English Empire

                                                   Morality Play M orality Play:-   Morality play is a kind of allegorical drama having personified abstract qualities as the main characters and presenting a lesson about good  conduct and character, popular in the 15 th and early 16 th centuries. Morality play, form of medieval drama that developed in the late 14 th century, and flourished through the 16 th century. The characters in the morality were personifications of good and evil usually involved in a struggle for a man’s soul. The form was generally static, but contributed significantly to the secularization of European drama. The first known moralities were called the paternoster plays.

                                                Miracle play Miracle play:- Miracle play or mystery play, form of medieval drama that came from dramatization of the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church. It developed from the 10 th to 16 th centuries, reaching its height in the 15 th century. The simple lyric character of the early texts, as shown in the Quem Quoeritis, was enlarged by the addition of dialogue and dramatic action. Eventually the performance was moved to the Churchyard and the market place. Miracle play is also called Saint’s play, one of three principle kinds of vernacular drama of the European middle ages. A miracle play presents a real or fictitious account of the life, miracles, or martyrdom of a saint. The genre evolved from liturgical offices developed during the 10 th and 11 th centuries to enhance calendar festivals. By the 13 th century they had become circularized and filled with ecclesiastic elements. They had been divorced from church services

                                                      Masque Masque:- The Masque Was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16 th and early 17 th century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio. A  masque involved music and dancing, singing and acting, within an elaborate stage design, in which the architectural farming and costumes might be designed by a renowned architect, to present a deferential allegory flattering to the patron. Professional actors and musicians were hired for the speaking and singing parts. Often the masquers, who didn’t speak or sing, were courtiers.

                                                    Interlude Interlude:- An interlude is a literary device used by the authors/ dramatists to provide comic relief to the audience from an overpowering tragic or gloomy mood created by highly tragic scenes. The interlude may be totally in contrast to the tragic mood but in some or the way still be connected to the main theme of the play. In Shakespeare’s tragedies, one finds such comic interludes frequently such as Grave Diggers’ scene. Or an interlude is when an author takes a break from the narrative to insert in a story or piece of information that is some way thematically connected to the work

                                                     Farce Farce:- is a comic dramatic piece that uses highly improbable situations, stereotyped characters, extravagant exaggeration, and violent horseplay. The term also refer to the class of form of drama made up of such compositions. Farce is generally regarded as intellectually and aesthetically inferior to comedy. In its crude characterization and implausible plots, but it has been sustained by its popularity in performance and has persisted throughout the western world to the present.

                                    Comedy of Manners Comedy of Manners:-  is form of dramatic comedy that depicts and often satirizes the manners and affections of a contemporary society. A comedy of manner is concerned with the social usage and the question of whether or not characters meet certain social standards. Often the governing social standard is morally trivial but exacting. The plot of such a comedy, usually concerned with an illicit love affair or similarly scandalous matter, is subordinate to the play’s brittle atmosphere. The comedy of manners, Which was usually written by sophisticated authors for members of their own coterie or social class, has historically thrived in periods and societies that combined material prosperity and moral latitude. Such was the case in ancient Greece when Menander inaugurated new comedy, the forerunner of comedy of manners. Menander’s smooth style, elaborate plots, and stock characters were imitated by the Roman poets Plautus and

                                      Comedy of Humours Comedy of Humours :-   The comedy of humours is a genre of dramatic comedy that focuses on a character or range of characters, each of whom exhibits two or more overriding traits or humours that dominates their personality, desire and conduct. This comic technique may be found in Aristophanes, but the English playwrights Ben Jonson and George Chapman  popularize the genre in the closing years of the sixteen century. In the later half of the seventeenth century, it was combined with the comedy of manners in Restoration comedy.