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miracle play
miracle play or mystery play, form of medieval drama that came from dramatization of the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church. It developed from the 10th to the 16th cent., reaching its height in the 15th cent. The simple lyric character of the early texts, as shown in the Quem Quœritis, was enlarged by the addition of dialogue and dramatic action. Eventually the performance was moved to the churchyard and the marketplace. Rendered in Latin, the play was preceded by a prologue or by a herald who gave a synopsis and was closed by a herald's salute. When a papal edict in 1210 forbade the clergy to act on a public stage, supervision and control of presenting the plays passed into the hands of the town guilds, and various changes ensued. The vernacular language replaced Latin, and scenes were inserted that were not from the Bible. The acting became more dramatic as characterization and detail became more important. Based on the Scriptures from the creation to the Second Coming and on the lives of the saints, the plays were arranged into cycles and were given on church festival days, particularly the feast of Corpus Christi, lasting from sunrise to sunset. Each guild was responsible for the production of a different episode. With simple costumes and props, guild members, who were paid actors, performed on stages equipped with wheels (see pageant ); each scene was given at one public square and drawn on to its next performance at another, while a different stage succeeded it. Named after the towns in which they were performed, the principal English cycles are the York Plays (1430-40), the longest, containing 48 plays; the Towneley or Wakefield Plays (c.1450, in Yorkshire); the Coventry Plays (1468); and the Chester Plays (1475-1500). The Passion play is the chief modern example of the miracle play. The French mystère distinguished those plays containing biblical stories from those about the lives of the saints. The auto, the medieval religious drama in Spain, was acted concurrently with the secular drama throughout the Golden Age and into the 18th cent. Calderón was the greatest composer of the auto sacramental, which dealt with the mystery of the Mass in allegory. In Italy the laudi were basically choral in form and so distinguished from the later sacre rappresentazioni, which became lavish artistic productions comparable to the French mystère.
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"miracle play." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "miracle play." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-miraclep.html "miracle play." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-miraclep.html |
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miracle plays
miracle plays, mysteries, and moralities. The custom of teaching Bible stories by means of sacred dramas (often in church) is venerable. These dramas were known as miracle plays (or, simply, miracles), another name, given by writers on the subject (apparently first in the 18th cent.), being mystery. Of similar character were the plays which, personifying virtues and vices, taught moral lessons, e.g. moralities. Religious plays of such types as these are recorded as early as the 4th cent. In Eng., there are records of them from the 11th to the 16th cents., some of the finest being perf. in York and Chester. Even today there are traces of them in the rural perfs. of mummers in the N. of Eng. (e.g. the play of St George and the Dragon).
Corpus Christi (June) was in some cities a great occasion for plays in the streets (at Chester 24 such played in a single day, moving to different locations, with all 24 given at each). Some of the plays involved a good deal of singing, and contained the seeds of the future masque, oratorio, and opera. In the 20th cent. several composers have based works on the old mystery plays, notably Stravinsky and Britten (whose Noye's Fludde is a fine example). Vaughan Williams described his opera based on Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress as a morality. |
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MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE. "miracle plays." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE. "miracle plays." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O76-miracleplays.html MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE. "miracle plays." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O76-miracleplays.html |
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Miracle Play
Miracle Play, in English medieval times a synonym for mystery play; in France the term was used for plays in which the central incident was a miraculous intervention in human affairs by the Virgin Mary or one of the saints, St Nicholas being a favourite subject. The chief surviving examples of these anonymous saint plays, as they were called in England, are found in a 14th-century collection of forty Miracles de Notre-Dame par personnages.
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PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Miracle Play." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Miracle Play." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-MiraclePlay.html PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Miracle Play." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-MiraclePlay.html |
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miracle play
mir·a·cle play • n. a mystery play. |
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"miracle play." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "miracle play." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-miracleplay.html "miracle play." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-miracleplay.html |
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Miracle Plays
Miracle Plays: see THEATRE AND DRAMA.
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JOHN BOWKER. "Miracle Plays." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. JOHN BOWKER. "Miracle Plays." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-MiraclePlays.html JOHN BOWKER. "Miracle Plays." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-MiraclePlays.html |
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miracle Plays
miracle Plays, see mystery plays.
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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "miracle Plays." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "miracle Plays." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-miraclePlays.html MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "miracle Plays." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-miraclePlays.html |
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Miracle Plays
Miracle Plays. See MYSTERY PLAYS.
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E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Miracle Plays." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Miracle Plays." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-MiraclePlays.html E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Miracle Plays." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-MiraclePlays.html |
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miracle play
miracle play See mystery play
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Cite this article
"miracle play." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "miracle play." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-miracleplay.html "miracle play." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-miracleplay.html |
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