Organisatorisches

Vorlesungen, die entfallen wegenauswärtiger Termine müssen:

5.5. – 7.7. – 14.7.

Begleitende Übung von Edith Hallberg, M.A.:

English Drama from the Middle Ages to the Seventeenth Century

Ü; 2 SWS; Schein; ben. Schein; ECTS: 4; Anf; StudiumGenerale; angeboten für Alps Adriatic Joint Degree in English

and American Studies; Do, 16:00 - 17:30, U9/111

The History of Drama from theMiddle Ages until

the Restoration Period

Medieval Drama

Elizabethan DramaElizabethan Drama

(and Shakespeare)

Jacobean Drama

Drama During the Civil War and

the Puritan Commonwealth

Restoration Comedy

Medieval Drama

• 1) Chronology

• 2) Alterity of Drama• 2) Alterity of Drama

• 3) Sources and Definitions ofDrama as a genre

• 4) Beginnings and Forms ofMedieval Drama

Chronology1343-1362 Tournaments featuring disguise and

allegory held in England during the reign of EdwardIII

1348 First documented Corpus Christi procession inValencia

c. 1350 Frankfurt Dirigierrolle prepared by BaldemarvonPeterweil (d. 1382) Neidhartspiel, earliest knownPeterweil (d. 1382) Neidhartspiel, earliest knownFastnachtspiel Vom Streit zwischen Herbst und Mai

1350-1375 Cornish Ordinalia composed

1363 Death of Ralph Higden, supposed author of theChester cycle

1369 Minstrel troupes attain guild status in England

Chronology, cont.1374 First recorded use in France of the term mystère

1376 First reference to dramatic performances at York

1377 Earliest reference to dramatic performances at BeverleyCoronation of Richard II, including a royal entry intoLondon and a mumming at Kennington

1378 Earliest reference to dramatic performances inLondon John Wyclif mentions York Pater Noster playLondon John Wyclif mentions York Pater Noster play

Entremets (= from Old French literally meaning "betweenservings“) of the Conquest of Jerusalem, devised byPhilippe de Mézières, at a Paris banquet

1380 First reference to a performance of a Passion play in Paris

1392 Earliest reference to Corpus Christi pageant at Coventry

1397 Richard II witnesses a dramatic performance at York

1398 Earliest recorded use of the term farce to indicate adramatic type The Provost of Paris prohibits dramaticperformances

Chronology, cont.c. 1400-1560 Bulk of German Fastnachtspiele composed

1405-1425 The Castle of Perseverance

1408 Guild of Corpus Christi founded in York

Pope Benedict XIII visits Barcelona and ValenciaCoronation of Fernando of Spain

1418 Mummings forbidden in England

1426 William Melton urges the York Council to separate theCorpus Christi procession from the parade of pageants

1427-1435 John Lydgate's "Mummings" performed at court and1427-1435 John Lydgate's "Mummings" performed at court andbefore the Mercers and Goldsmiths of London

1433 York Mercers draw up a document detailing the structureof a pageant wagon

Illustration of an entremet, atype of medieval mealentertainment, staged at abanquet given by Charles V ofFrance; illumination fromGrandes Chroniques.Bibliotèque Nationale, Paris.Ms Fr 2813 folio 473.Ms Fr 2813 folio 473.

Chronology, cont.

c. 1440 Manuscript of York cycle prepared

1446 William Reveton bequeaths a Creed play to York, whereit is performed

1459 First recorded use in England of the term secular to referto a literary work

1462 Earliest reference to Chester cycle Vrbnik Missale

1479 Mummings forbidden in England1479 Mummings forbidden in England

1483 Richard III witnesses Creed play at York

1485 Richard III witnesses a performance at Coventry

c. 1485-c. 1585 Period of the English or Tudor Interlude

1486 Henry VII witnesses a performance at CoventryEntry of Henry VII into York

1493 Henry VII witnesses a performance at Coventry

2) The Alterity ofMedieval Drama

Alterität: Jauss/ Zumthor

Hans Robert Jauss and Paul Zumthor wrote about the 'alterity' of the MiddleAges. Later scholars, new historicists and others, have agreed in stressing theremoteness of medieval culture from our own; and flourishing Centres ofMedieval Studies have set about exploring and explaining its peculiarities.So successful have been these schools of thought that it is becomingSo successful have been these schools of thought that it is becomingnecessary to recall that there are many things in medieval texts which do notcall for historical explanation.

