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HROSWITHA
OF GANDERSHEIM
Paphnutius: Terentian "Imitation,"
Conversion and Re-formation in Hroswitha's Play
Perhaps if Hroswitha should
be faulted for any one thing, it should be for poor word choice in the
self-proclamation, "Wherefore I the strong voice of Gandersheim, have not
hesitated to imitate in my writings 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 self-same form of composition which
has been used to describe the shameless acts of licentious women" (Preface
to the Plays, xxvi-xxvii). This claim to imitate Terence's
form dominates criticism of Hroswitha's plays. While
some critics struggle to find similarities between Terence's verse and
Hroswitha's rhymed prose, others admit defeat saying, "Terence and Hroswitha
both wrote plays, each wrote six, and there the similarities end" (Roberts,
col.480). Still others proclaim "Her plays were to be anti-Terence, bringing
before her readers not shameful themes such as his, but accounts of the
laudable chastity of holy virgins" (Young,
4). Of
the three, the third argument may best summarize Hroswitha's intent.
Critics have often fixated on Hroswitha's claim to "imitate" Terence at
the expense of her "object" in doing so, to replace plays about shameless
pagan women with those about laudable Christian women. While there
is debate as to whether she succeeds in the first, there is no doubt that
she exceeds in the latter. Perhaps critics should ask, what does Hroswitha
mean by saying she will "imitate" Terence in his "self-same form of composition?"
The critic DeLuca asks, "Where, then are we to look for imitation?
In her preface to the plays Hrostvit speaks of those who are attracted
by 'the polished elegance of the style...of pagan writers, and of those
who are fascinated 'by the charm of the manner' of Terence in particular....Hrotsvits'
concern is with the 'language' (or 'diction') of these writers. Perhaps
then, we should expect to find in her plays a good dosage of Terence's
language, but now put to a nobler use. But such is not the case"
(94). Perhaps then, "language" and "style" are not the answer to DeLuca's
question. In her preface, Hroswitha concedes that she has left the
"gathering up" of "heroic strophes" to her "salad days," now content to
"sift them into dramatic scenes" and "avoid through omission the pernicious
voluptuousness of pagan writers." Is it possible that Hroswitha is
not primarily concerned with the "language of these writers," that
she actually "omits" rather than "imitates" references to their style in
her writing? Is it possible that when Hroswitha claims to "imitate"
Terence in his "self-same form" that she actually means to "imitate" his
form in a generic sense, that of "dramatic scenes" in the form of dialogue?
Would this attempt at the "imitation" of dramatic form, a form that had
not been attempted since the fall of Rome, not be ambitious enough as to
defray criticism of imitative failure?
It is entirely possible that Hroswitha does not intend to "imitate" Terence in his entirety, but instead (to borrow words from the church) "convert " or "reform" his pagan dramatic genre into Christian plays. Throughout her preface, Hroswitha takes great issue with the pagan influence that permeated the literature of her time. Repeatedly, Hroswitha makes mention of "pagan writers" and "pagan stories" competing for the interest of "holy scriptures" and "sacred writings." It is Hroswitha's concern over fascination with Pagan writings at the "risk of being corrupted by the wickedness of the matter," that motivates her dramas. Hroswitha intends her plays to be "anti-Terence," a Christian replacement for a pagan genre. Stating, "I have no doubt that many will say that my poor work is much inferior to that of the author whom I have taken as my model, that is on a much humbler scale and, indeed altogether different," Hroswitha concedes her intentional departure from Terence (Preface to the Plays, xxvii). How then, could Hroswitha be intentionally different from Terence, while being intentionally imitative? Hroswitha's play Paphnutius provides an interesting model for this duality. For her subject, Hroswitha chooses to dramatically re-tell a Christian legend with a common thread from one of Terence's plays. The plots of both Terence's Eunuchusand Hroswitha's Paphnutius revolve around courtesans named Thais. Eunuchus tells the story of the courtesan's self-profiteering efforts to rescue the lost virgin Pamphilia from the advances of Major Thraso by reuniting