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As in other countries, the history of the English theater begins in the church, possibly around the year 1100. these beginnings were very modest and usually took the form of fragments of dialogs inserted into the Mass on particular religious feast days. These inserts were usually in Latin but it is not impossible that they were also sometimes in the vernacular ( English ). The most famous is the “Quem quaretis” exchange included in the Easter Mass, in which an angel meets the three women at the tomb of Christ and asks them: < Whom are you seeking in the tomb? >.
This, then, is the basic origin of the theater and it is something that took place not only in England, but in other European countries including France and Italy. But there are also other, more native elements contributing to the evolution of the theater. The tradition of the itinerant bard did not die with the Norman conquest but continued, perhaps in an underground manner, in the Saxon population and the practice of recital in verse is something that entered.
This tradition was, of course, joined in due course by an analogous continental phenomenon, that of the troubadour or “trouvére” which introduced the notion of rime into popular verse. We add to this other factors such as the hereditary activities of jugglers and clowns and others itinerant entertainers who frequented the very numerous town and country fairs held throughout the year. Entertainments and quasi theatrical activities were also held in the universities, castles, courts throughout the Middle Ages and there, too, in their various forms will have played their part in influencing the English theater as it evolved.