Neo-Latin Drama and Theatre in Early Modern Europe 9789004253421, 9789004257467

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Neo-Latin Drama and Theatre in Early Modern Europe

Drama and Theatre in Early Modern Europe Editor-in-Chief

Jan Bloemendal Editorial Board

Cora Dietl (Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen) Jelle Koopman (University of Amsterdam) Peter G.F. Eversmann (University of Amsterdam)

VOLUME 3

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/dtem

Neo-Latin Drama and Theatre in Early Modern Europe Edited by

Jan Bloemendal Howard B. Norland

LEIDEN • BOSTON 2013

Cover illustration: Edward Forsett, Pedantius (performed 1581 and published 1631), engraving Pedantius. Reproduced by permission of the Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 2211-34IX ISBN 978-90-04-25342-1 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-25746-7 (e-book) Copyright 2013 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers and Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper.

CONTENTS List of Illustrations��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������vii Preface�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������xi Map showing places of Neo-Latin dramatic activity����������������������������������� xiii    1. Introduction: Neo-Latin Drama: Contexts, Contents and Currents�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������1 Jan Bloemendal and Howard B. Norland    2. Neo-Latin Theatre in Italy���������������������������������������������������������������������������� 25 Jean-Frédéric Chevalier    3. Neo-Latin Humanist and Protestant Drama in Germany�����������������103 Cora Dietl    4. Jesuit Theatre in Germany, Austria and Switzerland��������������������������185 Fidel Rädle    5. Neo-Latin Drama in the Low Countries�������������������������������������������������293 Jan Bloemendal    6. Humanist Neo-Latin Drama in France���������������������������������������������������365 Mathieu Ferrand    7. Jesuit Neo-Latin Tragedy in France���������������������������������������������������������415 Jean-Frédéric Chevalier    8. Neo-Latin Drama in Britain�����������������������������������������������������������������������471 Howard B. Norland    9. Neo-Latin Drama in Spain, Portugal and Latin America����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������545 Joaquín Pascual Barea 10. Central and Eastern European Countries����������������������������������������������633 Jan Bloemendal

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11. Latin Drama in the Nordic Countries�����������������������������������������������������657 Raija Sarasti-Wilenius Works Cited������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������687 About the Authors������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������759 Index of Names�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������761 Index of Geographical Names���������������������������������������������������������������������������783 Index of Anonymous Plays���������������������������������������������������������������������������������787 Index of Subjects���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������789

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Jan Bloemendal and Howard B. Norland 1. Terentius cum quinque commentis (Paris, 1552), p. 204.���������������������������8 Cora Dietl 1. Jacob Locher: Haec in libello continentur: Poemation de Lazaro mendico. Carmen inaug. de D. Caes. Maximiliano. Epigrammata contra oblocutores Mai. Caes. Carmen de festo Conceptionis B. Mariae V. [Augsburg: Otmar][ca. 1513], A3v [by courtesy of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich]������������������113 2. Johannes Reuchlin: Scaenica progymnasmata, hoc est Ludicra praeexercitamenta … Tübingen: Anshelm, 1511, 193r [by courtesy of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich]������������������124 3. Konrad Celtis: Ludus Diane in modum comedie coram Maximiliano Rhomanorum Rege Kalendis Martijs [etc.] Ludis saturnalibus in arce Linsiana danubij actus … Nuremberg: Hölcel, 1501, a1r [by courtesy of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich]����������������������������������������������������������������������������140 4. Sixt Birck: Judith Drama Comicotragicum. Cologne: Haeredes Gymnici, 1544, front page. [by courtesy of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich]�������������������������������������������������������147 5. Thomas Naogeorg: Hieremias: tragoedia nova. Basle: [?], 1551, A2v: http://www.uni-mannheim.de/mateo/ camena/naogeorg3/jpg/s020.html [by courtesy of the University Library Mannheim]�������������������������������������������������������������������152 6. Nikodemus Frischlin: Hebraeis, continens duodecim libros. Strasbourg: Jobin, 1599, 1v: http://www.uni -mannheim.de/mateo/camena/frisc2/jpg/s002.html [by courtesy of the University Library Mannheim]������������������������������166 Fidel Rädle 1. Foundations of the Jesuit Order in 1540–1580 and 1581–1615. Repr. from: E.W. Zeeden, Propyläen Geschichte Europas, vol. 2, 1977, p. 375���������������������������������������������������������������188, 189

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2. Ignatius of Loyola (vera effigies): Jacopino del Conte (ca. 1515– 1598), Rome 1556. Repr. from “Rom in Bayern”, p. 309���������������192 3a. Title page of the Perioche for the performance of Thomas Becket by Georg Bernardt, Konstanz 1626, on the occasion of the investiture of the new Bishop Sixtus Werner. Repr. from Szarota, Das Jesuitendrama, III, 2, Nr. III, VII,1, p. 1375����������������221 3b. Thomas Becket, last page of the Perioche (cf. 3) with Scenes IV, V and VII, in which the king expiates the murder in the Cathedral�������������������������������������������������������������������������222 4. Religio Principum, Tutela Regnorum (‘The piety of the princes is the protection for their realms’): Copper engraving by Raphael Sadeler from Matthaeus Rader S.J., Bavaria Sancta, Vol. 1, Munich 1615, Plate 9. Repr. from Die Jesuiten in Bayern, Nr. 174, p. 193�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������224 5. Facade of St. Michael’s church (1597), Munich. Repr. from Rom in Bayern, Plate III, p. 115. In July 1597, on the occasion of the dedication of this church, the festival play Triumphus Divi Michaelis Archangeli Bavarici (‘Triumph of St. Michael, Archangel of Bavaria’) was staged�������������������������������������������������������227 6. Title page of the festival play for the dedication of St. Michael’s church (from the Ms. Clm 19757/2 of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich) with a detail of the third scene of the fifth act, in which envoys from the new world, address the allegory of the Ecclesia, at first in Japanese: (cf. 5).����������������������������������������������������������������������228 7. Title page (with the list of dramatis personae) of the first surviving Fulda Jesuit drama (1575) on St. Elisabeth. The text is written by an inexperienced student’s hand������������������������235 Jan Bloemendal 1a-b. Cornelius Crocus, Comoedia sacra, cui titulus Ioseph (Antwerp: Ioannes Steelsius, 1536), University Library Jena Shelf number 8 Art.lib.IX,9(1) Title page; dramatis personae���������������������������������������������������������������������������299, 300 2. Philip Galle, Georgius Macropedius, 1572������������������������������������������301 3. Georgius Macropedius, Hecastus (Antwerp: Michael Hillen, 1539)������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������310 4. Comoediae ac tragoediae aliquot ex Novo et Vetere Testamento (Basel: Nicolaus Brylinger, 1540), title page�������������������������������������312



