English and Croatian medieval religious drama archetext and intertexts

Abstract

Medieval church drama, which for centuries was not considered of greater lirerary value met with a sudden revival in the second half of this century, especially after the performances in England in 1951, when theatrical qualities of some of the church plays were recognized. The studies of religious plays assumed extensive proportions in many histories of European literatures. Old Croatian literature is rather rich in the medieval religious drama, both pertaining to biblical and legendary subjects. The same archetexts (the Bible, apocryphal gospels, etc.) were bases for the church plays in Europe, and so both in English und Croatian literatures. Owing to different social, economic, cultural and othen conditions the same themes developed in different ways, but the same elements remained. The comparison between the religious plays in two literatures (English and Croatian) shows an aberration from their sources, not only in structure but also in content, different forms of religious thought often rooted in the national character in each contury. The English Passion plays The Harrowing of Hell and The Resurraction are compared with two Old Croatian mysteris, i. e. Prikazanje o uskrsnuću Isusovu and Prikazanje slavnoga uskrsnutja Isukrstova. Such comparisons can help in dating some mystery plays, discovering the intensity of influence and the degrees of originality of the Croatian and English medieval religious plays.