| Show STUDENT LIFE quently their Christmas festivities were of a vigorous enthusiastic sort not found today One writer says “In the coarser days of our ancestors riot and revelry did go hand in hand but the revelry was of a lusty vigorous and hearty sort unknown to these quieter times which have eliminated the riot” We might think of the people then as big overgrown children happv and good natured in their crude festivities As the Christmas festivals in “Merrie England” differed from those of the present so did the attitude of her people toward the birth of the Savior and the events connected with his life differ from that of our generation Today we regard the birth of Christ and the events connected with it as extremely sacred Not so with our ancestors Our early English thoughts go back to the manger to the stable in which the Child Jesus was born and a feeling of awe and reverence comes over us We regard the simple shepherds who saw the “star” in the East and hastened to the manger where lay the Virgin and the Child in a far different light from that in which they were held by the simple people of “Mer-ri- e England” There are two plays to which I should like to call attention which illustrate this attitude far better than I can describe it They are The Pageant of the Shearmen and Taylors and the Second Shepherd's Play I mention these plays because they were written and produced at this time and voiced the 73 thoughts and sentiments of the people It was the English people who made the English drama what it was and the drama represented as nothing else could the feelings and tendencies of the Elizabethan people The mode of presentation was crude and the place of presentation was cruder still for there were no theatre buildings or David Garricks when these plays were produced Yet the people were satisfied and eager for this kind of thing because as I have said the drama represented life about them as they saw it and felt it and lived it Before going on with these two plays T shall try to give an idea of how they were produced The several trade guilds would each put on some play or pageant representing as nearly as possible their vocation in life For instance the water-carriewould represent Noah and the Flood the tanners took the Fall of Lucifer the cooks had the Harrozvittg of Hell the shearmen and “taylors” represented the pageant mentioned above The stage was built on wheels so that it could be moved about through the different parts of the city “The performers would begin at the Abbey gates where they were witnessed by the high dignitaries of the church They then proceeded to the High Cross where the mavor and civic magonates were assembled and then on through the city until the motley history of God and His dealings with men had been played” “The stage moved from street corner to street corner where there was a rs |
