Abstract The paper suggests a politically inspired theological reading of Christoph Stymmelius’ Latin school play Isaac , staged in Szczecin in 1577 and published in 1579. Following some hints in the prologue to the 1579 edition, the play might have been staged at the wedding of Duke Johann Friedrich of Pomerania to Erdmuthe of Brandenburg, which secured a treaty between the two houses. Each house agreed to grant the other full rights of succession should the other line die out. In the dialogues, the play sets the framework of the treaty: both the Duchy of Pomerania and the Margraviate of Brandenburg should remain strongholds against Calvinism. – History revealed it as a vain hope.
Abstract A lavishly laid table, music, dance, amusement and socializing were central components of every festivity in the Medieval and Early Modern periods, but excessive indulgence in worldly pleasures also provoked criticism. Feasts and the associated dining and entertainment culture were the subject of moralizing theatrical performances. This article takes a closer look at two thematically related plays, depicting specific customs and traditions with different cultural backgrounds: the French morality La Condamnation de Banquet , staged around 1500 in a courtly setting, and its Swiss adaptation, the tragicomedy Convivii Process , staged on the Wine market in Lucerne during carnival 1593. Special attention is paid to the musical components of the performances.
In the Middle Ages, the Pyrenees were not a border but a hinge between two twin cultures : those of Occitania and the Catalan Countries. The counties of Toulouse, Languedoc, Provence, and Nice were associated with the Count of Barcelona, King of Aragon-Catalonia, and thus maintained a close link, even after the Cathar genocide and the subsequent annexation of the Cathar region to the Kingdom of France. This article thus considers the similarities (and differences) that exist between the Dance of Death in Morella (diocese of Tortosa) and that of the commune of So Barn (Le Bar-sur-Loup) (diocese of Nice), as well as the iconographic and spiritual context that might explain or clarify the images and texts that accompany them. It also examines the links between the impressive survivals of this type of spectacle in Aix-en-Provence (until the French Revolution) and in Catalonia, in Verges, until today.
Abstract In the context of shifting attitudes towards prostitution in the late Middle Ages and the early modern period, this article explores how prostitution is addressed in the Nuremberg Shrovetide plays, how the figures who mediate prostitution — the procuress (‘Kupplerin’) and the brothel keeper (‘Frauenwirt’) — are represented, and how prostitutes themselves are portrayed. The plays’ position within contemporary debates on prostitution cannot be characterized as wholly subversive nor wholly affirmative. Instead, they bring to the stage the intricate questions of their time, adopting perspectives that, on the one hand, ridicule marginalized groups, while, on the other, setting a tacitly accepted practice against moral condemnation.
Abstract This article analyses the ‘Sau’-scene in the Shrovetide play Der Herzog von Burgund by Hans Folz (1435/40–1513), while discussing its reception of the ‘Judensau’-sculpture affixed to the east choir of the Church of St Sebald in Folz’s hometown Nuremberg. While the play is a historic piece of anti-Jewish performance culture, the sculpture, even though older than the Shrovetide play, is still present and stirs up public discourse, as do similar sculptures at church buildings in other regions of the German-speaking countries. This article frames and reflects the Shrovetide play against the backdrop of the German court decision of 14 June 2022 according to which the ‘Judensau’-sculpture at the Wittenberg city church is, in principle, an offense against Jewish people living in Germany. The same must, mutatis mutandis , be assumed for ‘Judensau’-sculptures elsewhere.
