BookRix

The Old Classical Drama Of Greece And Rome Died, Surfeited With Horror
And Uncleanness. Centuries Rolled By, And Then, When The Old Drama Was
No More Remembered Save By The Scholarly Few, There Was Born Into The
World The New Drama. By A Curious Circumstance Its Nurse Was The Same
Christian Church That Had Thrust Its Predecessor Into The Grave.

A Man May Dig His Spade Haphazard Into The Earth And By That Act
Liberate A Small Stream Which Shall Become A Mighty River. Not Less
Casual Perhaps, Certainly Not Less Momentous In Its Consequences, Was
The First Attempt, By Some Enterprising Ecclesiastic, To Enliven The
Hardly Understood Latin Service Of The Church. Who The Innovator Was Is
Unrecorded. The Form Of His Innovation, However, May Be Guessed From
This, That Even In The Fifth Century Human Tableaux Had A Place In The
Church Service On Festival Occasions. All Would Be Simple: A Number Of
The Junior Clergy Grouped Around A Table Would Represent The 'Marriage
At Cana'; A More Carefully Postured Group, Again, Would Serve To Portray
The 'Wise Men Presenting Gifts To The Infant Saviour'. But The Reality
Was Greater Than That Of A Painted Picture; Novelty Was There, And,
Shall We Say, Curiosity, To See How Well-Known Young Clerics, Members Of
Local Families, Would Demean Themselves In This New Duty. The
Congregations Increased, And Earnest Or Ambitious Churchmen Were
Incited To Add Fresh Details To Surpass Previous Tableaux.