ABSTRACT
Within the old ground-rules that had applied from the early years of the fourteenth century, legitimacy had been accorded to dramatic performances as welcome holiday activities that served both educative and devotional purposes in celebrating the principal festivals of the Catholic Church year. Thus the licence accorded to both play-making and play-acting prior to 1530 offered itself to reformers as a prime target for immediate scrutiny with a view to severe restriction, curtailment or outright suppression. In consequence, a far more relaxed attitude was adopted in Italy, Spain and Portugal to the legitimacy of theatrical performances and their relationship to Calendar Festivals than was the case in France, Britain, Switzerland and all German-speaking states throughout the first half of the sixteenth century. Radical change and innovation was thus already well advanced as the 1560s gave way to the next decade and any lingering respect for the attachment of theatrical performances to Christian Calendar Festivals was rapidly fading out of view.
