Category Archives: Hagiography

Golden Legend: Martyrdom of St. Felicitas and Her Seven Sons

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About the scene and clip:
The solo performer, both dramatically and soberly, tells the story of the martyrdom of a mother and her seven sons: Felicitas encouraged her sons, one by one, to endure torture and suffer martyrdom for their faith in Christ, and then finally received the crown of martyrdom herself. She is, we are told, to be admired for her extraordinary courage.

About the work:
The work known as the Legenda Aurea (The Golden Legend) is a massive compilation of stories about the saints by an Italian Dominican, Jacobus of Voragine (or Varazze), Archbishop of Genoa, writing around 1260. Organized around the Catholic liturgical year, The Golden Legend tells the lives and stories of many important saints, as well as of Christ and the Virgin Mary. It was very widely known; preachers and storytellers often told stories from The Golden Legend, and it inspired much medieval art. The work as a whole and stories drawn from it were translated into many vernacular languages. About 900 manuscripts of the The Golden Legend survive, and at the end of the Middle Ages it was even more frequently printed than the Bible.

About the genre:
Stories about the saintly wisdom, heroism, or miracles of remarkable men and women exist in many religious traditions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Such stories are termed “hagiography.” In medieval Europe, the saint’s life or legend was an extremely popular type of work. A great many stories (and plays) about male and female Christian saints exist in Latin and in all the vernacular languages. These works may focus on the saint’s dramatic death by martyrdom, or recount the remarkable miracles performed by the saint, or may relate the entire life of the holy man or woman. Among the most important collections of saints’ lives and legends is The Golden Legend by Jacobus of Voragine. Chaucer’s “Prioress’s Tale” in The Canterbury Tales is a tale of martyrdom. Miracle and pious tales about the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, constitute a special, and highly important, category of saintly legends.

This story also belongs to the tale tradition. The tale, like the epic, is an ancient genre and one found everywhere in the world. Many tales are firmly rooted in oral tradition and are recited or told by amateur and professional storytellers and performers. Other tales are the work of literarily sophisticated authors and are often intended to be read aloud or silently from written texts. Some tales circulate separately, while others are part of collections, which may be set in complex frames (as in the case of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Boccaccio’s Decameron and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales). There are many sub-groups of tales with specific characteristics; see for example the “lai” and the “fabliau.”

About the edition/translation:
From The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine, translated by William G. Ryan and Helmut Ripperger, New York Press, 1969, p. 347. Latin: Iacopo da Varazze, Legenda Aurea, ed. Giovanni Paolo Maggioni, 2nd ed., Firenze, SISMEL, Edizioni del Galluzzo, 1998, 2 vols.

About the performer/ensemble:
Brandon Goodman is a Drama student in the Experimental Theatre Wing at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2009).

About the production:
This performance was created for “Acting Medieval Literature,” taught by Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz in spring 2009. It was videoed in the classroom by a fellow student.

Golden Legend: St. Nicholas

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About the scene and clip:
The solo performer tells about St. Nicholas, projecting onto a screen drawings she has done of the saint’s life and miracles.

About the work:
The work known as the Legenda Aurea (The Golden Legend) is a massive compilation of stories about the saints by an Italian Dominican, Jacobus of Voragine (or Varazze), Archbishop of Genoa, writing around 1260. Organized around the Catholic liturgical year, The Golden Legend tells the lives and stories of many important saints, as well as of Christ and the Virgin Mary. It was very widely known; preachers and storytellers often told stories from The Golden Legend, and it inspired much medieval art. The work as a whole and stories drawn from it were translated into many vernacular languages. About 900 manuscripts of the The Golden Legend survive, and at the end of the Middle Ages it was even more frequently printed than the Bible.

About the genre:
Stories about the saintly wisdom, heroism, or miracles of remarkable men and women exist in many religious traditions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Such stories are termed “hagiography.” In medieval Europe, the saint’s life or legend was an extremely popular type of work. A great many stories (and plays) about male and female Christian saints exist in Latin and in all the vernacular languages. These works may focus on the saint’s dramatic death by martyrdom, or recount the remarkable miracles performed by the saint, or may relate the entire life of the holy man or woman. Among the most important collections of saints’ lives and legends is The Golden Legend by Jacobus of Voragine. Chaucer’s “Prioress’s Tale” in The Canterbury Tales is a tale of martyrdom. Miracle and pious tales about the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, constitute a special, and highly important, category of saintly legends.

