the development of religious tragedy: the humanist reception of the christos paschon in the...

The Development of Religious Tragedy: The Humanist Reception of the Christos Paschon inthe RenaissanceAuthor(s): James A. Parente, Jr.Source: The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Autumn, 1985), pp. 351-368Published by: The Sixteenth Century JournalStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2540223 .

Accessed: 19/02/2014 15:32

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

The Sixteenth Century Journal is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to TheSixteenth Century Journal.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 66.77.17.54 on Wed, 19 Feb 2014 15:32:44 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=scj

http://www.jstor.org/stable/2540223?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


Sixteenth Century Journal XVI, No. 3 (1985)

The Development of Religious Tragedy: The Humanist Reception of the

Christos Paschon in the Renaissance James A. Parente, Jr. Princeton University

DURING THE FIRST HALF of the sixteenth century Christian humanists who admired the works of classical Greek and Roman theater at- tempted to rival the achievements of the ancients through the composition of original sacred dramas. Mindful of the distance which sepa- rated their own Christian era from antiquity, humanist playwrights, especially in northern Europe, replaced the secular and mythological subjects of Graeco-Roman theater with biblical or hagiographical topics in order to establish a new type of drama which reflected contemporary Christian truths and values. Though critical of the contents of classical theater, the humanists retained its form and language so that their own works might attain a stylistic parity with the ancients. The schoolboy audience for whom their plays were written could thereby be introduced to the exemplary style of the ancient playwrights without being distracted from Christian virtue by an immoral secular plot.

The adaptation of biblical and hagiographical subjects to the language and form of classical theater initially posed several problems for the humanists. Many religious subjects were deemed inappropriate for either comedy or tragedy since their plots appeared to contradict the ancients' definitions of these genres. Religious scruples further re- stricted the humanists' imitation of the ancients. The language of classical theater, so appropriate for a comic lover's misadventures or a tragic heroine's grief, appeared either frivolous or bombastic when spoken by a saint. Sixteenth-century humanists consequently welcomed any examples from late antique or medieval drama which illustrated an innovative method of combining Christian material with the Latin and Greek of the ancients.

Early Christian and medieval precedents for sacred dramas mod- eled on Graeco-Roman theater were extremely rare. In contrast to the extensive corpus of late antique religious poets (e.g., Prudentius, Sedu- lius, Juvencus) who cast Christian subjects in the language of Latin lyric and epic, there were only two sacred dramatists whose works sur- vived more or less intact for sixteenth-century playwrights to imitate - Hrotsvitha von Gandersheim and the disputed author of the XpltTO'



352 The Sixteenth Century Journal

naHaxov (Christos Paschon, henceforth cited as the Paschon). Hrot- svitha von Gandersheim, whose plays were first published in 1501 by the patriotic German humanist Conrad Celtes,1 had composed six dramas based on hagiographical legends in the language of Terentian comedy. Her programmatic rejection of the amorous plots of Terence and her eagerness to replace them with sacred exempla initially appealed to sixteenth-century humanists, but her influence was limited.2 However, the 1542 publication of the Greek text of the Paschon, a tragedy on Christ's Passion, was welcomed by the humanists as a late antique precedent for their own religious plays. No other drama was so frequently cited as a model for Christian theater in so many countries by so many sixteenth- and seventeenth-century writers regardless of their religious beliefs. In the following, I shall analyze the reasons for the appeal of the Paschon to these dramatists and assess its literary- historical importance for the development of humanist religious theater. It will not only be shown that the Paschon appealed to the defend- ers of drama as a genre, but also that the appearance of the work in the mid-sixteenth century offered a new conception of sacred drama and thereby contributed to the evolution of humanist Christian tragedy.

The editio princeps of the Paschon was edited and published by Antonius Bladus in Rome in 1542.3 It was based on several Byzantine manuscripts from the mid-thirteenth to the early sixteenth centuries which had been transmitted to the West.4 Since that time the drama has been variously believed to have been written in either the fourth or the twelfth century by different authors in each period.5 Antonius Bladus, who classified the play as a tragedy (tpayia),6 attributed the work to the renowned fourth-century theologian, rhetorician, and lyri- cist, Gregory Nazianzus. The sixteenth-century Latin translators of the Paschon similarly accepted Nazianzus's authorship and likewise designated the work a "tragoedia. " Since many humanist dramatists were not competent in Greek, they first learned of the Paschon through these contemporary Latin translations and consequently accepted Nazianzus as the author of a Passion tragedy.

'Conradus Celtes, Opera Hrosvite illustris virginis et monialis Germane gente Sax- onica orte nuper a Conrade Celte inventa (n.p., 1501).

2The only verifiable evidence of Hrotsvitha's influence in the sixteenth century is the 1507 martyr drama Dorothea by the Saxon writer Kilian Reuther (Chilianus eques): Chiliani Equitis Mellerstatini Comoedia gloriose parthenices et martyris Dorotheae agoniam passionemque depingens (Leipzig: Wolfgangus Monacensis, 1507). There Chilianus referred to "sacrimonialem Rosphitam" as his literary model (sig. Avv). For a brief analysis of Hrotsvitha's influence on Chilianus, see Franz Spengler, "Kilian Reuther von Mellerstadt" in Forschungen zur neueren Litteraturgeschichte. Festgabe furRichard Heinzel (Weimar, 1898), pp. 123-129.

3A. Baldus. -rou a&yiou Fpnyopiou NactavnvoO rpaycp6ia Xptorb4 IaaXCov Sancti Gregori Nazianzeni... tragoedia Christus Patiens (Rome: A. Bladum, 1542).



Chistos Paschon in the Renaissance 353

The text itself was just as problematic as the identity of the dramatist. It was for the most part a Euripidean cento in which direct quotations from the Greek tragedian were applied to the Passion.7 Euripides' dramas also provided the structure for the play: there was a prologue with no act divisions; messengers announced the bloody events to the grieving Mary, and a chorus of virgins shared in Mary's sorrow. The drama itself consisted primarily of a series of lamentations by the Virgin and other mourners at the foot of the Cross in which most biblical events from Christ's arrest to the Resurrection were narrated.8 This unusual combination of Euripidean tragedy with the Bible further obscured the work's origins. On the one hand, the strict imitation of Euripidean language and structure suggested that the Paschon may have originally been intended as a school text.9 Yet, the drama may also have developed out of the medieval Byzantine homiletic tradition, in which the characters acted out the gospel scenes which were being explicated in the sermon.10 Sixteenth-century editors, however, uniformly attributed the work to Gregory Nazianzus and the fourth century and thereby aroused the attention of contemporary playwrights.

