Comic Drama in the Low Countries, C.1450-1560

A Critical Anthology
Erscheinungsjahr 2012
ISBN: 978-1-84384-291-0
Verlag: Boydell & Brewer

Buch, Englisch, 308 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 703 g

During the Middle Ages and early modern period, a dramatic culture of astonishing vitality developed in the Low Countries. Owing to the activities of organisations known as rederijkerskamers, or "chambers of rhetoric", drama became a central aspect of public life in the cities of the Netherlands. The comedies produced by these groups are particularly interesting. Drawing their forms and narratives from folklore and popular ritual, and entertaining in their own right, they also bring together a range of important concerns; they respond directly to some of the key developments in the period, reflecting the political and religious turmoil of the Reformation and Dutch Revolt, the emergence of humanism, and the appearance of an early capitalist economy.

This collection brings together the original Middle Dutch text of ten of these comic plays, with facing translation into modern English. The selection is divided evenly between formal stage-plays and monologues, and provides a representation of the full range of rederijker drama, from the sophisticated Farce of the Fisherman, with ist sly undermining of audience expectation, to the hearty scatology of A Mock-Sermon on Saint Nobody, and the grim gallows humour of The Farce of the Beggar. An introduction and notes place the plays in their context and elucidate difficulties of interpretation.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Parsons, Ben

Jongenelen, Bas

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Theaterwissenschaft Theatergeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

• 1 Translators' Note
• 2 Introduction: The Older the Hollander the More Foolish: Comedy, Foolery and the Chambers of Rhetoric in the Medieval Low Countries
• 3 Part I: Dramatic Monologues
• 4 This is the Madness
• 5 The Guild of the Blue Barge
• 6 A Mock Sermon on Saint Nobody
• 7 The Oath of Master Pawnbroker
• 8 A Wise and Wonderful Prognostication
• 9 Part II: Farces
• 10 The Farce of the Beggar
• 11 A Play of Three Lovers
• 12 The Farce of the Fisherman
• 13 Jack Sweet-tooth
• 14 A Farce of the Barefoot Brothers
• 15 Bibliography

Über Autor(innen)

Ben Parsons is Teaching Fellow at the University of Leicester; Bas Jongenelen is teacher of Dutch Literature at Fontys Lerarenopleiding in Tilburg.