Medieval Germany (Routledge Encyclopedias of the Middle Ages) by John M. Jeep

Author:John M. Jeep [Jeep, John M.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Humanities
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2007-04-16T00:00:00+00:00

Drama, Christmas Plays

While not as widely performed and attested as Passion plays and Easter plays—there are only eight play manuscripts—Christmas plays still formed an essential part of the annual cycle of religious drama in the German-speaking part of Central Europe. As with Easter plays, Christmas plays were performed only during the appropriate liturgical season; however, Passion plays and Corpus Christi plays may also include representations of the Nativity. In contrast to the more expansive Passion and Easter plays, even the larger of the Christmas plays remains somewhat shorter—the Christmas play from Hesse (ca. 1450) has 870 lines and 27 parts.

In a wider sense, these plays present the story of Jesus' Nativity and closely related incidents: the Annunciation, the Visitation, his birth, the visits by the shepherds and Magi, the murder of the innocents, the flight to Egypt, and the purification of Mary. They may also include prophets plays in which the coming of Jesus is foretold. More narrowly, Christmas plays are those that depict the core moments of the Nativity. In the German tradition, however, a special scene is added in which the baby is rocked in a cradle (the Kindelwiegen), and he is entertained with special songs and dances. Some of these carols—such as "Joseph, lieber neve mein" and "In dulci jubilo"—are still popular today.

The plays show Latin roots, having grown out of prophets plays and Christmas liturgies. As with all medieval religious drama, however, the role of apocryphal religious literature is also immense. Of the earlier plays, the most developed is the Latin Benediktbeuern Christmas Play (early thirteenth century). A major component of this play—based on the pseudo-Augustinian Sermo contra Judeos, Paganos, et Arianos—is its lengthy prophets play, in which the coming of Jesus is foretold by the prophets from the Old Testament. These prophecies are then opposed by Archisynagogus. The oldest theatrical Christmas scenes in German come not from an independent play but, rather, from the Himmelgarten Passion fragment (mid—thirteenth century). The first separate Christmas play comes from St. Gall (ca. 1330), but most texts date from the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. From the Erlau collection, we have a crib play and a Magi play (fifteenth century). The Christmas play from Hesse (ca. 1450), with its numerous coarsely comical elements, is among the most developed of this genre: Joseph struggles with the maidservants and others; the shepherds bring to the baby their all-too-earthly requests, including protection of their sheep from wolves. There is also a play from Sterzing (1511) and a fragmentary Swabian Christmas play from the early fifteenth century, first published in the 1970s.

Current research has benefited most from the renewed interest in performance records and from a catalog of religious drama. These have shown that the performance of plays related to the Christmas season was more widespread than manuscript evidence indicates. There is also a newly edited Annunciation play from the "Debs Manuscript." No German-language Christmas play has been translated into English thus far, and only the Latin Benediktbeuern Christmas play is currently available in translation.

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