list of illustrationsix 5. Dramata sacra. Comoediae ac tragoediae aliquot e Veteri Testamento desumptae (Basle: Ioannes Oporinus, 1547). �313 6. Cornelius Crocus, Ioseph (Antwerp: Steelsius, 1536), copy annotated by a student, University Library, Jena. Invitatio��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������315 7. Cornelius Crocus, Ioseph (Antwerp: Steelsius, 1536), copy annotated by a student, University Library, Jena. Prologue����������316 Mathieu Ferrand 1. The Collège de Navarre in 1440, by F.A. Pernot (ca. 1850)�����������369 2. Illustration to Andria I, Guidonis Juvenalis natione Cenomani in Terentium familiarissima interpretatio cum figuris unicuique scaenae praepositis (Lyon: Jean Trechsel, 1493).������������������������������378 3. The Fight against the Snail. Compost et Kalendrier des bergers (Jean Belot, 1457)�����������������������������������������������������������������������382 4. La tragédie de Jephté, translated from the Latin by Claude de Vessel (Paris: Robert Estienne, 1566).�������������������������������������������395 5. The Mountain of Sainte-Geneviève and its colleges in the sixteenth century. (detail)����������������������������������������������������������������������403 Howard B. Norland

1–2. Two engravings from Pedantius by Edward Forsett (performed 1581 and published 1631)��������������������������������������484, 485 3. Title page of Ulysses redux by William Gager (performed 1591–92 and published 1592)��������������������������������������������������������������492 4. Title page of Roxana by William Alabaster (performed 1591–92 and published 1632)��������������������������������������������������������������494 5. Title page from Ignoramus by George Ruggle (performed 1614–15 and published 1630)��������������������������������������������������������������511 6. Engraving from Ignoramus (published 1630)�����������������������������������512 Joaquín Pascual Barea 1. Ludovicus Crucius, Tragicae comicaeque actiones, Lyon 1605�����581 2. Joannes Bonifacius, De sapiente fructuoso, Burgos 1589, f. 38r: Dialogue between Peniphilus and Gazophorus from Bonifacius’ comedy Margaritha.�������������������������������������������������585 3. Petrus Sugnerius, Terra: Dialogus in gratiam puerorum editus, Barcelona 1574, f. 59: Dialogue between Fortuna and Paupertas���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������594

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list of illustrations

4. Francisco de Luque Fajardo: Relación de la fiesta que se hizo en Sevilla a la beatificación del glorioso San Ignacio…, Seville 1610, f. 8v��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������601 5. Joannes Maldonatus’ epitaph����������������������������������������������������������������������627 Jan Bloemendal 1. Map showing division of Hungary in 1526����������������������������������������������636 2. Map showing the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth�������������������������643 Raija Sarasti-Wilenius 1. Title page Cornelius Schonaeus, Comedia Dyscoli […] et nunc in usum scholarum trivialium magni Ducatus Finlandiae Seorsim edita (Aboe: Johannes Winter, 1670)����������������������������������������663 2–3–4–5. Prelims and Fabulae interlocutores of Johannes Micraelius Pomeris: tragico-comoedia nova de Pomeride a Lastlevio afflicta et ab Agathandro liberata (s.l.: s.n., 1631)��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 679–682

PREFACE The idea of this overview of Neo-Latin drama in Europe was born at the Thirteenth Congress of the International Association of Neo-Latin Studies at Budapest, in August 2006. Within only one hour of its birth, the idea was discussed with specialists on Latin drama from several countries, and a team of authors was formed. The idea further developed, the chapters were written, and the result is here. This volume is intended as an overview of Neo-Latin drama from its beginnings in the late fourteenth to the mid seventeenth century when this humanist genre slowly gave way to popular vernacular productions and the growing Jesuit theatre. Our study is designed for scholars in this field, as well as for others who are interested in European literary culture. An introduction to Neo-Latin drama, it is an historical account of the development of this unique tradition. The individual contributors had their own views and preferences, partly because of the material they had at their disposal, partly due to their own interests. We have endeavoured to harmonize their contributions whilst allowing individual differences in interpretation and emphasis. The rationale underlying the structure and grouping of the individual chapters is to follow the expansion of Neo-Latin drama chronologically and geographically across Europe. The volume begins with the Neo-Latin drama that first appears in Italy in conjunction with humanism. It then spreads northward to the German lands and to the Low Countries. Moving westward to France, Britain, and the Iberian peninsula, it extends to Central and Eastern Europe, and to the Nordic Countries. Finally it is exported to Latin America by Spanish missionaries. We must first of all thank our co-authors for their painstaking research and their cooperation in meeting the inevitable deadlines in writing, rewriting, revising, re-revising and correcting their manuscripts, and for their patience in seeing their work materialized in this book. We wish to extend our most cordial thanks to Philip Ford, who translated the chapters on France by Chevalier (on Jesuit Drama) and by Ferrand (on Humanist Neo-Latin Drama) from French into English. We are deeply saddened by his death and remember him with affectionate gratitude. We would also like to thank the Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences for

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their support. It is a spin-off of the Vidi Project of Jan Bloemendal, ‘Latin and Vernacular Cultures: Theatre and Public Opinion in the Netherlands (ca. 1510–1625)’, funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), and carried out at the Huygens Institute and the Institute of Culture and History of the University of Amsterdam. Thanks are also due to these organizations for supporting the project. A book like this cannot be made without careful copy-editing. We thank Rhoda Schnur and Pegasus Limited for their financial support in this endeavour, and Will Kelly of Minerva Professional Language Services Ltd. for carrying out this copy-editing. Finally, we would like to thank the staff of Brill Publishers for their cooperative support in publishing this book and the anonymous peer reviewers for their valuable suggestions. We dedicate this volume to our wives, Brenda Hosington and Els van der Wal, who have shared the lives of their husbands with Neo-Latin drama for longer than they expected. Jan Bloemendal and Howard B. Norland