See JA Burrow. „Opinion. 'Alterity; and Middle English literature“. In: TheReview of English Studies, Volume 50, Issue 200 (1999), pp. 483-492.

and: Hans Robert Jauss. Alterität und Modernität der mittelalterlichen Literatur:Gesammelte Aufsätze 1956-1976. Munich: Fink, 1977.

One example of cultural alterity:Laughter in medieval drama

• Now: „... our acculturation tells us that in many situationswe must not laugh. Laughter about obscene, racist, or sexistjokes is disapproved of in our culture. Laughter aboutsomebody else's misfortunes [...] is also objectionable. [...]The point is one for which the Middle Ages are difficult formodern men and women who flatter themselves that theyhave undergone what Norbert Elias has called thehave undergone what Norbert Elias has called the"civilization process“.

• Then: The religious literature of the Middle Ages especiallyis full of the terrible fate that awaits the damned but whichapparently is not meant to call forth sympathy; on thecontrary, Schadenfreude, even triumphant derision, seemsto be the intended reaction. The modern critic who catcheshimself or herself enjoying such texts has a guiltyconscience.“

• (Hans-Jürgen Diller. „Laughter in Medieval English Drama: A Critique of Modernizingand Historical Analyses.” Comparative Drama, 2002, p. 1ff.)

Alterity:Ancient Period vs. Middle Ages

… medievals recognized and used "tragedy" and "comedy" to refer to certainkinds of content or style (as Chaucer's monk does). However, the terms werenot used to denote liturgical representationes or vernacular dramas.

Averroes wrote a commentary on Aristotle's Poetics, which was transmitted toAverroes wrote a commentary on Aristotle's Poetics, which was transmitted tothe West through Herman the German's Latin translation (1256).

Averroes encountered a big problem: “his culture did not have a theatricaltradition, as a consequence of which it was not clear to what literary formsAristotle was referring when he used the words "tragedy" and "comedy."

Cf. Jorge Luis Borges "Averroes' Search“ [Farach concludes that twenty persons areunnecessary to relate such a story since one single speaker is capable of telling all that

is necessary no matter how complicated the tale might be.]

3) Sources and Definitionsof Drama as a genre

Or: Evolution Theory and Literary History

How literary History is conceptualised and why wehave to be careful to adopt concepts of history whichare not supported by available sources

Where does medieval drama begin?What was Medieval Drama?

"Throughout this study of staging we are searching throughoriginal records of liturgical observance to discover rarebits of evidence of the drama: the glimmering of what webits of evidence of the drama: the glimmering of what wemight call play instead of rite, ludus instead of ordo orofficium, Spiel instead of Feier, jeu instead of rituel"

(Dunbar Ogden. The Staging of Drama in the MedievalChurch. Newark, NJ: University of Delaware Press, 2002, p.179).

