Instead of old stories reproduced to please the childish fancy of the ignorant, genius invented scenes and incidents taken indeed from common life, but the characters were impersonal; they were the ideal virtues, _morality, hope, mercy, frugality_, and their correlative vices.

The _mystery_ had endeavored to present similitudes; the _moralities_ were of the nature of allegory, and evinced a decided progress in popular intelligence.
These for a time divided the interest with the mysteries, but eventually superseded them.

The impersonality of the characters enabled the author to make hits at political circumstances and existent follies with impunity, as the multitude received advice and reproof addressed to them abstractly, without feeling a personal sting, and the government would not condescend to notice such abstractions.

The moralities were enacted in court-yards or palaces, the characters generally being personated by students, or merchants from the guilds.

A great improvement was also made in the length of the play, which was usually only an hour in performance.