30

40

50

0

0

Seville

Africa

Lisbon

0

Cordoba

Arhus

Palma

Barcelona

Saragossa

Auch Toulouse

10

Rome

Bologna

Venice

20

Turku

Tartu

Königsbergen

Budapest

Stockholm Linkoping

Uppsala

Copenhagen Odense

Bergen

Cambridge Haarlem London Utrecht 's-Hertogenbosch Oxford Dortmund Wittenberg Antwerp St. Omer Louvain Leipzig Jena Douai Amiens Prague Reims Heidelberg Rennes Metz Dillingen a.D. Strasbourg Ingolstadt Tübingen La Flèche Freiburg i.Br. Vienna Linz Augsburg Munich Lyon Bordeaux

Mediterranean Sea

Alcala de Henares

Valencia

Burgos Valladolid Salamanca Madrid Toledo

500 Miles

500 km

250

Atlantic Ocean

250

Moscow

Black Sea

40

map showing places of neo-latin dramatic activityxiii

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION NEO-LATIN DRAMA: CONTEXTS, CONTENTS AND CURRENTS Jan Bloemendal and Howard B. Norland Early Modern Europe—Historical Context When Petrarch (1304–1374), the ‘Father of Humanism’, became the first Poet Laureate since Antiquity in 1341, the Renaissance can be said to have begun.1 The times were turbulent. Europe had suffered from the Black Death (1340), which according to some estimates reduced its population by as much as half or at least killed a third of the people. In conjunction with this depopulation social unrest and warfare afflicted society. In the following years, France and England experienced peasant uprisings: the peasants’ rising called Jacquerie (1358) during the Hundred Years’ War, a series of wars in France from 1337 to 1453, and in England the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. The unity of the Catholic Church was broken by the Western Schism (1378–1417), which was ended by the Council of Constance (1414– 1418). These events as a whole came to be called the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages. At the same time, the century experienced progress within the arts and sciences. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 when the city was conquered by the Ottomans contributed to a renewed interest in ancient Greek and Roman texts. Byzantine scholars fled to the West through the Empire’s western bulwark Venice, which entailed a renewed knowledge of Greek. At the same time, the fall cut off trading possibilities with the East. Europeans were forced to discover new trading routes. Columbus sailed to the Americas in 1492 and Vasco da Gama navigated around India and Africa in 1498. The world was rapidly changing towards a new world view, a new economy and a newly discarded Church. The conquest of the New World with its gold caused a rapid upheaval of the economy; the 1 For this introduction, we used among other works Wiesner-Hanks, Early Modern Europe, 1450–1789; Bloemendal, Spiegel van het dagelijks leven; Bot, Humanisme en onderwijs; Grund, Humanist Comedies and id., Humanist Tragedies; IJsewijn and Sacré, Companion to Neo-Latin Studies, vol. 2; Kindermann, Das Theaterpublikum der Renaissance; Parker, The Thirty Years’ War, and Worp, Drama en tooneel.

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sky seemed to be the limit, until inflation brought people back down to earth. Whereas Italy was one of the leading cultural countries, the Baltic Sea became one of the most important trade routes in the fourteenth century. The Hanseatic League, an alliance of trading cities, connected vast areas of Baltic countries to Europe’s economy. Powerful states in Eastern Europe could grow, such as Poland, Muscovy, Lithuania, Bohemia and Hungary. This age of crisis and change was a fertile soil for cultural and religious development. The Early Modern period, which spans the centuries from the discovery of the New World in 1492 to the French Revolution in 1789, is characterized by the rise of science and technological progress. One of the major inventions was that of printing with movable type in the 1450s, which made it possible to spread ideas in a kind of ‘mass production’, even though oral culture remained important. Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543), for instance, had his De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) printed just before his death. Most of the plays we are discussing in this volume were also printed and published in (­relatively) large numbers. Capitalist economies developed, beginning in some northern Italian republics, but also in the southern part of the Low Countries and then in other regions. This entailed demand for more schooling and a flowering of the arts and literature that was later called the Renaissance, i.e. a rebirth of classical Antiquity. For Petrarch, this rebirth was so real that he wrote letters to men from Antiquity. For this reason, he is considered to be the first humanist. Humanism was a literary, scholarly and educational movement that aimed to spread knowledge in order to improve people morally and religiously on the basis of the classics. To this end, Latin and—although to a lesser extent—Greek texts were read and studied; Greco-Roman culture was admired as a Golden Age. Of course, the medieval monks had also read and studied ancient texts, but they focussed more on Christian views and the Kingdom of God, whereas the humanists studied these texts both for their own beauty and for their philosophical content, although these texts remained a means to internalize and deepen Christian faith. This change in scope is associated with the changing place of higher education that was dominated by the Church in the Middle Ages, whereas from the second half of the fifteenth century municipal authorities founded more secular schools. Nonetheless, these schools continued to be training centres for pastors. Jesuit colleges offered free education in Latin, theology, philosophy, history and other branches of knowledge.



introduction: neo-latin drama3

In education, the humanists strove to lead their pupils to read ancient texts as soon as possible. Therefore, they abandoned the medieval inductive didactics—starting with many rules of grammar, and eventually studying ancient texts—for a new, more deductive method, giving a few rules and then starting to read.2 The pupils read texts aloud. These texts comprised ancient works of literature such as the comedies of Terence, as well as colloquies written for this specific purpose: the teaching of Latin conversation. The most famous collection of these dialogues was written by the ‘arch-humanist’ Desiderius Erasmus (1466?–1536), but even the colloquies by the reformer Mathurin Cordier (1479/1480–1564) or those by Ravisius Textor (1493–1522), as well as the Linguae Latinae exercitatio by Juan-Luis Vives (1492/1493–1540), were used in the schools. The humanists, especially those at the Protestant gymnasia in Germany and the Latin schools in the Low Countries, considered the acting of dramas another effective way of mastering the Latin language. Another difference between the medieval scholars and the humanists is a shift in the use of Latin from a pragmatic one (if necessary, new words could be coined, even ‘unclassical’ ones, and syntactic means could be used as seemed fit), to a principled one, which should aim at writing ‘classical’ Latin morphologically and syntactically. One of the adages of humanism was the demand to go ad fontes, i.e. to read the original texts. The same climate of ad fontes was characteristic of the Protestant Reformation, and as such humanism is one of its roots. A popular saying of the time was ‘Erasmus laid the egg that Luther hatched.’ There had been other pre-reformative movements, such as the Devotio moderna in the Hanseatic area of the Low Countries and Northern Germany, the movement of Jan Hus (c. 1360–1415) in Bohemia and the reform of John Wycliffe (c. 1328–1384) in England, but the full Reformation started in 1517, when Martin Luther (1493–1546) nailed his 95 theses at the doors of the Chapel at Wittenberg. The Reformation dealt with dogmatic and ecclesiastical reforms—about the Eucharist and the role of the Church in the Christians’ salvation—but gained ground because of people’s dissatisfaction with corruption in the Catholic Church. It also gained followers among princes and kings who sought a stronger state by diminishing the influence of the Church. In England King Henry VIII challenged the Catholic hierarchy and established the Church of England. The religious divisions were the causes of many wars inspired 2 See for example Grendler, Schooling in Renaissance Italy; Bloemendal, Spiegel van het dagelijks leven.