her with her affluent family. Paphnutius re-tells the legend of a courtesan converted by the hermit Paphnutius . Hroswitha simultaneously imitates a Terentian detail, a courtesan named Thais, to tell an "altogether different" story. The play Paphnutius can be interpreted as a Christian drama to challenge the pagan comedy Eunuchus. In Paphnutius, Hroswitha draws parallels and antitheses to Terence's play in order to create an alternative to pagan drama and, in doing so, gives rise to a Christianized dramatic form. While most critics find the similarities between Paphnutius and Eunuchus coincidental, a comparative study illustrates Hroswitha's use of "imitative" and "anti-Terentian" techniques. Whether or not Hroswitha intentionally chooses the saint legend Paphnutius to foil Terence's Eunuchus is conjecture, yet reading the opening lines in the Hroswitha's source, the Acta Sanctrium, one can easily make connections between the Thais of the legend to the Thais of the Roman comedy. The narrative begins: "There was a certain courtesan, Thais by name, of such beauty, that many, selling their substance for her sake, arrived at extreme poverty: but even brawls, with the girl's lovers engaged in hand to hand fighting among themselves, frequently stained her threshold with blood"(qtd in Kuehne, 29). These sentences just as easily describe the courtesan from Terence's Eunuchus. In Eunuchus, the beautiful courtesan Thais likewise drains money from her lovers. The character Parmeno pleads with his brother to end his relationship with Thais and upon seeing her says, "--Oh-oh. Here comes the blight on the family. She gleans the profits before we can reap," (Eunuchus, I.i.79-80). Also similar to the saint narrative, lovers in the Roman comedy come to near "brawls" over the courtesan. Thais' maid Dorias exclaims, "God almighty, after what I've seen, I'm nearly scared sick: / The Major's lost his mind; he's liable to start a riot/ Or make an attack on Thais today" (Eunuchus, IV.i.611-613). In Paphnutius, Hroswitha employs comparable details of both sources. In the play, Thais "seeks to allure all men through her marvelous beauty, and drag them down with her," and her lovers "are so crazed with desire that they quarrel and fight for admission to her house" and "come to blows. Heads are broken, faces bruised, noses smashed; at times they drive each other out with weapons, and the threshold of the vile place is dyed with blood" (Paphnutius, Scene 1). It is reasonable to assume that in her "imitation" of Terence, Hroswitha chooses to capitalize on the similarities between her two inspirations, a legend of a Christian saint and the comedy of a pagan dramatist. Evidence of this is apparent in Paphnutius. Hroswitha embellishes the narrative's similarities in order to compensate for the lack of detail in the saint legend. For example, where the legend makes no mention of the status of Thais' lovers, Hroswitha borrows the high status of Terence's characters: "And it is not only fools and wastrels who squander their substance with her. Citizens of high standing and virtue lay precious things at her feet, and enrich her with their own undoing" (Paphnutius, Scene I). Hroswitha might well be borrowing the attributes of Eunuchus' characters Major Thraso and the Athenian citizens. Similarly, Hroswitha borrows the concept of gift giving. In Eunuchus, Thais’ lovers bring her the gifts of a virgin and a eunuch. In Paphnutius, the hermit tells Thais’ young lovers, "Gentlemen, I am rich. I have a rare present to offer her." Notably, while Hroswitha borrows or "imitates" the detail of the "gift," the nature of her present is "altogether different." In Eunuchus, lovers offer slaves; in Paphnutius, the hermit offers redemption. It is through the contrast between the lovers' "gift" and the hermit's "present" that Hroswitha uses "imitation" to send an "anti-Terentian" message. Hroswitha imitates Terentian detail in order to develop the saint narrative and, more importantly to her aim, to contrast Terence by replacing his frivolous pagan entertainment with an edifying Christian message. Cynthia Wong remarks that Hroswitha "wants to focus on womankind which Terence has presented in his plays. Hroswitha writes about the same kind of women that Terence did, however Hroswitha "doesn't borrow scene for scene" instead she "contrasts the fates and characters of her women sharply with those of Terence's: her 'imitation' or borrowing from Terence has contrast as its goal" (5). Within these contrasts, Hroswitha voices her