28.03.2024

Medieval theater

In the Middle Ages, a European drama also took shape. Here, indeed, the church played a big role, since the Catholic ritual involves playing scenes from the New and Old Testaments during the service. At first it was just a pantomime for Christmas (Adoration of the Magi and Shepherds to Jesus Christ). Then came the literary drama.

Gradually, the Latin language was replaced by the national one . Plays were staged with free flow of plot and portable action from the church to the street stage. From the XII — XII centuries. Mysteries are spreading (ministerium — service in Latin, that is, church service).

This typically Catholic theater took root in Europe for a long time, in Spain, Italy and Latin America, it has survived to this day. On a street scene made of simple rough-hewn planks, the fall of Eve and Adam was depicted. A particularly talented actor played the role of the devil — the tempter. Adam was traditionally portrayed as an ingenuous and dull guy, and Eve was portrayed as a naive and gullible simpleton.

This was followed by a mystery about the adoration of the Magi to the newborn Jesus Christ.

According to the Catholic canon, the service is conducted in Latin, it is considered sacred . The common people did not know Latin, so theatrical performances were used.

In the XII century. in France, the theatrical genre of miracle (miracle — «miracle» in French) arose. Here, again, episodes from the Sacred History were played out, but with additions prompted by folk fantasy. In Jean Baudel’s Miracle «The Game of St. Nicolae ”viewers saw the following.

The knight was captured by the Saracens (Muslims). Under his cloak, he keeps a statue of St. Nicholas. He explains to the local king that St. Nikolai has the ability to guard treasures from thieves. Then the king removes the guard from his treasury, placing there an image of a Christian saint.

Naturally, on the same night, everything that is there is completely taken away by thieves. Now the knight faces death. He begins to pray intensely to the saint, after which he descends from heaven, finds the thieves red-handed and brings them to the palace. After everything that happened, the local ruler accepts Christianity and lets the knight go home in peace. This kind of performances produced a more convincing effect on the audience than a service in an incomprehensible language.

However, the theater of the Middle Ages was not limited to religious subjects only. Farce has become very widespread in cities — a folk comedy often with a very frank content. All human vices known to this day were sung there, plus — the specifics of medieval life, sometimes unknown to us. All the jokes uttered by the actors hit the mark. The spectators sitting in the hall, or on the street , mostly men, rolled with laughter. Especially fell to the Catholic monks, and by that time lost their sanctity (it was already in the XIII century) and were engaged in the most everyday affairs. Here it also fell to royal judges, charlatans — doctors, and, of course, hated feudal lords who interfered with the free life of peoples.

One of the farces, called «Chan»: the wife and mother-in-law mock her husband. They force him to babysit children, wash clothes, cook food (It’s the opposite!). They wrote on paper a whole list of his duties, what and when he should do, everything in order. It so happens that a wife, washing clothes herself, fell into a large vat of dirty water. She cannot get out of there and calls her husband. The fact is that in the list of duties, nothing is said about getting the wife out of the vat. Everything ends well, but the wife stops mocking her husband.

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