“A dancer before the Ark of theLord"

Bernard of Clairvaux

once thought to be a representation ofthe descendants of the ancient mimes, itis now understood as the representationof a liturgical dancer

-The theatrical metaphor presents thejoculatores et saltatores as a spectacle ofthe world turned upside down; they arethe world turned upside down; they arestigmatized by their effeminate andin­decent movements.- allusion to Michal's reproach of Davidfor leaping and dancing before the ark ofthe Lord (2 Sam. 6:14-23).- In contrast to that: the joyous, decent,grave, and admirable ludus of Bernardof Clairvaux; indeed, David would seemto be more like the joculatores etsaltatores whom Bernard ridicules.(Clopper 2001, p. 54)

Pope Innocent III (1160-1216) was condemningTheatre plays (ludi theatrales ) as pagan rituals

Interdum ludi fiunt in eisdem ecclesiis theatrales, et non solum ad ludibrioum spectaculaintroducuntur in eis monstra larvarum, verum etiam in aliquibus anni festivitatibus, quaecontinue natalem Christi sequuntur, dia­coni, presbyteri ac subdiaconi vicissim insaniae suaeludibria exercere prae­sumunt, per gesticulationum suarum debacchationes obscoenas inconspectu populi decus faciunt clericale vilescere, quem potius illo tempore verbi Dei deberentpraedicatione mulcere.

[From time to time public spectacles are made in certain churches,and not only are masks of monsters introduced in derisivespectacle, but in truth during other feast days of the year whichfollow immediately after the birth of Christ, deacons, presbytersand subdeacons in turn presume to exercise their insane mockeries(and) by the gestures of their obscene rages demean theirclerical office in the sight of the people when it would be moreprof­itable during that time to soothe (the populace) by teachingthe word of God. ]

Drama in the Ancient PeriodDrama since the 16th century

vs. Drama in the Middle Ages

Textually and formally, the liturgy is a drama in themedieval Sense; it is not a drama in our or the ancientone. When we see the word "drama" in a medieval text,therefore, we ought not to think of a script for enactmentby persons assuming roles; rather, we should think of itas a formal and visual presentation of responding voices.(Clopper 2001, 9)

Myths about Medieval Drama

In 1965, O. B. Hardison Jr. was the first to show that E. K.Chambers's monumental work The Mediaeval Stage (1903) and

E. K. Chambers: „...it [viz. Liturgical drama] is of thehighest interest as an object lesson in literary evolution.“

Chambers's monumental work The Mediaeval Stage (1903) andthe works of other early scholars were culturally conditioned byDarwinian theories of evolution; as a consequence, scholars nowdeliberately avoid speaking of the evolution of dramatic forms.Nor do we any longer subscribe to Chambers's thesis of"secularization": that drama was born in the liturgy and graduallymoved out of the church into the streets where the drama fell intothe hands of the laity with the consequence that pure liturgicalforms were contaminated by vulgarities that resulted in the mixedstyles of the English Renaissance theater.

No single linear developments inthe history of drama!

In addition, early drama courses and texts havetraditionally treated the field as if it had a singlechronology and linearity that is historically incorrect:we begin with liturgical dramas and move on to thewe begin with liturgical dramas and move on to thenorthern biblical cycles and then to morality plays andfinally to the development of secular, commercial drama.Although no one would argue the point, the implication isoften that biblical plays replace liturgical dramas,moralities replace biblical plays, and the commercialtheatre replaces all the preceding. (Clopper 2001, 19)

Is there continuity ...... from the classical theatre to medieval liturgical drama? –

No!!

... from liturgical to fully vernacular (= modern) drama? –No!!

BUT THERE ARE OVERLAPPINGS: “A clear overlap betweenchurch and vernacular drama appears in what is known as theShrewsbury Fragments (fifteenth-century manuscript), anShrewsbury Fragments (fifteenth-century manuscript), anactor's part for three liturgical plays: The Shepherds, TheVisit to the Sepulchre, and The Pilgrims to Emmaus. Eachconsists of sung sections in Latin and spoken sections inEnglish (one stanza of the first play having been adapted fromthe York Shepherds' pageant). Such mixed texts appear alsoin other parts of Europe. They are no doubt parallel to thevernacular plays in their didactic purpose, but are not to beseen as part of a development from liturgical to fullyvernacular drama.” (Vince p. 41)

How the modern drama came into being

To account for the appearance of drama in the later Middle Ages by positing thetransmission of the ancient tradition over six to ten centuries by mimes is toconstruct an overly elaborate and unnecessary sequence of causes. There is asimpler answer to the two questions posed: Christian Europe in the laterMiddle Ages was able to develop a drama - an enacted and stagedscript - because most persons did not associate such dramas with thetheatrum either in mode or in content.

