Liturgical Drama - The Mysteries

The Mysteries

The fifteenth century is the century of the "mysteries". The word is doubtless derived from the Latin ministerium and means "act." In the Middle Ages sacred dramas were also called by other names, in Italy funzione, in Spain misterios or autos (acts). Even today we say "drama", a word of analogous signification. But the dramatic and the dogmatic mysteries were soon confused, and it was thought that the former derived their name from the latter because the plays frequently took for subject the mysteries of Christian belief. However, the mysteries were often devoted to a saint, and, in exceptional cases, even represented non-religious matters. Thus we have the "Mystery of the Siege of Orleans," and even the "Mystery of the Destruction of Troy," the only two profane mysteries preserved. The mysteries may be grouped under three cycles, that of the Old Testament, of the New Testament, and of the saints. In all these, the authors mingled truth and legend without distinction. The most celebrated of these were the passion plays, by which must be understood not only the plays devoted to the Passion properly so called, but also those that set forth the complete history of the Saviour. From 1400 to 1550 the authors were numerous, about a hundred of them are known, many of them priests.

At first somewhat short, the dramas eventually became very long. Thus Arnoul Greban, canon of the church of Le Mans, wrote about 1450 a "Passion" consisting of about 35,000 verses. This play was still further developed more than thirty years later by a physician of Angers, Jean Michel, whose work was the most famous and the best of its kind. The same Greban and his brother Simon, a monk of St. Riquier, composed together an enormous mystery of the "Acts of the Apostles", consisting of nearly 62,000 verses, which was played in its entirety at Bourges, the performance lasting forty days. The number of verses of mysteries still extant exceeds 1,000,000, and an equally large number may have been lost. These pieces were not played by professional actors, but by dramatic associations formed in all large towns for the purpose of representing them. Some were permanent, such as the "Confrerie de la Passion," which in 1402 secured the monopoly of the representations in Paris. For the people of the middle classes, artisans, and priests (all ranks in this matter being equal), it was an enviable honour to take part in this religious performance. To play it they condemned themselves to a labour to which few of our contemporaries would care to submit. In some "passions" the actor who represented Christ had to recite nearly 4000 lines. Moreover, the scene of the crucifixion had to last as long as it did in reality. It is related that in 1437 the curé Nicolle, who was playing the part of Christ at Metz, was on the point of dying on the cross, and had to be revived in haste. During the same representation another priest, Jehan de Missey, who was playing the part of Judas, remained hanging for so long that his heart failed and he had to be cut down and borne away.

As regards the aesthetic side of this drama, modern standards should not be applied. This theatre does not even offer unity of action, for the scenes are not derived from one another: they succeed one another without any other unity than the interest that attaches to the chief personage and the general idea of eternal salvation, whether of a single man or of humanity, which constitutes the common foundation of the picture. Moreover, side by side with pathetic and exalted scenes are found others that savour of buffoonery. The plays used as many as one, two, and even five hundred characters, not counting the chorus, and they were so long that they could not be played on one occasion. This is true at least of the mysteries dating from the middle of the fifteenth century; on the other hand, the oldest of them and the miracles were rather short. Two faults have at every period characterized this dramatic style—weakness and wordiness. The poets said things as they occurred to them, without display of selection, gradation, or taste. They had facility, but they abused it and never amended. Furthermore, in the drawing of character there was no art whatever. The dramas of the Middle Ages are simply grand and animated spectacles. Doubtless their authors sometimes, though rarely, succeeded in fittingly depicting the patience and meekness of the august Victim of the Passion. In this they were assisted by recollections of the Gospel. More often they succeeded in attractively interpreting the complex emotions experienced by the soul of the Blessed Virgin, but as a definite object the analysis of the soul did not occupy them at all.

A few words may be said as to the manner of representation and technic. Places were indicated by vast scenery, rather than really represented. Two or three trees, for example, represented a forest, and although the action often changed from place to place the scenery did not change, for it showed simultaneously all the various localities where the characters successively appeared in the course of the drama, and which were thus in close proximity, even though in reality they were often far removed from each other. For the rest nothing was neglected to attract the eye. If the scenery was immovable, it was very rich and secrets of theoretical mechanism often produced surprising and fairy-like effects. The actors were richly dressed, each defrayed the cost of his own costume and looked more for beauty than for truth. The subject-matter admitted of the marvellous and was borrowed from religion. For the rest there was some difference between the miracles and the mysteries. The miracles emphasized the supernatural intervention of a saint or the Blessed Virgin the events might be infinitely varied, and this afforded the authors a wide field of which, however, they did not take full advantage, though they incidentally supply us a host of details regarding the manners of the times which are not found elsewhere.

The mysteries, at least in the Old and New Testament cycles, followed a previously traced out path from which they could with difficulty depart since the foundation was borrowed from Holy Scripture. The traditional doctrine and the august characters of the chief personages had to be respected. But, to offset this handicap, what exalted, dramatic, and affecting subjects were theirs! These poets recalled not only the events of this world, but depicted before their audience the terrors and the hopes of the next. They set forth at the same time heaven, earth, and hell, and this enormous subject gave occasion for scenes of powerful interest. The scenes of the Passion are surely the most wonderful the most moving, and the most beautiful that can be enacted on earth. The poet lacked art, but he was saved by his subject, as Sainte-Beuve himself has observed, and from time to time he became sublime despite himself. And what the spectator saw represented was not fiction, but holy realities he had venerated from childhood. What was put before his eyes was most calculated to affect him: the doctrines of his faith, the consolations it afforded in the sorrows of this life, and the immortal joys it promised in the next. Hence the great success of these religious performances. The greatest celebration a city could indulge in on a solemn occasion was to play the Passion. On this occasion the entire populace crowded into the enormous theatre, the city was deserted, and it was necessary to organize bands of armed citizens to protect the deserted houses against robbery. This custom endured until 1548, when the Parliament of Paris forbade the Confreres de la Passion to play thenceforth "the Sacred mysteries". The prohibition was due to the opposition of the Protestants against the mixing of comedy and fabulous traditions with Biblical teachings. These attacks aroused the scruples of some Catholics, and the judiciary considered it time to interfere. The mysteries perished; for the example of Paris, where they were forbidden to be played, was by degrees followed by the provinces Thus the religious drama of the Middle Ages disappeared in France at the height of its success.