The Pashon first enjoyed a favorable reception shortly after the 1542 editio princeps was published. The Greek text was quickly edited

4For a comprehensive overview of the manuscript history of the Christos Paschon (hereafter cited as CP) see the modern edition by Andr6 Tuilier, ed., Gregoire de Na- zianze. La Passion du Christ. Tragedie, Sources Chr6tiennes, 149. (Paris: Les Editions du Cerf, 1969), pp. 75-116.

5Beside Gregory Nazianzus, the CP has also been attributed to the fourth-century theologian and poet Apollinarius of Laodicea. This view was first propounded in the late sixteenth century by Caesare Baronio in his Annales Ecclesiastici (ad annum Christi 34, Tiberii Imperat. 18, num. 133) and discussed most recently in Q. Cataudella, "Cronologia e attribuzione del Christus patiens," Dioniso 43 (1969): 402-412. The drama has also been attributed to Gregory of Antioch (sixth century) and the twelfth-century Byzantine writers Theodorus Prodromus, Constantinus Manasses, and John Tzetzes. For an overview of the authorship controversy since the editio princeps, see Francesco Trisoglio, "II Christus Patiens: rassegna delle attribuzioni," Rivista di Studi Classici 22 (1974): 351-423.

6In the manuscripts which Bladus used, the drama was designated a"UR606atq 8paaurtih ctar' EU'puri6inv" (a dramatic argument in the style of Euripides). On Bladus's manuscript, see Tuilier, La Passion du Christ, pp. 113-116.

7The most complete discussion of the literary and theatrical qualities of the CP remains Ven6tia Cottas, Le Thedtre a Byzance (Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1931), pp. 197-249.

8The wailing of the Virgin recalls the "planctus Mariae" in the Western medieval dramatic tradition after the twelfth century; such lamentations had been popular subjects in Byzantine liturgical music since the late fifth century, but there is no evidence, besides the CP, that the Byzantines presented Mary's grief in a dramatic form. On the connection between the CP and the Byzantine liturgical poet Romanos Melodus (sixth century), see Tuilier, La Passion du Christ, pp. 38-47.

9Giorgio La Piana, Le rappresentazioni sacre nella letteratura bizantina delhe origini al sec. IX. (Grottaferrata: Tipografia Italo-Orientale "S. Nilo"), pp. 11-14.

'0For an overview of the homiletic and panegyric tradition see La Piana, Le rappresentazioni, pp. 34-127 and Cottas, Le Thedtre & Byzance, pp. 66-147.




and reprinted in Louvain (Rutger Rescius) and Paris (Christian Wechel) in 1544.11 By 1550 three Latin translations had also appeared.12 The first was made by the Spanish humanist Gabriel Garcia Tarraconensis and published in Paris in 1549;13 the second, executed by the Zurich Greek scholar Sebastian Guldebeccius, was printed in the 1550 Basel edition of Nazianzus's works.14 Franciscus Fabricius, a medical doctor from Roermond, whose expertise lay in his analysis of the therapeutic value of the thermal baths in Aachen, translated the Paschon in 1550 as an exercise to sharpen his Greek skills.15 Despite the near simultaneous appearance of all three versions, each translator had a different motive for undertaking the task. Gabriel Garcia and Se- bastian Guldebeccius were primarily concerned with providing an accurate philological equivalent of the Greek text; Gabriel Garcia was especially troubled by the mutilated condition of the Greek original and took pains to justify his additions to the Latin translation to clarify many obscure passages.16 In contrast, Fabricius was less disturbed by the difficulties of rendering the work's subtle word-plays and conceits into Latin than he was in promoting the drama as a useful text for school production.'7

Gabriel Garcia and Fabricius had been impelled, moreover, to translate the Paschon because of their admiration for Gregory Nazian- zus. The Spanish humanist prefaced his translation with encomia by Saint Jerome and from the Suidas;18 Fabricius similarly extolled the

"A. Ellissen, ed. Die Tragodie Xpiazbq HdaXwv, Analekten der mittel- und neugriechischen Literatur, erster Theil (Leipzig, 1855), p. xx. On the career of the Lou- vain Greek scholar Rescius, see A. Roersch, L'Humanisme Belge & lEpoque de la Renaissance (Brussels: G. Van Oest, 1910), pp. 37-55.

"2For a complete list of Renaissance Latin translations of the CP, see the article on Nazianzus by Sister Agnes Clare Way in P.O. Kristeller and F. Edward Cranz, eds., Catalogus Translationum et Commentariorum: Medieval and Renaissance Latin Translations and Commentaries, 2 (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University Press, 1971): 106-111.

13Gabriel Garcia Tarraconensis, Christus Patiens. D. Gregorii Nazianzeni Trag- oedie Graeca (Paris: Christianus Wechelus, 1549) cited in Nicholaus Antonius, Biblio- theca Hispana Nova. Tomus Primus (Matriti apud Joachimum de Ibarra, 1783), p. 505. See also Kristeller and Cranz, Catalogus Translationum, pp. 108-109.

140pera Omnia Gregorii Nazianzeni (Basel: Jo. Hervagius, 1550), pp. 498-520. 15Divi Gregorii Nazianzeni Theologi, Tragoedia Christus patiens, latino carmine

reddita per Franciscum Fabricium. Antverpiae in aedibus Ioannis Steelsii M.D.L. On Fabricius' life, see Biographie Nationale de Belgique, VI, Cols. 819-820.

16"Admonendus mihi porro es, candide Lector, ubi in hac Tragoedia dictiones all- quas huiusmodi notis [ I interceptas reperies, de meo ad absolvendum sensum esse ad- ditas, ut ii etiam qui graece nesciunt huius pii opusculi lectione frui possint." As quoted in Kristeller and Cranz, Catalogus Translationum, p. 108.

17Fabricius admitted that "rudis impolitaque sit nostra haec interpretatio, et a divina admirandaque Gregorii phrasi multis parasangis a tergo relicta" (Tragoedia Christus, fol. 2v); nonetheless, he cherished the hope that "hanc tragoediam, studiosae iuventuti ad agendum coram populo in primis esse commodam" (Ibid., fol. 3).

18Kristeller and Cranz, Catalogus Translationum, p. 108.




theologian's piety and erudition.s In the late Renaissance, however, references to the Paschon incited several philological and theological debates about Gregory's authorship. Joannes Levvenklaius, the editor of the 1571 Basel edition of Gregory's works-which included a new Latin translation of the tragedy by the French dramatist, Claude Roil- let20 -noted in his preface that the iambic meter of the play differed markedly from Nazianzus's iambic religious poems.2' Robert Bellar- mine subsequently argued in 1613 that the characterization of the Blessed Virgin as a frail, worldly woman was inconsistent with Naz- ianzus's opinions elsewhere.22 Despite the debate which the Paschon engendered, most sixteenth- and seventeenth-century playwrights dis- regarded such philological and theological niceties and eagerly attributed the tragedy to Gregory Nazianzus so that they could refer to an historical precedent for their own dramatic praxis.

