Category Archives: Dante Alighieri

Butcher: Solo performance

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About the scene and clip:
The fabliau-performer recounts the entire fabliau, using a variety of props and costume elements.

About the work:
This fabliau tells how a butcher—angry at a rude and inhospitable priest—manages to trick him, several times over.

About the genre:
Fabliaux are short comic tales. This narrative genre was extremely popular in the 13th and 14th centuries in France and elsewhere in Europe (Chaucer’s Miller’s Tale is a sophisticated fabliau). Fabliaux almost invariably deal with the passions of lust, gluttony, avarice–and with attempts to trick or deceive others. Characters are typically bourgeois, clerks and monks, or peasants–and often women. The treatment is comic or satirical. But fabliaux vary considerably. Some are extremely vulgar in language and treatment, inviting crude gestures in performance. Other fabliaux are based on puns or wordplay. Many have a moral at the end and some have ethical overtones throughout. A few fabliaux are refined and courtly in language and themes. Many fabliaux are anonymous, but a few are by known poets. Performance styles and strategies for the fabliaux probably varied considerably in the Middle Ages, according to the subject matter and characters, the poet, the performer(s), the occasion, and the kind of audience present.

About the edition/translation:
Abridged from Fabliaux Fair and Foul, trans. John Duval, Pegasus, Medieval & Renaissance Texts, Binghamton, NY, 1992, pp. 1-14. French: Du bouchier d’Abevile: fabliau du XIIIe siècle, Genève, Droz, 1975.

About the performer/ensemble:
Michael Ritchie is a PhD student in the French Department at New York University (2005).

About the production:
This performance took place at the Tank–an “off-off-Broadway” venue in New York City–in July 2005. It was part of an evening of performances of medieval narrative organized by Jenn Jordan, a member of the Advisory Board of the website, and Timmie Vitz. Videography by Kennon Hewlitt (a Film student at New York University).

Butcher: Group performance

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About the scene and clip:
Students in a group take turns telling the fabliau.

About the work:
This fabliau tells how a butcher—angry at a rude and inhospitable priest—manages to trick him, several times over.

About the genre:
Fabliaux are short comic tales. This narrative genre was extremely popular in the 13th and 14th centuries in France and elsewhere in Europe (Chaucer’s Miller’s Tale is a sophisticated fabliau). Fabliaux almost invariably deal with the passions of lust, gluttony, avarice–and with attempts to trick or deceive others. Characters are typically bourgeois, clerks and monks, or peasants–and often women. The treatment is comic or satirical. But fabliaux vary considerably. Some are extremely vulgar in language and treatment, inviting crude gestures in performance. Other fabliaux are based on puns or wordplay. Many have a moral at the end and some have ethical overtones throughout. A few fabliaux are refined and courtly in language and themes. Many fabliaux are anonymous, but a few are by known poets. Performance styles and strategies for the fabliaux probably varied considerably in the Middle Ages, according to the subject matter and characters, the poet, the performer(s), the occasion, and the kind of audience present.

Satire generally attacks, often in comic terms, the failings of classes or groups of people, such as those in political power (monarchs and aristocrats), or the clergy, or women; most satire focuses criticism on groups, rather than on individuals. Satire can also mock a political or religious philosophy, or an institution or system.

About the edition/translation:
Fabliaux Fair and Foul, trans. John Duval, Pegasus, Medieval & Renaissance Texts, Binghamton, NY, 1992, pp. 1-14. French: Du bouchier d’Abevile: fabliau du XIIIe siècle, Genève, Droz, 1975.

About the performer/ensemble:
The performers were all the students in “Medieval Stories in Motion/Emotion: The Art of Storytelling” in 2006. All were students at the College of Arts and Science and/or at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.

About the production:
This performance was created for a course called “Medieval Stories in Motion/Emotion: The Art of Storytelling,” taught in spring 2006 at New York University by Profs. Paula Murray Cole and Timmie (E.B.) Vitz. The performance took place in Washington Square Park in New York City’s Greenwich Village in May 2006. Videography by Nitzan Rotschild.

Inferno, canto VIII: Dante meets Francesca

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About the scene and clip:
This clip recounts canto V of the Inferno. In this scene, Dante, the pilgrim, enters the fifth circle of Hell where those who were ruled in life by their passions are punished. He meets Francesca da Rimini who tells him of her adulterous affair. The performer tells the story, also impersonating the various characters; a book is used as a prop.

About the work:
The Divine Comedy (1315-1320) is one of the greatest works of the Middle Ages. In this three part work, composed in cantos of terza rima, Dante tells of a spiritual pilgrimage through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. Beatrice, whom Dante had known and loved in his youth and who is now in heaven, has been enabled through divine grace to send Virgil to be his guide for much of the way. Throughout the Commedia Dante’s deep learning is visible, along with his interest in Italian and Church history and politics, theological issues, poetry and poetics, and scientific thought. In the Inferno, the pilgrim descends through the concentric circles of Hell in which different types of sinners receive the eternal punishment appropriate to their sins. The Pilgrim speaks with many whom he meets on his way.

About the genre:
The Divine Comedy is a unique work but it is also, in some respects, an epic (see paragraph below). It belongs as well to a long tradition of narrative journeys to the other world, written at first in Latin and then in the various vernaculars.

The epic is an ancient genre and is found in almost every culture. It is a long heroic narrative which tells of war and great deeds. Epics are generally composed in verse, and sung from memory or improvised in performance by professional performers with instrumental accompaniment. These narratives are created from traditional elements, commonly without recourse to writing, by poets whose names are often unknown to us. Among the famous traditional epics are the Iliad and the Odyssey, attributed to Homer; the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf; and the Old French Song of Roland. Many known poets adopt epic forms and themes for their literary verse (such as Virgil in his Aeneid).

About the edition/translation:
The Divine Comedy, trans. C.H. Sisson, Manchester, Carcanet New Press, 1980. There are many editions of the original Italian.

About the performer/ensemble:
Gina Guadagnino graduated from New York University in May 2003 with a major in English; she minored in Medieval and Renaissance Studies and Irish Studies.

About the production:
This scene is one of a series created under the direction of Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz in fall 2003. This clip comes from a performance that took place at Gluckman Ireland House at New York University for the Medieval and Renaissance Program’s Holiday party in December 2003. The performance was videoed by NYU-TV.