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and driven by faith, but also by the ambition of western European rulers in states that became more centralized and powerful. The most destructive one was the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648). It was fought primarily in what is now Germany, but what was then a conglomerate of small principalities brought together in a kind of theoretical frame that was called the Holy Roman Empire. Gradually the war developed into a more general conflict involving most of the European states. It led to further wars between the French Bourbons and the Habsburg powers. It started with a Bohemian Revolt (1618–1621), in France Huguenot rebellions were involved (1620– 1628), and both Denmark (1625–1629) and Sweden (1630–1635) intervened. For the Low Countries this was the last phase of a period of eighty years of rebellion and warfare against the Spanish Habsburgs. The Peace of Westphalia (1648), involving the Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand III, the Kingdoms of Spain, France, Sweden, the Dutch Republic, and the Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, marked the end of this period. The Protestant Reformations also prompted a strong reform movement within the Catholic Church, the so-called Counter-Reformation. The movement aimed to reduce corruption and to improve and strengthen Catholic dogmas and faith. It used education and literature, as well as the (baroque) visual arts. One of the most important groups in the Church involved in this movement was the Societas Jesu, the Society, or Company, of Jesus. The Jesuits were strongly engaged in education, especially in the Latin schools, thus influencing or even indoctrinating new Catholics.3 One of the means they took over from the Protestant gymnasia for this task was the staging of Latin plays, which in their hands became multimedia shows. By having martyr and saints’ plays staged, they tried to imbue their pupils’ minds with zeal for the Catholic faith and the spread of Catholicism. Thus they also wanted to create new missionaries, since the mission was also a part of their ‘core business.’ Furthermore, they had political influence. For instance, they helped keep Central and Eastern Europe within the Catholic fold, partly by way of their Neo-Latin plays with Catholic overtones. However, the countries of Central Europe, i.e. the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Hungary, were more tolerant. Although they sought to maintain the predominance of Catholicism under the influence of the Jesuits, they continued to allow religious minorities to maintain their faiths. But Central Europe too became divided, between Roman Catholics, 3 See the contributions to this volume by Rädle, Chevalier and Norland on German, French and English Jesuit theatre respectively.



introduction: neo-latin drama5

Protestants, Orthodox Catholics and Jews. These regions also experienced several wars, among which the Livonian War (1558–1583) between the Tsardom of Russia and a coalition of Denmark and Norway, Sweden, Lithuania and Poland. Parts of Central Europe were invaded by the Ottomans. The Ottoman Empire, which would last until 1929, was at the centre of interaction between the Eastern and the Western worlds for six centuries. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in particular it was highly influential. It reached its apogee during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent (reigned 1520–1566), who in 1529 even besieged Vienna. A dramatic moment in the struggle for power between Christendom under the command of Spain and the Ottoman Empire was the naval battle of Lepanto (1571) in the Gulf of Patras (Greece). This stopped the Ottoman expansion—at least temporarily. In Christendom itself, several religious wars occurred. Some countries remained relatively unaffected by these religious quarrels. Italy was one of them. Consisting as it did of many city-states, however, it came to be dominated by several foreign powers. It was the subject of the so-called Italian Wars or the Habsburg-Valois Wars (1494–1559), which became a struggle for power and territory between France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, England, Scotland and the Ottoman Empire. In the early modern period, parts of Italy were annexed to the Spanish empire. For Italy, this was a period of relative peace. This enabled it to remain an important centre of Western culture. In this changing world, Latin drama was written and read, rehearsed and performed, all over Europe. It was a ‘coat of many colours’, comprising tragedy, comedy, farce and tragicomedy, varying in length, outspokenly confessional, Protestant or Catholic, or demolishing the walls between the religions, taking its subjects from the Bible, the saints’ lives, fairy tales, ­history, daily life and school life, and finally offering moral, religious or intellectual lessons of various kinds, or just entertainment, or a defence of the humanist cause. The economic growth required for schooling also advanced the production of Latin and vernacular drama. This was advanced by a renewed interest in the classics and in late-medieval ecclesiastical plays and by a tradition of staging plays in the vernacular. The International Scope of Neo-Latin Drama The diversity in the history of Europe involved differences between humanists from the individual countries and between their Latin dramas.

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Yet there were also constants: the use of Latin at the schools facilitated a European context for education. For the Latin schools and the universities, comedies by Plautus and Terence, tragedies by Seneca, or translations of Greek tragedies were read and performed in many European countries. Furthermore, new comedies and tragedies were written and staged, which through the international language reached super-regional acclaim. The Ioseph (1535) by Cornelius Crocus was read in Poland, as was George Buchanan’s Jephthes, which was known all over Europe. Borders could be crossed, both between countries and between convictions. A Protestant martyr play by Daniel Heinsius (Auriacus, 1602) was imitated in a Catholic play by Jacobus Zevecotius (Maria Stuarta, 1623). A very successful play on the theme of the Prodigal Son by the Dutch humanist Guilielmus Gnapheus, Acolastus (1529), was read, studied and staged all over Europe. The international scope of this play is also demonstrated by the Paris edition of 1554 with commentary notes by Gabriel Prateolus Marcossius (or Dupréau, 1511–1588). Other international publications were the two collections of Latin plays from German lands and the Low Countries that were published in Basle in 1541 and 1547 and the collection of Jesuit plays Selectae P.P. Soc. Iesu tragoediae that was printed in Antwerp in 1634. A play by the Dutch headmaster Georgius Macropedius (1487–1558) was performed at Trinity College in Cambridge in 1565–1566 and another one in Munich in 1609.4 Jesuit plays also experienced international circulation. Father Joseph Simons (1594–1671) is one of the famous Jesuit dramatists whose plays enjoyed pan-European renown. His life had an international scope too: a native of England, he studied and taught at several English colleges on the Continent. This provides evidence that humanists and their texts travelled throughout Europe. This is known in the case of Erasmus, who travelled to Italy, Germany, Switzerland and England. Gnapheus fled from his native Netherlands to Poland, where a Dutch Protestant community lived and was tolerated. There he wrote and staged other plays. The Polish humanist Simon Simonides (1558–1629) visited Holland, where he would have seen or read Crocus’s Joseph play. International compilations of Latin plays were printed, such as the collections by Brylinger and Oporinus in Basel, and the Selectae PP. Soc. Iesu tragoediae which we just mentioned. These plays and collections fulfilled the need for texts in the schools—not every teacher or headmaster was talented at writing such plays. In conclusion, there were many factors that contributed to the international scope of 4 Giebels and Slits, Georgius Macropedius, pp. 229 and 260.