Christian message by comparing the pagan and Christian lifestyles. Wong writes, "All of the women in Terence are tied to men in some sexual way, in the role of wife or mistress....The celibate life which Hroswitha holds up as the ideal for her heroines frees them from such sexual ties and the social ties of financial and personal dependence which they entail....But Hroswitha does not stop at the goal of personal independence; in her Christian scheme of things no person is fulfilled outside the service of God. To Hroswitha, then, the best way for a woman to spend her life would be to free herself, through celibacy, from personal ties (particularly sexual ties) to men which would keep her from devoting all her life to God" (6). Hroswitha's play becomes one of Christian liberation as contrasted against Terence’s pagan oppression. Taking the "gift" or "present" reference as an example, the gifts in Eunuchus are gifts of enslavement, two slaves for Thais, while the gift in Paphnutius is the gift of liberation, redemption for Thais. For Hroswitha, this contrast becomes symbolic. Taking her lover's gifts the Thais of Eunuchus remains enslaved to men both sexually and financially. Taking the hermit's present the Thais of Paphnutius frees herself from dependence on men and dedicates herself to a higher and redemptive purpose. The pagan lifestyle led by the Thais of Eunuchus is enslaving to both her and her clientel while the Christian lifestyle brought to the Thais of Paphnutius liberates her from the pagan profession. Repeatedly in her drama, Hroswitha
uses this technique of "imitation" for the purpose of contrasting Terence
to make a theological statement. For example, in Paphnutius Thais'
"wickedness" is doubled as she acknowledges the Christian God, yet leads
men to financial and spiritual ruin. Upon hearing Thais speak of
God, the hermit Paphnutius laments, "O Christ! How wondrous is Thy patience!
How wondrous is Thy love! Even when those who believe in Thee sin
deliberately, Thou dost delay their destruction! I shudder at your presumption.
I weep for your damnation. How, knowing what you know, can you destroy
men in this manner and ruin so many souls, all precious and immortal?"(Sc.
III, 108.) Likewise in Eunuchus, Thais' seductive ruin of
men is linked to her spirituality. Her lover Chermes states:
CHERMES: I am in danger. (Eunuchus,
III.iii).
Arguably, these examples
when taken in context of the plays in their entirety seem incidental, yet
they illuminate Hroswitha's use of "imitation" of both the Christian legend
and Terence's comedy in the development of her drama. DeLuca, although
skeptical of Hroswitha's "imitation," writes, "it might easily be
argued that Hroswitha took the bulk, if not all her story ideas from the
Acta
Sanctorium, and not from Terence. While this cannot be denied,
it is equally true to presume that it was Terence who helped her realize
the dramatic potential of this material" (101). Already discussed,
Hroswitha may borrow Terentian details from Eunuchus to aid her in
character development. Likewise, in terms of dramatic structure, Hroswitha
seemingly borrows Terentian literary devices to help the narrative reach
its dramatic potential. These devices express themselves in Hroswitha's
development of dialogue. In dramatizing the narrative, Hroswitha is challenged
to transform a genre that depended little on the spoken word to a form
entirely dependent on dialogue. Furthermore, Hroswitha undertakes the challenge
of creating a thirteen-scene play from a very brief source. In transforming
the narrative into a dramatic structure, Hroswitha uses Terence as her
model. In his article "Hrosvit's 'Imitation' of Terence," Kenneth
DeLuca lists the Terentian techniques employed by Hroswitha: "the
filling out of small talk, the skillful use of rapid dialogue...to build
a scene and create momentum.... the technique of 'narrative preparation'
for the action of the play....and...the endless disguises and scheming
that fill the plays" (96-100). Furthermore, Terence borrows his techniques
from the Greek playwright Plautus. Critics have often credited Plautus
for techniques employed by Terence such as "repetitions, digressions, insertions
and expansions of various kinds"(Duckworth, 190). The following scenes
from Eunuchus and Paphnutius may be compared for Hroswitha's use of Terentian
(and Plautine) techniques. In the following, Parmeno tells Charea,
his master's son and admirer of Pamphilia, the whereabouts of his
beloved virgin. The Major has given her to Thais as a gift.
