Hrotsvit

and Medieval Drama

Medieval comedy

• No scripts of medieval comedy or references to comic performances survive.

• There is hardly such a thing a medieval drama…

Hrotsvit’s place in history

• Medieval drama originated from

• Easter liturgy as a trope of the Introit

• but its development wasn’t linear

HROSWITHA (935-1001)

(Hros-uind)

Ego clamor validus Gandersheimensis

Works

• legends of saints• Six comedies plays• Epic poems

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Life (based on prefaces)

• Born 935• aristocrat • exceptionally

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Gandersheim

• Founded in ca. 850

• In 950 becomes a “free abbey” independent of the crown

• An impressive library most likely including Terence, Virgil, and Ovid

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As a canoness Hrosvit would

• Take part in the religious life of the community

• Take vows of chastity and obedience, but not poverty

• Receive guests, come and go without permission

• Own property and have servants

Religious feelings

• “He has given me ability to learn—yet of myself I should know nothing. ”

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Hrotsvit and Terence

• Hrotsvit states that she wants her plays to be read (possibly aloud) instead of Terence, whose text was frequently used in school recitations

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Aemulatio

• Hrotsvit does not intend to become a dimidiatus Terentius;

• She considers her output to be moral superior to Terence from whom she borrows formal devices

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DULCITIUS

World-views

• Christian• True beatitude

possible after death• Contempt for physical

pleasure and pain, wealth, prestige

• Goal: spiritual wedding with God

• Pagan• Enjoyment of external

beauty• Contempt for spiritual

values

• Goal: enjoyment of life

First Confrontation: Power

• Diocletian: my power

• Old religion: ancient religion, the worship of the gods

• Christianity: ‘a new superstition’

• The power belongs to God

• Virgins: corruption, idolatry

• Deus omnipotens

First Confrontation: Physical love

• Dulcitius:– I have been captured

by their appearance

• Dulcitius’ means:– Flattery and thereats

• Outcome: transformation of the outside to reveal this inside

• Virgins:– May God protect us

• Virgins’ means– singing hymns at night

prayer, privation

• Outcome: they remain pure in spite of attempts to defile them

Insert: Humiliation of Dulcitius

• Humilated in the eyes the girls who witness his rendez-vous with pots and pans

• Humiliated in the eyes of his soldiers who take him for a demon

• Beaten by the palace guards• Recognized and pitied by his wife• Pitied by Diocletianus

Third Confrontation: Sisinnus

(Pain&Death) Part 1: Agapes& Chionia • Sisinnius tries to

convert them through threats

• He forbids them to practice their religion

• When disobeyed, sentences them to death

• Agapes and Chionia continuously pray to Eternal Father and his Son

• Ask for death• Miracle: Their bodies

bear no trace of fire; their spirits ascend to heaven

Third Confrontation: Sisinnus (Pain&Death) Part 2: Hirene

• Sisinnus threatens her with a slow death and rape

• Hirene is eager to die (the more I suffer, the more I will triumph) and not afraid of rape: voluptas parit poenam

GRAND FINALE

• Soldiers come back and tell Sisennius that two strangers placed Hirene on a top of a mountain

• Sisennius and his soldiers quickly hurry up to see what happened;

• They kill her with an arrow; dying Hirene speaks of her triumph

Is Dulcitius a comedy?

• By ancient standards?

• By modern standards?

Aristotle on Comedy

• “Comedy is, as we have said, an imitation of characters of a lower type, not, however, in the full sense of the word bad, the Ludicrous being merely a subdivision of the ugly. It consists in some defect or ugliness which is not painful or destructive. To take an obvious example, the comic mask is ugly and distorted, but does not imply pain.”

From Wikipedia

• Comedy is the use of humor in the form of theater, where it simply referred to a play with a happy ending, in contrast to a tragedy. A recognized characteristic of comedy is that it is an intensely personal enjoyment. People frequently don't find the same things amusing, but when they do it can help to create powerful bonds.

From Wikipedia

• Mel Brooks on comedy and tragedy: "Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall down an elevator shaft and you die."

Characteristics of Comedy

• Play

• Humor (something some people find funny)

• Happy ending