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10 - Saints' plays

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2006

By
Darryll Grantley
Edited by
Richard Beadle
Richard Beadle
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

Any attempt to consider medieval saints' plays as a genre is fraught with difficulty because of the paucity of extant examples, the ambiguity or incompleteness of records relating to auspices and to lost plays and the inherent difficulty of arriving at some sort of definition of form. A number of theorists have attempted to define this drama. J. M. Manly, in presenting a challenge to the evolutionary theory of drama, saw the saint's play as a spontaneous coming together of the drama and the saint's legend, which was a regular feature of the church sevice (32, pp. 585-6). legend was defined by G. H. Gerould as:

... a biographical narrative, of whatever origin circumstances may dictate, written in whatever medium might be convenient, concerned as to substance with the life, death and miracles of some person accounted worthy to be considered a leader in the cause of righteousness; and whether fictitious or historically true, calculated to glorify the memory of its subject. (345, p. 5)

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Chapter
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The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Theatre , pp. 265 - 289
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1994

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  • Saints' plays
  • Edited by Richard Beadle, University of Cambridge
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Theatre
  • Online publication: 28 May 2006
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521366704.010
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  • Saints' plays
  • Edited by Richard Beadle, University of Cambridge
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Theatre
  • Online publication: 28 May 2006
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521366704.010
Available formats
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  • Saints' plays
  • Edited by Richard Beadle, University of Cambridge
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Theatre
  • Online publication: 28 May 2006
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521366704.010
Available formats
×