There were essentially three reasons for the popularity of the Paschon among religious playwrights. First, the tragedy had an apologetic value for humanists who were compelled to respond to the accu- sations of conservative churchmen that all sacred dramas were blas- phemous. The existence of a tragedy allegedly written by a father of the church-despite Nazianzus's initial disfavor among humanists

'9"Divus Gregorius Nazianzenus, summa eruditione et pietate clarissimus, qui inter alia, multa varii generis carmina quae scripsisse perhibetur, tragoediam reliquit Fabricius, Tragoedia Christus, fol. 2.

20In contrast to the three previous translators, Roillet classified the work as a tragicomedy instead of a tragedy in his 1569 version, Christus Patiens, Gregorii Na- zianzeni Tragoedia, seu potius Tragicomoedia, since it ended with the Resurrection. In his own religious dramas Petrus and Catharina (published in 1556), however, Roillet, an ardent imitator of Seneca, designated each work as a "tragoedia" despite the joyful mar- tyrdom of the protagonist. See the discussion below on tragedies with a happy end. On Roillet, see S. Gautheret-Comboulot, "Etude sur les ecrivains Beaunois du XVIe siecle," Societe d'Histoire d'Archeologie et de Litterature de Beaune. Memoires (1884), pp. 43-98. Roillet's dramas were published in Claudii Roilleti Belnensis varia poemate (Paris: Gulielmus Iulianus, 1556); his translation of the CP was never printed separate- ly, but included in several Opera Omnia editions of Nazianzus, see Kristeller and Cranz, Catalogus Translationum, p. 110.

21"Nam nec in verbis nec sententiis acumen ac rT arpoyyDkov Gregorii nostri agnosco; ut taceam nullam heic legum haberi rationem, quae versibus Iambicis praes- cripta sunt et a Gregorio sane quam accurate observantur Iambicis in poematis.. as quoted in Kristeller and Cranz, Catalogus Translationum, p. 110.

22"Tragoedia, Christus patiens, non videtur habere gravitatem solitam Nazianzeno, praesertim cum describitur eiulatus matris Christi, quae prudentissima et constantis- sima erat." Robert Bellarmine, De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis liber (Rome: Barthol- omaeus Zannetti, 1613), p. 77. In a recent study the portrait of Mary in the CP has been shown to be inconsistent with the Mariology of fourth-century Cappadocia; Gregory Nazianzus could not have therefore written the work. See Jos6 A. De Aldama, "La Tragedia Christus Patiens y la Doctrina Mariana en la Capadocia del siglo IV," in Epek- tasis. Melanges patristiques offerts & Jean Danielou, eds. Jacques Fontaine and Charles Kannengiesser (Paris: Beauchesne, 1972), pp. 417-423.




such as Erasmus23-thus seemed an apt rebuttal of their opponents' arguments. Secondly, the Paschon helped resolve a literary dilemma among sixteenth-century humanists. The drama was the only example of a tragedy about the Passion written in the style and form of antique theater. Many sixteenth century humanist playwrights had been troubled by the inappropriateness of the Passion as a tragic subject, for the subsequent Resurrection of Christ and the Redemption of mankind appeared to counteract the requisite mournful effect of tragedy. The existence of a late antique text on the Passion thus suggested that Chris- tian tragedy, having once been successful in the fourth century, could now be revived in the sixteenth without any loss of tragic decorum. Finally, the discovery of the Paschon ended a theological dispute among the playwrights about the appearance of Christ's suffering on the stage. Sixteenth-century humanists had confined their theatrical writing to the schools where they hoped the new religious plays would contribute to the moral education of the Christian audience. Christ's death, however, had long been the subject of the popular and festive late medieval Passion plays whose informal structure and mixture of comic and tragic scenes appeared frivolous and irreverent to the edu- cated elite.24 With the publication of the Paschon, the humanists now had a classical precedent to reinforce their criticism of medieval theater as well as a model for future interpretations of the Passion.

The humanists' reliance on the Paschon was not confined to the mere citation of the work in a poetic treatise or in a dedicatory letter to a sacred drama. When the tragedy is viewed within the context of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century dramatic praxis, its literary-historical role and its influence on Christian drama becomes apparent. For the apologists of religious theater, the Paschon played an integral part in their defense of both school and public theater. From Fabricius's translation in 1550 until the end of the seventeenth century, the Paschon

23Erasmus was displeased with Gregory's convoluted style; in a letter to Reginald Pole (Freiburg, August 25, 1531), Erasmus noted: "Gregorius Nazianzenus nonnihil af- fectatae argutiae, atque id magna ex parte situm in verbis, in Basilio nihil est quod of- fendit." P.S. Allen, ed. Opus Epistolarum Des. Erasmi Roterodami, 9 (Oxford: Claren- don, 1938): 328.

24German performances of Passion plays were often dangerous as well as rowdy. Philip Melanchthon, who strongly promoted school theater modelled on ancient theater, disapproved of Passion dramas. When an actor portraying Christ was accidentally slain during a performance in Bahn (Pomerania), Melanchthon regarded the death as a just punishment for the evil of all Passion plays. Hugo Holstein, Die Reformation im Spiegelbilde der dramatischen Litteratur des sechzehnten Jahrhunderts, Schriften des Vereins fur Reformationsgeschichte, 14/15 (Halle, 1886), p. 31.

