Old Stones which had been used as building material in the Saracen's Reduced from measured drawings made by Sketch Plan of Saracen's Head Inn and Stable-yard in the time of A-Sixty Stall Stable with vaulted wine and C-Ball Room above and shed for post-chaises G-Line of churchyard wall. H-Wheel Stair. I-Front Entrance. J-Dr. Johnson and Boswell room. No. V. THE SETTING OF THE MIRACLE PLAYS. BY PROFESSOR D. J. MEDLEY, M.A. (Read at a Meeting of the Society held on 23rd February, 1905.) THE Miracle Plays or Mysteries of the Middle Ages deserve to be studied for their own sake. They are generally approached from the point of view of the Elizabethan drama. But in themselves they afford an unique illustration of what may be called the quintessence of the mediaeval spirit. The English plays, at any rate, were written for a very popular audience, and we may take them as a faithful transcript of the life of the class which composed the bulk of the audience, or, what is equally instructive, as embodying the ideas of that class concerning the ways of those greater than themselves. And this was done exactly as children do it, with a curious mixture of symbolism and realism. The illusion of the modern stage was impossible, for broad daylight, probably a blazing sunshine, bathed the entire scene; the actors were not professionals, and the subjects dealt with imposed very definite limitations on the writers. Still the general effect was evidently very striking; and, as we read the texts, we lose an important part of the historical lesson which they teach. us unless we can picture the plays in their original surroundings. I propose to limit myself strictly in this paper to a short account of the stage and setting of these plays. It is necessary to begin by removing a misconception. popularised an idea, which was held until the middle of last century by French writers also, that the miracle plays were represented on a stage composed of several platforms ranged one above the other, representing either different scenes or different worlds. It has been proved by M. Paulin Paris and others, that these erections with several platforms were not for the actors, but were seats for the better class of spectators, by the letting of which considerable sums were made for the maintenance of the plays. It is true, however, that in many of the plays the platforms must have been composed of different levels. In the plays drawn from the Old Testament there is a frequent stage direction "God appears above." In the play of Noah he is represented as coming down and talking to Noah and then returning. Again, contemporary descriptions together with the gild expenses for the performances make frequent mention of hell-mouth, a mechanical contrivance which was much in evidence. It seems probable that when the stage was erected for a performance, this mechanical contrivance was placed on the ground on a level with the spectators, for not only did characters find their way thence and thither from off and on the stage, but much rough jesting was caused by the devils who issued from the mouth of hell and ran in and out among the spectators, from whom they would pretend to select an occasional victim. The stage itself might be but a step above the ground; it is more likely that, for the convenience of a large crowd, it would be raised several paces, and would therefore communicate with hell-mouth by a ladder. At the back of the scene there ran a gallery or another raised platform representing paradise. was here that, in the great set plays, God and the angels sat looking down on the deeds of men wrought out on the stage below and interposing from time to time, and even descending by some means of communication of very earthly contrivance. The platform itself represented the earth, but it was necessary to localise, in however crude a fashion, the diverse scenes of the earthly drama. In many plays the action passes rapidly from one scene to another, sometimes each scene having a different set of characters. Thus, in the most celebrated of the shepherds' plays there must be represented side by side the fields where the sheep are pastured, the cottage of Mak the sheep-stealer, and the manger at Bethlehem. The plays dealing with the Passion represent a constant change of scene. Now, there is no proof that the stage was fitted with wings or side scenes: when the scene shifted from Nazareth to Jerusalem, from Mak's cottage to Bethlehem, the actors who took part in the first scene only, must needs remain upon the platform. Did this not seriously interfere with the illusion? Not so much as we might at first sight suppose. For these various scenes-castles, cottages, hills, and such like-would be represented by pieces of painted wood or cloth, just sufficient to indicate the locality intended. Herod's palace might well take the form of a structure which to the modern mind would suggest nothing more exalted than a sentry box (the comparison is not my own). In one scene of the Coventry plays separate palaces have to be provided for Annas, for Caiaphas, for Herod, and for Pilate. Thus, in the course of his trial Christ might be led from one of these potentates to another without moving more than a few paces. During the trial before Herod, Pontius Pilate would remain seated within the structure that represented his hall of judgment, in theory neither hearing nor seeing anything of the events which took place within five yards of his eyes and ears. Where so many places were crowded on a single scene one might imagine considerable confusion in the minds of the spectators. Various devices were used to prevent this. Sometimes a prologue enumerated and described the various structures crowded together on the stage; sometimes each triumph of mechanical art was labelled with its own name; sometimes the actor himself proclaimed his own character. Of this single fixed stage we do not hear much in connection with the English plays. The great cycles played by the town gilds have absorbed the attention of our own historians and may have prevented the full development of smaller plays. But most of the plays woven into a cycle had begun as single, unconnected dramas, and up to the last such plays, especially those in honour of local saints, continued to be performed in various parts of the British Isles; for Dublin and Aberdeen, and apparently Edinburgh also, |