This story also belongs to the tale tradition. The tale, like the epic, is an ancient genre and one found everywhere in the world. Many tales are firmly rooted in oral tradition and are recited or told by amateur and professional storytellers and performers. Other tales are the work of literarily sophisticated authors and are often intended to be read aloud or silently from written texts. Some tales circulate separately, while others are part of collections, which may be set in complex frames (as in the case of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Boccaccio’s Decameron and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales). There are many sub-groups of tales with specific characteristics; see for example the “lai” and the “fabliau.”

About the edition/translation:
From The Golden Legend or Lives of the Saints, Compiled by Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, 1275, first edition published 1470. English edition by William Caxton, first edition 1483, ed. F.S. Ellis, Temple Classics, 1900 (reprinted 1922, 1931), p. 49. Latin: Iacopo da Varazze, Legenda Aurea, ed. Giovanni Paolo Maggioni, 2nd ed., Firenze, SISMEL, Edizioni del Galluzzo, 1998, 2 vols.

About the performer/ensemble:
Jenn Jordan is completing a MA in the Draper Program at New York University (2008).

About the production:
This clip was created for this website, for pleasure. It was videoed in a meeting room at New York University in spring 2008. Nitzan Rotschild was the videographer.

Judith: Judith prepares to kill Holophernes

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About the scene and clip:
The singer performs part of the story of Judith and Holophernes, taking on all the voices: Judith comes alone to the camp of Holophernes, Nebuchadnezzar’s general. Holophernes plans to seduce her. At a great feast, he and his men become intoxicated. After prayer and agonized inner debate, Judith resolves to kill him in order to free her people.

The instruments in this clip are the vielle and flute (elsewhere in the full performance of the work, the lirica—a Croatian traditional stringed instrument tuned in a particular archaic manner—and other medieval flutes are played). The instrumentation provides at times a highly dramatic musical presence.

About the work:
Judith was written by Marko Marulic (1450-1524), a great Croatian Humanist poet, and a major figure in the transition between medieval and Renaissance Croatian literature. Judith is a literary epic, composed in verse, and drawn primarily from the book of Judith in the Old Testament: the beautiful Jewish widow cuts off the head of a great enemy of her people, Holophernes, in order to free them. Superimposed on the biblical story is the theme of opposition to Ottoman invaders of Marulic’s day. Into the text of Judith, Dialogos has inserted a debate between the body and the soul, based on Visio Philiberti (Philibert’s Vision), to which Marulic had contributed. Katarina Livljanic’s reconstruction of the music draws on Gregorian, Beneventan and Glagolitic sources from medieval Dalmatia.

About the genre:
This work combines literary epic, with the story drawn from the Bible; allegory (the body/soul debate), and hagiography (Judith will be forever glorified for her courage and service to God).

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).

Allegory is a way of composing and of interpreting texts: characters and the plot point beyond themselves to something “other”—something symbolic. Characters are often personifications of forces such as Love, Pride, Reason, or Friendship. The plot is also symbolic: characters’ struggles are between vices and virtues; their journey may refer to life’s pilgrimage or to the discovery of some great truth, such as the nature of love. Works may be entirely allegorical, or may just contain brief passages written in this mode. Allegorical works are often strongly religious, philosophical, or moral.

Stories about the saintly wisdom, heroism, or miracles of remarkable men and women exist in many religious traditions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Such stories are termed “hagiography.” In medieval Europe, the saint’s life or legend was an extremely popular type of work. A great many stories (and plays) about male and female Christian saints exist in Latin and in all the vernacular languages. These works may focus on the saint’s dramatic death by martyrdom, or recount the remarkable miracles performed by the saint, or may relate the entire life of the holy man or woman. Among the most important collections of saints’ lives and legends is The Golden Legend by Jacobus of Voragine. Chaucer’s “Prioress’s Tale” in The Canterbury Tales is a tale of martyrdom. Miracle and pious tales about the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, constitute a special, and highly important, category of saintly legends.

About the edition/translation:
The work performed has been abridged and adapted by Katarina Livljanic and Benjamin Bagby from Marko Marulic, Judita, ed. and trans. Henry R. Cooper, Jr., New York, East European Monographs/Columbia University Press, 1991.

About the performer/ensemble:
Dialogos (see www.ensemble-dialogos.org) is a music ensemble directed by Katarina Livljanic, and based in Paris. Performers here are Livljanic (voice), Albrecht Maurer (fiddle) and Norbert Rodenkirchen (flute).

