unds as highest points of
vantage? Those whose dead lay buried there raised effectual outcries
against this desecration. To go back into the church seemed impossible.
The next move had to be into the street. It was at this point that there
set in that alienation of the Church from the Stage which was never
afterwards removed. Clerical actors were forbidden to play in the
streets. As an inevitable consequence, the learned language, Latin, was
replaced more and more by the people's own tongue. Soon the festivals
assumed a nature which the stricter clergy could not view with approval.
From miles around folk gathered together for merriment and trading.
There were bishops who now denounced public plays as instruments of the
devil.

Thus the drama, having outgrown its infancy, passed from the care of the
Church into the hands of the Laity. It took with it a tradition of
careful acting, a store of Biblical subjects, a fair variety of
characters--including a thundering Herod and a mischievous Devil--and
some measure of freedom in dialogue. It gained a native language and a
boundless popularity. But for many long years after the separation the
_Epiphany Plays_ continued to be acted in the churches, and by their
very existence possibly kept intact the link with religion which
preserved for the public Mysteries and Miracles an attitude of soberness
and reverence in the hearts of their spectators. The so-called _Coventry
Play_ of the fifteenth century is a testimony to the persistence of the
serious religious element in the final stage of these popular Bible
plays.

[Footnote 1: Mr. E.K. Chambers's translation.]

[Footnote 2: Mr. E.K. Chambers's translation.]

CHAPTER II

ENGLISH MIRACLE PLAYS

Most of what has been said hitherto has referred to the rise of
religious plays on the continent. The first recorded presentation of a
play in England occurred in Dunstable--under the management of a
schoolmaster, Geoffrey--about the year 1110. Probably, therefore, the
drama was part of the new civilization brought over by the Normans, and
came in a comparatively well-developed form. The title of Geoffrey's
play, _St. Katherine_, points to its having been of the _St. Nicholas_
type, a true Miracle Play, belonging to a much later stage of
development than the early _Pastores_ or _Quem Quaeritis?_. We need not
look, then, for shadowy gropings along the dramatic path. Instead we may
expect to find from the very commencement a fa