1. Miracle Plays

2. Miracle Plays Miracle plays developed from the Liturgical Dramas They tell the stories of the lives of the Saints & other religious figures of acknowledged miracles The oldest extant Miracle Play in English is the Harrowing of Hell (13th century) It tells of the descent of Christ to the hell of the damned It is an Easter play

3. Miracle Plays Many involved the intervention of the Virgin Mary or the saints, in response to the prayers of a true believer Inspired by religion, but set in the real world, the plots inevitably contained a striking theatrical (miraculous) climax. Miracle plays flourished especially in the 13th and 14th centuries and were usually performed by amateurs

4. Miracle Plays The best-known are Bodel'sJeu de Saint Nicolas Rutebeuf'sMiracle de Théophile Miracles de Nostre Dame par personnages (a collection) Most were relatively small-scale plays, rarely more than 2, 500 lines long Popular topics were Mary Magdalene and Saint Nicholas

5. Miracle Plays Contributed to the development of drama due to their secularization Added complex technical devices, called feintes, for the miraculous climaxes. The term miracle is rarely used to describe religious plays after the 14th century