ABSTRACT
The religious drama which developed during the mediaeval period seems to owe little or nothing to the classical drama of Rome or of Greece; either to the literary drama or to that more popular type to be found in the Roman mime. The interpretation which the Middle Ages attached to the terms tragoedia and comoedia shows how completely all knowledge of the Roman literary drama had vanished. The Church, after all, was not interested in drama for its own sake, but was simply seeking for vivid methods of expressing its great mysteries and of enforcing their meaning to the common people. The Christmas observances were almost as popular as those at Easter and there too the drama was gradually developed, probably in imitation of the Easter plays and from a trope which had been influenced by the Easter Quern Quaeritis.
