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Show What Christianity Has Done for the Drama. I Mr. Hall Caine. the distinguished nov- 1 ' fhst. delivered an address on the '"hurrh and the Drama," at a Catholic liazar several weeks ago. Mr .Caine, Fpfakine as a dramatist, said he recognized recog-nized "the good fe'eling which had near-. near-. !y always existed between the drama- ' lists and the Roman church. That thureh had been the friend of the drama in nearly all ages and coun-trit-s. The English drama in its earliest ear-liest form had probably been made by monks and priests, and the morality '!ays were almost certainly intended as illustrations to the teachings of the pulp.it. When the drama widened its fnpp and embraced scenes of secular ; life, the Catholic church still clung to it. encouraged it, and guided it. The I 'huri-h has not been responsible for : hat the drama had done in later and more licentious days, but even at the era ma's lowest, the church had held on to it and tried to lift it up." Hall Caine's remarks were the sub-of sub-of articles and letters in a eonsid- nable number of the English daily pa-r pa-r I'rs. some writers agreeing with the fp'-aker. and others, under the influ--n-e of Protestant bias, showing their dissatisfaction, as on the occasion of ;i fornix- speech bv the distinguished rov.nst. because he spoke well of -Pom " FN The Liverpool Times makes Mr. ' aiiiM's address the subject of the following fol-lowing interesting sketch of the church fend its attitude "through the centuries toward the staee: The- church, no doubt, was at first averse to the theatre, but the theatre tn.-n merited anathema, for it had fa'.l-r. h.w. It was not actors reciting i '::. v.rs,.s and noble maxims that ex- "1 th-- hostility of the Christians: the '!'i'"sk'.on was aroused by the vilest iasch io;;sr.f-ss. The church could not '' otherwise than strongly condemn 'ns ;n which imagination was ap-I-a:- to by what was most scandalous i impure. Yet. though the church ioiind it neeessary to denounce the the-f;t'f'. the-f;t'f'. it did not abolish it. The work "f destruction was effected by the in-v in-v -ion of the barbarians. Scarcely was i: aof-ompHshed when theatrical pres- Nation came forth in a new form from Hi- bosom of the church. The sacred i:ics.ge of the Gospel was dramatized. 'hat the (kjspel relates of the birth ' the Savior was visibly presented in hurchthe crib, the shepherds, the 'ration of the Magi, and o on. In theatrical revival, the Greek meth-f meth-f "is "i Thoppip were adapted to Christian Chris-tian lites. and the forms followed more "t i'-ss those of the classic dramatists. ' -At '"onstantinople. St. Gregory Nazlan-" Nazlan-" 1 substituted for satyric dances. '-''"tiori from the church's treasury or 1 v.. ... 1. cvolnnme a i 'iuis. ana me win ! I'l'tisiian drariia went on through later The Ha evidently occurred to the J'linc churchmen of that time-that m r' tistianized lands the lrama couii l"-,)ne what it wa in Gree-e duriNg 1h" davs of Escbvlus. Sophocles.. Euil-1'i' Euil-1'i' s, and". Aristophanes a powerful M-ansof instructing the people and n-nhmz n-nhmz their minds with ennobling "uchts. In the solitude of the'clois-1-v at Gandersheim. Hroswltha, a Bene-,:''ine Bene-,:''ine nun. thought, in the rfwenth "''tiny, she could do nothing tle I") ihe promotion of Christianity than t'iar.t to religious representation tne 'ie of an author such as Terence. In J-nirland. the Chester. Coventry ana Hkcfifld nT1(1 york plays were ?nct- 1 with no little skill, and oonti-itouted notable share to the religious e-'i"n e-'i"n of the citizens. At Chester the Mays iK-g-an to be performed- at least, '-arlv at 1250. and it is on record that It 1he peaceful attendance of spectators -as encouraged directly by the Pope. The set of Chester plays, which as. 'lited bv Thomas Wright for the 'kespeare society in 1S43 and 184,. lumbers twenty-five.- . The catholic guilds, which were also I due to the suggestion and countenance counten-ance of the church, took up the acting and vied with one another in producing produc-ing the most striking episodes in the history of creation as narrated in the P.ible. ' Noah and the Flood" was I played by the water carriers, the "Fall of Lucifer" by the tanners, and the "Death of Abel" by the drapers. Each guild took pride in the stage effects which it provided, and the ingenuity of its members was exerted in making mak-ing the preparations as perfect as possible. pos-sible. The performance began early in the morning and lasted for three days. The crowd was regaled by pageants as brilliant as the art of the time could make them. One wagon went by bearing bear-ing a living picture of the Creation, another 'followed representing "Noah and the Flood," and in this way the onlookers were kept on the alert till the arrival of the "Last Judgment." The Wakefield plays, which were edited ed-ited by Dr. Lingard for the Surtees society in 1S36, were written by the monks of Woolkirk, and, like the Chester Ches-ter series, passed into the hands of the guilds. In order to make them thoroughly popular, the authors introduced intro-duced into them many local dialectic phrases. The ooen aid popular drama, how ever, did not prove the absolute success suc-cess that its authors, the clergy, intended in-tended it to be. The representations degenerated. There were parodies of most solemn scenes and the church's I support and sympathy were gradually withdrawn Nevertheless, the formation forma-tion of what may be called the regular regu-lar theatre arose from the religious drama. Pilgrims who were putting Mystery plays before crowds In Paris and the neighborhood were threatened with an Interdict by the provost marshal. mar-shal. Annoyed and out of sorts, King Charles VI who succeeded to the throne in 13S0 went to see the representation. repre-sentation. He was amused and authorized au-thorized a dramatic company. This was the first instance of a regular constitution con-stitution being given to the theatre in the provostship and viscounty of Paris Par-is Not only did the priests cater by the Mysterv plays for the dramatic instincts in-stincts of the people, but in countries ! uch as Italy. France and Spain names of clerics figure among the best dramatic dra-matic authors, whilst it was the monks, by whose labors the plays of Greece and- Rome were preserved, that made possible in the renaissance the return to classic models. If we go back to the religious poems of Caedmon and Cynewulf. and examine exam-ine the contributions to the drama and poetic literature generally in this coun try from that time iorwaro. u..u that so long as the church had power here he stimulated and inspired the productions of the greatest poets. Tt may be that, as In the pages of Chaucer Chau-cer criticisms of ecclesiastical persons and customs found a large Place in their works, but they showed at the same time that they recognized the importance of religion and admired the I clergyman who taught "Cristes lore and "folwede it himselve." We cannot can-not agree with Hall Caine's opinion that Shakespeare was probably a Prot-lestant. Prot-lestant. We think the probability is that he was of the same creed as Dry-den Dry-den and Pope. Thomas Carl vie, no friend of the Catholic church, has said: "Catholicism gave us Shakeks-peare." Shakeks-peare." There can. at any rate, be no doubt that he was animated by a Catholic spirit and that he owed his best qualities to mediaeval Catholic England as opposed to Puritan England. Eng-land. He perceived, as did even Goethe and Schiller, the great non-Catholic dramatists mentioned by Hall Caine. how largely the world was indebted to tvie Catholic church for her zeal on behalf of learning and literature. |