25Milton referred to the Christus patiens in his preface to Samson Agonistes as evidence for tragedy as "the gravest, moralest, and most profitable of all other Poems." John Milton, Complete Poems and Major Prose, ed. Merritt Y. Hughes (Indianapolis: Odyssey Press), p. 549.




was regarded by many playwrights - among them Milton25 - as an historical precedent for the utility of religious drama. Gregory Nazianzus was rapidly assimilated into the canon of Christian authors, such as Apollinarius of Laodicea26 and the Greek dramatist Ezechial,27 whose works exemplified the ideal union of piety and elegance. The manner in which the tragedy was incorporated into this Christian tradition, however, did not always accord with the dramatist's purported intentions. The use of the Paschon by religious playwrights as a justification for the moral utility of theater, be it secular or sacred, was often a clever ruse to disguise the dramatists' literary interests. Indeed, a brief glance at a few apologetic references to Gregory reveals that morality was frequently subordinated to stylistic concerns. Christopherus Stymmelius, a Pomeranian schoolmaster from Stettin, referred to the Paschon in the preface to his 1579 Isaac Immolandus to justify the presentation of school drama as a literary exercise, and, more impor- tantly, the appropriateness of the teacher himself as dramatist.28 Sim- ilarly, Martin Rinckhart, an early seventeenth-century Saxon playwright, argued on the basis of the Paschon for the stylistic effective- ness of drama to convey a religious message; Nazianzus would have never written a tragedy if the theater had not been an established pedagogical tool.29 Sixteenth-century dramatists were thus attracted to the Paschon for its utilitarian application to both a moral and a literary education. In contrast to the dramatists' apparent obsession

26Apollinarius (fourth century) was often mentioned in conjunction with Gregory Nazianzus by writers of Christian poetry and drama because of his psalter written in heroic verse. See for example Cornelius Crocus's introduction to his comedy Joseph (Antwerp: Joan. Steelsii, 1538), sig. A7 and the preface of Christopherus Stymmelius to his drama Isaac Immolandus (Magdeburg: Joachim Boelius, 1579), p. 11.

27The fragments of Ezechial's drama on the exodus of the Jews out of Egypt, 'ETaycoxyA, were first printed with a Latin translation in 1590 by Frederic Morel, Cottas, Le Thedtre & Byzance, p. 182, n.2. Joost van den Vondel referred to Ezechial on a few occasions within the same context as the CP, as a justification for theater as a genre. See the introduction to his Lucifer (1654) [De Werken van Vondel (WB), ed. J.F.M. Sterck, etc. Deel V (Amsterdam, 1931), p. 612.] and Salmoneus (1657) [WB, V: 713]. On Ezechial's play, see Cottas, Le Thedtre & Byzance, pp. 183-196.

28Etsi autem mihi non est dubium, non defuturos esse cavillatores et obtrectatores, qui minus dextre interpretabuntur quod iam hisce studiis operam dem, non tamen ab hac aetate et Professione mea prorsus alienum esse scribendorum versuum exercitium existimo, praesertim in Argumento Professioni meae congruente. Nam factitarunt hoc et summi nominis Theologi. Extant enim Gregorii Nazianzeni, qui Theologus KaT' 4o~ilv dictus XptoTc,6 rfldca v Christus patiens. Stymmelius, Isaac Immolandus, p. 11.

29"Nach der Apostel zeiten aber und bey der ersten Kirchen Newes Testaments/ist in der Histori des H. Bischoffs Gregorii Nazianzeni, wie auch unter seinen Buchern zu lesen/das er eine besondere Tragoediam, von des Herrn Christi bitterm Leiden und Sterben gemacht habe/welcherley Muhe der Thewre/hochberuhmte/nutzliche Kirchen- lehrer gewil3lich nimmermehr uff sich genommen/wo man nicht vorhin umb solche zeit dergleichen Tragoedien und Comoedien zu spielen were gewohnet gewesen." Martin Rinckhart, Indulgentiarius Confusus, oder EiBlebische Mansfeldische Jubel-Comoedia (Eisleben: Jacob Gaubisch's heir, 1618), sig. Aiii-Aiiiv.




with ethical issues, the reception of the Paschon clearly demonstrated that an equal, if not greater, emphasis was placed on style rather than content.

The style of the Paschon had in fact originally motivated the sixteenth-century translators to study the Greek text. The author of the Paschon had clearly announced his debt to Euripides in the prologue to the play:

If you once enjoyed hearing Poetic works and dramatic fables Lend your kind ears now to the serious And sacred subjects which I am about to recount to you In the manner of Euripides.30

This disavowal of originality did not, however, trouble a sixteenth- century translator like Franciscus Fabricius, for he was more interested in the application of Euripides' language to the Passion than in the work's pious content. Fabricius's dedicatory letter to Joannes Pollardus, dean of the college of the Blessed Virgin at Aachen, best illustrated the humanists' frequent juxtaposition of literary and ethical concerns. Fabricius was eager to justify the hours he had spent trans- lating the Paschon and hoped to persuade Pollardus to produce the play. Indeed, Fabricius's abridgement of the text in many places most likely arose from his desire to adapt the lengthy, repetitive work for public performance. Since Fabricius could have translated any classical Greek dramatist instead of Nazianzus - Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes were readily available3' -, he took special pains to defend the selection of this work. Fabricius considered the Paschon superior to any pagan drama because of its sacred content; he even quoted Saint Paul on the utility of meditation on Christ's Passion.32

30Si iuvit olim audire vos poetica Figmenta, fabulasque plane ludicras Praebete, nunc aures benignas seriis Sacrisque rebus, more quas Euripidis Narrare vobis ordior Poetico. (Fabricius, Tragoedia Christus, fol. 5.) All Latin quo-

tations from the CP will be from Fabricius's translation. The Greek original reads: 'E7teLc3' cixo~am; eae~i7i 7Z0L7)t4ThWV

7tOLVTXU6) VUV euaePr X?6eLV OXL4,

ntp6q~p&v &xoue- vQv -re xcxr' ECpLnt8Ljv

T6 XOaGLOaW pLOV ?i~p& ncko0q t~ XOG~LOGG~TY)pLOV CE~CpG~ 7t&(Tuilier, La Passion du Christ, p. 124).

3IThe editiones principes of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes were printed in Venice by Aldus Manutius in 1518, 1503, 1502, and 1498 respectively. On these early printings, see Rudolf Hirsch, "The Printing Tradition of Aeschylus, Euripides, Sophocles and Aristophanes," GutenbergJahrbuch (1963): 138-46.

32"Unde divus Paulus Corinthiis scribens indicavit se nihil scire, praeter Iesum Christum et hunc crucifixum, hanc nimirum scientiam omnibus aliis praeferens." Fabricius, Tragoedia Christus, fol. 3.




But, having dispensed with the play's religious significance, Fabricius devoted the main part of his letter to a favorable assessment of the work's rhetoric. Fabricius was less interested in the work's religious as- pects than he was in the pleasantness ("suavitas') of the author's language and its pathos (7a'Ooq), its ability to move the reader.33 By the end of the letter he had completely subordinated morality to literary issues. Addressing those disdainful critics ("aliquot super- ciliosi")34 who disapproved of any kind of school theater for moral reasons, Fabricius resorted to Erasmus's defense of drama;35 instead of referring to the sacred content of the Paschon he emphasized the utility of all theater to train students in rhetoric and public speaking. Although Fabricius may have initially been drawn to the Paschon by its sacred subject, the work's style rather than its content ultimately wielded the strongest influence on the Christian humanist.