I believe we have misrepresented Western stage history because we have assumedI believe we have misrepresented Western stage history because we have assumedthat theatrum designated what we moderns mean by "theater," a place fordramas. But though the Middle Ages retained the idea that the theatrum was aplace for spectacle, it was also a place of obscenities: the commonest wordsconnected with theatrum in the Middle Ages are impudicitia, spurcitia,impuritas, turpitudo, licentia, luxuria, foeditas, obscenitas. Second, we havecome to recognize that liturgical representations not only differ from drama inmost, perhaps all, ways but that liturgical and vernacular traditions developedseparately; indeed, I would argue that not only did most clerics fail to conceiveof what they were doing as theatrical but that, insofar as they were enjoined notto attend upon spectacula, they were not particularly involved in establishing orencouraging a vernacular dramatic tradition (Clopper 2001)

The „Origins“ of Drama

dramatic action could take place anywhere in a givenchurch: choir, organ loft, crypt, nave, in front ofthe facade.

Ogden: "the [historical] process from this kind ofOgden: "the [historical] process from this kind oftheatre to that of the Renaissance is largely aprocess of confinement, of separation betweenactor and audience, of formal physical restrictionson distinct playing space versus distinct viewingspace" (p. 40).

4) Beginnings and Formsof Medieval Dramaof Medieval Drama

Beginnings

Problem: there are no reliable sources or evidence to give us an idea aboutthe forms of drama before the 14th century (reference to a performanceof a Resurrection play at Beverley (c 1220); earliest surviving text is theYork Mystery Cycle

The main function of drama in the Middle Ages was to teach, but alsoentertainentertain

The earlierst (recorded) drama is the liturgical drama of the church (middleof 10th cent.)

Other spectacles like folk drama must have existed: mimes, jugglers,acrobats, illusionists and dancers (evidence dates from the 12th cent.)

Summary: Theatre

A. Liturgical drama –

plays on religious themes began to be producedin association with religious holidays, such asin association with religious holidays, such asEaster. Performed as part of church service.

B. Cycle plays –

Performed in vernacular and sponsored by tradeguilds.guilds.

Staging practices:

a. mansions – portable stages

b. fixed stages with simultaneous depiction ofHeaven, Earth, and Hell.

C. Dramatic forms

1. Mystery plays – stories from the Bible

2. Miracle plays – lives of the saints2. Miracle plays – lives of the saints

3. Morality plays –

example – Everyman – anonymous author,allegorical characters

Liturgical Drama

Liturgical drama is taken from liturgy books which did not publish dramaseparately.

Social context of these plays

Liturgical drama is sung (by monks) not spoken; Liturgical drama is a communalactivity just like modern plays

Liturgical drama was mainly associated with Easter, e.g. Visitation Sepulchri,Liturgical drama was mainly associated with Easter, e.g. Visitation Sepulchri,

Barking Easter ceremony of the later 14th century by Katherine de Sutton, abbess atthe nunnery of Barking, consisted of an Easter ceremony, including a Harrowingof Hell, which was performed by the priests.

Dramatic activities took also place at Christmas (Quem queritis around Sheperds‘visit; the visit of the Magi. The Slaughter of the Innocents, the Play of theProphets = Ordo Prophetarum)

The Quem Quaeritis? (Whom seek ye?) trope: the conversation between the angeland the three Marys at the sepulchre on Easter morning; short series of questionsand answers; ends with the Marys proclaiming the Resurrection. There is nodoubt that this is a monastic "play."

