The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-05-22

THE process of secularization
l. showed best of all in music
and drama. The history Of music
must wait for a later chapter; but
one note is revelant here: that
whereas music in the Middle
Ages had been almost entirely
ecclesiastical except in the songs
of the people and the troubadours,
now opera arose, and developed
rapidly; in Venice alone, between
1887 and 1880, $50 different operas
were performed; and it was in the
later years of the Renaissance that
Stradivarius and the Guarneri
gave the violin its modern form.
In the meantime drama had been
experiencing an evolution remark
ably similar to that which it had
undergone in Greece. Slowly, from
religious professions and repre-
sensations, secular plays had grown,
like branches from a trunk. The
Church had atoned for the incom-
prehensible Latin which it used, by
making the mass a splendid drama
of suffering and sacrifice; it had
adorned the altar like a stage, and
the priest and acolytes like actors;
and even the semi darkness of the
churches had had a dramatic value
and intent.
On Corpus Christi day, and on
other feasts, great professions lent
life and color to the streets and
made the greatest of historic
tragedies vivid for the simplest
mind. And in the Christmas season
peasants dressed as shepherds,
priests as kings and choir boys as
angels, acted the alteration of the
magi.
The first step was the passing OF
these religious representations from
within to outside the church build
ing. In the tenth century the nun
Hrosvitha composed some dramatic
narratives of religious subjects; but
there is no evidence that these po-
tential dramas were ever performed.
The earliest known play given
outside church in Christian
Europe is 1.-THE Representation of
ADAM" produced on the steps OF
a church in Normandy in the
twelfth century. The author was
not without humor; he shows Adam
refusing the apple with the pru-
dence of a Norman peasant, @and
Eve accepting it with the bravery
of modern woman.
He makes Cain tell Abel: do you
wish to hear why I want to kill
you? You ingratiate yourself too
much with God" There upon he
beats his brother to death; but the
author advises mercilfully abel
shall have a saucepan beneath his
clothes"
THESE religious representations
4 were called mysteries. Their
most frequent form was Passion
Play, which to this day has kept its
popularity as a half religious half
secular enterprise. AS the wealth
of secular organizations of dramatic
performances; sometimes several
guilds together would stage a long
series of plays, like the York o.
Towneley Mysteries of the four
tenth century, which gave, in many
days the whole story of the Bible,
from the creation to the Last Judg
ment.
The roles were assigned with
economic justice; the goldsmiths
were required to provide the Magi
with jewelry, the shipbuilders made
Noahs ark, the bakers made the
Last Supper, and the wine-mer-
chants undertook to change the
water to wine at the Marriage Of
Cana. Men played the male parts,
boys the female parts; but as the
boys were gorgeously robed, they
created most of the delusions asso-
ciated with beauty.
AS in modern plays, the gowns
cost more than the salaries; in one
account we read that Pontius PLATE
received four shillings, Christ two
shillings, Judas and the Devil one
shilling six-pence each.
The stage was usually a platform
erected at some convenient square,
often with several levels that repre-
sented Heaven, Earth and He'll. 1t
was called a "Pageante," from the
Latin word (pagina) scaffolding.
Travelling actors used a great box
which served as their home enroute,
and their stage during performances.
Only with the advent of the Re
Nuisance were permanent theaters
built; at Autun, in the sixteenth
century, an open-air amphitheater
was constructed to seat 10000 people.
Scenic effects and mechanisms were