Latin Drama in the Middle Ages

Latin Drama in the Middle AgesBeiträge zur Literaturgeschichte des Mittelalters und der Renaissance by Wilhelm CloettaReview by: F. M. WarrenModern Language Notes, Vol. 6, No. 6 (Jun., 1891), pp. 182-185Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2918279 .

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363 Juize, I89I. MODERN LANGUAGE NOTES. Vol. vi, No. 6. 364

the varied uses and meanings of the preposi- tion of, as in the character and meaning of the word picture (picture = fiictura from piuigere 'to paint,' and the phrase following would be naturally treated as an objective genitive taking the place of the object of the verb) ; and the same distinction is true with otlher words denotinig a representation, sketch, etc.

Usage admits all these examples, but we have hardly gone so far as to accept (thoough even this may be heard) "the house of lr. Smitlh's," where AMr. Smith's residence-and he has 'only one-is intenided. The distinctioni is muclh the same as where we allow "that friend of mine "--that one of my friends, but should be iniclined to reject " the friend of miine," if the main thought be that only one friend exists. Similarly, on this principle, " that husband of mine " would be an excep- tion,' and its origin, as is the case witlh mnuch slang, was probably due to a desire to catch the public eye and ear with sometlhing strik- ing and uncommon. However, this expressioni -the title of a novel, I believe-serves well to show the extension and growth of a construc- tion once fixed in the language. So, "this business of John's," whiclh I niote in GEORGE MAcDONALD'S ' The Flight of the Shadow,' seems to be a slight extension of the origilnal use and may be explained by analogy. But I think that even here the main idea underlying is the partitive one; for there are many matters anid interests attaching to John, and this particular one, being important, is empha- sized and is abstracted from-rl the rest.

This distinction, then, of the singular, the particular, the individual versuss the plural, the general, the class, seems to be the princi- ple which underlies the history of the idiom t

auid which determines at present where the line is drawn. But that we may go in time beyond this, in the colloquial as well as in the written language, in our use of double geni- tixves (cf. ours, yours, tlzeirs, etc.), as in double plurals, comparatives, superlatives, and even negatives, seems likely enough. At least, he would be bold who should predict too posi- tively for the fuiture.

JOHN BELL HENNEMAN. Hampden-Sidney Colleze.

I Even here this oe may be considered distiniguiished from all otker husbands.

LATINI DRAZIA IN THE MIDDLE AGES.

Beilrdge zur Lileralurgeschichle des lJIittel- alters utnzd dee Renzaissance VOIn WILHELM CLOETTA. I. Komodie und Tragodie im Mittelalter. Halle, I890. Svo, pp. xi, I67. Price, 4 marks.

THE silence of CLOETTA, sinice lhe won1 his literary spurs by the publication of the " Po- eme Moral," is abundanitly atolned for by the valuable and interestiuig pages of these Pei- lIrge. The present volume, the author as- sures us in his Preface, is but an introduction (which had gradually grown beyond thie limits of a chapter) to a studly of the Renaissance tragedy in Italy, already in MS., which study in tuirn forms but a part of a general survey of the Renaissance tragedy in Eturope-a series that will materially aid in the understanlding of the drama in the vernacular from the begin- ning of the sixteenth cenltury.

The Eeilrde-e begin with a sketch of the de- clinie of l atin classical dramiia uinder the Empire, the crowding out of comedy by the pantomime, and the disfavor shown towards tragedy by the waninig literary life. By the last part of the fourth centuiry the play whiclh passes under the name of "Aulularia," or " Querolus," revealed in its structure that the very notion of dramatic verse was entirely lost, while the " Orestis Tragoedia" of the fifth century, thouigh it discloses a kniowledge of SENECA'S plays, is in fact an epic poem and not a tragedy at all. Its title is based on the m-iaterial out of which it was constructed anid not on its form. The poem " Medea," by tlle samne autlhor, DRACONTIUS, coIntains the sanme elements as " Orestes," buit is not called a tragedy,

If this ignorance existed at the fall of the Em- pire, it is plain that the Middle Ages were niot particularly enlightened regarding the princi- ples of dramatic art. TERENCE they knew, and the " Queroluis, " which was thought to be written by PLAUTUS, but no tragedies, not eveni those of SENECA. Nor was additional information gained before the discoveries of the thirteenth century. An interesting illus- tration of this state of affairs is seen in the numerous commentaries on BOETHIUS' " De Consolatione. " BOFETHIUS h1imself understood as yet the theatre of the ancienits) bLut his ainno-

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365 June, I89T. MODERN LANGUA GE NOTES. Vol. vi, No. 6. 366

tators of the ninlth and tenth centuries, not to mentioni those who came later, no longer ap- preciated or rightly interpreted his literary referenices. The same is true of ISIDORE OF SEVILLE and his medlieval commentators. Tragedy was considered to be a narrative poem of serious content, and by the eleventh century no less an authority than PAPIAS regarded the first eclogue of XVERGIL as an excellent scenic composition.

