The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-03-04
situation and the lyrical tone.

II
AS the drama energies from the
Monastic school and becomes a sepa
rate national institution, we find the
| Shepherds Play of the ToWnley OF
| Wakefield cycle of mystery plays
probably written about 1850. This
play is masterpiece in the second
great dramatic movement of the Mid.
die Ages, the naturalization and ex-
pansion of the liturgical play. Latin
now gave place to the native Ian.
guage, the plays passed into the hands
of laymen, and cycles of plays cover
ing much of the Bible story were de-
veloped for presentation by trade.
guilds at the summer festivals. In
this play there is a striking and char.
duced as concession to the popular
taste. Max, the sheep-stealer, visiting
the shepherds in the fields, who was
forced to sleep between them for the
safety of the sheep. But Max slips
away while the others sleep, steals a
sheep, delivers it to his wife, and re-
turns to the shepherds in time to be
found in his place the next morning
The suspicious shepherds visit and
search Mak's house, but he and his
wife having swaddled the sheep and
covered it over in the cradle, pass it
off for newborn child. When one
of the shepherds, remorseful over his
unjust suspicious of Max, returns to
leave piece of money as an offering
to the infant, the trick is easily dis,
covered and Max is tossed in a bIan.
ket. There is an easy and natural
transition from the cradle scene in
the shepherds cot to the cradle scene
their return, hear the joyful song of
the angels announcing the birth of
Our Saviour. In the dramatic COM
pleteness of the comic part and in the
characteristic medieval contrast be-
tween the rugged satire and rough
humor of the comic scenes, and the
lofty spirit of the annunciation of
Christ's Birth by the angels and the
alteration of the shepherds, the struc-
ture of the play is finely perfected.
The Third Play selected by the stu.
dents was the Nice Wanton, which
was printed in 1860, but there are in
dications within the play that it was
written as far back as the reign of
King Edward the VI The period
chosen for this production is the early
part Of his reign when costumes were
still much like those made familiar
in the drawings and paintings of Hans
Holbein. The little tragedy may have
been produced in public square or
possibly in a school hall like the NOR
ality plays of an early day. Indeed
the Nice WantOn is a type of school
play with touches of the morality in
the characters of Worldly Shame and
1niquity-the Vice. The play tells the
story of Xantippe's children; the stu
dious Barnabas and the reckless Ish-
mael and the foolish, spoiled Della.
Barnabas, eager for learning and con-
scious of it's power warns his brother
and sister against truancy. A neigh
Dor, Eulalia, advises Xantippe of the
increasingly evil ways of her hayward
children. They fall under the spell of
Iniquity and soon advance each in his
own way, on the road to destruction
The second part displays the tragic
outcome. Della, miserable in poverty
and disease, is rescued by the pros
porous and kindly Barnabas who re-
cogniZes his sister in spite of rags
and Disagreement. Before Daniel, the
judge, desperate burglar and muir
derer-none other than Ishmael-is
tried and condemned to the gallOWs.
Worldly shame then seizes Xantippe
and enforces the lesson Of her respon-
sibility for the hanging of Ishmael and
the pitiful death of Della. Her at
tempt to stab herself is frustrated by
Barnabas, who closes the play with
warning to all parents and children
This period in the development of the
English drama marks climax in the
use of the morality play.
A selection from the early Eliza.
bethan authors-possibly from Mar.
lows works-closed the program for
the evening. This selection was
known as the "Wooing of Nan" and is
commonly known as a jig. A jig was
the favorite Elizabethan afterpiece
and was expected by popular audi
ences even after the greatest tragedies
of Shakespeares day. 1t was sung,
danced and acted dramatically at the
same time. The jig is an interesting
dramatic form from two points of
view. First, by the sixteenth century
the types of religious drama represent.
ed in the preceding part of the pro.
gram, began to give way to secular
themes found in the song dramas of
the people and in the short farces for
comic interludes, of the regular stage.
the century, absorbed the wooing
scenes of the folk drama and the in.
trigue plots of farce, and seems to
have influenced definitely the comic |
scenes of Shakespeare and his fellow. |
dramatists. In the second place, until
recently it has been declared that no
specimen of the jig was extant Pro-
fessor Baskervill has evidence, how.
ever, that number of such dialogues |
as the "Wooing of Nan" were jigs, |
and this production at the Chicago |
University marks the first time, per-
haps in 400 years, when an attempt |
was made to reproduce this forerun-
ner of the Elizabethan drama. The |
dialogue was sung to appropriate |
music and marked the close of one of |
the most classic entertainments ever |
ftI..