Quem Quaeritis

From a tenth-century manuscript found in the monastery of St. Gall.Reproduced in Medieval and Tudor Drama, ed. John Gassner (1963: NewYork: Applause Theatre Book Publishers, 1987), 35.

Interrogation. Quem quaeritis in sepulchro, o Christicolae?Responsio. Jesum Nazarenum crucifixum, o caelicolae.Angeli. Non est hic; surrexit, sicut praedixerat. Ite, nuntiate quiaAngeli. Non est hic; surrexit, sicut praedixerat. Ite, nuntiate quiasurrexit de sepulchro

Question [by the Angels]. Whom do ye seek in the sepulcher, O followers ofChrist?

Answer [ by the Marys] Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified, just as heforetold.

The Angels: He is not here: he is risen, just as he foretold. Go, announce thathe is risen from the sepulcher

http://artemis.austincollege.edu/acad/hwc22/Medieval/quem_quaeritis.html

Mode of Performance“All the parts are performed by monks, and it is sung, in

Latin, as an integral part of the liturgy. Details of thedescription, however, show that it is also aperformance. The angel is told to enter to take up itsposition at the tomb "as if with some other purpose"and "secretly." The Marys are told to move toward thesepulchre "hesitantly," "in the manner of those seekingsomething." Marys and angel are distinguished by"costume," though this remains liturgical: alb for thesomething." Marys and angel are distinguished by"costume," though this remains liturgical: alb for theangel, copes for the Marys.” (Vince 1989;p. 40)

Stories from the Old Testament were also performed (Daniel, Isaac andRebecca)

Ceremonial and ritual plays are stopped being performed during theReformation

Miracle or saints' plays(and similar secular plays)

guild, church or town celebration.

saints' plays were performed all over England

St Katharine at Dunstable (from early 12th-century to 15th-century)

England: two extant texts survive: Mary Magdalen (2,139 lines), and TheConversion of St Paul (662) (15th or early 16th centuries from EastAnglia).

Cornwall: a full-scale saint play, The Life of Meriasek, and The Creacion ofthe World

Wales: some biblical and morality plays and fragments of the late fifteenthand early sixteenth centuries, and a late sixteenth-century play of Troelusa Chresyd.

Interlude

any short play, especially of the early 16th century; its medieval use is vague

The earliest surviving interlude is The Clerk and the Girl (Interludium de Clencoet Puella, early 14th-century manuscript; similar to French farce, allusions tominstrel’s repertoire)

The word 'interlude' is used in the 14th and 15th centuries for indoor or outdoorThe word 'interlude' is used in the 14th and 15th centuries for indoor or outdoorperformances, in church, churchyard or hall, or more often in an unspecifiedlocation. What it actually was, is unclear!

After the turn of the century the word 'interlude' embraces all the variety of theshort plays of the early Tudor period

Henry Medwall's play,Fulgens and Lucres,

. . . is the first "purely secular play that has survived" and is the first dramaticpresentation to focus on the disputation of nobility.

• This issue was especially relevant to King Henry VII's court where the majorityof government men were appointed on the basis of merit rather than bloodline.

• Medwall was chaplain to Cardinal Morton who had risen through the ranksfrom a humble beginning as a lawyer. The play was performed before anfrom a humble beginning as a lawyer. The play was performed before anaristocratic audience, placing Medwall in the tenuous position of politicallysupporting his master, while not offending the 'old' aristocracy. Therefore thepolitical message was veiled by an "elaborate comic context" (235), whilesetting and characters served to distance the dramatic theme from the audience.

• Two comic characters known as A & B function as the presenters, disclaimersand players. The characters deny all responsibility for the play and the players.

Norland, Howard B. "Medwall's Fulgens and Lucres." 233-43 in Drama inEarly Tudor Britain, 1485-1558. Lincoln, NB: U of Nebraska P, 1995.

