MORALITY (OF. mora/itc, Fr. mumble', from Lat. piora i las, morality, character, from months, relating to manners, from mos, custom). The third stage in the development of the modern drama, following upon the mystery and the miracle play (qq.v.). Essentially the morality was an ethical treatise east in dramatic form. According to the usual plot, various personages, each representing a virtue or a vice, contend for dominion over an abstraction called Mankind. The virtues usually win. The serious character of the play was relieved by comic scenes and buf foonery. The leading Vice, a sort of clown, in time became the centre of attraction, and is thouit to have been the origin of the Fool of Shakespeare's plays. Besides the virtues and vices, however, allegorical personages were in troduced, such as Riches, Good Deeds, Death: in fact, any human condition or quality. The French moralities adhered less strictly to these purely abstract qualities, and even the later English authors are more apt to use historical characters celebrated for the rice or virtue in question, as Aristides instead of abstract Jnstice. Later still,
as the passions of the Reformation were stirred up, actual etu 1 men and women were shown under very thin disguises. In other ways the morality was a distinct advance toward the regular drama. There being no prescribed plot as in the mysteries and miracle plays, it was necessary to create one, with a clear end toward which the action of the characters was to lead up. So close, in fact, did the morality come to the regular drama that it did not cease to he acted in England until almost the end of the reign of Elizabeth. In 1902 and 1903 •E rcrym an, perhaps the best morality in English. was performed in England and in the rnited States by a company of English players under Ben Greet. Though this play lacks swift ness of action, its sincerity is unbroken; its moralizing, does not fall into platitudes, and various scenes, for instance the appeal to Riches, are poignantly dramatic.