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Neo-Latin drama: the Latin language as a lingua franca, the travelling of merchants, priests and scholars throughout Europe, the demand for Latin plays to be staged as a part of the curriculum and the possibilities offered by the printing press. Classical Receptions of Neo-Latin Drama The international scope of Neo-Latin drama was enhanced by its classical orientation. Yet, as Philip Ford and Andrew Taylor rightly observe in their introduction to The Early Modern Cultures of Neo-Latin Drama, this orientation was ‘relatively complicated and at times problematic.’5 They explain this through the aims of drama, which are more complex than, for instance, those of poetry: ‘In drama, especially drama designed for performance, the relationship with the audience is far more direct and immediate, and the rich tradition of the medieval theatre, in both Latin and the vernacular, offered popular alternative models which influenced the themes and their treatment by neo-Latin authors.’ Thus the classical orientation of dramatists towards Roman comedy and tragedy in particular—the plays by Terence and Plautus, read through the lens of the fourth-century Roman critic and grammarian Donatus, and the tragedies of Seneca, read through a rhetorical looking glass—gradually grew. The early Neo-Latin dramas are often ‘hybrid forms, with no clear classical models.’6 The theoretical framework was also far from systematic, as Ford and Taylor also show. The playwrights drew on scattered and diverse sources, such as the introduction to drama by Donatus (or Evanthius) in his aforementioned commentary (which was printed in almost every edition of Terence, and to a lesser extent of Plautus), and the few remarks that Horace made in his Ars poetica; later on in the period they read Aristotle’s Poetics with its distinctions between ‘history’ and ‘poetry’ and ‘truth’ and ‘verisimilitude’, as well as its concept of the tragic hero, and adjusted them to their own ideas and interpretations.7 But the playwrights could and did easily apply ‘the formal structure and rules of classical drama: the five-act play, the use of choruses and the restriction to three speaking actors on stage at any one time’, for instance.8 5 For this part of the introduction, we are indebted to Ford's and Taylor’s ‘Intro­ duction’ to their The Early Modern Cultures of Neo-Latin Drama. The quotation is from p. 7. 6 Ibid. 7 Ibid., p. 8. Ford and Taylor speak in terms of imperfect understanding. We would rather speak in terms of ‘their own understanding’, and ‘adaptation.’ 8 Ibid. See for instance Horace, Ars poetica, 190–95.

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Fig. 1. Terentius cum quinque commentis (Paris, 1552), p. 204.



introduction: neo-latin drama9

They found these rules in the theoretical framework that the Ars poetica offered, as well as in the editions of Terence that they used in the classroom, so in the praxis of classical drama as they conceived it. The comedies of Plautus and Terence had no choral songs, in contrast to Senecan tragedies, but the humanists also introduced such choruses into comedy, under the influence of either Seneca’s plays or Horace’s advice. Greek tragedy and comedy were less known and therefore had a lesser reception, although the Latin translations of Greek plays by such figures as Erasmus and George Buchanan (1506–1582) circulated and were staged. Buchanan himself wrote classical dramas based on Greek models, especially the tragedies by Euripides, with episodes divided up by choruses. However, his example did not find many followers, since the clear five-act form of Seneca’s dramas was easier to follow and to adapt. Another famous example of a playwright drawing on Greek models is Hugo Grotius (1583– 1645). His growing insight into Greek tragedy is reflected in his dramas, as well as in his Excerpta ex tragoediis et comoediis Graecis (1626). However, his Greek orientation did not prevent him from writing tragedies in the Roman vein, with emphasis on a Stoic attitude towards emotions.9 The classical models allowed significant variation. For instance, Cornelius Schonaeus (1541–1611) tends towards a more serious treatment of biblical stories and more thorough moralization than, for instance, his Dutch predecessors Guilielmus Gnapheus (1493–1568) and Georgius Macropedius. Thus the Senecan and Terentian models are adapted to the increasingly sober religious concerns of the later sixteenth century.’10 Neo-Latin Drama—Latin and the Vernacular Although part of the international Latin Republic of Letters, Neo-Latin drama also has a local, regional or ‘national’ aspect (though nation states did not yet exist). These were related to local culture. In the Low Coun­ tries,  for instance, humanists who were part of the respublica literaria were also related to members of literary clubs called ‘Rederijkerskamers’ or Rhetoricians’ Chambers. Their language was Dutch. When in 1618 the Haarlem Chamber ‘Trou moet blijcken’ (‘Loyalty must be shown’) wished 9 See Eijffinger, ‘“The Unacknowledged Legislators of Mankind”’ and ‘“The Fourth Man”.’ 10 Ford and Taylor, ‘Introduction’, pp. 11–12; Verweij, ‘The Terentius Christianus at work.’

