Music and Religious Compromise in John Bale's Plays

• Published in: Comparative drama Vol. 44; no. 3; pp. 325 - 349
• Main Author: Brokaw, Katherine Steele
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kalamazoo Comparative Drama, Department of English, Western Michigan University 22.09.2010; Western Michigan University; Comparative Drama; Western Michigan University, Department of English
• Subjects: Anglican churches; Bale, John; Bale, John (English historian); Bible; Catholicism; Church music; Drama; Dramatists; English drama; Infidelity; Morality plays; Music; Music practice; Political dramas; Prose; Protestant churches; Protestantism; Religion; Religious conversion; Religious drama; Religious rituals; Ritual music; Rituals; Sacred music; Sedition; Theater; Theater history; Verse plays; Works; United Kingdom; England; United Kingdom > UK; Ireland; Germany
• ISSN: 0010-4078; 1936-1637; 1936-1637
• DOI: 10.1353/cdr.2010.0007

While King Johan's antimusical stance resembles Bale's prose polemics - "masses, ryngynges, synginges" are "heythynshe wares" in one tract, for example - in his morality drama Three Laws, music is used to restore order to the church, and the biblical God's Promises is structured around liturgical antiphons.2 Bale's plays, and his other writings, disclose that despite his well-earned critical reputation as a fanatic, the playwright is moderate and compromising when it comes to religious music.3 Bale's maneuvering exposes the flexibility and contentiousness of acoustic issues in early Tudor religious and theatrical contexts. Bale's ability to interpret and articulate Protestantism is informed by attachments to traditional religion that he likely shared with many in his audience.4 In three of his five extant plays, Three Laws, King Johan, and God's Promises, the playwright utilizes his company's ability to perform musical theater filled with songs both sacred and profane and with religious rituals both parodied and sincere.