Fabricius's curious formulation of a literary defense against a moral argument typified one method of using the Paschon in a humanist apology. In the seventeenth century Joost van den Vondel reversed this process and cited the tragedy as a moral precedent in defense of religious drama. In the 1654 preface to his major tragedy, Lucifer, Vondel answered the charges of conservative Dutch Calvinists that sacred scripture was profaned whenever the pagan genre of drama was applied to a biblical subject. Vondel prudently responded to this rejection of sacred literature by demonstrating the ahistoricity of genre; the efficacy and quality of drama did not depend on its historical origins but on the ethical values, be they pagan or Christian, which the literary work represented. In support of his argument Vondel referred to the Paschon as an example of the moral utility of Christianized theater: "Holy and honorable examples serve as a mirror to induce us to embrace virtue and piety and to shun sin and its consequent misery."36 Whereas Fabricius had praised the tragedy's style over its obvious message for Christian readers, Vondel regarded the Paschon as a moral replique to the Calvinists' objections to all sacred literature. The success of the Paschon as an apologetic example can thus be attributed to its adaptability to both moral and literary arguments. But the

33Ibid. 34Ibid. 35Erasmus had suggested in his De ratione studii ac legendi interpretandique auc-

tores that the speeches of characters appearing in tragedy be analyzed by students so they might learn the practice of rhetoric by example. Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 24 (Literary and Educational Writings, vol. 2), ed. Craig R. Thompson (Toronto: Univer- sity of Toronto Press, 1978), p. 687.

36"Heilige en eerlycke voorbeelden dienen ten spiegel, om deught en Godtvruchtig- heit t' omhelzen; gebreken, en d' elenden, daer aen gehecht, te schuwen." Vondel, WB, V: 613.




frequent reference to the tragedy in dramatic prefaces ultimately demonstrated that literary issues such as style and genre played an equal if not greater role than morality and religion in the composition of religious drama.

The literary appreciation of the Paschon was also instrumental in transforming the play into the canonical example of Christian tragedy. The genre of biblical drama had initially posed several problems for the humanists, for many topics seemed appropriate for both comedy and tragedy.37 The frequently reprinted introduction and commentary of the post-classical grammarians Aelius Donatus and Evanthius to the comedies of Terence had established a set of characteristics for each genre against which the humanists gauged the qualities of their own original works. In contrast to Terence, most sixteenth-century religious plays were based on truth, (i.e., the Bible) rather than fiction; the dramatis personae of the biblical plays included non-historical, low- class characters as well as the familiar biblical heroes; moreover, in several dramas the biblical playwright felt compelled to excuse the mixture of both tragic and comic diction by referring to Horace or to classical precedents like Plautus's Amphitryon. Before 1550, when most biblical drama was written in the Terentian style, the term "tragoedia" was only applied to plays such as Jacob Schoepper's Decol- latus loannes (1546)38 or Nicholas Grimald's Archipropheta (1548),39 which ended with the death of the hero. But in the Christian context this heading was found wanting, for God's providence ultimately transformed all tragedy into comedy. Since Donatus and Evanthius had encouraged the playwrights to use the denouement to distinguish between genres,40 a new precedent as well as a new definition of tragedy was needed to accommodate the joyful resolution of Christian drama.

In 1550 the genre problem was solved through several fortuitous occurrences. First, the Latin translation of the Paschon (1549/50) coin- cided with the onset of Seneca's influence as a model for biblical tragedy.41 Seneca, whose plays had been performed in northern schools

37The humanists' confusion about genre in the sixteenth century was best explicated by Marvin Herrick, Tragicomedy. Its Origin and Development in Italy, France, and England, Illinois Studies in Language and Literature, 39 (Urbana: University of Il- linois, 1955), pp. 1-15.

38Jacobus Schoepperus, Ectrachelistis sive decollatus Ioannes (Cologne: Martin Gymnicus, 1546).

39Nicholas Grimald, Archipropheta. Tragoedia (Cologne: Martin Gymnicus, 1548). 40Donatus/Evanthius had proposed that in comedies "laetique sunt exitus action-

um"; in contrast, tragedies "exitus funesti habentur." Paulus Wessner, ed., Aeli Donati Commentum Terenti, 1 (Stuttgart: Teubner, 1962): 21.

410n the extent of Seneca's influence on European Renaissance drama, see Jean Jacquot and Marcel Oddon, eds., Les Tragedies de Sgneque et le theatre de la Renais- sance (Paris: Editions du centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1964).




since the beginning of the century,42 was now embraced as the classical precedent for a tragedy with a happy end. The suffering and subsequent ascent into Olympus of the demi-god Hercules in Hercules Oetaeus was immediately attractive to Christian authors not only because of its ending but also because of the strong parallels to Christ's death and resurrection. Secondly, Robortellus in his influential 1548 commentary on Aristotle's Poetics supplemented the list of tragedies with joyful endings with references to several of Euripides' plays.43 The appearance of the Paschon, a Euripidean cento, in 1550 was consequently interpreted as the Christian continuation of the Euripidean and Senecan tradition.

Once the formal difficulties of tragedies with happy endings had been resolved, the religious playwrights reinterpreted the characteristics of tragedy to correspond to their own dramatic praxis. Drawing on his study of Seneca and Gregory Nazianzus, the Liege humanist Gregorius Holonius (1531?-1594) suggested that all tragedy must arouse fierce emotions ("acerbos motus') and place the hero in danger." Accordingly, Holonius composed three tragedies on the mar- tyrdom of Christian saints.45 The endangerment of the main character had long been a practice in Roman comedy; Philip Melanchthon, for example, had argued that the moral lessons of Terentian comedies could only be imparted if the hero was compelled to choose between good and evil in a dangerous, i.e., suspenseful situation.46 Holonius merely changed the social rank of the protagonist to accord with the requisite nobility of the tragic hero. His emphasis on the emotional impact of religious tragedy was derived, however, from his study of Fabricius's preface to the Paschon. In his defense of the play Fabricius praised the author's unrivaled rhetorical ability to sway the readers' emotions and thereby direct them to rediscover the significance of Christ's Passion for their lives: "If however you were to consider the character of the style, you would see that there is nothing more effective for expressing

42See, for example, J.A. Worp, Geschiedenis van het drama en van het tooneel in Nederland (Groningen, 1904), pp. 193-202.

43Francisci Robortelli Utinensis in librum Aristotelis De arte poetica explicationes (Florence: L. Torrentinus, 1548).

