" But
our primitive stage was a chapel-of-ease, as it were, to the Church.
The plays were founded upon the lives of the saints, or upon the
events of the Old and New Testaments, and were contrived and performed
by the clergy, who borrowed horses, harness, properties, and hallowed
vestments from the monasteries, and did not hesitate even to paint and
disguise their faces, in order to give due effect to their
exhibitions, which were presented not only in the cathedrals,
churches, and cemeteries, but also "on highways or greens," as might
be most convenient. In 1511, for instance, the miracle-play of "St.
George of Cappadocia" was acted in a croft, or field, at Basingborne,
one shilling being paid for the hire of the land. The clergy, however,
were by no means unanimous as to the propriety and policy of these
dramatic representations. They were bitterly attacked in an
Anglo-French poem, the "Manuel de Peche," written about the middle of
the thirteenth century, and ascribed to Robert Grossetete, who became
Bishop of Lincoln in 1235. Gradually the kind of histrionic monopoly
which the Church had long enjoyed was invaded.
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