To challenge the gift, Charea's brother and Thais' lover Phaedria gives
the courtesan a eunuch. The scene progresses:
CHAEREA: With a gift like that she'll bounce him out of the house. (Eunuchus,
II.iii, 356-382)
Compare the above with Hroswitha's
dramatization of the saint narrative's passage: "There was a certain courtesan,
Thais by name, of such beauty, that many, selling their substance for her
sake, arrived at extreme poverty: but even brawls, with the girl's lovers
engaged in hand to hand fighting among themselves, frequently stained her
threshold with blood. When Abbot Paphnutius heard of this, he put
on a worldly habit, and taking a coin, went to her in a certain city of
Egypt, and gave her a coin as a reward for her transgression"(29).
Similar to the manner in which Parmeno introduces Chaerea to their new
"neighbor," Paphnutius introduces his brothers to a certain Thais living
in their "neighborhood." Together, they hatch the scheme to disguise Paphnutius.
The excerpt reads:
(Paphnutius,
sc. 1)
Although these scenes are very
different, both begin and end similarly and illustrate Terentian techniques
of drawing out dialogue. Both use small talk and interjections from other
characters to build the scene and create momentum. Characters in
each insert short responses, while expanding upon others crucial to the
focus of the scene. In many cases, rapid dialogue is created as characters
finish each other's sentences. Furthermore, both scenes serve as 'narrative
preparation' for the "disguise" device that plays a significant role in
the unraveling of each plot. In her use of these devices, Hroswitha successfully
adapts the saint narrative into a dramatic form. In her article "The 'Terentian'
Comedies of a Tenth-Century Nun," Cornelia Coulter writes, "The form in
which Hroswitha casts her dramas was probably the nearest possible
approach possible for her to the form of Terence's plays. To her
as to other readers in the Middle Ages, Terence's lines appeared to be
prose, but prose of a peculiar elegance; and she therefore chose a particularly
elaborate form of prose composition, in which short phrases are balanced
against one another, with the ends of the clausulae marked by rhyme" (528).
The above scene illustrates Hroswitha's development of dialogue through
the balancing of prose in a crude imitation of Terence. While Hroswitha
may not have a full grasp of the complexity of Terence's poetic technique,
she is able to "imitate" his devices sufficiently to extend a two-sentence
passage from the saint narrative into a fully developed dramatic scene.
Just as Hroswitha borrows elements of character from Terence's Eunuchus,
she similarly imitates literary devices in order that the saint narrative
reach its formal potential .
Hroswitha's intent on these borrowings and "imitations," however, is not solely to extend a sparse narrative into a detailed eight scene play, but to set up parallels which are contrasted in the drama's resolution. In this way, Hroswitha begins to set up an anti-Terentian model. Her play begins with characteristics similar to Terence, but unlike the Roman comedy, which Hroswitha felt was an "injury to the Creator," Hroswitha's tragedy resolves into something "altogether different." Hroswitha's use of the Terentian device of disguise best illustrates her thematic and formal use of "imitation" with "anti-Terentian" motive. In both Terence's and Hroswitha's dramas, principal male characters (Chaerea in Eunuchus and the hermit in Paphnutius) disguise themselves in order to enter their respective brothels. While many critics disagree about the overall success of Hroswitha's imitation, they agree on her deliberate use of this similarity between the Roman comedy and the Christian legend. In reference to the disguise devise, used similarly in two of Hroswitha's plays, Cornelia Coulter writes: " Hrosvitha has deliberately set herself to supplant Terence, by showing the inferiority of earthly to heavenly love and by leading the two courtesans back to the fold. The disguise-motif, as it appears in Abraham and Paphnutius, is somewhat like that in Eunuchus; but whereas Chaerea dons the eunuch's clothes for the purpose of gaining access to the girl with whom he has fallen in love, the two monks in Hrosvitha's plays disguise themselves as lovers in order to save the souls of the women whom they visit" (527).Here, Hroswitha uses the parallels between the two Thais stories in order to contrast the outcomes of "earthly" and "heavenly love." DeLuca, citing Coulter in his article, agrees stating, " It is particularly tempting in this instance to see a deliberate 'reverse imitation' of Terence, as it were, to "glorify chastity" (101). Certainly, Hroswitha's treatment of love and the disguise-motif is more respectful to chastity. In Eunuchus, the idea to disguise Chaerea is a product of "earthly love" resulting in the rape of a virgin, wherein Paphnutius the idea to disguise