what is the influence of midieval drama on renaissance or elizabethan drama?

Question

if it includes some examples from dr faustus, it would be great.

Answer 1

In the 14th century, the religious plays were patronized by trade guilds, who performed them at festivals in cycles or groups of plays, dramatizing scenes from the Old and New Testaments. They were called "mystery" or "miracle" plays. In the middle of the 14th century the plays had allegorical characters embodying virtues, vices and other human qualities. These plays were called "moralities" and were played by amateurs.
Theatre became innovated from 1550 onwards, when the Renaissance interest in antiquity brought the ancient Roman drama onto the English stage. Plautus and Terence the comic playwrights, and Seneca, the tragic one, became models for imitation and adaptation. The Latin comedies gave English comedy the idea of a clear and coherent plot, of division into 5 acts and of a large number of standard characters such as the braggart, the parasite, the young lovers, and the triky slave; also of devices such as the use of disguise, mistaken identity and implausible coincidences. The tragedies of Senca, which were themselves imitations of the Greek tragedy, gave English traedy the idea of dramatic unity, of plots based upon horrible stories of sin and revenge, and of highly rethorical style. The first comedy, built uopn the classical model, was "Ralph Roister Doister", in 1533, by Nicholas Udall, and the first tragedy was "Gorbodac" by Sackville and Morton in 1561.
The royal palace and the Queen herself were highly diverted by theatre performances. Therefore the choristers or children of the Chapel Royal were trained to perform plays, specially written for them, by the master of the Chapel Royal and others. These boys were actors and singers and performed for the public, as well for the court. For fifty years they were real competitors of adult and professionals actors. Their example was followed by other London schools, as the whole nation - nobles, burghers and people - became passionate for theatre performances.
By the close of the 16th century all sorts of experiments had been tried in English drama; these, together with classical, neo-classical, and Italian infulences, had their part in the formation of the English national drama.

Answer 2

Medieval drama was based on Biblical stories and themes. Initially it was performed inside of churches, and then moved to outdoor sites right next to the churches. Eventually of course, artists get tired of the same subjects and want to expand them. In the later medieval period, there is a play called "Everyman" which is still based on a religious theme, but which is a full-length play, not a series of episodes based on stories from the Bible.

The greatest influence on the Italian renaissance theatre, neo-classicism, was the discovery of several Greek and Roman plays which were brought to Rome after the fall of Byzantium to the Ottomans in the late 14th century. These writings caused the neoclassicists to adopt the same Aristotelian unities of time, place and action that governed Greek plays.

In England, where this classical influence was much less, the Elizabethans developed an episodic dramatic structure which was more similar to the structure familiar to medieval audiences.