Early History of the Stage

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 986, 31 May 1930, Page 26

Early History of the Stage

REV. W. BENTLEY'S BOOK

‘ DRAMA AND THE CHURCH [ lhe early hlslory of stage has been most ably and delightfully tali ' | by the Rev. Walter Bentley, actor aai churchman, who is now conducting a i missiou in Auckland. He is the founder of the Actors’ Church Alliance, and knows his I theatre intimately. . , Mr- Bentley refers to dramatists of pagan Greece and the open-air plays of Aeschylus. Euripides, Sophocles | ! and Dionysius. These later gave way to Rome, where the art of the drama perished in its own corruption. For 1 1 over 600 years there was no drama or theatre in the world. The modern theatre, he says. Is the first offspring of religious worship. 1 Its cradle was the chancel of the i church. In the village church near . Gloucester, in England, the rude * beams on which the early actorpriests hung their crude scenery are still to be seen. The career of the . j Liturgical mystery plays came to an -; end with the rise of the Corpus > Christi plays toward the end of the 13th century. ’ j The mystery pi ... to the I Moralities, of which "Everyman” is perhaps the best example. They became largely ethical and sought to j represent the virtues and vices of t everyday life. In 1516 Cardinal Wolsey forbade the clergy to become j “common players,” and in the middle -1 of the 16th century Bishop Bonner j issued a proclamation to his clergy | prohibiting “all manner of common | plays, games or interludes to be played j within their churches.” This helped really in the final breakj away from the church, and opened a new chapter in the history of the theatre. The first two secular plays to be written were; “Ralph Roister Doister” and “Gamma Gerton’s Needle.” Then came that glorious outburst of genius headed by Shakespeare. The secular drama really began with Ileywood, who died a year before Shakej speare was born. Later came the period of the Commonwealth and the domination of Puritanism. Soon the theatre, as the j other arts, was in a bad way. and its | tone degenerated. The drama be- < came the outspoken expression, and systematic mouthpiece of the basest ; passions. In 1647 Parliament ordered j theatres to close, and gave power to t all magistrates against the players, | declaring them rogues. This period 1 lasted for 13 years, and ended with the restoration of Charles 11. The pendulum swung the other way under Charles, and plays were pre- ; sented representing sexuality and

vice in its worst form. The leacUon came with the publication of Jeremy Collier’s "Short View of the Profaneness and Immorality of the English Stage.” Things gradually grew better, and both authors and actors began to realise their respoasibilities as teachers of the common good. Mr. Bentley’s history of the stage is closely bound with the attitude of the church toward it. He points out that the church failed to take its opportunity when plays reached a higher standard after the days of Charles linn d did not help her offspring rise. He quotes W. H. Hudson as saying “that the stage today stands as high as it does, the stage itself Is to be commended; that it stands no higher, the church is mainly to be blamed.