Easter Drama - Popularization

Popularization

When, in course of time, as shown in the Easter Play of Trier, German translations were added to the original texts as sung and spoken, the popularizing of the Easter Play had begun. That of Muri Abbey, in Switzerland, belongs to this period, and is written entirely in German. But it was only after the popular element had asserted itself strongly in all departments of poetry, in the 14th and 15th centuries, that the popular German religious drama was developed. This was brought about chiefly by the strolling players who were certainly responsible for the introduction of the servant, of the ointment-vender (named Rubin), whose duty it was to entertain the people with coarse jests (Wolfenbüttel, Innsbruck, Berlin, Vienna, and Mecklenburg Easter Plays, 1464). The Latin Easter Plays, with their solemn texts, were still produced, as well as the German plays, but gradually, being displaced by the latter, the Latin text was confined to the meagre Biblical element of the plays and the player's directions. The clergy still retained the right to direct these productions, even after the plays reflected the spirit and opinions of the times. Popular poetry, gross and worldly, dominated in the plays, particularly susceptible to the influence of the Carnival plays.