Part 11 (1/2)

CHRISTMAS DRAMA

Origins of the Mediaeval Drama--Dramatic Tendencies in the Liturgy--Latin Liturgical Plays--The Drama becomes Laicized--Characteristics of the Popular Drama--The Nativity in the English Miracle Cycles--Christmas Mysteries in France--Later French Survivals of Christmas Drama--German Christmas Plays--Mediaeval Italian Plays and Pageants--Spanish Nativity Plays--Modern Survivals in Various Countries--The Star-singers, &c.

[Ill.u.s.tration:

THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS.

From Broadside No. 305 in the Collection of the Society of Antiquaries at Burlington House (by permission).

(Photo lent by Mr. F. Sidgwick, who has published the print on a modern Christmas broadside.)]

In this chapter the Christian side only of the Christmas drama will be treated. Much folk-drama of pagan origin has gathered round the festival, but this we shall study in our Second Part. Our subject here is the dramatic representation of the story of the Nativity and the events immediately connected with it. The Christmas drama has pa.s.sed through the same stages as the poetry of the Nativity. There is first a monastic and hieratic stage, when the drama is but an expansion of the liturgy, a piece of ceremonial performed by clerics with little attempt at verisimilitude and with Latin words drawn mainly from the Bible or the offices of the Church. Then, as the laity come to take a more personal interest in Christianity, we find fancy beginning to play around the subject, bringing out its human pathos and charm, until, after a transitional stage, the drama leaves the sanctuary, pa.s.ses from Latin to the vulgar tongue, is played by lay performers in the streets and squares of the city, and, while its framework remains religious, takes into itself episodes of a more or less secular character. The Latin liturgical plays are to the ”miracles” and ”mysteries” of the later Middle Ages as a Romanesque church, solemn, oppressive, hieratic, to

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a Gothic cathedral, soaring, audacious, reflecting every phase of the popular life.

The mediaeval religious drama{1} was a natural development from the Catholic liturgy, not an imitation of cla.s.sical models. The cla.s.sical drama had expired at the break-up of the Roman Empire; its death was due largely, indeed, to the hostility of Christianity, but also to the rude indifference of the barbarian invaders. Whatever secular dramatic impulses remained in the Dark Ages showed themselves not in public and organized performances, but obscurely in the songs and mimicry of minstrels and in traditional folk-customs. Both of these cla.s.ses of practices were strongly opposed by the Church, because of their connection with heathenism and the licence towards which they tended. Yet the dramatic instinct could not be suppressed. The folk-drama in such forms as the Feast of Fools found its way, as we shall see, even into the sanctuary, and--most remarkable fact of all--the Church's own services took on more and more a dramatic character.

While the secular stage decayed, the Church was building up a stately system of ritual. It is needless to dwell upon the dramatic elements in Catholic wors.h.i.+p. The central act of Christian devotion, the Eucharist, is in its essence a drama, a representation of the death of the Redeemer and the partic.i.p.ation of the faithful in its benefits, and around this has gathered in the Ma.s.s a mult.i.tude of dramatic actions expressing different aspects of the Redemption. Nor, of course, is there merely symbolic _action_; the offices of the Church are in great part _dialogues_ between priest and people, or between two sets of singers. It was from this antiphonal song, this alternation of versicle and respond, that the religious drama of the Middle Ages took its rise. In the ninth century the ”Antiphonarium” traditionally ascribed to Pope Gregory the Great had become insufficient for ambitious choirs, and the practice grew up of supplementing it by new melodies and words inserted at the beginning or end or even in the middle of the old antiphons. The new texts were called ”tropes,” and from the ninth to the thirteenth century many were written. An interesting Christmas

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example is the following ninth-century trope ascribed to Tutilo of St. Gall:--

”Hodie cantandus est n.o.bis puer, quem gignebat ineffabiliter ante tempora pater, et eundem sub tempore generavit inclyta mater. (To-day must we sing of a Child, whom in unspeakable wise His Father begat before all times, and whom, within time, a glorious mother brought forth.)

Int[errogatio].

Quis est iste puer quem tam magnis praeconiis dignum vociferatis?

Dicite n.o.bis ut collaudatores esse possimus. (Who is this Child whom ye proclaim worthy of so great laudations? Tell us that we also may praise Him.)

Resp[onsio].

Hic enim est quem praesagus et electus symmista Dei ad terram venturum praevidens longe ante praenotavit, sicque praedixit. (This is He whose coming to earth the prophetic and chosen initiate into the mysteries of G.o.d foresaw and pointed out long before, and thus foretold.)”

Here followed at once the Introit for the third Ma.s.s of Christmas Day, ”Puer natus est n.o.bis, et filius datus est n.o.bis, &c. (Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.)” The question and answer were no doubt sung by different choirs.{2}

One can well imagine that this might develop into a regular little drama.

As a matter of fact, however, it was from an Easter trope in the same ma.n.u.script, the ”Quem quaeritis,” a dialogue between the three Maries and the angel at the sepulchre, that the liturgical drama sprang. The trope became very popular, and was gradually elaborated into a short symbolic drama, and its popularity led to the composition of similar pieces for Christmas and Ascensiontide. Here is the Christmas trope from a St. Gall ma.n.u.script:--

”_On the Nativity of the Lord at Ma.s.s let there be ready two deacons having on dalmatics, behind the altar, saying_:

Quem quaeritis in praesepe, pastores, dicite? (Whom seek ye in the manger, say, ye shepherds?)

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_Let two cantors in the choir answer_:

Salvatorem Christum Dominum, infantem pannis involutum, secundum sermonem angelic.u.m. (The Saviour, Christ the Lord, a child wrapped in swaddling clothes, according to the angelic word.)

_And the deacons_:

Adest hic parvulus c.u.m Maria, matre sua, de qua, vaticinando, Isaias Propheta: ecce virgo concipiet et pariet filium; et nuntiantes dicite quia natus est. (Present here is the little one with Mary, His Mother, of whom Isaiah the prophet foretold: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and shall bring forth a son; and do ye say and announce that He is born.)

_Then let the cantor lift up his voice and say_:

Alleluia, alleluia, jam vere scimus Christum natum in terris, de quo canite, omnes, c.u.m Propheta dicentes: Puer natus est! (Alleluia, alleluia. Now we know indeed that Christ is born on earth, of whom sing ye all, saying with the Prophet: Unto us a child is born.)”{3}

The dramatic character of this is very marked. A comparison with later liturgical plays suggests that the two deacons in their broad vestments were meant to represent the midwives mentioned in the apocryphal Gospel of St. James, and the cantors the shepherds.

A development from this trope, apparently, was the ”Office of the Shepherds,” which probably took shape in the eleventh century, though it is first given in a Rouen ma.n.u.script of the thirteenth. It must have been an impressive ceremony as performed in the great cathedral, dimly lit with candles, and full of mysterious black recesses and hints of infinity. Behind the high altar a _praesepe_ or ”crib” was prepared, with an image of the Virgin. After the ”Te Deum” had been sung five canons or their vicars, clad in albs and amices, entered by the great door of the choir, and proceeded towards the apse. These were the shepherds. Suddenly from high above them came a clear boy's voice: ”Fear not, behold I bring you good tidings of great joy,” and the rest of the angelic message. The ”mult.i.tude of the heavenly host” was represented by other boys stationed probably

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in the triforium galleries, who broke out into the exultant ”Gloria in excelsis.” Singing a hymn, ”Pax in terris nunciatur,”