About the production:
This video was made at a public performance of Judita at St. Donat’s in Zadar, Croatia, in July 2006. The videography is by Studio Dim, Zagreb, Croatia. Dialogos has broadcast rights to the video.

Jataka: Three tales

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About the scene and clip:
The performer reads aloud and acts out three stories from the Indian Jataka: He tells about a foolish tortoise that falls to its death because it cannot keep its mouth shut (the Bodhisattva, as king’s adviser, tells this tale to the overly-talkative king); he tells about a man who cleverly recovers property that had unjustly been taken from him (here, the Bodhisattva is the Lord Justice); and he tells about a foolish crow and jackal, with the Bodhisattva as wise tree-sprite.

About the work:
The Indian tales of the Jataka are part of a large body of folklore and literature concerning the previous births of the Buddha as Bodhisattva (one seeking or revealing Buddha-hood). The tales generally show the Bodhisattva, who has taken some particular human or animal form, displaying and teaching his wisdom to those around him, and sometimes performing miracles. The tales survive in various forms and collections in Pali (a vernacular dialect of Sanskrit), Sanskrit, and other languages, and influenced storytelling in many parts of the world—in particular, stories involving animals, from Aesop’s fables to the medieval fabliaux, and beyond. Though some tales from the Jataka go back to before the 3rd century BC, the Pali text may date from around the 5th century AD.

About the genre:
This story belongs to the tale tradition. The tale, like the epic, is an ancient genre and one found everywhere in the world. Many tales are firmly rooted in oral tradition and are recited or told by amateur and professional storytellers and performers. Other tales are the work of literarily sophisticated authors and are often intended to be read aloud or silently from written texts. Some tales circulate separately, while others are part of collections, which may be set in complex frames (as in the case of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Boccaccio’s Decameron and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales). There are many sub-groups of tales with specific characteristics; see for example the “lai” and the “fabliau.”

This story also belongs to the genre of hagiography. Stories about the saintly wisdom, heroism, or miracles of remarkable men and women exist in many religious traditions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Such stories are termed “hagiography.” In medieval Europe, the saint’s life or legend was an extremely popular type of work. A great many stories (and plays) about male and female Christian saints exist in Latin and in all the vernacular languages. These works may focus on the saint’s dramatic death by martyrdom, or recount the remarkable miracles performed by the saint, or may relate the entire life of the holy man or woman. Among the most important collections of saints’ lives and legends is The Golden Legend by Jacobus of Voragine. Chaucer’s “Prioress’s Tale” in The Canterbury Tales is a tale of martyrdom. Miracle and pious tales about the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, constitute a special, and highly important, category of saintly legends.

About the edition/translation:
The Jataka; or, Stories of the Buddha’s Former Births. Translated from the Pali by various hands under the editorship of Professor E. B. Cowell, London, Published for the Pali Text Society by Luzac & Comp., 1969, 6 v.; Vol. II translated by Robert Chalmers (1895), pp. 123ff; 127ff; 299ff.

About the performer/ensemble:
Dave Perlow is a Drama student in the CAP 21 Studio at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2005).

About the production:
This performance was created for a group independent study with Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz in fall 2005; it was a final performance for the course, and was videoed in December 2005 at the Maison Française of New York University by Nick Spangler.

St. Brendan: Adventures

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About the scene and clip:
The performer recounts several of the remarkable adventures of St. Brendan and his monks, including the casting out of a little devil from one of the monks, a fight in the sky between two great winged creatures, and the gift of miraculous fruits for the monks.

About the work:
This is a rather unusual work about a saint: it recounts not a life or a martyrdom, but rather a great sea voyage, a blend of fantasy and fact, full of Christian liturgical and symbolic details. Written in Latin in the 9th or early 10th century, it tells how a holy Irish monk, Brendan, gathered a group of fellow monks and traveled with them in a little boat over the deep, meeting with amazing adventures. They land on an island that turns out to be the back of a whale; they witness struggles between strange creatures in the air and in the sea; they meet interesting figures, such as Judas Iscariot, who suffers in the middle of the ocean; and they visit the Isle of the Blessed.

About the genre:
Stories about the saintly wisdom, heroism, or miracles of remarkable men and women exist in many religious traditions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Such stories are termed “hagiography.” In medieval Europe, the saint’s life or legend was an extremely popular type of work. A great many stories (and plays) about male and female Christian saints exist in Latin and in all the vernacular languages. These works may focus on the saint’s dramatic death by martyrdom, or recount the remarkable miracles performed by the saint, or may relate the entire life of the holy man or woman. Among the most important collections of saints’ lives and legends is The Golden Legend by Jacobus of Voragine. Chaucer’s “Prioress’s Tale” in The Canterbury Tales is a tale of martyrdom. Miracle and pious tales about the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, constitute a special, and highly important, category of saintly legends.

