Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1905-05-19
FILIPINO RELIGIOUS DRAMA.
rhs Moro-Moro Play Has Fallen Into
Disuse Excepting on Smaller
Islands

and books OF all classes, the Filipino
drama dates back TO about the begin
ming OF the seventeenth century, when
the first natives were beginning TO write
heir wonderful plays under the super
vision of the friars who had done as
much TO conquer the 'Molucca Islands"
for Spain as the recognized soldiers
These ancient braves of faith and steel
had not been In the islands a year. says
the Los Angeles Herald. before they
had analysed and classified the chRrae-
ter and traits OF the Moluccans. or Fill
ipinos. as they were later called. to
such an extent that they began the use
of the religious drama as the most
striking and effective means of attract
ing them 10 the cross.
IL was in the year 1864 that the king
of Spain issued the royal warrant es-
tablishing a branch of the AuguStlnian
order in the Philippines. and Legazpi
took Padre Urdaneta and few brother
missionaries with him when he sailed
from Mexico for the conquest OF the
islands of gold and spice" A year
or so after the little host arrived in
the archipelago. the natives were mum
bling Ave Marias and Paters on their
rosaries, as the education of the ma
! tives progressed. and the first exam
plies were almost entirely made mp OF
striking scenes from the life of Christ
! followed later by dramas dealing with
the life of Mary and others OF the Cath
Ollie saints.
But some of the natives were not en-
| tirely satisfied to have the friars write
all the plays; they wanted TO write as
/ well as TO play them. 1t was not long,
/ therefore. until ambitious Filipino stu
dents. urged on in their holy zeal by
the Spaniards. working in the monas-
teries under the watchful eyes of the
monks themselves. began to turn out
dramas, which. according to Caspar do
| San Agustin and Chirino and others.
were well written and skillfully CON
ceived. Rendered into modern thought,
that means that the plays were gaudy
and violent melodramas. crude and
superficial in every respect and with
small reverence for sacred subjects.
which were treated with the sutmost
| familiarity.
I In the period which followed the first
religious drama. once il was well estab-
/ lshed as permanent feature Of the
conversion OF the islanders. there came
a rather lengthy interval when the plays
were not so much written by the
natives as translated and adapted from
the original Latin by the priests them
selves. After that. though the drama
Of religion had lost the first blush OF
its use and attractiveness, IT, was still
much employed by both Spanish friars
and Filipino secular priests. but the
second-of the historic-or really the
third division OF the drama. counting
I'm the prehistoric lyric poems and songs
as the first class, was the greatest. and
in many respects the most notable
/ This middle-period drama is known to
the native as the Moro-Moro play.
and deals almost entirely with inter
tribal wars Having been taught and
| given n chance by Spain TO learn OF
what the outside world did and used
the playwrights wove in with the fabric
OF their purely Filipino thought speech
and action n curious and jumbled
strain OF foreign and outlandish non.
sense; kings, dukes, counts. princesses
and villains were mixed up in a weird
hodge-podge with rajahs, cats. baran.
gals and cabezas, while through all rar
the thread Of the struggle between the
Christian and infidel, or Mohammedan.
factions.
II was because OF this religious ele-
ment that the natives call these plays
Moro-Moro. The Mohammedans. or
MOros, from JolO and Mindanao estab-
lished themselves in Luzon and the
other islands early in the history Of
the latter. coming from Borneo orig
inally, and for some time It was a
matter of armed discussion whether
Spain or the rajah of Borneo was to
control the fertile archipelago.
OF the seditious drama, the most in
teresting of all. it will be sufficient TO
cite brief examples. Hindi Acc Patay,
which means 81 am not dead" refer
ring to the insurrection, is the best
of them all, from our viewpoint and
the writer knows many natives of diff
ferent classes who think the same,
though they have reached the con-
clusion by a very different process OF
reasoning. The story the play tells
is simple. The heroine is Karangalan.
the wealth and dignity of the islands,
who is betrothed against her will to
Macamcam (ambitious), the American
government, by her scheming and mis-
erly brother. Ualang-hinayan (piti-
less). In the meantime she has en-
gagged herself TO Tangulan (defense)
the native who is loyal or. in other
words. an insurrecto. Tangulan and
Macamcam fight a duel. and the form
er is hard hit and carried away to
die. while Macamcam gets ready 10
marry the girl, willy-nilly BY a Sc
ries of ingenious complications. the
funeral procession of Tangulan -
brought past KeranPalan's house Just
= before the wedding ceremony. AS the
, bier reaches the house Tangulan. sup
= posed to have deed, springs up, armed
! phouting "hindi AGO patay," and the
Americans. for Maimbot. Macamcam' g
father (covetous). has come to see his
son married 20 so desirable a partie
desist and decide, in the words Of the
play, "to wait until another day"