MORALITY PLAY

After the success of Mystery Play, the next stage in the history of English drama is the morality play. This was didactic in purpose; but its characters, instead of being taken from the holy Bible of from the legends of the saints, were personified abstractions. All kind of mental and moral qualities appeared as characters in the play- perseverance, Free Will, the five senses, the Seven Deadly sins, good and bad angels, etc. Among such personifications, there was generally a place for the Devil who had held a prominent position in the mircle plays. A later introduction of much importance was the so-called Vice, who was a humorous personification of evil taken on the comic side. This was the recognized fun-maker of the piece. This character often scored a tremendous popular success by jumping on the devil's back, sticking thorns into him, beating him with a stick, and making him roar with pain.