the title character is a "thought from God" intended to redeem a courtesan. Undoubtedly, the rape of a virgin would have been unacceptable comic material for Hroswitha, who valued virginity so highly. In her attempt to , in DeLuca's words, "become a kind of 'anti-Terence'....to woo back those Christians caught in Terence's lascivious web of words to a more solid and acceptable reading matter," Hroswitha chooses to keep Terence's disguise-motif, but re-forms it to a nobler cause. (DeLuca, 90). Returning to Wong's argument that Hroswitha's "'imitation' or borrowing from Terence has contrast as its goal," it is clear that Hroswitha uses her "imitation" of the disguise motif to contrast a pagan and Christian worldview. Terence's world, the pagan world, unaccountable to God and motivated by worldly desire, is an unsafe place where men use deceit to rape virgins. Hroswitha's world, the Christian world, ruled by God and dedicated to chastity, is a world where women are safe and men uphold the sanctity of chastity. Hroswitha's use of the disguise-motif illustrates her "imitation" of a Terentian literary device in order to make an "anti-Terentian" statement. Furthermore, Hroswitha uses Terentian dramatic structure to strengthen the parallels between the saint legend and the pagan play in order that the contrasting resolutions are more provocative. Dramatic parallels between Hroswitha and Terence's dramas dissolve, however, after the introduction of the disguise-motif; both resolve with radically different and opposed outcomes. For this reason, some critics fault the playwright for abandoning her objective to imitate Terence. However, it is from this departure that Hroswitha achieves her chief "object" to convert and re-form the pagan genre to Christian ends. By "imitating" Terence to a certain point, Hroswitha establishes what she has come to reform, a play about a licentious courtesan named Thais. While Hroswitha finds this an acceptable subject in Terence’s comedy, she does not find in Terence an acceptable resolution to the story. For Hroswitha, Terence's comic treatment of a virgin’s rape with, in the end, the rapist Chaerea marrying his victim, Pamphilia, and the courtesan Thais retained by her preferred lover is unacceptable. In Christian terms, the characters remain unredeemed. Hroswitha, as professed in her preface, does not find such material suitable for Christian reading. In order to supplant such material, Hroswitha chooses to tell a story about a similar character, but chooses in the legend of Paphnutius a story that resolves in conversion, repentance and Christian salvation. In an effort to create
an "altogether different" drama suitable for Christian edification, Hroswitha
departs from Terence's model by bringing salvation to the main character
Thais. At the point in the plot where Paphnutius approaches Thais
in the guise of a lover, we find the character at a similar point of development
as the Thais of Eunuchus. Both Thaises are consumed with their beauty
and the accumulation of riches at the expense of their lovers. However,
while the Thais of Eunuchus is pagan, the Thais of Paphnutius
professes Christianity. It is the introduction of the Christian element
that propels Hroswitha's story to a different end. Wong writes, "Terence
depicts courtesans as women who feel somewhat limited by their fate and
who struggle to do what they can, for themselves and for others, within
the limitations of their professions .... Hroswitha ends the struggle of
the courtesans by totally breaking the bonds of the past and bringing them
into the world of Christian celibacy, free from dependence on men, free
from concerns about their living, free to relate to people from a standpoint
of spiritual love, not of material need" (50). For Hroswitha, the
Christian lifestyle is the ideal path toward social and spiritual liberation
for women. Because Thais is a professing Christian, she can be liberated
from her situation by joining the religious life within the monastery,
an option not open to the pagan Thais of Eunuchus. When presented
with the opportunity of liberation through the Church, the Thais of Paphnutius
complies,
pleading,
THAIS: Oh, voice that promises mercy! Do you believe, can you hope that one so vile as I, soiled by thousands and thousands of impurities, can make reparation, can ever by any manner of penance obtain pardon? (Paphnutius, Scene III) Hroswitha "re-forms" the character of Thais as a foil against Terence's portrayal of courtesans. In Terence's comedies courtesans are trapped in their lifestyle and incapable of change. In Hroswitha's play, the character of Thais willingly leaves her despised life. Publicly before her lovers, Thais burns all her worldly possessions. When her lovers think she must be mad, she replies, "I am not mad. For the first I am sane, and I rejoice!....All these things I have extorted from you as the price of shameful deeds. I burn them to