44"Nam sufficit ad eius (tragoediae) materiem motus esse acerbos et fortunas mag- norum Principum pericitari." Gregorii Holonii Leodiensis. Catharina. Tragoedia de for- tissimo S. Catharinae virginis, doctoris et martyris certamine (Antwerp: Ioannes Bellerus, 1556), sig. Aiiv. On Holonius's dramas, see J.A. Parente, Jr. "Counter-Refor- mation Polemic and Senecan Tragedy: The Dramas of Gregorius Holonius," Humanistica Lovaniensia, 30 (1981): 156-180.

45In addition to his tragedy on Saint Catharine of Alexandria (note 44) Holonius also wrote dramas on the martyrdoms of Saint Lambert and Saint Lawrence.

46"Fer6 autem fabulae continent periculum quoddam, nusquam enim consilio locus est, nisi in dubiis rebus. neque vero aliud est comoedia, nisi humanorum consiliorum et eventuum imago quaedam." Argumenta Philippi Melanchthonis in P. Terentii Com- oediis, ed. D. Erasmus (Basel: Froben, 1532), sig. M2v.




and arousing pathos than tragic diction. Gregory showed himself to be an amazing master of this style especially in this work."47 Similarly, Holonius hoped that his vivid and bloody portrayal of three martyrdoms would incite his schoolboy audience to defend the true Catholic faith with equal vigor "so that they might improve, reform and protect the world for Christ with traditional piety, heavenly wisdom and the sanctity of the apostles."48 In contrast to the earlier religious comedies which had used biblical characters solely to exemplify the ideal Chris- tian behavior, the religious tragedy of the mid-sixteenth century at- tempted to evoke an emotional reaction in the reader. Instead of focusing on the exemplary qualities of the Christian role model, the tragedian concentrated on the reader himself and designed his play to instill the proper response in him towards the Christian ideal. As will be seen, this shift in emphasis from the utilitarian ends of religious comedy to man himself would become the foundation of Christian tragedy.

Among all the biblical subjects which sixteenth-century humanist playwrights portrayed, Christ's Passion was seldom favored. Religious scruples frequently prevented the dramatists from adapting the Pas- sion. Indeed, Georgius Macropedius, the most popular of all school dramatists, deemed the figure of Christ ill-suited to the stage as long as the Terentian vogue prevailed; Christ was simply too noble a subject for the humble comic style.49 Similarly, Martin Luther, who had on many previous occasions promoted the use of the stage as a pedagogic device, forbade the presentation of the Passion lest the viewer regard Christ's death as an injustice rather than as a sign of God's mercy.50

The humanists' avoidance of the Passion also arose from the literary difficulties of adapting the plot to a classical five-act drama. The French playwright Nicholas Bartholemaeus, one of the few humanists to attempt a Passion play before the Paschon was known, retained the same episodic disposition of events in his Christus Xylonicus (1529) which his vernacular predecessors had used in late medieval Passion

47"Sin dictionis spectes characterem non alius efficatior est ad 7tdOi (quae in dom- inica passione sunt plurima ac vehementissima) exprimenda movendaque quam tragi- cus: qua in re mirum se praestitit artificem Gregorius in hoc praecipue opere." Fabricius, Tragoedia Christus, fol. 3.

48"Uti ... qui prisca pietate, sapientia coelesti et Apostolica sanctitate mundum Christo corrigant, reforment, vendicent." Gregorii Holonii Leodiensis. Laurentias. Tragoedia de martyrio constantissimi levitae D. Laurentii Romae sub Decio passi (Ant- werp: Ioannes Bellerus, 1556), sig. Aiiv.

49In the prologue to the Lazarus published in 1541, Macropedius noted: indignum arbitratus et impium,

Christum gnatum Dei unicum, et nostrum omnium Salutis authorem unicum, sub imagine Levis hominis procedere ad spectaculum.

As quoted in Raymond Lebegue, La Tragedie Religieuse en France. Les Debuts (1514-1573) (Paris: Honor6 Champion, 1929), p. 190, n. 3.

50Holstein, Reformation im Spiegelbilde, p. 25.




plays.5' He subsequently imposed a four-act structure on his Latin drama to underscore the differences between the new Christian theater of the sixteenth century and the classical models he otherwise imitated.52 But Bartholemaeus's effort to distinguish his work from his pagan predecessors was a vain attempt to disguise the unwieldy nature of the Passion material. His English imitator, Nicholas Grimald, quickly realized that the concentration on a single episode such as the Resur- rection in his Christus Redivivus (1543)53 would suffice to create a five- act comedy. The Paschon, however, offered a novel alternative for re- ducing the Passion to a unified dramatic whole; it demonstrated that the cumbersome sequence of events from Passion to Resurrection could be organized by focusing on the reactions of a few characters to them.

In contrast to Bartholemaeus and the vernacular Passion plays, the author of the Paschon did not portray the main episodes of Christ's last days. Rather, in adhering strictly to his Euripidean model, the Paschon's writer used messengers and choruses to report the agony and the betrayal, the trial, the Crucifixion, Judas's suicide, and the Resurrection. Since the author was not interested in the events them- selves but in the characters' reactions to them, he established three levels of response in the play: the Virgin Mary, the theologian (identi- cal with the apostle John), and the chorus of women ("virginum') who attended the Blessed Virgin. Mary, who dominates the entire work, represents the natural reaction of the Christian reader to the events of the Passion. The author drew widely on several Euripidean plays (especially Hippolytus, Medea, and Orestes)54 to find a variety of expressions to characterize her different moods. Mary essentially sways between suicidal despair ("I want to die, I cannot bear to live at all")55 and

5'Lebegue, La Tragedie Religieuse, pp. 177-182. 52Bartholemaeus drew a parallel between pagan hero worship and Christianity;

unlike the pagans, he argued, his hero was the redeemer of the world. Similarly, Bar- tholemaeus criticized the fictive, inane plots of ancient dramas in comparison to his religious work: "Solent veterum tragoediae magnire piis verbis calamitosa principum Heroum boare gesta, admistis plaerumque historicae veritati (quae gentiliciae anti- quitatis vanitas) aut mendacibus figmentis, aut inanis supersitionis fabulis." Nicolai Bartholemaei Lochiensis Christus Xylonicus (Antwerp: Widow of Martin Caesar, 1537), sig. Av.

53Nicholas Grimald, Christus Redivivus Comoedia Tragica, sacra et nova (Cologne, Ioan. Gymnicus, 1543).

54The author of the CP derived his lines from seven Euripidean plays: Hecuba, Orestes, Hippolytus, Medea, Bacchae, Rhesus, Trojan Women. Tuilier, La Passion du Christ, p. 35. The CP was especially instrumental in supplying Euripidean editors with several missing verses from the Bacchae, see A. Kirchhoff, "Ein Supplement zu Eur- ipedes' Bacchen," Philologus 8 (1953): 78-93.