What then were tragedy aind comedy in the eyes of the men of the time ? From a study of the treatises on the subject and of the works which hore the names of tragedy and conmedy, CLOETTA arrives at a very definiite conclusion. Tragedy, on the one hand, was a name applied to any piece of literature, genierally in verse, which began happily in plot but ended sadly; while comedy, on the other hand, began sadly and enided happily. Tragedy also demanded theoretically a noble style and royal person- ages for its characters, while comedy should be cast in the style of ordinary life and slhould relate the affairs of the lower born. A treatise oIn poetry by JOHANNES DE GARLANDIA, writ- ten about 1260, would inidicate that a comedy shiould have five acts.

Some ten years earlier than this work, how- ever, that great compilation of mediveval learning, the 'Speculum Historiale' of VIN- CENT DE BEAUVAIS, reveals a wider kniowl- edge of the ancienit stage. Its author cites fronm the six comedies of TERENCE alnd, wlhat is more significant, from the ten tragedies ascribed to SENECA, which must have been but recently brought to light, since no otlher writer alludes to them before DANTE-in his letter (I3I6 or 1317) to Can Grande della Scala, dedicating to him the first canitos of the " Pa- racliso.") In this letter, as is well klnown, DANTE shares the general conceptioni of the MIiddle Ages regarding tragedy and comedy. He calls his great trilogy a " Comedy,'" be- cause "Comedy is a certain kind of poetic narration" which "begins with adversity in something, but its matter ends prosperously; and which is "unstudied anid ordinary" in style . beilng " in the vulgar tongue." (SCAR-

TAZZINI'S 'Hand-book to Dante,' translated by DAVIDSON, pp. 275-276.) Tragedy is the coulnterpart of comedy, as we have seen above.

Throughout all the fourteenith century dra- matic perfornmances (in Latin anid among the learned, it must be remembered) consisted in a mere recitationi of the poem or even in panito- nmime acting. BOCCACCIo, alluding to the subject in his conmmentary on DANTE, would have only the leading role spoken by the author, the minior roles given in mimicry. For this conceptioln, which seems to have been gen1eral, ISIDORE OF SEVILLE was doubtless respoInsible. Furtlhernore BOCCACCIO'S 110- tioin of comedy is exemplified in the title whicl he gave at first to his "Ameto," (Commedia delle Ninfe fiorenitine); anid the common view of tragedy is againi seen in CHAUCER'S "Monk's Tale," which passed under that head, as did also his " Troylus and Crysseyde. " Here the definition goes back to BOETHIUS. Thus LYDGATE lamenits the deatlh of CHAUCER, as that of a writer of tragedies and comedies. Not only in France, Italy and Enigland was this position held in regard to the classification of mediaeval literature, but also in Spain, where the A\ARQIJIS OF SANTILLANA (f1458) repeats the same statement. As has been already said, all these writers followed simply in the steps of ISIDORE an1d BOETHIUS.

Leaving now the definitionis of comedy and tragedy, CLOETTA brings forward the medile- val etymologies of the words, as illustrative of the mainner in which they were uniderstood. Comoedia he finds derived from Kc?xto5-co- niessalio, and sinice the authorities,who go back to DONATUS, conifuse comnoedus and coinicus, so coinoedia was confused with comnedia and was defined as a " coarse song of peasants " which gradually rose to the dignity of a " sonig sung at feasts." Tragoedia had no less evil a fate. HORACE'S statement that the goat was the reward of tragic poets was, in course of time, perverted to the notion that a tragedy was a goat's song, and, the goat being an unlcleani animal, that it was also a shameful song. Btit inasmuch as tragedy celebrated royalty, the mediaeval wiseacres, put on their mettle, gravely compared it, in its commencemenit to the serious lhead of the goat, and in its ending to the less edifying hinldqLuarters of the beast.