Beginning of Fulgens and Lucres• Intrat A dicen:

• A

• A, for Goddis will,What meane ye, syrs, to stond so still?Have not ye etyn and your fillAnd payd no thinge therfore?Iwys, syrs, thus dare I say,Iwys, syrs, thus dare I say,He that shall for the shott payVouch saveth that ye largely assaySuche mete as he hath in store.

I trowe your disshes be not bare,Nor yet ye do the wyne spare, [1.10]Therfore be mery as ye fare.Ye ar welcom eche oonUnto this house withoute faynynge.But I mervayle moche of one thinge,That after this mery drynkyngeAnd good recreacyon

Morality Plays (secular, closest to cycle plays)

St Paul, Mary Play (from like the N.town), TheKilling of the Children

expositor (e.g. Poeta) introduces the play.

Bible is the main source, but devil scenes and dancescan also be found.

Saints' plays and moralities show a variety of formsand topics. Both sub genres have certain featuresin common: allegorical figures, struggle of goodin common: allegorical figures, struggle of goodand evil for the soul of man.

Examples: The Castle of Perseverance (3,700 lines;15th-century manuscript). Entire salvationhistory; allegorical characters (the seven deadlysins, the seven virtues, the three enemies ofmankind - the World, the Flesh and the Devil).Each of these alegories has its his own scaffold.Stage plan shows the scaffolds of the threeenemies, Covetousness and God which circle thecastle at the centre.

THE BANNS1 HERALD

Glorious God, in all degrees Lord most of might,

That heaven and earth made of nought, both sea and land --

The angels in heaven to serve him bright,

And Mankind in middle-earth he made with his hand --

And our lovely Lady, that is a lantern of light, 5And our lovely Lady, that is a lantern of light, 5

Save our liege lord the king, the leader of this land,

And all the nobles of this realm, teach them the right,

And all the good commoners of this town that before us stand

In this place.

In all good faith we gather you, 10

Your generous hearts we crave of you,

From every harm Christ save you,

That will know of our case!

THE PLAY

WORLD

Therefore, my sport and my glee grow fullglad;

Is there is any one in this world to refuse myword?

Every rich ruler runs as if he were mad,

In lust and liking that my laws may be heard.30

With fair folk in the field freshly am I fed;

I dance down like a doe in the darkling dell.

Whoever bids to do battle or debate with a

BELIAL(Sitting on his scaffold, with Pride, Wrath, andEnvy in attendance)Now sit I, Satan, steadfast in my sin, 40As devil doughty, like a dragon on my sack.I champ and I chew and I thrust out my chin;Whoever bids to do battle or debate with a

blade,

Him were better to be hanged high in a cornerof hell

Or burnt with bright lightning! 35

Whoso speaks against the World,

In prison he shall be hurled;

My commands are held and heard

Unto high heaven!

I champ and I chew and I thrust out my chin;I am boisterous and bold as Belial the black!The folk that I grasp they gasp and they groan[…]My delight is in woe!In care I am cloyed,And foully annoyed 50Unless Man be destroyed,And in ditch laid right low.Pride is my prince in pearls bedecked;Wrath, this wretch, with me shall go;Envy into war with me shall I fetch; 55With these traitors I am fed …

Morality Plays

Dance of Death => Everyman (first printed

c 1510-25; transl. from the Dutch)

Brudl Johannes; Ebelsberger Simone"Everyman" und "Jedermann": Die Wirkungsgeschichte

See also John Skelton's Magnyfycence

showing traces of a new genre of polemical

moralities of religious controversy

"Everyman" und "Jedermann": Die Wirkungsgeschichteeines mittelenglischen Morality Plays."Everyman" and "Jedermann": The History of theTransformations of a Morality Play. Diss Salzburg 2002

EverymanHere begynneth a treatyse how the hye

Fader of heuen sendeth Dethe tosomon euery creature to come andgyue a-counte of theyr lyues inthis worlde/and is in manerof a morall playe.

Messenger.1: I pray you all gyue your audyence,2: And here this mater with reuerence,3: By fygure a morall playe.

