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Educational Morality Plays 1495--1575: a Thematic Analysis

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Educational Morality Plays 1495--1575: a Thematic Analysis University of Windsor Scholarship at UWindsor Electronic Theses and Dissertations Theses, Dissertations, and Major Papers 1-1-1962 Educational morality plays 1495--1575: A thematic analysis. Ignatius O'Neill University of Windsor Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd Recommended Citation O'Neill, Ignatius, "Educational morality plays 1495--1575: A thematic analysis." (1962). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 6314. https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/6314 This online database contains the full-text of PhD dissertations and Masters’ theses of University of Windsor students from 1954 forward. These documents are made available for personal study and research purposes only, in accordance with the Canadian Copyright Act and the Creative Commons license—CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivative Works). Under this license, works must always be attributed to the copyright holder (original author), cannot be used for any commercial purposes, and may not be altered. Any other use would require the permission of the copyright holder. Students may inquire about withdrawing their dissertation and/or thesis from this database. For additional inquiries, please contact the repository administrator via email ([email protected]) or by telephone at 519-253-3000ext. 3208. EDUCATIONAL MORALITY PLAYS 1495 - 1575 A THEMATIC ANALYSIS A Thesis Submitted to the Paculty of Graduate Studies through the Department of English in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts at Assumption University of Windsor by BROTHER IGNATIUS O'NEILL, F.S.C. B.A., Assumption University of Windsor, 1959 Windsor, Ontario, Canada A S S U tftiN UNIVERSITY L IM Y Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: EC52493 INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI® UMI Microform EC52493 Copyright 2008 by ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 E. Eisenhower Parkway PO Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Approved by* Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT This essay, for the first time, submits to an organ­ ized and comprehensive thematic analysis a group of plays, called “educational morality plays,” dating from 1495 to 1579. These plays are built around the central theme of educating young people morally and intellectually. The plays included are the following: A Goodly Interlude of Nature (1495), Interlude of the Four Elements (1520), Hyckescorner (1534), Mundus et Infans (1522), The Play of Wyt and Science (1540), The Interlude of Youth (1555), lusty Juventus (1565), The Longer Thou Livest the More Fool Thou Art (1560), like Will to Like (1568), The Marriage of Wit and Science (1569), Mice Wanton (1560), The Disobedient Child (1569), The Contract of Marriage of Wit and Wisdom (1579), The Glass of Government (1575). Because of the problem of length, I have excluded from this study all dramaturgical aspects of such, to fasten upon an analysis of the basic conflicts and themes of the plays: The nature of the child, the concepts of good and evil, the social milieu in which the child is reared, the nature of the dramatic conflict, the redemption of the mind and heart, the nature of the allegorical method employed in the plays, the conflict of humanist, medieval, pro-Catholic, and Protes­ tant influences, the religious doubts of the age, the rise of ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. secularism, the division of the generations, and so on. The plays reveal English drama in a transitional stage both in form and idea. The transference of medieval philosophical ideas into Elizabethan experience is evident in these dramas. They also bear witness to the continuity of dramatic development in England. They portray in a vivid manner the controversies and intimate concern of their age. iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PREFACE This essay treats of the Tudor educational morality play. This is a classification of plays transitional, in form, at least, between the medieval drama and the Elizabethan, sometimes combining features of the morality and the interlude, and having in common a concern with the education of youth. The period of these plays runs from 1495, the date of A Goodly Interlude of Nature, to 1579, the date of the last play in this series, The Contract of Marriage of Wit and Wisdom. As will become evident in the course of my analysis, there are two dis­ tinct groupings of these plays. All of these plays mirror the deepest interests of their age with educational subjects and make real the contro­ versies that centred around religious and humanist concerns. Theories that are dealt with in educational treatises, courte­ sy books, and religious tracts are given life and walk the stage. One sees in these plays how the individual of the age wrestled with new ideas and attempted to balance them with traditional outlooks. Faced as he was with religious and educational ideas of disturbing newness and great power, the man of the Tudor Age agonized toward a compromise or struck out in violent rejection. These plays are a prism of reactions to the conflicts of the time. They mirror the traditional view and the new scholastic moral. As Tucker Brooke points out, these plays responded to "all the conflicting waves of feeling iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. raised by the ebb and flow of Tudor Renaissance and Reforma­ tion .... They yielded to the slightest pressure of public opinion."'*' It will become evident that the plays are invaluable commentaries on other aspects of Tudor thought and practice: the rise of secularism, the secularization of drama, the na­ ture of the child, the problem of the true religion, the na­ ture of mental and moral decline, the nature of redemption, the operations of passions, the relation of Reason to Will and Imagination, and so on. Other matters, such as the place of the plays in the development of dramatic art, the legacy they left for future dramatists, such as Shakespeare, the po­ etic technique and development they display, I have been able only to touch upon, in order to confine myself to what the title implies - educational morality plays. If technical as­ pects of dramaturgy are touched upon, it is only incidentally. It is useful here to refer to the terms in which the interior dramas of the characters of these plays are cast, that is, the terms of Christian virtue and morality. To a modern reader the plays are apt to seem the peak of psycho­ logical naievete. To so judge is to miss the profound exper­ iences that the plays mirror. Though cast within the frame­ work of the age in terms of moral "labels” the plays reveal— if not always individually, at least collectively— a moment 1 The Tudor Drama, (Boston, 1911), p. 58. v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. of profound doubt, a psychological and moral concern which . constitute a worthwhile footnote to the history of man’s mind and soul, apart from purely historical or literary signifi­ cance. Like all true allegorical works, this group of plays possesses a surface simplicity and makes a generalization of life, in this case, into Christian terms. Yet it harbours a view— of man, of society and of the universe— of enduring val­ idity. Despite the obvious significance of these plays, how­ ever, there has not been any study which, to my knowledge, subjects the whole group to an analysis from quite the same point of view. Most authors have used the plays as purely historical events in the history of drama or in the develop­ ment of dramatic techniques. They have been examined as ex­ tensions of medieval thought, as humanist tracts, as Puritan propaganda, as examples of allegorical treatments of good and evil. In these analyses no significance is given to the plays as primarily educational in theme. Nor has the whole ’’series” of educational dramas been subjected to an analysis at once comprehensive and organized. The significance of the plays here considered as representative of a profound and continuing theme— the education of the mind and soul— has never been fully stated. Yet these dramas derive their chief value as idea from their common themes— themes which lie at the heart of the age which produced them. It should be noted, as well, that no author, no matter what his point of view, has treated all the plays in one study, but has chosen certain plays to vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. illustrate certain points. Here again, my purpose is dif­ ferent; it is the significance of all these dramatic treat­ ments centred around the educational themes that is focused upon. The reader will find the bibliography useful for con­ sulting books dealing with these plays from other or somewhat similar points of view (as well as, it may be added, for back­ ground material of an historical or philosophical nature). Interested persons will find the text of these plays somewhat difficult to come by unless they have at hand a very comprehensive library.
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