55"opto mori, vitamque nequaquam fero." Fabricius, Tragoedia Christus, fol. 15. The original reads: noO& reFvdvat, Civ 6'Et' oi)6agcbq (ptpco (Tuilier, La Passion du Christ, p. 164) For an analysis of Mary's role in the CP, see F. Trisoglio, "La Vergine ed il coro nel Christus Patiens," Rivista di Studi Classici 27 (1979): 338-373. Other characters in the CP are studied in F. Trisoglio, "I deuteragonisti del Christus Patiens," Dionisio 49 (1978): 117-187.




saintly patience; she is variously proud, humble, ecstatic, contrite, and pathetic. At first overwhelmed by the severity of Jesus' death, Mary is quickly enheartened by the theologian's reminder of the Redemption only to fall prey later to an even deeper despair. Mary thus reacts towards the Passion in the same manner as the Christian reader, who, though mindful of its significance, is too weak (that is, too human) to endure the loss of Jesus without special guidance. The dangers of excessive grief are evidenced by the chorus whose sorrow is increased by their doubts about Christ's divinity. To insure against such despair, the author introduced the theologian to interpret the Passion for Mary, the chorus, and above all the reader. Mary and the reader exemplify the reactions of fallen man whose faith in Christ preserves him from the endless despair of the chorus as it directs him to heed the theologian's promise of resurrection and salvation. By arousing the readers' human reaction (pathos) to Jesus' death, the dramatist was thus able to remind him of his weakness and thereby strengthen his faith in Christ.

In adumbrating the bond between Mary and the Christian reader, the author transformed his drama from a Passion play into a tragedy about man's earthly existence. As long as man remains in the world, he will be conscious of the distance between his fallen state and God. Mary's attempts to subdue her grief through self-imposed control all fail because of her humanity. Only the news of Christ's resurrection and redemption of mankind can permanently relieve her sorrow. Simi- larly, the Christian reader is reminded of his own inability to free himself from sin and its snares during his lifetime; only Jesus will be able to liberate man's soul after death and thereby guarantee him eternal salvation. Through his identification with the Virgin, the Christian reader has consequently become the protagonist of the Paschon.

The emphasis on Mary's humanity rather than her traditional im- munity from sin resulted from the Paschon dramatist's incorporation of classical quotations into his sacred text. The lamentations of the Virgin had been an integral part of the medieval Passion play since its origins as a liturgical dirge in the twelfth century. Her expressions of grief not only were deemed natural for a mother, but they also inspired the correct devotional posture for Christian meditation on the Passion. But the subtle balance between Mary's exceptional status as an eter- nally sinless virgin and her all too human suffering was disrupted by the use of Euripidean diction to describe her sorrow. Since Mary was well aware of the reasons for Christ's death, the Euripidean presentation of her grief changed her lamentations into self-indulgent cries of desperation. Like a Christian who has temporarily despaired of God's justice, Mary now required reminders of the Redemption and reassur- ances of divine providence in order to forebear. The humanist readers




of the Paschon were not troubled by this unorthodox view of the excessive sorrow at the expense of her sanctity; on the contrary, Mary's eventual triumph over her pain well served the humanists' pedagogical approach to theater. In witnessing an account of the death of Jesus, Christian man learned not only the meaning of the Passion, but also the ideal reaction to all misfortune. Through the exemplum of the Vir- gin, the Paschon demonstrated that classical virtues like fortitude and constancy could be taught without endangering the humility and faith of a Christian.

The complex characterization of the Virgin also served to resolve another difficulty among humanist playwrights. The presentation of Christian subjects in the language of classical drama was not often as harmonious a union as the humanists originally wished. Although it was generally easy to retain classical epithets for Christ and to speak of natural phenomena (dawn, sunset) as the workings of Phoebus or Titan,56 the Christian playwright could not readily reconcile classical philosophy with Christianity. The dangers of imitating Seneca's tragedies too stringently were especially apparent, for example, in Quinti- anus Stoa's Theoandrothanatos (1508).57 Stoa, an Italian humanist who spent his poetic career at the French court of Louis XII, had dedi- cated himself to the difficult task of representing various stages of Christ's life in separate classical genres. For his interpretation of the Passion, Stoa chose Senecan drama as his model. The Roman tragedian was a natural choice for Stoa, for the humanist later argued in his Epographia (1511), in language reminiscent of contemporary Senecan commentaries, that tragedy consisted solely of violent, mournful action.58 Stoa consequently conceived of a five-act tragedy on Christ's death in which the bloody tortures of the hero were vividly described.59

56In Quintianus Stoa's Theoandrothanatos (1508), God is variously described in neutral terms as "rector poli" and "coelicum tonantem," Quintianus Stoa, Christiana opera (Parrihsii in aedibus Ioannis petit sub Lileo aureo residentis, n.d.), fol. 12; fol. 29v. In the same work, Stoa describes dawn in a classical fashion:

Iam phoebus alto condidit iubar mari Et stridet unda fervidis gemens rotis. (fol. 17)

57For a brief analysis of the Theoandrothanatos, see Lebegue, La Tragedie Relig- ieuse, pp. 129-142.

58"Tragoedia est heroicae conditionis in adverso statu comprehensio; cujus sub- jectum et materia sunt dolores, lachrymae, odium, caedes, venena, incendia, amaritudines, aerumnae, cordolia, singultus, suspiria .. ." as quoted in Lebegue, La Tragedie Religieuse, p. 137. Compare Stoa's definition here with Danielis Gaietanus' definition of tragedy printed in the 1514 Badius edition of Seneca: "tragici poematis subiectum et materia dolor: lachrymae odium: insanae caedes, propterea iambica rabie fervescit carmen tragicum." L. Annei Senecae Tragoediae pristinae integritati resti- tutae per exactissimi iudicii viros ... ([Paris] 1514), sig. Aa vv.

