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Exploring Medieval Theater: Miracle, Mystery, and Morality Plays

This article delves into the three main types of medieval theater: Miracle plays, Mystery plays, and Morality plays. Miracle plays presented accounts of saints' lives, often performed during public festivals, with stories centered around figures like the Virgin Mary and St. Nicholas. Mystery plays, orchestrated by guilds, conveyed biblical stories to illiterate audiences using elaborate wagon parades. Morality plays taught moral lessons through character battles between vices and virtues. The enduring legacy of these theatrical forms continues to resonate today.

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Exploring Medieval Theater: Miracle, Mystery, and Morality Plays

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  1. Tuesday, Oct. 2 - Theater

  2. 3 types • Miracle plays • Mystery plays • Morality plays

  3. Miracle plays • “A miracle play presents a real or fictitious account of the life, miracles, or martyrdom of a saint. By 1200’s, they had been divorced from church services and were performed at public festivals. Almost all surviving miracle plays concern either the Virgin Mary or St. Nicholas, the 4th-century bishop of Myra in Asia Minor.” • (Encyclopedia Brittanica online)

  4. more • “Both Mary and Nicholas had active cults during the Middle Ages, and belief in the healing powers of saintly relics was widespread.” Characters included “the devil, a woman falsely accused of murdering her own child, and a pregnant abbess.” • “ Typical of these is a play called St. John the Hairy. At the outset the title character seduces and murders a princess. Upon capture, he is proclaimed a saint by an infant. He confesses his crime, whereupon God and Mary appear and aid John in reviving the princess, which done, the murderer saint is made a bishop.”

  5. Why people knew Bible stories: medieval theater • Nothing like we have • Connected to the church

  6. Mystery Plays • Put on by guilds (= “mysteries”) • On top of a wagon (which sometimes would be paraded into town) • Told Biblical stories to illiterate people • Very elaborate, involving hundreds of people • Still ongoing in places like York and Chester

  7. Wagons • Sometimes quite simple

  8. Wagon is brought in a parade

  9. Evolved until it is more elaborate 2012 York Mystery Cycle • York Mystery Cycle • What does this remind you of?

  10. York mystery plays • Each guild puts on one part, such as Guild of Goldsmiths – Coming of the 3 Kings • Guild of Shipwrights – Building of the Ark • Guild of Butchers – Death of Christ

  11. The “stars” • God • Jesus • Martyred saints • Eve being tempted by Satan • Fall of Adam • Noah and the Ark

  12. Elaborate Ark

  13. Noah and family

  14. Shepherds

  15. The Life of Christ

  16. Crucifixion of Christ

  17. Morality Plays

  18. First in Latin, then English • Characters: • Vices (Ignorance, Greed, Riot) • Virtues (Humility, Good Deeds) • The Devil

  19. Battle between vices and virtues

  20. Everyman may go to the devil A Simple Everyman Play

  21. And some non-religious plays, too

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