morality-play protagonist lacks the finely drawn psychological traits of the tragic hero, it
is not because medi-eval playwrights were inept but because they had a different goal.
Influenced by a persistent medieval Platonism, they found greater dignity in plays that
imitated the “real” world of ideas and concepts than in those that imitated the ephemeral
world of material things.
Alan E.Knight
[See also: LA VIGNE, ANDRÉ DE; MIRACLE PLAYS; MYSTERY PLAYS;
THEATER]
Helmich, Werner, ed. Moralités françaises: réimpression facsimité de vingt-deux pièces
allégoriques imprimées aux XVe et XVIe siècles. 3 vols. Geneva: Slatkine, 1980.
——, and Jeanne Wathelet-Willem. “La moralité: genre dramatique à redécouvrir.” In Le théâtre
au moyen âge: actes du Deuxième Colloque International sur le Théâtre Médiéval, 1977, ed.
Gari R.Muller. Montreal: L’Aurore/Univers, 1981, pp. 205–37.
Knight, Alan E. Aspects of Genre in Late Medieval French Drama. Manchester: Manchester
University Press, 1983.
MORAT
. Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, at war with a league of Swiss towns in 1476, led
his army from Lausanne to besiege the stronghold of Morat (Murten), twenty miles west
of Bern. His divisions were poorly positioned and unable to support each other when
attacked by a Swiss column on June 22. For the second time in four months, the Swiss
defeated the Burgundian army, this time with great slaughter. The battle cost Charles
control of Savoy and precipitated the collapse of Burgundian power in the next seven
months.
John Bell Henneman, Jr.
[See also: CHARLES THE BOLD]
Vaughan, Richard. Charles the Bold: The Last Valois Duke of Burgundy. New York: Barnes and
Noble, 1973. [Extensive bibliography.]
MORIENVAL
. The abbey church of Morienval (Oise) is a Frankish foundation just north of Paris. The
present church is primarily an 11th-century Romanesque structure with a rib-vaulted
ambulatory dated ca. 1122. It has three towers, one at the west end and two flanking the
apse. A Carolingian flying screen spans the nave with transverse ribs and heavy piers.
The groin-vaulted aisles have carved capitals that reflect Byzantine influence. The later
ambulatory utilizes diagonal ribs and slightly pointed transverse arches. Although the
vaults show experimental construction techniques, they represent important early stages
of the Gothic rib-vaulting system.
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