Religious drama

In a broad sense, it can be thought of as referring to all plays with religious themes, but generally, religious plays refer to the Christian religious plays of the Middle Ages in Europe, which can be identified in terms of theater history, and non-professional plays that have inherited their lineage to the present day and are mainly performed by local communities. Needless to say, the origins of theater lie in religious rituals performed by communities and recreational impersonations. If impersonations are not just play, but are considered to be (magical) acts praying for bountiful harvests from hunting and farming, then impersonations are also part of rituals, and therefore theater can be said to have originally been religious plays. In fact, ancient Greek drama originated from Dionysian festivals, and Japanese Noh originated from Shinto rituals. However, these are not usually called religious plays. Modern plays and later plays with themes of Christian faith, such as Claudel's plays, are sometimes called religious plays, but this is not a term used in theater history. Thus, religious drama is a general term for various Christian plays that were born in medieval Europe, and based on the subject matter they are classified as resurrection (festival) plays, nativity plays, passion plays, prophet plays, miracle plays, morality plays, sacred history plays, etc. Incidentally, sacred history plays are also called Eucharist plays in some regions. The names cycle (continuous drama series) and pageant (processional drama) are mainly names that come from differences in the characteristics of the script and direction.

Western religious drama began to take a clear shape in the 10th century, but Eastern Europe, which inherited the culture of antiquity, was far ahead of Western Europe in this respect. The Eastern (Greek) Church had already begun to turn the Bible into dialogue in the 2nd century, and hymns, homilia (sermons with dialogues), and street processions added dramatic color to the liturgy. The 5th century Hymn by Proclus contains a serious first half of the Annunciation, followed by a humorous dialogue between Joseph, who berates his betrothed for his unfaithfulness, and the confused Mary. A similar dialogue, attributed to the 7th century Germanus, appears in its entirety in the 15th century English cycle, the Coventry Plays.

Attempts to dramatize the liturgy in various parts of Western Europe began in the first half of the 9th century, when St. Gallen in Switzerland and Limoges in France added melodies and explanatory lyric lyrics called tropes to the chants of the Mass. In particular, the Easter trope, a dialogue between three women who visited the tomb of Christ and an angel, "Whom do you seek (in the tomb)?" "Jesus of Nazareth," became the basis of Easter plays or liturgical dramas. On the other hand, there are also cases where Easter plays were created not from the liturgy but from sequences (readings) that sang of Mary's sorrow at the foot of the cross. In any case, it was the introduction of the scene of the spice merchant and its farcicalization, and then the expansion of the scene of the soldiers guarding the tomb of Christ, that pushed the festival out of its framework and gave impetus to secularization in the sense of dramatization and the transition from Latin to vernacular.

The Nativity (Christmas) play also began in the 10th century with a trope between shepherds and an angel who came to look for the baby Jesus in a stable. In the 11th century, the Adoration of the Three Kings appeared, from which the Three Kings Play, which is part of the Nativity play, was derived. However, until the 13th century, the Madonna and Child were only depicted in altar paintings. It was only with the appearance of King Herod as the enemy that this became more dramatic. From this point on, the Nativity play, along with the Easter play, was incorporated into the Passion Play or the Holy History Play, while in some regions it remained in the church in its simple form, and has been passed down to this day as a Christmas Eve custom.

Prophetic plays (which overlap with legendary plays) that became popular in the 11th century were based on the deeds of Old Testament prophets and New Testament saints, but rather than bringing historical events into the present, they were dramatized sermons (lectio). Miracle plays, which often depict the love of Mary, were different from liturgical plays in that they had a strong secular color from the beginning, depicting human evil, and were performed outside of churches from an early stage. Corpus Christi plays, which appeared in the 14th century, are thought to be related to Corpus Christi, but do not necessarily originate from the Eucharistic procession. Eucharistic plays, which have expanded in scale, have almost the same content as passion plays and sacred history plays, but are more often performed in pageant format than the latter.

In the early days, religious plays were performed inside churches, especially in front of the altar, but gradually they were moved to the entrances of churches, and eventually, with the rise of the middle class, they began to be performed on the streets and in squares. Stage styles included the float stage (wagon), which was used in England and the Netherlands, and in the Eucharistic plays of Spain from the 16th century onwards, the parallel (simultaneous) stage (mansion), which was common in France and Germany, and a combination of the two. Float stages were mainly used in pageants, where a number of floats managed by each professional guild were brought out in succession to perform a series of plays such as miracle plays. Parallel stages, used for passion plays, had many spaces lined up in a row or a square from the beginning, and the audience moved from one to the other as the play progressed. Some of these were large-scale productions that lasted from three days to a week.

Religious drama reached its zenith in the 15th century with the mysteries of the past, but declined after the Renaissance and almost disappeared after the Reformation. However, some Catholic traditions still exist today, such as the passion plays that are held every ten years in the small village of Oberammergau in southern Germany.

