realistic characteristics compared to the symbolic and allegorical elements seen in full morality plays.

They can be seen as a transitional form paving the way for the great achievements of Elizabethan theater in blending entertainment and didacticism. 

Mystery-Miracle Plays and Moral Plays