But notwitlhstanding all this childishness and absurdity the Middle Ages were not enitirely devoid of drama patterned on the ancient

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models. Besides the six plays in dialoguie of tlhe imuch-discussed anid long-suffering HROTSXNTITH (RosW'ITHA), wh-io exviden1tly cihose TERENCE for her guide, the general testimlonly of the writers of the period slhows that theey ad- mitted tragedy aand comedy, in pr-ose as well as in verse, in the restricted meaninlg of the present day. And in fact Latin plays were produced which bear no traces of the influ- ence of the popular stage. Yet thie dramiatic instinct of anl age wlhiclh called the 'iIEneid ' a tragedy anid the 'Metamorphoses ' a comedy, canniot be relied on to create mullch literature of a purely theatrical character. To deal wvith the subject properly it will be necessary to discard these crude notions, wlhich would sep- arate all literatture into tragedy anlcl comedy, acnd to apply to the accessible scenic material the imiore limited classificationi of both anicient and moderni science. Tlhe result of CLOEITTA'S investigation in this direction has been to rank the greater part of geluinie medikeval tragedy anld comedy under the head of " Epic Dramas." -le applies tlis nane to thetm, silnCe, apart from the plays of HROTSWXJTH, the dra- matic literature appears in the formii of poemiis, generally in distichs, less ofteni in hexamieters, and offers ample evidence of havinlg its soLurce cdirectly or indirectly in OVID, the great mas- ter of the scholars of that time.

Here CLOETTA interrutpts 1his argutmieint xvith the conisiderationi of a prose wvork, " De Casu Caesenae," written in Pertugia by one Ser LODOv'ICO, in the year 1377. It is a niarrationi, in which four personls share, of the massacre of the inhabitants of Cesenla in that year, by the mercenaries of the Cardinal, ROBERT of Geneva. CLOETTA tranislates this story at letngth, arranginig it in dialogue formii. He finds in it both vigor anid emnotioni. Sinice it is a disctussion betwveen men of low birth wlho have survived the evenits they relate, t:he coni- cluision is obvious that it is a comedy.

Resunling now the main expositionl of the subject, the author treats of the examiiples of the epic dramas which canl properly be called comeclies. The oldest anid best were wvritten byVITALIs, possibly from Blois, before the im-id- dle of the twelfth century anid perhaps as early as the eleventh. His first play bears the wvell- known title ''Amplhitr-ioln,'' or " Geta,'" the

great suiccess of wlhich lhe folloxved uLp witlh a seconid, thie ''Auoltlaria,'' or " Qtueruluis," xhliiclh resembles stronigly the play Quer-oltus'' of the fotirtlh centuLry. The ilndirect souirce of VITALIS, the plays of PLAUTUS, WOuld explaini this likeness, and indicate in a gener-al way the contenits of VITALIS' poems Their great pop- ilaritv lecl to an imllitatioin, the comedy

"T hraso.'' TIo this first group, wvhiiclh drewv on aanticutiity

for plot anid episodes, succceels a seconid series, medLeval in character. A rel)resentativ e of this class is the "Alclda of GU ILLAUMETH Dl B1Iois, wrIitten1 betweeni ii6o anid II70. It coml- bines wvith nlotionls derived froiml the Latini

poets, perlhaps fromi FERENCE'S " EIunchUs,'' material of Orielltal origin. The "Aldcla was sooIn followred byJ the " Comoeclia di }\lilolne Constantinopolitano ' of MATTHEWV OF VENDOME, an Eastern story the scenie of wvlhiclh is laid in the cal)ital of the Eastern Em- pire. Both the " Milo " andcl the "Alicla " are narratives of seduLction, ancd they typif'y the genieral runj of all these l)lays. A " Mliles gloriosLs,'" by ani iMitator of MATTHEX, is

placed in Romiie, ancdl slhows the samiie trend(l. " Lydia," by the same iml-itator, is the story whl1ich BOCCACCIO uised, not miiuch later, in hiis " Decamiieron " (vii, 9). In the twelftlh celntuiry also are fotulnd the comiedies " Panmplhilus Glisceria Birria," more aln accotunit of travel, alnd " De tribus sociis," an alnecdote of still less importance.

The above plays, in wlhich the poetical part seemiis to have the better of the clramatic, are accompaniied by others in wvhiclh the narrative is presented in pure dialogue. The best speci- ml-eln of the kilnd is the " Cotm-oedia Babioinis,'' belolnginig to the last qLuarter of the twvelftlh celntury, and very popuilar in Enigland, as is witnessed by GowER'S " ConIfessio mn1antits. " " Babio" is the story of a deceivTed hlusband

wXTho filnally turlns molnk. It is takeln frolmi con1- temporary life. A play of mituclh greater liter- ary itnfluenice is the " Panmphilus " of the samiie period. This story of seultictioni xvas taken uL) in Spain by the " Celestiia,'" anid thus brought into conitact with the drama in the verniactular. Its owiv soturce is apparenftly OvTiD). 'I'lTe short comiedy '' De cler-icis et rustico " relates lhow the peasant conIsunmed the provisions of his

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369 Jzive, I891. A LODERNV LAATGUAGE NOTES. Vol. vi, No. 6. 370

sleeping companion-s-a tale whiclh was made tuse of inl the " Disciplina clericalis." Mlore of a poem thani a play is " De Paulino et Polla," of the first part of the thirteenth cenltury, lo- cated in Apulia and wholly coarse in character.