[Kenji Ozaki]

"History of Western Drama" by Taro Sugawara (1973, Engeki Shuppansha) " "The World of Medieval Drama" by Mikiko Ishii (Chuko Shinsho)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

広義には宗教的テーマをもったすべての演劇をさすとも考えられるが、一般に宗教劇とは、演劇史的に特定できるヨーロッパ中世のキリスト教的な宗教劇と、その系統を現代まで引き継ぎ、おもに地域の共同体によって上演される非職業演劇のことをいう。いうまでもなく、演劇の源には共同体による宗教儀礼と遊戯的な物真似(ものまね)とがある。その物真似もただの遊びでなく、狩猟や農耕の豊かな収穫を願う（呪術(じゅじゅつ)的）行為とすれば、物真似もまた儀礼の一部であり、したがって演劇はもともと宗教劇であったといえよう。事実、古代ギリシア劇はディオニソスの祭礼に由来し、日本の能は神事に発する。しかし、これらを普通は宗教劇とはよばない。また近代以降の演劇についても、たとえばクローデルの戯曲のようなキリスト教信仰をテーマとしたものを宗教劇ということもあるが、演劇史的な呼称ではない。このように宗教劇とは中世ヨーロッパに生まれたさまざまなキリスト教劇の総称であり、題材のうえから復活（祭）劇、降誕祭劇、受難劇、預言者劇、奇跡劇、道徳劇、聖史劇などに分類される。なお聖史劇は地方によって聖体劇ともいわれる。またサイクルcycle（連続劇）とページェントpageant（行列劇）は、おもに台本と演出の特性の相違からくる呼び名である。

　西欧の宗教劇がはっきりした姿をみせ始めたのは10世紀からであるが、古代文化を直接受け継ぐ東欧はこの点でもはるかに西欧に先んじた。東方（ギリシア）教会はすでに2世紀に聖書の対話化に手をつけており、賛歌、ホミリアhomilia（対話入り説教）や街頭行列が典礼に演劇的彩りを添えた。5世紀のプロクロス作『マリア賛』には、懐胎のお告げのまじめな前半に続いて、許嫁(いいなずけ)の不実をなじるヨセフと困惑するマリアとの滑稽(こっけい)な対話がある。7世紀のゲルマノス作とされる同種の対話が、15世紀イギリスのサイクル『コベントリー劇』にそっくりそのまま出ている。

　西欧各地における典礼を演劇化しようとする試みは9世紀前半、スイスのザンクト・ガレンとフランスのリモージュでほぼ同じころ、ミサ典礼の唱句にトロープスtropusとよばれる旋律および説明的な歌詩を加えたことから始まる。とくにキリストの墓を訪れた3人の女たちと天使との間で交わされた復活祭トロープス、「あなたがたは（墓の中に）だれを探しているのか」「ナザレのイエスを」という問答が復活祭劇ないし典礼劇の基礎となった。他方、典礼からではなく、十字架の足元におけるマリアの悲しみを歌ったセクエンツィアsequentia（読唱）から復活祭劇になった例もある。いずれにせよ祝祭の枠をはみだし、演劇化という意味での世俗化、ラテン語から俗語への移行にはずみをつけたのは、香料商人の場の導入とその茶番化であり、ついでキリストの墓の見張りをする兵士の場の拡大であった。

　降誕祭(クリスマス)劇も10世紀に、幼子(おさなご)イエスを馬小屋に探しにきた羊飼いと天使との間のトロープスから始まった。11世紀には三王（博士）の礼拝が現れ、これから降誕祭劇の一部である聖三王劇が派生した。しかし13世紀まで聖母子は祭壇の画で表されるだけであった。これが劇的になるのは、敵(かたき)役としてのヘロデ王の登場からである。これ以後、降誕祭劇は復活祭劇とともに受難劇または聖史劇の一部に組み込まれていく一方、地方によっては素朴な姿のまま聖堂内にとどまり、聖夜の慣習として今日まで伝えられている。

　11世紀に盛んになった預言者劇（伝説劇とも重複する）は、旧約の預言者や新約後の聖人たちの事績を主題とするが、歴史的できごとの現在化というよりも、むしろ説教(レクチオ)の演劇化である。マリアの愛を描くことの多い奇跡劇は、典礼から出発した劇と違って、初めから人間の悪をも描く世俗的色彩が強く、早くから教会の外で演じられていた。14世紀に現れた聖体劇(コーパス・クリスティ)は聖体祭に関係していると思われるが、かならずしも聖体行列に由来するものではない。規模の拡大した聖体劇は受難劇や聖史劇とほぼ同じ内容であるが、後者に比べてページェント形式で上演されることが多い。

　宗教劇の上演の場所は初期は聖堂内、とくに祭壇前であったが、しだいに教会玄関前に移され、やがて市民階級の勃興(ぼっこう)とともに街頭や広場で行われるようになった。舞台形式には、イギリスやネーデルラント、16世紀以降はスペインの聖体劇でも使われた山車(だし)舞台（ワゴン）と、フランスやドイツに多い並列（同時）舞台（マンション）と、さらに両者を組み合わせたものがあった。山車舞台はおもにページェントで用いられ、各職業組合(ギルド)が受け持つ多数の山車を順次に繰り出して、奇跡劇などの一連の劇を上演した。受難劇などに用いられた並列舞台は、初めから多くの場を一列または方形に並べたもので、観客は劇の進行につれて順次移動した。これらは3日間から1週間に及ぶ大仕掛けなものもあった。

　宗教劇は15世紀の聖史劇に至って頂点に達したが、ルネサンス以降は衰退に向かい、宗教改革によってほとんど姿を消した。しかし、今日でもカトリック地方の一部にその伝統を残しており、なかでも南ドイツの小村オーバーアマーガウで10年ごとに行われる受難劇が有名である。

［尾崎賢治］

『菅原太郎著『西洋演劇史』（1973・演劇出版社）』▽『石井美樹子著『中世劇の世界』（中公新書）』

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