Hrotsvitha

x

[|Hrosvitha], [|Hrosvitha] [|Hrosvitha] Hrotsvit presents Emperor Otto the Great with her //Gesta Oddonis//, in the background Abbess Gerberga, [|woodcut] by [|Albrecht Dürer], 1501 Dramatist

Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim, was a 10th-century German secular canoness, as well as a dramatist and poet who lived and worked at Gandersheim Abbey in modern-day Bad Gandersheim, Lower Saxony, established by the Ottonian dynasty. Wikipedia [|Born]: 935 AD, [|Germany] [|Died]: 973 AD [|Plays of Roswitha]

The first known playwright in Christian Europe was Hrotsvitha, a tenth-century German nun.
Hrotsvitha (c. 935 – c. 1002), whose name means “strong voice” or “mighty shout,” wrote eight narrative poems, six plays, and two historical pieces, all in Latin. She was a canoness (a laywoman living in a religious community) at the Benedictine abbey in Gandersheim, a town in the modern-day German state of Lower Saxony. She had studied and enjoyed the comedies of the Roman playwright Terence (185?-159 BC), and modeled her work on his, with an important difference: > I, the strong voice of Gandersheim, have not hesitated to imitate in my writing a poet whose works are so widely read, my object being to glorify, within the limits of my poor talent, the laudable chastity of Christian virgins in that same form of composition which has been used to describe the shameless acts of licentious women. > (Preface to Hrotsvitha’s //Liber Secundus//, translated by “Christopher St. John” (Christabel Marshall)) We don’t know for sure whether Hrotsvitha’s plays were staged during her lifetime, or even if she intended for them to be. But since then, they have certainly proved to be stageworthy and entertaining. To list just a few productions: Anatole France saw them performed as marionette shows in Paris in the 1890s. The feminist theatre troupe Pioneer Players performed //Calimachus// and //Paphnutius// in London in 1914. Sue-Ellen Case directed three of the plays, under the title “The Virgin, the Whore and the Desperate One” in Seattle in 1982. And Theatre Unbound included //Dulcitius// in //Girl’s Got Pluck//, our anthology of work by early women playwrights, in 2005.

Further reading:

 * Case, Sue-Ellen. “Re-Viewing Hrotsvit” (//Theatre Journal//, v. 35, no. 4, December 1983).
 * Hrotsvitha. (translated by “Christopher St. John” (Christabel Marshall)). //The Plays of Roswitha//. (London: Chatto & Windus, 1923)
 * Witt, Elizabeth Ann. “Canonizing the Canoness: Anthologizing Hrotsvit” (//College Literature// v. 28, no. 2, Spring 2001).
 * Zeydel, Edwin H. “Were Hrotsvitha’s Dramas Performed during Her Lifetime?” (//Speculum//, v. 20, no. 4, October 1945).

http://www.theatreunbound.com/know/facts_hrotsvitha.shtml

Her plays feature the chastity and perseverance of Christian women and contrast these to the perceived Latin portrayal of women as weak and emotional. Her //Passio Sancti Pelagii// is derived, she says, from an eyewitness to the [|martyrdom] of [|Pelagius of Cordova].[|[][|11][|]] The //Book of Drama// presents a [|Roman Catholic] alternative to [|Terence]. These are the six plays, that are not so much drama as "dialogues", and are a [|medieval] example of [|closet drama]. One of the biggest debates over Hrosvitha's plays is over whether they were ever acted while she was alive. However, they are known to have been performed many times since her death, the earliest confirmation of which was in Paris in 1888.[|[][|12][|]] One of Hrotsvitha's most well known plays was //Gallicanus.// It was also the first drama she wrote and, like another of her dramas, //Calimachus,// focuses on the theme of conversion. The central woman in the story is the Emperor Constantine's daughter, Constance. Constance is a consecrated Virgin, while Gallicanus is the Commander-in-Chief of Constantine's army. When Gallicanus tells Constantine that he wants to marry his daughter, Constantine goes to Constance and tells her of Gallicanus' wishes. But Constance is strong in her convictions of chastity, and Constantine supports his daughter's wishes. Constance has a plan for her father to avoid her having to marry Gallicanus, which he happily goes along with. The conversion part comes in when they plan to have Gallicanus convert to Christianity. Constance's Grand Almoners, John and Paul, see to it that Gallicanus wants to convert when he thinks he might lose a battle, and after his victory Gallicanus has himself baptized and takes a vow of celibacy. Likewise, he informs Constantine that he can no longer marry his daughter, like Constance had planned. Constance is portrayed as an intelligent girl who has dedication and a vow of chastity, a common theme in Hrotsvitha's plays. Her faith is emphasized, as is her perseverance.[|[][|13][|]] Gallicanus is comparable to one of Hrosvitha's eight legends, //Agnes.// Both highlight the preservation of the main female's virginity and her faithfulness to God, even though the marriage she is being offered is an honorable one. Both also deal with conversion in a very similar way, with the man seeking to marry her eventually converting himself and becoming a follower of Christ. In all of Hrovitha's works that include the preserving of one's virginity, there seems to be a pattern of it being only a female virtue.[|[][|14][|]] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hrotsvitha
 * Plays and Drama**

media type="youtube" key="fs_WwaCvgVU" height="360" width="640"

media type="youtube" key="7q1yWAmtk_Q" height="360" width="640"