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to raise money for an old men’s home, the headmaster of the Latin School and author of several Neo-Latin biblical plays, contributed with a Latin play on charity. For the non-latinized audience, ‘interludes’ (poems in Dutch) were added, summarizing each act. The same technique was employed by the Jesuits in German lands, who added comic interludes in German. Another way of linking Latin and the vernaculars was the periochae, programme leaflets containing summaries of the play in the vernacular or in the vernacular and Latin, and with the names of the actors. The Jesuits especially employed this means of helping the audience to understand the plays. The ties between Latin and vernacular cultures were also tightened by mutual translations. The Dutch headmaster Georgius Macropedius reworked a Dutch morality play (written by a rhetorician) Elckerlijc into a Latin play Hecastus (1539). He translated parts of it, but added a prologue and choruses, to fit the theme into the genre of Neo-Latin comedy (or fabula). The same Elckerlijc was also translated into English as Everyman, and it had previously been imitated in Latin by Christianus Ischyrius in a play called Homulus (1536). Many dramas written in Germany, especially Protestant, but also Catholic ones, exist in German and in Latin. As Dietl states in her contribution: ‘The translation from Latin into German was often done by relatives and friends of the authors, as well as by other authors, while the reverse translation from an original German text into Latin is usually the author’s own work.’11 A special case is John Christopherson’s tragedy Jephthah, which was composed in Greek, and translated into Latin by the author.12 Several Latin dramas were translated into the vernacular languages. Plays by Macropedius were published in Dutch, French, German and Swedish.13 A Swedish translation of Stymmelius’s comedy Studentes was also published. Betuleius translated his German Judith and Suzanna into Latin, partly adjusting them to classical forms. Jacob Schöpper’s five Latin dramas were translated into German soon after they were published. A French translation by Jean Bienvenu of John Foxe’s Christus triumphans (1556) was published five years after the original. By means of these many translations into the vernacular different audiences could be reached in the same city or in other countries. 11 Dietl, ‘Germany’, p. 148. 12 Norland, ‘England’, p. 476. 13 Dietl, ‘Germany’, passim.



introduction: neo-latin drama11

The other way around, plays in the vernacular were translated or i­mitated in Latin. For instance, tragedies by French playwrights, such as Jean Racine (1639–1699) and Pierre Corneille (1606–1684), were known in Germany in Latin translations.14 In his Ludus podagrae (1534), for instance, Eobanus Hessus also translated a German play into Latin. Borders were crossed in another way too. The Jesuit author on poetics Andreas Friz (1711–1790) discusses the tragedies of Racine in his manuscript Epistola de tragoediis (c. 1741/1744),15 whereas the Dutch theoretician Gerardus Johannes Vossius also treats the vernacular tragedies of his friend Joost van den Vondel (1587–1679) in his Latin Poeticae institutiones (1647).16 Performances and Audiences Neo-Latin dramas were written to be read, but most of them were also meant to be staged.17 In this introduction, we will leave the ‘from page to stage’ and ‘from stage to page’ discussions, confining ourselves to stating that a performance added to the impact of a play by means of the spoken word as well as decor and props. However, the performance records of early Latin humanist dramas of the Quattrocento are scanty.18 In any case they circulated privately and widely. If they were staged—either in ‘full’ performance or in declamation, such performances often took place in the open air or in the halls of the nobility and in the palaces of the Pope and his cardinals. In ecclesiastical and political spheres there were opportunities for scenic display, which were also employed for ancient Latin plays by Plautus and Terence, once they were available in print after the 1470s, and for new humanists’ plays. For instance, at the wedding of Alfonso I d’Este and Anna Maria Sforza at Ferrara in 1491 Plautus’ Amphitruo was staged—it presented Jupiter and twin sons, one of whom was Hercules. As was the case in several instances, the play was adapted to the situation, concluding with a prediction of the birth of a new Hercules: Duke Ercole II. But Latin plays were also staged in pedagogic and scholarly spheres, such as the Roman Academy under the leadership of Giulio Pomponio Leto (1425–1498), the German colleges, and the great halls of 14 Information given by Nienke Tjoelker. 15 See Tjoelker, Andreas Friz’s Letter on Tragedies. 16 See the modern ed. by Bloemendal. 17 See also Bloemendal and Ford, ‘Introduction’. 18 On performances of Latin dramas in Italy, see Grund, Humanist Comedies, pp. xii–xv.

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the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge.19 In matters of performances, there was much interaction between signorial courts, the academies and the papacy: academies were utilized in the entertainment of royal guests and prelates. In Northern humanism, the situation differed slightly. There, Latin drama was more connected to the schools and the universities. The masters and headmasters wrote plays that were not intended purely to be read; they also had their students perform them.20 In municipal archives there are many entries that offer evidence of this. For example, because the players were offered refreshments, a grant was given for staging, or because the rector, hypodidascali and pupils received some money for their efforts or for the costs in staging the plays. Remarks in dedicatory letters also provide information. Schonaeus noted in the dedication added to his Nehemias that the administration of Haarlem had been so content with his Tobaeus that they wanted the play to be performed on the marketplace.21 We know that performances were put on in cities by the Latin schools. Students even went on to other cities to act. For instance, the students of the St Jerome’s school in Utrecht went to Gouda with their rector Macropedius in 1552. There are indications that the performances were real productions, and not mere declamations.22 In order to perform a play, it had to be rehearsed. This happened mostly during school time. A play could also be discussed in the lessons without explicitly aiming at a performance. In this way we can understand a remark by Schonaeus that the City Council stimulated him to consider his Tobaeus in the classroom: ‘in gymnasio nostro pueris enarrari’, where enarrari implies interpretation.23 19 This was no harmless venture; because of Leto’s fanatical dedication to things Roman, Pope Paul II disbanded the Academy and had Leto and his followers imprisoned and tortured. The academy was re-established in 1471 by Pope Sixtus IV. See Grund, Humanist Comedies, p. xiv. 20 For this section, see for instance Bloemendal, Spiegel van het dagelijks leven, pp. 68–74; Kindermann, Theaterpublikum der Renaissance. Professional theatre, at least in the Netherlands, was of a later date. However, there were English professional players active in the Netherlands, see Hoenselaars, ‘Engelse toneelspelers’ and Bordewijk, ‘Strolling players.’ 21 See Van de Venne, Cornelius Schonaeus, 1 Leven en werk, p. 113. One could also consider phrases in prologues, used again and again, on what the spectators are going to see. 22 For instance, a distinction is made between pupils who are ‘more active’ and should play, and those who are ‘more passive’ and would be better off listening. This is an indication of an actual performance. 23 See Van de Venne, Cornelius Schonaeus, 1 Leven en werk, p. 113.