59Stoa allows Jesus to revel in the description of his tortures: Venis hiulcis spargitur dulcis cruor, Corona nostrum perforat spinis caput ... Pulmone rupto palpitans friget iecur. Nervis per alvum viscera eruptis natant. (fol. 37v)




Although Stoa's emphasis on Christ's Stoic forbearance of his persecu- tion was eminently suited to the divine tragic hero, his establishment of the same dispassionate fortitude as a moral ideal undermined the work's religious significance. This shortcoming was especially apparent in Stoa's characterization of the Blessed Virgin. As was custom- ary, the Virgin was overwhelmed by an uncontrollable grief because of Jesus' death. Indeed, Stoa intended that Mary exemplify the instabil- ity of human existence:

Let us note the plaints and the horrible afflictions Of the Blessed Virgin before our eyes So that we might remember to control Our swollen pride every hour.60

But instead of consoling the Virgin, Magdalene and the apostle John resorted to Stoic exhortations:

Magdalene: Whatever the Trinity on high once ordained Must necessarily happen. This cruel death Is appropriate for the first crime.6'

John: There is no lasting happiness in time Since evil is always commingled with good.62

Stoa's enthusiasm for Stoic philosophy not only led him to ascribe less importance to the consolation of faith but also to represent Mary's grief as the sin of despair. Instead of Christianizing Seneca, Stoa "Senecized" Christianity so that the students and other humanists for whom he was writing could have access to Seneca's language purified of its pagan content.

Stoa's purposeful imitation of Seneca differed markedly from the Euripidean cento. Whereas Stoa had uncritically applied Senecan "sen- tentiae" to several characters, the Paschon author contrasted the va- lidity of his Euripidean borrowings against the appropriate Christian reaction. Sixteenth-century religious dramatists had frequently retained the immoral parasites, pimps, and courtesans of Roman comedy and employed them as personifications of the sins which the Christian hero was constrained to overcome. Gulielmus Gnapheus's prodigal in

60 Ante sint nostros oculos querelae Virginis divae: horribilesque luctus: Ut recordemur tumidum quot horis Ponere fastum. (Stoa, fol. 37.)

61Magdalene: Quidquid superno trinitas semel polo Statuit: necesse est fiat: exitii genus Crudele magnum competit primum scelus.

(Ibid., fol. 13v.) 62Joannes: Est nulla firma temporis felicitas:

Quandoque rebus se malum immiscet bonis. (Ibid., fol. 14v.)




the Acolastus (1529), for example, could only attain his father's for- giveness after rejecting the antics of the immoral Plautine characters.63 In the Paschon the pagan inheritance was similarly mocked, but instead of criticizing characters, the author exposed the vanity and in- stability of Euripidean sentiments in light of Christian truth. Whenever the Virgin indulged in the excessive grief of a Phaedra (Hip- polytus) or in Medea's unquenchable desire for vengeance, she was quickly reprimanded by the dying Christ or by the theologian for her temporary distrust in God's justice:

Christ: In truth, I urge you not to hate anyone Not even those who kill me unjustly.64

Theologian: My Queen, stop your mourning and your tears. Your son has died willingly and gladly So that having conquered the all-devouring enemy He might return triumphantly as the victor, avenger,

and guardian of all. He himself prophesied to his apostles That he would return on the third day and bring them

joy.65

Admittedly, since the Paschon was a cento, there were many passages which the writer could adapt without undermining the virtue of his

63Gnapheus's protagonist, Acolastus, does not realize that he has erred until the parasites Pantolabus and Pamphagus have cheated him and the "meretrix" Lais has rejected his advances.

64Christus: Te vero adhortor hinc odisse neminem. Ne istos quidem, qui iure nullo me necant.

(Fabricius, Tragoedia Christus, fol. 21v.) The original reads: XOi T' aU 7atpLVi, kVJUV PPO?(&)V arsyCL,

i8ot &L' i~rn' pt-l~aov O'&v6~q ~ . (Tuilier, La Passion du Christ, p. 194.)

65Theologus: Regina, tandem siste planctum et lachrymas. Volens enim mortem subivit ac lubens Ut hoste prostrato qui cuncta devorat, Rex victor et vindex et autor omnium Redeat triumphans. Ipse nam mystis suis Die reversurum se ad auras tertia Praedixit, allaturum et illis gaudium.

(Fabricius, Tragoedia Christus, fol. 23v.) Fabricius shortened the Greek passage by twenty lines; even the quoted Latin text is a condensation of the original:

TetOw0t, 7atyxopQtVe, ,uL Ciea xLva

ix ' V yap &?! Ttr[LOV, oUXOUv (OxAv,

nc4 puocyov viv xO4arLA)v o0tov y&vou4 6(8LXO4 eXn, At6orv4 7ovtepya74,

oc6-ok npoesne xodt Oe')(.)v 9TX- FL~pov *uLOCTL TpLTXTk( 8' sViypeaWOL TaPou,

uaTQL4 cXOL4 cPipovTa xapIO xOC ,y.

(Tuilier, La Passion du Christ, p. 202; 204)




protagonist.66 But in contrast to Stoa the Paschon author exploited every opportunity, be it stylistic or theological, to incite the appropriate Christian response to the Passion. The dramatist did not intend to provide readers with an amended Euripidean text but rather to expli- cate the significance of the Passion for Christian man in an elegant manner.

The Paschon thus provided sixteenth-century playwrights with a model for the resolution of several dramatic problems. First, its Euri- pidean presentation of the Passion served to convince skeptical churchmen that the classical style need not preclude a drama's ethical significance. Secondly, the author demonstrated that tragedy itself was not dependent on any extraneous formal definitions but on the play's rhetorical ability to arouse harsh emotions like terror, sorrow, and fear. Thirdly, the Paschon illustrated an exemplary method of imitation for humanist playwrights writing on religious topics; every ver- bal borrowing from classical drama was either assimilated into the Christian context, or if inconsistent with Christianity, rejected as mor- ally inferior. Finally, the author's complex characterization of the Virgin provided a prototype for the Christian hero. The mysteries of Christ and the Redemption as well as the ethics of Christian heroes were now no longer dispensed with dogmatic certitude but with the playwright's recognition and acceptance of the inability of fallen man to imitate Christ in a sinful world. Man's inadequacy without God's assistance became the central topic of Christian tragedy and man himself the victim of his own sinfulness.

66A good example of the CP author's careful adaptation of Euripides is the Virgin's interpretation of Judas's suicide:

(Pereat scelestus ergo furcifer mal.) Lucrum est profecto maximum resipiscere, et Convertere ad meliora se. (est enim Deus Ut iustus ac iudex severus), sic quoque Clemens piusque, nec reppellit supplices.

(Fabricius, Tragoedia Christus, fol. 32v.) The lines in parentheses are quotations from Rhesus (lines 750 and 250 respectively) which are now applied to a Christian context:

(,'OxLt' 6XOLOvr norv&xW xOxepyir%,) X~p&u LcyLaT(OV -rvj LatprpoyT4 yuy(v.

`EaTLV (EO4 TL4, CatLV &X4LQ4, FLycx

(a-t~v 8 Xal Ilp vQ1cLta XML xpLat; OL U.)

(Tuilier, La Passion du Christ, p. 244)



the development of religious tragedy: the humanist reception of the christos paschon in the...

Documents