16: Here shall you se how Felawshyp/and Iolyte,17: Bothe/Strengthe/Pleasure/and Beaute,18: Wyll fade from the as floure in Maye;19: For ye shall here how our Heuen Kynge20: Calleth Eueryman to a generall rekenynge.21: Gyue audyence, and here what he doth saye.[God speketh.]God.

22: I perceyue, here in my maieste,23: How that all creatures be to me vnkynde,24: Lyuynge without drede in worldly prosperyte.

25: Of ghostly syght the people be so blynde,26: Drowned in synne, they know me not for theyr3: By fygure a morall playe.

4: The Somonynge of Eueryman called it is,5: That of our lyues and endynge shewes6: How transytory we be all daye.7: This mater is wonders precyous;8: But the entent of it is more gracyous,9: And swete to bere awaye.10: The story sayth: Man, in the begynnynge11: Loke well, and take good heed to the endynge,12: Be you neuer so gay!13: Ye thynke synne in the begynnynge full swete,14: Whiche in the ende causeth the soule to wepe,15: Whan the body lyeth in claye.

26: Drowned in synne, they know me not for theyrGod.27: In worldely ryches is all theyr mynde;28: They fere not my ryghtwysnes, the sharpe rod.29: My lawe that I shewed, whan I for them dyed,30: They forget clene/and shedynge of my bloderede.

Everyman, edited by: A. C. Cawleyxxxviii, 47 p. : facsim. 20 cm. :Manchester University PressManchester, Eng. 1961 Old and MiddleEnglish texts; 1 Published: 1485

A Christmas Mumming:The Play of Saint George

This adaptation is included in Medieval and TudorDrama, edited by John Gassner (1963: New York:Applause Theatre Books, 1987), 30-32.

(In the midst of much singing, dancing and feasting,enter some mummers or performers, led by FatherChristmas, who is swinging a mighty club.)

Father Christmas:

Here come I, old Father Christmas,

Welcome , or welcome not.

Turkish Knight:

Open the doors and let me in!

I hope your favors now to win;

Whether I rise, or whether I fall,

I'll do my best to please you all.

Prince George is here, and swears he willcome in;

And if he does, I know he'll pierce my skin.

If he does not believe what I now say,

Come in the King of Egypt!--Clear the Way!

(Enter the King of Egypt)I hope old Father Christmas

Will never be forgot.

I have not come here to laugh or to jeer,

But for a pocketful of money and a skinful ofbeer

To show some sport or pastime,

Gentlemen and Ladies, in the Christmas-time.

If you will not believe what I now say,

Come in the Turkish Knight! Clear the way.

(Enter the Turkish Knight.)

(Enter the King of Egypt)

King of Egypt:

Here I, the King of Egypt, boldly do appear.

Prince George, Prince George, walk in, myson and heir!

Walk in , my son, Prince George, and boldlyplay thy part.

That all the people her may see thy wondrousart. (Enter Prince George.)

Prince George: Here come I, Saint George; fromBritain have I sprung. I'll fight the Dragon bold, formy wonders have begun.

Bibliography

• E.K.Chambers: The Mediaeval Stage (1903)

• Karl Youngs The Drama of the Medieval Church (1933)

• Hardin Craigs English Religious Drama in the Middle Ages (1955)

• Hardison, O. B., Jr. Christian Rite and Christian Drama m the MiddleAges: Essays in the Origin and Early History of Modern Drama (1965)

• Beadle, Richard, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Medieval EnglishTheatre (1994).Theatre (1994).

• Cox, John D., and David Scott Kastan, eds. A New History of EarlyEnglish Drama (1997).

• Clopper, Larence M. Drama, Play and Game. English Festive Culture inthe Medieval and Early Modern Period (2001).

• Vince, Ronald W., ed. A Companion to the Medieval Theatre. New York,Westport, CT, 1989.