steries of Religion plays will, I hope, be
sufficient to show the reader how they were associated with Pantomime.
The Moralities, founded on the Mysteries, were the means used to
inculcate, by the aid of a slight plot, religious truths without
directly using scriptural or legendary subjects. Malone says of
them:--"I am unable to ascertain when the first Morality appeared, but
incline to think not sooner than the reign of Edward IV. (about 1460).
The public pageants of the reign of his predecessor were uncommonly
splendid, and being then _first_ enlivened by the introduction of
_speaking_ allegorical personages, properly and characteristically
habited, naturally led the way to these personifications, by which
Moralities were _distinguished from_ the simple religious dramas called
Mysteries."

The Interlude, that was the progenitor of English Comedy, next arrived.
The origin of the Interlude is credited to John Heywood.

It is interesting to note that a play, entitled, "Gammer Gurton's
Needle," is credited with being our first English Comedy, though its
humour and wit, it is stated, is of a low and sordid kind. Others make
claim for the comedy, "Ralph Roister Doister."

Tragedy and Comedy now began to raise their heads, yet they could not,
for some time, do more than bluster and quibble. There is an excellent
criticism on them by that distinguished statesman, poet, scholar, and
brave soldier, Sir Philip Sydney. "Some of their pieces were only '_dumb
shews_,' some with choruses, and some they explained by an
Interlocutor," says an old writer on the subject. The mention of
Pantomime in connection with tragedy, and as an example how Pantomime
was requisitioned in Shakespeare's time, is shown in the Second Scene of
Act III. of "Hamlet," wherein the "dumb shew" is given by the players.

The true drama, however, received birth and perfection from the creative
geniuses of Shakespeare, Beaumont and Fletcher, Jonson, and others.
Though the stage no sooner began to talk than it grew scurrilous, and
plays were thought "Dangerous to Religion, the State, Honesty, and
Manners, and also for Infection, in Time of Sickness." Wherefore they
were afterwards for some time suppressed. But upon application to the
Queen and Council they were again tolerated under the following
restrictions: "That no Plays be acted on Sundays at all, nor on any
other Holidays till after Evening Prayer. That no playing be in the
_Dark_, nor continue and such