introduction: neo-latin drama13

Since only boys attended the Latin schools, all roles—including the female ones—were played by males. It was the students of the highest classes who studied and performed the plays. They had sufficient knowledge of Latin grammar and rhetoric; in addition, they could meet the requirements of voice and movement. In some cases, there were not enough players and an appeal was made to pupils in the lower classes to take the smaller roles or participate in the chorus. The number of pupils required could vary. For farces usually eight to twenty players were required, while for biblical plays the number could be as many as twenty-five. When a piece was rehearsed, it was often not yet printed, but circulated in manuscript form. A rector could copy the manuscript, or even read for the pupils the verses that belonged to the part they played.24 Often performances were accompanied by (vocal and instrumental) music. Many plays included choruses that were sung, which was a humanists’ addition to ancient comedy. Macropedius even made melodies for the choral songs of his plays himself. Certainly these choruses were sung.25 Theatrical music was also made in other ways. For instance, in 1540 the Haarlem rector Cornelius Claesz received two pounds from the City Council to cover the costs of setting up a stage and an organist’s fee.26 Instrumental music could be a means of filling silences. In biblical plays choruses or characters could sing a kind of psalms, hymns or other religious songs.27 Plays were performed before an audience, which could vary. At the ­performance of Plautus’ Aulularia in Louvain by students under the guidance of Martinus Dorpius, professors and students came flocking in. The  performance was, moreover, so successful that it was repeated for years to come ‘in the most famous towns’ even though it was also criticized by ‘jealous people and grumblers.’28 In Elbing, whence he had fled, Gnapheus saw a successful performance of his Acolastus before pupils, parents, the city council and the clergy in 1531. The play made its way

24 Ibid., p. 112. 25 On the reasons why the humanists may have re-introduced the chorus, see p. 7. On the chorus songs of Macropedius, see Grijp, ‘Macropedius and Music’; a modern ed. of Macropedius’ choral odes can be found in Macropedius, Verzameld toneel: Koren en liederen, ed. Dekker. 26 See Kindermann, Das Theaterpublikum der Renaissance, 2, pp. 73–74; Von Liliencron, ‘Die Chorgesänge’, pp. 346–48. 27 Schmidt, Die Bühnenverhältnisse, p. 175. 28 See Kindermann, Das Theaterpublikum der Renaissance, 2, p. 67.

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throughout Europe with countless performances in Latin and translations into German, French and English, thereby increasing its audience.29 In Middelburg in September 1595, the members of the States of Zeeland were at a performance of three pieces. A smaller audience will have attended the performance for which the Alkmaar preacher Adolphus Venator opened his house.30 A select public saw the production by Leiden students of Seneca’s Trojan Women in 1617: English and Swedish envoys were present.31 Often the number of spectators was not particularly limited, because of the performance locations, which included markets.32 In the Jesuit gymnasia and colleges in Germany, the audience could extend to thousands of people. It was predominantly an urban audience who attended the productions.33 It is likely that the onlookers demonstrated a certain snobbery in showing off their mastery of Latin. Not only did spectators attend performances in their own city, as is rather obvious in the case of performances at kermises as well as those put on in collaboration with rhetoricians (as sometimes happened in the Low Countries); in the case of several performances, parents of students who came from out of town may also have been present. A lottery play by Schonaeus (1606) will have been intended for a large audience; poems in Dutch were added to the play for the spectators who did not speak Latin.34 When no explanation in the vernacular was available, such spectators would still have been able to follow the play through the costumes and the intonation and by virtue of the fact that the student-actors in many pieces played true-to-life characters: themselves, their parents and neighbours.35 In other ways as well the audience was met with prologues, epilogues and short tables of contents presented in the vernacular. Sometimes translations of the plays 29 For instance, it served as a model for one of the most famous comedies of German humanistic theatre, Christophorus Stymmelius’s Studentes (1545). 30 He was disciplined by the classis and synod for this performance of Terentius’ Andria. See Wille, ‘De Gereformeerden en het tooneel’, p. 108; Schotel, Tilburgsche avondstonden, pp. 307–08. 31 Worp, Drama en tooneel, 1, p. 201. 32 In this respect this theatre resembled rhetoricians’ drama, which was also performed at celebrations either in private meetings or in public performances. The audience of Jesuit plays could extend to thousands of people. 33 Cf. Ramakers, Spelen en figuren, pp. 12–18: ‘Toneel als stadsliteratuur’. 34 The same is true of Crocus’ Ioseph, where in the Antwerp print from 1548 a guardian’s  song in English has been inserted. See Sterck, ‘Onder Amsterdamse humanisten’, p. 291. 35 Kindermann, Das Theaterpublikum der Renaissance, 2, pp. 69–70 (about the success of Acolastus). The audience had a more visual mindset, as witnessed by the processions and tableaux vivants. See also Ramakers, Spelen en figuren.



introduction: neo-latin drama15

were sold, or a piece was first played in Latin and then in the vernacular.36 One option was very common in Jesuit theatre: leaflets were sold with the title and a synopsis of the play in Latin and the vernacular, the periochae.37 There were also literati without knowledge of Latin who attended performances. For instance, the prolific Dutch tragic poet Joost van den Vondel (1587–1679), who initially could not read Latin, wrote in 1657 of his young years: ‘I also remember that I saw a stage built in Utrecht, before the town hall, by order of the burghomasters, for the use of the pupils of the Latin school.’38 In 1657 he published a ‘Tooneelkrans’ for the Amster­ dam  burgomaster’s son Nikolaes Vlooswyk, who had played the title role in Philedonius (1657), written by Spinoza’s teacher Francis van den Enden (1602–1674).39 Vondel may have attended a performance of his friend’s son. The location could vary. The performance could take place in the school itself. Often the Town Hall was the place of performance, or it was played before the Town Hall. Some of the audience were probably sitting on wooden benches, most will have been standing. Farces were about an hour long, other plays took about two hours. It cannot always have been easy for the players to have been heard above the noise that sometimes arose. Although it is a topos, it is not unlikely that when time and again silence is requested in prologues, this correlates with a request required in reality. As far as we know, admission was free, although the pupils could have asked for money. This was not necessary, however. The fact that entries are found in municipal records for rector and students to cover the costs of a performance points to free entrance. Because there were no fixed stages, the theatre stage was very simple. It may have resembled the ‘scaffold’ on which rhetoricians presented their plays or may even have been the same scaffold, for instance in 1529.40 Actors played on a stage with no scenery except doors and some props, 36 Fleurkens, ‘Meer dan vrije expressie’, p. 81. 37 An edition of such periochae has been compiled by Elida Szarota. 38 Vondel, Salmoneus, ‘Berecht’, in WB, 5, p. 712: ‘My heught oock that ick t’Uitrecht voor het Stadthuis, door last der Heeren Burgemeesteren, ten dienst der Latijnsche schoolieren, een tooneel gebouwt zagh [..]..’ This concerned a play containing David and Goliath; perhaps it was Macropedius’s Adamus, which featured these two biblical characters, or a piece from the rector of the school in Alost, Gabriel Jansen (Monomachia Davidis cum Goliath). See also Van de Graft, ‘Vondel bij het spel van David en Goliath te Utrecht’. 39 Vondel, ‘Tooneelkrans’, WB, 8, pp. 570–71. 40 Koster, Van schavot tot schouwburg, pp. 21–22; on the staging of rhetoricians drama, see also Hummelen, ‘De eerste bundel met rederijkersspelen’ and id., ‘Typen van toneelinrichting bij de rederijkers’.

