The knight wins by purity and good deeds the sight of the Sacred Cup. (A modern painting, by Burne-Jones (see Book IV, Chapter XII), in the Pre-Raphaelite style.)

the general revival of interest in medieval life and roModern De- mance. (See Book IV, Chapter VIII.) The velopment greatest writer to make use of them was Tennyson, in his Idylls of the King. But William Morris, Lowell, Swinburne, and countless others also took up in a new way the old but not exhausted themes.

(In music the old tales inspired Richard Wagner; in Lohengrin and Parsifal one finds the story of the Grail and its guardians.)

Amadis of
Gaul

After the Arthurian stories had run their course, there continued for some time stories of knightly adventure. One of the most famous of these later romances is Amadis of Gaul by Lobeira, a Spanish writer. Such romances held popular favor down to the seventeenth century.

The old romance had its merits, and the Arthurian stories collected by Malory will last as long as Shakspere. Charm of For they have high ideals and noble imagiMalory's Work nation. The old romancer can like the

Ancient Mariner - hold us with the wonder of his tale. The Noble and Joyous History of King Arthur still lives. What reader can fail to wish to know more of a story that begins like this:

Then Sir Gawaine and Sir Gaheris rode more than a pace after the white hart, and they let slip at the hart three couples of grey-hounds; and so they chased the hart into the castle, and in the chief place of the castle they slew the hart that Sir Gawaine and Sir Gaheris followed after. Right so there came a knight out of a chamber, with a sword in his hand, and slew two of the hounds, even in the sight of Sir Gawaine; and the remnant, he chased them with his sword out of the castle. And when he came again, he said "Oh, my white hart! it repenteth me that thou art dead, for my sovereign lady gave thee to me; and evil have I kept thee, and thy death shall be dearly

bought." And anon he went into his chamber and armed him, and came out fiercely, and there he met with Sir Gawaine.

From Morte d'Arthur, "The Book of the Three Quests."

An element to be observed in these Arthurian tales is their Celtic character. (See page 53.) They are far nearer the extracts on pages 54 ff. than

Celtic Traits

to Beowulf or the Sagas. They are full of a mystical element and a delight in beauty and color. And they have, too, a fluency, a liquid ease characteristic of Welsh and Irish tales. This is natural, for their origin lies, in part at least, in Celtic legends.

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW

What historical foundation for the tales about Arthur? Why is this unimportant in studying the stories?

Why might the Welsh (and the Cornish and Breton people) have retained legends about Arthur?

What did Geoffrey of Monmouth write? Why, though not worth reading, is his work important?

If the Arthurian stories do not show real life, what do they show a modern reader? What ideals and standards do they represent ? What religious traditions became united with the tales of Arthur? Who was Malory? What did he do for Arthurian stories? Why is his book worth reading?

What modern poets have made use of these tales? What modern musician and dramatist?

Compare the extract from Malory with the Celtic extract on pages What resemblance? How do you account for it?

54, 55.

Medieval
Conditions

CHAPTER X

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH DRAMA

By the time of Chaucer, plays had already begun in England. These, like similar plays upon the continent, were almost childish in simplicity. The great traditions of the drama of the Greeks and the Romans had disappeared. It was as if Sophocles and Euripides had never written. The world had gone back to its childhood.

This return was not wholly bad. For this new world, being Teutonic and Christian, did not start from the same

Double Origin of English Drama

point as the Greeks, nor did it express the same spirit. It put into its new crude drama a spirit and character of its own; and later, when it added to its native genius the grace of classical art, it kept this new spirit and character. Shakspere is as great as Sophocles or Euripides and imitates them in many points; yet he is not like them.

66

If English drama had not acquired a character of its own before men returned to the study of the ancient drama, English drama might have been contented to copy the Greeks. But with a drama of their own taking shape, the English dramatists did not do this. "We will not," they might have said to the ancient Greek, we will not write your kind of play. But we will study and admire your play and learn from it how to make ours, in our own way, as good. We shall learn from you to climb our English mountain as you have climbed your Greek summit. Where you have your Euripides, we shall have our Shakspere.'

The new drama began in the Church. The Greek

plays had begun with hymns praising (and exhibiting) the deeds of gods and heroes. The Christian Religious plays began with stories from the Old or the Origin New Testament, or with legends of saints. Such plays were given as a rule upon the great religious days. At first they were given in the church itself. The anthem or introit gave a chance for responsive singing that soon became dialogue, and later there came action in harmony with the words. Naturally dramatic action within the service itself could not go far. The plays were removed, consequently, to the church porch, under the great entrance arch of the minster; later, to scaffolding in the church yard; and, at last, outside the church altogether, to the city streets. As interest developed, the human side, with a tendency to comedy, became stronger, and the clergy gave place to secular actors, to townsfolk, not unlike the group in Midsummer Night's Dream. The play separated from the Church and became a thing of the people.

Miracle Play

Such is the Miracle Play as it developed. We find it given in towns by the working people and becoming a feature of holidays. The different plays covered a great part of the Bible. Among the popular subjects were the Creation, the Flood, Abraham's intended sacrifice of Isaac, and the Slaughter of the Innocents, the last introducing that favorite "villain," the tyrant Herod. Our modern stage could not treat such subjects. But the devotion of a medieval audience lifted them above irreverence.

(We find two names used for these early plays, Miracle Plays and Mysteries. As applied in England, the names are interchangeable. Strictly speaking the Miracle Play dealt with the lives of saints, the Mystery with subjects connected with Christ.)