ABSTRACT
The traditional morality play had both an immediate and a delayed influence on the Elizabethan drama. The morality play appeared to the Elizabethans as a set of traditional stage conventions of plot and character that could be put to many useful and contemporary theatrical purposes in the emerging popular drama. In this profusion of experiments three early Elizabethan dramatic inventions based on the morality emerge as of particular interest and importance. They are the nascent traditions of moral comedy, the political history play, and homiletic tragedy. The path of the Elizabethan morality leads ironically and brilliantly back to the paradox of mankind and the political microcosm, thanks in interesting measure to Elizabethan attempts at censorship of political controversy on the stage. The trend of serious moral drama of this early Elizabethan kind is toward ‘fable’ and tragedy, and hence away from ritual structure.
