These crude plays were followed in the 14th century by the 'Miracle.' This was a complete and lengthy drama which owed its title to the fact that the denouement always lay in the miraculous intervention either on the part of a Saint, of God, or more particularly, the Holy Virgin, the latter appealing to popular imagi nation. There was much scenery, the plot was complicated and called for a large number of executants.
There exist 40 'Miracles de Notre Dame.' They are complete plays, fairly well arranged and containing not more than 1,000 to 3 ignore ,000 verses. They gnore both unity of time and unity of place, but they do observe unity of action. The dramatic interest is generally sus tained.
Les klistires.* (15th and 16th Century).— The same thing cannot be said of mysteries, or more correctly raistPres (from ministerium, sig nifying drama, and not musterion, a mysterious thing). These are works of exag gerated length, many parts of which have little apparent relation to the whole. 'Le Mistere du Vieil Testament' contains 60,000 verses, 'le Mistere de la Passion,' by Greban, 35,000, and ales Actes des Apotres' more than 50,000. Their performance lasted several days, some times weeks.
The subject is almost exclusively taken from the Scripture. There exist, however, a few secular tn.:stares, such as 'le Mistere de Troie' (1463), 'le Mistere du Siege d'Orlians) (1439). But even these are religiously inspired and were performed honor of God for the in struction of the poor." The entire population participated in the preparation and organization of a mistere. There were no professional actors to play these numerous roles, sometimes as many as 100, 200 or even 500, in addition to a host of other figurants. The corporations and the brother hoods supervised the enterprise. The most celebrated brotherhood was the Confririe de la Passion, organized in Paris at the end of the 14th century, which had the monopoly for mis teres as regards the capital, and continued in existence for 250 years. The actors, nearly all giving their services free, were recruited from every class of society: artisans, commoners and even priests; the role of Christ was always, chosen from among them. Women only played mute roles, at any rate at first, the female char» acters being impersonated by young men. Per formances were announced several weeks in advance by means of a cry, i.e., a solemn proc lamation. An imposing procession, preceded by trumpeters and including the actors, arrayed in gorgeous costumes, paraded the town collecting alms and recruitinffi the figurants or panics playing secondary roles. The stage, which was
very large, with a width of from 30 to 50 meters, showed several scenes in juxtaposition: a house, a chuich, a forest, a cavern. Paradise was represented by a loggia erected at the back of the stage, and Hell by a sort of cavity ar ranged in the place which is now occupied by the prompter's box, from which the demons rushed out on to the stage.
Everything was arranged with a view to striking the imagination; flames escaped from the jaws of Hell, drums were beaten and claps of thunder were heard. By mechanical means, angels were shown descending from Heaven, and the "damned' disappeared through trap doors. Scenes Were shown of torture, cruci fixion and decapitation. It was a highly realis tic performance and as bold as it was simple.
These plays on a prodigious scale were abso lutely incoherent, they took the form of a re view of the acts of men, saints and demons. Comedy continually intermingled with tragedy. The devil was usually represented as a kind of buffoon or big booby, flouted and beaten to the great delight of the spectators. It must be borne in mind that these simple-minded people had to be supplied with plays suited to their particular mentality. Their emotions required variety. They would weep at the sufferings of Christ, but shake with laughter at a coarse farce or a drunken brawl in a disreputable gaming house. After a mystical oration they expected, and often demanded, licentious and even obscene entertainment.
Performed with the object of pleasing the populace, the misteres possessed all those de fects inherent to pieces created for popular con sumption, eventually descending to the level of common melodrama or farce. They were al most altogether devoid of artistic merit and the rare poetical passages they contained could not save them from well-deserved oblivion. These dramatic poems, quite inferior to the Miracles of the 14th century, contain practi cally nothing of interest to the modern reader. They had an enormous success at the time and they retained their popularity until about the middle of the 16th century, but their coarse humor, which approached the sacreligious, ulti mately alarmed the Church, and by a decree of the Paris Parliament, voted in 1548, they were suppressed in the capital. They survived a few years longer in the provinces but finally disap peared. Public taste, which had been influenced by the Renaissance, demanded art of a more refined character.