About the edition/translation:
The Age of Bede, trans. J.F. Webb, ed. D.H. Farmer, Harmondsworth, Penguin, rev. ed., 1983, pp. 211ff. Latin: Navigatio sancti Brendani abbatis, from early Latin manuscripts, ed. Carl Selmer, Notre Dame, Indiana, University of Notre Dame Press, 1959.

About the performer/ensemble:
Nick Robbins is a Drama student in The Meisner Studio at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2005).

About the production:
This performance was created for an Independent Study with Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz in fall 2005; it was a final performance for the course, and was videoed in December 2005 at the Maison Française of New York University by Nick Spangler.

Séquence de Sainte Eulalie (Sequence, or Song, of St. Eulalia)

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About the scene and clip:
The performer reads aloud the short, poetic account of the martyrdom of St. Eulalia; she uses a large illustrated book to enhance her storytelling, and also provides the text in Old French.

About the work:
The short liturgical song, La Séquence (Chanson) de Saint Eulalie, composed in the 9th century, is one of the earliest monuments of French literature. It tells of the martyrdom of the young maiden Eulalia, a 3rd-century Spanish saint, who firmly chose death over betrayal of her faith in Christ. This brief text consists of 29 lines, composed in assonanced pairs of lines, with a final closing line. This song is probably a liturgical “trope”—a poetic amplification of the final “a” of the Alleluia sung at the Mass on December 10, the feast of Saint Eulalia.

About the genre:
Stories about the saintly wisdom, heroism, or miracles of remarkable men and women exist in many religious traditions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Such stories are termed “hagiography.” In medieval Europe, the saint’s life or legend was an extremely popular type of work. A great many stories (and plays) about male and female Christian saints exist in Latin and in all the vernacular languages. These works may focus on the saint’s dramatic death by martyrdom, or recount the remarkable miracles performed by the saint, or may relate the entire life of the holy man or woman. Among the most important collections of saints’ lives and legends is The Golden Legend by Jacobus of Voragine. Chaucer’s “Prioress’s Tale” in The Canterbury Tales is a tale of martyrdom. Miracle and pious tales about the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, constitute a special, and highly important, category of saintly legends.

About the edition/translation:
English translation by Jennifer Jordan and Timmie (E.B.) Vitz. Original text: One edition of this often-edited text is Chrestomathie de la littérature en ancien français, 4th ed., ed. Albert Henry, Berne, Francke, 1967, pp. 2-3.

About the performer/ensemble:
Jennifer Jordan, who majored in Medieval and Renaissance Studies at New York University, graduated in 2005, and now works and also does graduate study at New York University (2006). She is a member of the Advisory Board of the website, and created this performance out of pleasure and interest.

About the production:
This performance was created for a book party for Performing Medieval Narrative at the Maison Française of New York University in October 2005. The event was also sponsored by “Storytelling in Performance,” a workshop funded by the Humanities Council of New York University and co-directed by Profs. Timmie Vitz, Nancy Regalado, and Martha Hodes. Videography was by NYU-TV.

St. John: Sins and miraculous forgiveness

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About the scene and clip:
The solo performer tells—and acts out—the second part of the remarkable legend about the hermit St. John Chrysostom: his great sins and his miraculous forgiveness by God.

About the work:
This legend, recounted in medieval Croatian Church Slavonic, tells the story of a friar named John who leaves his monastery because he deplores the low morality of his brethren. He goes to the desert where he lives as a hermit and writes prayers in honor of the Virgin Mary. The devil steals his inkpot, so John uses his saliva as ink—which miraculously turns into gold, hence his name “Chrysostom,” or “golden mouth.” John prays to be delivered from great sins, thinking that he can defend himself from small sins, such as drunkenness. But his belief in his own moral strength is an error, an angel tells him—and prophesies that John will commit both murder and rape in a drunken state.

A new storyline opens at this point: A princess gets lost in a bad storm during a hunt and finds refuge in John’s humble hut. She offers him wine, and—as the angel had predicted—after the third glass he gets drunk, rapes her, and then kills her; he hides her body. Horrified by his transgression, he vows to crawl on all fours like an animal until God has forgiven him. Time passes, and the king, the princess’s father, organises another hunt to celebrate the birth of a son and heir. In the desert the huntsmen come across a strange creature and bring it to the court. It is John—and the king’s baby son shouts out that John is now forgiven. John praises the Lord, and tells his whole story to the king and courtiers. They go to find the grave of the princess—but discover her alive and well. Everyone is happy and praises the greatness of “John’s God”.