destroy all hope in you that I shall ever again return to your love. And now I leave you"(Paphnutius, Scene IV). Thais rejoices in both her spiritual and social liberation. Thais seems as joyous at being freed as a woman dependent upon men as she is at being freed as a sinner from the bondage of sin. In reaction to Terence's portrayal of "shameless acts of licentious women" bound by men, Hroswitha portrays a much stronger kind of woman empowered by faith. Wong writes, "In the character of Thais, Hroswitha shows that a woman, through the grace of God, can have sufficient strength and determination to make the necessary decisions and endure the hardships involved in the life of a Christian penitent" (63). By supplanting Terence's portrayal of Thais in Eunuchus with the re-formed portrayal of Thais in Paphnutius, Hroswitha provides her audience with a Christian treatment of prostitutes, one which necessitates conversion and liberation. It would be a mistake, however, to construe Hroswitha's play as a feminist drama when her primary focus is not on women's liberation, but on religious penance. Thais is not liberated to a life entirely "free from dependence on men," or "free to relate to people from a standpoint of spiritual love." Instead, Thais is dependent on Paphnutius to lead her out of a life of prostitution and into a life of penance. Paphnutius demands she be locked in a cell no bigger than a grave with "no entrance, no opening of any kind, except a small window through which she can receive the food that will be brought to her on certain days at certain fixed hours." (Paphnutius, Scene VII). Hardly "free to relate to people," Thais is commanded to speak to no one, but let her lips utter only, "O God, Who made me, pity me." Thais endures this life of a "Christian penitent" for three years until a vision reveals that her salvation is secure. Weakened from the harshness of her penance, Thais lives only fifteen days after being released from her cell when she is then taken into Paradise. This account of a harlot locked away, silenced and starved in a cell would not sit easy with most feminists. Thais' treatment seems cruel and harsh if evaluated in modern terms. Hroswitha, however, lived in a time where contrition and martyrdom were viewed on a sacred and romantic level. While, in a sense, Hroswitha tells the story of a woman's liberation from an unholy profession, she is much more concerned with the process that brings about that liberation --confession, contrition and redemption, than she is in freedom for the individual. By adding this process to her plot, Hroswitha opposes Terence thematically by introducing redemption. Redemption also introduces a new element into the dramatic structure which further removes her from Terentian imitation and toward Christian dramatic invention. While the first saint play in England was not recorded until c. 1110 , Hroswitha's play Paphnutius strikingly foreshadows the dramatic structure typical of later Christian drama. In an essay from the book Medieval Saint Plays in Medieval Europe, John Wasson writes, "Thematically, the medieval saint plays should probably be subdivided into three types. First, there were the conversion plays, depicting a sinful personage who undergoes a conversion and thereafter displays saintly behavior....A more common type in the Middle Ages was the martyrdom play, in which a saint refuses to abjure his or her own Christian beliefs despite torments, threats and tortures, sometimes miraculously surviving an incredible series of death penalties but always, of course, dying at the end....The third type of miracle play is that which emphasizes the miraculous deeds of a saint or of Providence without portraying either the conversion or martyrdom of a saint" (243). Hroswitha’s repertoire contains plays of both martyrdom and conversion which share the themes and structure cited by Wasson. Paphnutius is an example of the conversion play. While Thais is a professing Christian, she has strayed into a pagan lifestyle and needs converting back into Christian practice. Furthermore, Thais’ penance can be likened to the torture scenes of the martyrdom play. While not all conversion plays required the death of the convert, Hroswitha’s drama displays this trait of the medieval saint play. Finally, Paphnutius meets Wasson’s third criteria for identifying a saint play because it is the miraculous deeds of the title character which save Thais. While these structures are inherent in the saint narrative that Hroswitha used as her source, by dramatizing them the canoness pioneered a decidedly Christian dramatic structure. Without the scene of Thais’
penance, neither the conversion of the courtesan to the religious life
nor Hroswitha’s conversion of a pagan genre into a Christian dramatic form
would be complete. Although Thais’ treatment seems torturous to the
modern reader, it is "necessary" to the plot and structure of the drama.
