The Play of Adam : drama, art, and society in the twelfth century
Date
1974
Authors
Parry, David MacKenzie
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Abstract
The twelfth century in Europe presents us with two kinds of religious plays: those of the liturgical tradition; and those normally referred to as "vernacular" plays. The liturgical plays of the twelfth century are often more elaborate than earlier liturgical plays. In overall treatment of subject matter, and in style, however, there is a continuity from early liturgical drama to that of the twelfth century. Vernacular plays do not appear until the first half of the twelfth century, and there are only two extant twelfth-century examples of the form: the Ordo Representacionis Ade; and La Seinte Resureccion, dated respectively ca. 1150 and ca. 1175, and both written in the Anglo-Norman dialect, probably in England.
Formal elements in the vernacular plays appear at first sight to link them to the liturgical tradition. Similarly, short passages in some. liturgical plays appear to link them to the emergence of vernacular plays. Both these factors have led critics to. refer to the plays like the liturgical Sponsus and the vernacular Ordo Representacionis Ade as, "transitional" plays which demonstrate an "evolutionary stage" between liturgical and vernacular drama. This is a false perspective. Despite apparent stylistic similarities actual differences between the modes are profound.
The most crucial difference between the modes is that of purpose. Reduced to essentials, the purpose of the liturgical plays is "evidential" or "presentational", and that of the vernacular plays "didactic" or "homiletic". The reasons for the differences in mode are rooted in a radical change in mental attitude both within the church and within society-at-large, occurring around the end of the eleventh and beginning of the twelfth centuries. Strong social changes occurred, producing among other things the urban communes of "free" men. A radically new theological view of the meaning of the Fall and Redemption of Man, and the Incarnation of Christ, was formulated, In art, new expressive form and new emotional content reflected the new cultural needs. The first half of the twelfth century saw the emergence of coherent new attitudes to man, the 'meaning of his life in this world, and the nature of his salvation. The church began to try to make its methods more relevant to the conditions pertaining in the temporal w9rld, in order to affirm more effectively the true faith in ordinary men and women who were finding a new freedom of thought and action opening up to them.
Art also began to reflect these changes in its depiction of a more "realistic" spatial context than hitherto, in which figures could move; in a more humanized treatment of the human form; and in a new organization of subject-matter, which began to show a marked appeal to human reason in a new relationship between form and content.
When twelfth century dramatic texts are examined in the light of these changes, it becomes clear that the vernacular plays of this period differ-from the liturgical plays because they were created to serve a new purpose which fits into the general pattern of changes in thought, social behavior, and art in the same period. The vernacular plays recognized the setting of this world, and represented it in relatively "realistic" fashion, in order that man should recognize the relationship of divine history to his own life in the contemporary world. They humanized character and action to the same end - because Christ was incarnated as man, from man, and suffered and died as man, so that through Him man could personally a tone for his original sin.
Finally, organization of subject matter in the vernacular plays was thought out in terms which sought to clarify the relationship between certain episodes in Biblical history, and particularly between God and man. Their purpose was to teach clearly and effectively to the audience a way through this world to salvation in the next, not denying the meaning of earthly existence, but seeing it as as a necessary and meaningful preparation for existence in God's eternity.
Appended to the thesis is a text which offers a reconstruction of the missing portions of the Ordo Representacionis Ade, using materials from other contemporary sources, and organizing it according to the conclusions reached in the thesis regarding the original content, structure, and intention of the play.