Origin of English Drama

The Beginning
Drama originated in classical Greece. Athens, the cultural centre of Greece produced three genres of drama: Tragedy, Comedy, and Satyr. The famous dramatists of this time were Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, and the comic writers Aristophanes and, from the late 4th century, Menander. From Greece, the drama entered the Roman empire.

Three Dramatic Unities 

The Greek and Roman critics recommended three dramatic unities which must be observed by a good dramatist. They are Unity of Time, Unity of Place, and Unity of Action. Unity of Time implies that the action in a play should not exceed the limit of twenty-four hours; Unity of Place means that the scene should not change too often from place to place, and the Unity of Action means that the Tragedy and Comedy should not be intermixed.

Origin of English Drama
The origin of the drama is deep-rooted in the religious predispositions of mankind. The same is the case not only with English drama but with dramas of other nations as well. The ancient Greek and Roman dramas were mostly concerned with the religious ceremonials of people. It was the religious elements that resulted in the development of drama. As Bibles were written in Latin, common people were not able to read them. That’s why the clergy tried to find out some new methods of teaching and expounding the teachings of the Bible to the common people. For this purpose, they developed a new method, wherein the stories of the Gospel were explained through living pictures. The performers acted out the story in a dumb show. Beginning in France, dramas appeared in England soon after the Norman Conquest in 1066 in the form of troupes. The plays that emerged during that time were deeply rooted in the doctrines of Christianity and the Church. The aim of the church was to instil religious sentiments as the Bible was in Latin and as no English translations were available, the common folk were not literate to comprehend such classic texts.


Liturgical Plays

The oldest existing church drama was the “Quem Quarritis” trope (who are you seeking). It tells the story of when the three Marrys visited the empty tomb of Christ and met an angel. Their conversation with the angel consists of four sentences in Latin then adapted and performed by the clergy in a very simple performance. This drama is called liturgical drama as the stories are taken from the scripture. Such plays were acted out inside the church, written and directed by the clergymen. Latin was the medium followed. The liturgical drama gradually increased in both length and sophistication and flourished particularly during the 12th and 13th centuries. The most popular themes were derived from colourful biblical tales (Daniel in the lion’s den, the foolish virgins, the story of the Passion and death of Jesus, etc.) as well as from the stories of the saints (as the Virgin Mary and St. Nicholas).

Miracle and Mystery Plays

The liturgical plays overtime evolved into Miracle and Mystery plays.

Miracle Plays - A miracle play is basically a religious play. They deal with the life of saints and the miracles performed by them. The life and martyrdom of saints formed the central theme of the Miracle play.

Mystery Plays - The mystery plays basically deal with the themes taken from the Old Testament. They present in chronological order major events from the creation and the fall of man through nativity, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ to the last judgement.

Oftentimes they were used interchangeably. The name ‘mystery’ is derived from Latin ‘ministerium’, meaning an office of the church. Interestingly miracles point to the origin, the mysteries indicate the later stage of development.

The earliest recorded Miracle play in England was “Ludus Santa de Katherina”, which was performed in Dunstable around 1110. The plays were given in Latin or French. The Miracle play attracted so many people and increased its popularity. In 1210, suspicious of the growing popularity of miracle plays, Pope Innocent III issued an order forbidding clergy from acting on a public stage. Thereby Miracle plays were out of the ecclesiastical hands and adopted eagerly by the trade guilds under the general control of the Council of the Town after which several changes followed. Vernacular texts replaced Latin, and non-Biblical passages were added along with comic scenes, acting and characterisation became more elaborate. By the beginning of the fourteenth century, all these plays were united in a single cycle of plays beginning with the Creation and ending with the Final Judgement. Every important town in England had its own cycle of plays for its own guilds to perform. The entire cycle could take up to twenty hours to perform and could be spread over a number of days. The most well-known cycles are :

York (48 plays),

Chester (24),

Wakefield (32)

N-Town (42)

These were called Corpus Christi cycles. These cycles were often performed during the Feast of Corpus Christi and their overall design drew attention to Christ's life and his redemption for all of mankind. The plays were staged on travelling platforms-decorated carts- that moved about the city to various "stations" to allow different crowds of people to watch. The dry didactic element of these plays did not find favour with the audience for long and very soon they started demanding a more hilarious kind of enjoyment.

Morality Plays
Together with the mystery play and the miracle play, the morality play is one of the three main types of vernacular drama produced during the Middle Ages. By the fifteenth century, a new form of drama emerged and came to replace miracle plays and mystery plays, called the ‘Morality Plays’. It is a dramatisation of personified ethics generally vice against virtue. Everyman is presented as the Hero, Satan personified as Vice, God or Christ as Virtue, and Death as the Reward of Sin. The purpose of this drama was didactic, to give a moral lesson to the audience. The morality plays generally ended with virtue winning against vice. This play was marked by the introduction of a character called “vice”, who was a mischievous, comic and humorous character. Vice was the predecessor of the modern clown or jester. One of the earliest morality plays was The Castle of Perseverance. The most famous morality play is Everyman.


The Start of Interludes
Soon morality plays paved the way for ‘ Interludes’. Interludes came into vogue in England at the beginning of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. In the due course of time, the Interludes dissociated themselves and became an independent species of drama that was true to life and more regular in form. The Interludes were dramatised at feasts and entertainments which supplied amusement for the court and the nobility. Interlude is the short version of a morality play. Generally, interludes were given between intervals of a play. It was short-stage entertainment with a sense of humour and was considered the forerunner of comedies. John Heywood was the most famous writer of Interludes and his famous interlude is The Four P's.

Final Transformation of English Drama
The final stage of the evolution of English drama was the artistic period. In this period, the purpose of the play was not to point out a moral but to represent human life as it is. During this period, English drama was influenced by classical drama.



English Renaissance Theatre

Also known as early modern English theatre, or as Elizabethan theatre, refers to the theatre of England between 1562 and 1642. The period known as the English Renaissance saw a flowering of drama and all the arts. The first comedy in English is “Ralph Roister Doister” written by Nicholas Udall in 1556. This first comedy had become the model and predecessor of English comedies. -The first tragedy “Gorboduc” was written by Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton around 1562. It was written in blank verse and divided into acts and scenes. William Shakespeare stands out in this period as the most successful poet and playwright. He was himself an actor and deeply involved in the running of the theatre company that performed his plays. Most playwrights at this time tended to specialise in, either histories, or comedies, or tragedies, but Shakespeare produced all three types. He wrote a total of 38 plays. In addition, he wrote his so-called "problem plays" like Measure for Measure, and Troilus and Cressida. Though most of his plays met with success, it was in his later years that Shakespeare wrote what are considered his greatest plays: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra.



Other important playwrights of this period and their famous work include

Christopher Marlowe - Dr. Faustus (1592)

John Fletcher - Valentinian (1647)

Francis Beaumont - The Knight of the Burning Pestle (1607)

Ben Jonson - Volpone (1605)

John Webster - The Duchess of Malfi (1612).

Thomas Kyd - The Spanish Tragedy (1582-92)


The Tragedy of Mariam, the Fair Queen of Jewry, a closet drama written by Elizabeth Tanfield Cary, first published in 1613, was the first original play in English known to have been written by a woman.


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Therefore, English drama gradually developed from the liturgical drama to Miracle and Mystery plays, continuously to Morality and Interlude followed by the influence of classical models and finally evolved to the regular drama forms which are known till today.


(note: these are info. gathered taken from the internet)