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3 results

  • Chapter 11 - Drama

  • from Part II - Literary Forms
  • Jeffrey W. Barbeau, Wheaton College, Illinois
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Companion to British Romanticism and Religion
    Published online:
    01 October 2021
    Print publication:
    21 October 2021, pp 180-196

  • Summary

    Not simply the persistence of Greek and Roman comedy and tragedy, drama of the modern era had its rebirth in the liturgical performances within the church. Once the miracle and morality plays were moved out of the church, literally pro-fane, their secularized forms were soon suspected of degeneration, and the antitheatrical prejudice was promulgated. To control the possibly disruptive effects of the drama, censorship was introduced to spare leaders of Church or state from being maligned on stage. The Church of England may have been protected but Gothic melodrama found its villains and victims among the monks and nuns. Methodists, Quakers, Jews, dissenters, and nonconformists were targets for theatrical ridicule or abuse. Circumventing the proscriptions of the Licensing Act (1737), Shakespeare’s history plays provided a model for representing religious conflict on stage.