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such as seats or shrubs.41 The rest of the mise en scène was undoubtedly fairly primitive too: the different places of the action were probably only indicated by a sign with the name of the town or by spoken words, especially in the early phase of the Latin school stage.42 Often the stage consisted of a ‘scena’ resembling a house, and a proscenium: a ‘flat floor.’ This staging must have been problematic: it was the model for the ancient theatre, and its design must have been not entirely apt to the staging of biblical plays which, for example, presented the nomadic Patriarchs. Such difficulties were overcome by ‘spoken stage settings’: with words, anything could be suggested.43 The costumes were most likely more contemporary than historically justified. All in all, the humanists’ stage likely resembled that of the vernacular stage. At first, the repertoire consisted mainly of plays by Plautus and, above all, Terence. In addition to comedies, tragedies ascribed to the Roman playwright Seneca were regularly programmed. The popularity of these plays by Terence and Seneca is witnessed by the fact that editions of them became schoolbooks. The Jesuit Martinus Delrio, a well-known Seneca scholar and editor from Antwerp, wrote to Justus Lipsius that Moretus could safely publish Seneca’s plays because they were read every year in the Jesuit colleges and consequently would become bestsellers.44 Occasionally plays by the Greek comedian Aristophanes and the three Greek tragic poets, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, were staged as well. Sometimes the plays were staged in Greek—for example, Euripides’ Hecuba in 1526 put on by Haarlem pupils under the guidance of rector Jacob Meyster.45 Greek theatre, however, was usually performed in a Latin translation, such as Erasmus’s translations of Hecuba and Iphigenia at Aulis.46 Soon the humanists added other plays. Of course, some rectors wrote their own pieces, but they did not choose their own works alone. Not every 41 As, for example in Frischlins Hildegardis magna., see Schmidt, Die Bühnenverhältnisse, pp. 164–65. 42 Koster, Van schavot tot schouwburg, p. 41; Schmidt, Die Bühnenverhältnisse, pp. 135–57. 43 This is the view of Schmidt, Die Bühnenverhältnisse, e.g., p. 149, but is refuted by Giovanoli, Form und Funktion, p. 80. 44 Letter from Liège, 28.06.1593 (ILE 93 06 28): ‘Editionem [sc. Senecae] … confido … illi [Moreto] futuram frustuosam …’iacturae … timori mederi debebat, quod tragoediae illae quotannis ferme in Societate nostra ubique praelegendae, et sic emptores non defuturi.’ Quoted after IJsewijn and Sacré, Companion to Neo-Latin Studies, 2, p. 142. 45 Bot, Humanisme en onderwijs, p. 131. 46 Modern ed. in ASD I, 1.



introduction: neo-latin drama17

rector was kissed by the Muses, so they were ready to pick up pieces from a standard repertoire. Some pieces were very popular, such as Gnapheus’s Acolastus, which saw many performances all over Europe, as did the plays by Macropedius, especially his Hecastus, and Stymmelius’s Studentes.47 There were two reasons for this writing of new plays: the ancient plays were too immoral for the humanists, or the repertoire was too small.48 It is not always clear which piece was played. Often we find in accounts the indication that a ‘Latin play’ or even just a ‘play’ or ‘comedies’ were performed, so that it even remains enigmatic as to whether the pupils of the Latin school did a piece in Latin or in the vernacular.49 Most public performances took place in the afternoon, usually on a number of occasions. For example, in the case of religious celebra­ tions   such as the feast of St Magdalena in Utrecht, the Sint-Jansmis or ‘ommegancx-dag’ (24 or 25 June, named after the feast of St John the Baptist on 24 June) in Haarlem and Corpus Christi in Oudenaarde.50 This time of year presented several benefits: many people were present for the kermis and the risk was small that bad weather at an open-air show would be a hindrance. The situation was different at Shrove Tuesday (Carnival) in February, another time at which plays were regularly performed. There were performances on the occasion of St Martin’s day (11 November), annual fairs, Christmas and New Year. The number of times at which there were performances is not always clear. The frequency seems to have been a couple of times a year—more performances may have been too much of a burden on the schoolmasters. Pupils in Haarlem presented a play in the spring and in the autumn of 1578.51 It is also apparent from a comment by Macropedius in the prologue of his Bassarus that a production was enacted more than once a year.52 47 See below, pp. 203, 309 and 155–56. Although a playwright himself, Schonaeus brought, in the autumn of 1578, Gnapheus’s Acolastus, see Van de Venne, Cornelius Schonaeus, 1 Leven en werk, p. 65. 48 The first reason is the communis opinio, the second is advocated by Michiel Verweij in his ed. of Vladeraccus’s Tobias, pp. 17–18. 49 Although the combination of facts and astute reasoning can have their results, see for example Van de Venne, Cornelius Schonaeus, 1 Leven en werk, pp. 112–13. 50 The rhetoricians chamber also played on this day. See Van de Venne, Cornelius Schonaeus, 1 Leven en werk, p. 113 n. 88, and references listed there. On the situation in Oudenaarde, see Ramakers, Spelen en figuren, in particular p. 23. 51 Van de Venne, Cornelius Schonaeus, 1 Leven en werk, p. 165. 52 Macropedius, Bassarus 4–5: ‘It is now 12 months since the last time that we, in our habit, produced a play which was so expected.’ This is followed by an explanation for the long period of time, suggesting that a higher frequency was common. See Engelberts in Macropedius, Bassarus, p. 69; see also ibid., n. 4.

18

jan bloemendal and howard b. norlan