All the comedies hitherto mentioned were written in distichs. CLOETTA cites others, howvever, which consist wholly of hexameters. The most nloteworthy one is in tlhe 'Poetria' of JOHANNES DE GARLANDIA, but neither this lnor the others of like form seem inten-ded for the stage. And this remark may apply to all the epic dramas, since, in the best of tlhem, the rapid changes in time and place wotuld pre- cltude anly possible stage-settinig.

What is true of the comedies is also trtue of the few tragi-coinedies, a name which CLOET- TA applies to the story of the child begotten, during the husband's absence, by the snow (according to the mother), and melted later by the SUn1 (according to the husband). This tale is the subject of two short poems, " De Merca- tore " and " De v7iro et uxore moeclha, " both of the twelfth cmnttury. Other examples of the kinid might be cited bordering rather on poetry than on drama.

The same conditions apply as well to the epic tragedies of the Middle Ages, fewer in nlumber than the comedies and less developed fromi the dramatic standpoint; undoubtedly therefore less popular, and yet of a higher character, since tlle comedies owed much of their success to their coarse episodes. The best epic tragedy is the " MathematicuLs, " or " Pat- ricida," of BERTRAND DE CHARTRES, and writteni in the first part of the twelfth cenitury. Its sub-title inclicates the plot: a son destined to kill and to succeed his royal fatlher. In the poem, however, the father abdicates in order to tlhwart destiny. The setting is that of Latin antiquity. The remaininig tragedies, five in number, of which one is known only by name, are much inferior to " Patricida." TIhey draw as a rule from contemporary life. One, " De Affra et Flavio," of the last part of the twelfth century, is on the unfounded jealousy of a hus- band who exposes his wvife and child on a desert islanid, wlhere huniger finally forces the mother to eat the son. A\IATTTiEWv OF VEN- DOME is perhaps the author of a " Pyramus anid Thisbe." A parody on tragedy is a Bel-

gian scene, composed by a certain RENERUS, of Brussels, in 1447; a wolf who has fallen into a pit with two men cannot, being dumb, excuise himself to the magistrates and therefore loses his life, while the meni escape. These trage- dies are in disticIhs, as was perhaps the lost "De Flauira et Marco," ascribed by PIERRE DE BLOIS to his brother GUILLAUME. The " Poetria of JOHANNES DE GARLANDIA pre- serves in hexameters a so-called "Tragoedia, which in fact is not strictly a tragedy, since its characters are low-born, the main plot be- ing the betrayal of a stronghold to the be- siegers by a washerwomain.

Though there existed thuis, as has been abunidantly proven, a considerable body of dramatic literature, in the shape of epic dramas, it is doubtful whether any of it wvas ever put on the stage, as we understand that term. From a study of the evidence accessible, CLOETTA leans toward the opinion that the majority of these poems were read by one person only, but that in others one reader ilay have taken the part of the principal character and other readers the minior parts. This latter method, however, would obtain only in comedies, through the inifluence of TERENCE'S plays anid VERGIL'S eclogtues. Tragedies would be recited like a narrative poem.

It is remarkable how this conceptioni of tragedy anid comedy persisted in the Mliddle Ages, remaining, as we h-ave seen, down into the fifteenth century, in spite of the revival of learning in Italy and the changed views of drama which the discovery of SENECA'S trage- dies muLst have brought about among the edu- cated. To trace thie awakeninig of a true understanding of the theatre will doubtless be the first step in the next volume of this series. We wish the painstakinig and erudite author all success in carrying ouLt his self-imposed task.

F. M. WARREN. Johns Hopkins Universilty.

FRENC(H LEXICO GRAPHY. Dictionnzaire gnen'ral de la lauzge frailfaise

du comnmencemeul di xviie si?cle jztsqu'& nos jours, par ADOLPHE HATZFELD et AR- SE-NE DARMESTETER, avec le concours de ANTOINE THOMAS. Paris: Ch. IDelagrave.

THE first four parts of this important work

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