These scenes serve as examples to readers and audiences as to the seriousness
of sin and the need of repentance for salvation. In the latter half
of her play, Hroswitha focuses on Thais’ penance. The character of
Paphnutius professes the necessity for such a scene stating,
PAPHNUTIUS: ..since the maladies of the soul, like those of the body, need physic for their cure, we must minister to this soul diseased by years of lust. It must be removed from the foul breath of the world. A narrow cell, solitude, silence --these must be her lot henceforth. She must learn to know herself and her sins. (Paphnutius, Scene VII) PAUL: Father, I saw in my vision a splendid bed. It was adorned with white hangings and coverings, and a crown was laid on it, and round it were four virgins. They stood there as if they were guarding the crown. There was a great brightness round the bed, and a multitude of angels. I, seeing this wonderful and joyful sight, cried out, "This glory must be for my master and father Anthony!....But a divine voice answered me, saying, "This glory is prepared, not, as you think, for Anthony, but for the harlot Thais!" (Paphnutius, Scene XI) In her play Paphnutius, Hroswitha introduces the structure of conversion, penance and salvation into the dramatic repertoire. This structure is very different from pagan comedies such as those by Terence. Yet, the play Paphnutius is often categorized as a comedy, in part, because of its ending. If the Christian element of life-everlasting were not introduced, the play could very well be classified as a tragedy. Hroswitha makes it hard to categorize her play under the classical terms of tragedia and commedia from which Terence wrote. Perhaps this is so because she indeed created an "altogether different" genre. Through dramatizing the legend of Paphnutius, Hroswitha created a play that was inherently Christian in form. While, "it can hardly be argued that Hrosvitha’s continental monastic play provided a familiar model for later English saint plays...this drama certainly illustrates the proclivity of the genre from the very beginning" (Wasson, 246). As Hroswitha strove to supplant Terence by dramatizing Christian literature, she discovered the themes and structures that would come to produce the drama of the Church ( mystery, morality and miracle plays) in later centuries. Hroswitha claims two "objects"
in her writing, to imitate Terence in the dramatic form and to create something
"altogether different." Assuming that the playwright chooses to "imitate"
Terence’s Eunuchus in her play Paphnutius, one may assume
her objectives were likewise two-fold. In the Roman comedy, Hroswitha
finds a character and a literary form imbedded the pagan world. The dramatic
form, like Thais, had spent too much time removed from the Church, thus
ruining itself and needed re-formed in its substance and converted into
the Christian fold if it was to be redeemed for Christian use. Hroswitha
successfully supplants Terence’s comedy with a form of Christian drama
acceptable to her Church and its redemptive process. While some critics
find Hroswitha’s "imitation" of Terence too "superficial" for comment,
a close study of her works reveals a careful process of "imitation" and
"re-formation" of the genre. The preface of her dramas, while they
have sparked debate over Hroswitha’s literary objectives and methods, may
best sum up the canoness’ relationship to the dramatic form: "For the more
seductive the blandishments of lovers, the more wonderful the divine succour
and the greater merit of those who resist, especially when it is fragile
woman who is victorious and man who is routed with confusion" ('Preface
to the Plays', xxvii). Certainly, Hroswitha was both attracted to
the "blandishments" of pagan drama, yet "victorious" in resisting their
"charm" and "wickedness of the matter." Through her dramatic repertoire,
Hroswitha supplantes Terence’s portrayals of "unlawful love" with glorifications
of "laudable chastity" that have brought upon the canoness great merit,
while at times leaving her critics "routed in confusion."
Continuing Pages on Medieval Drama:
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