The Croatian Legend of St. John Chrysostom (Hermit) survives in the so-called Zgombic Miscellany, now in the Archive of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zagreb. Although compiled in the early 16th c., this miscellany (a collection of a wide variety of texts) is part of an older medieval tradition. The Croatian tale draws on several European sources, but only this version has John’s lengthy monologue.

About the genre:
Stories about the saintly wisdom, heroism, or miracles of remarkable men and women exist in many religious traditions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Such stories are termed “hagiography.” In medieval Europe, the saint’s life or legend was an extremely popular type of work. A great many stories (and plays) about male and female Christian saints exist in Latin and in all the vernacular languages. These works may focus on the saint’s dramatic death by martyrdom, or recount the remarkable miracles performed by the saint, or may relate the entire life of the holy man or woman. Among the most important collections of saints’ lives and legends is The Golden Legend by Jacobus of Voragine. Chaucer’s “Prioress’s Tale” in The Canterbury Tales is a tale of martyrdom. Miracle and pious tales about the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, constitute a special, and highly important, category of saintly legends.

This story also belongs to the tale tradition. The tale, like the epic, is an ancient genre and one found everywhere in the world. Many tales are firmly rooted in oral tradition and are recited or told by amateur and professional storytellers and performers. Other tales are the work of literarily sophisticated authors and are often intended to be read aloud or silently from written texts. Some tales circulate separately, while others are part of collections, which may be set in complex frames (as in the case of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Boccaccio’s Decameron and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales). There are many sub-groups of tales with specific characteristics; see for example the “lai” and the “fabliau.”

About the edition/translation:
English translation by Marija-ana Dürrigl. Original text: critical edition in Stjepan Ivsic, “Iz hrvatske glagolske knjizevnosti: Legenda o Ivanu Zlatoustom,” Prilozi za knjizevnost, jezik, istoriju i folklor 11 (1931): 59-83, 1931. We express here our particular gratitude to Dr. Dürrigl for bringing this remarkable text to our attention, and for providing an English translation of it.

About the performer/ensemble:
Nick Spangler is a Drama student in the CAP21 Studio at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2005).

About the production:
This performance was created for a group independent study with Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz in fall 2005. It took place on December 15, 2005, as part of an event titled “Making It Real: Performing the Middle Ages,” at an Off-off-Broadway venue in New York City—The American Place Theatre, 266 West 37th St (22nd floor). The performance was also sponsored by “Storytelling in Performance,” a workshop funded by the Humanities Council of New York University and co-directed by Profs. Timmie Vitz, Nancy Regalado and Martha Hodes. Gina Guadagnino was the videographer.

Jataka: Two tales

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About the scene and clip:
The performer reads aloud and acts out two stories from the Indian Jataka. He does the tale of the Bodhisattva born as an acrobatic elephant; and he tells the story of the widowed husband whom the Bodhisattva heals of his excessive grief for his dead wife: the husband is cured when he learns that his late queen, Ubari, is now a dungworm.

About the work:
The Indian tales of the Jataka are part of a large body of folklore and literature concerning the previous births of the Buddha as Bodhisattva (one seeking or revealing Buddha-hood). The tales generally show the Bodhisattva, who has taken some particular human or animal form, displaying and teaching his wisdom to those around him, and sometimes performing miracles. The tales survive in various forms and collections in Pali (a vernacular dialect of Sanskrit), Sanskrit, and other languages, and influenced storytelling in many parts of the world—in particular, stories involving animals, from Aesop’s fables to the medieval fabliaux, and beyond. Though some tales from the Jataka go back to before the 3rd century BC, the Pali text may date from around the 5th century AD.

About the genre:
This story belongs to the tale tradition. The tale, like the epic, is an ancient genre and one found everywhere in the world. Many tales are firmly rooted in oral tradition and are recited or told by amateur and professional storytellers and performers. Other tales are the work of literarily sophisticated authors and are often intended to be read aloud or silently from written texts. Some tales circulate separately, while others are part of collections, which may be set in complex frames (as in the case of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Boccaccio’s Decameron and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales). There are many sub-groups of tales with specific characteristics; see for example the “lai” and the “fabliau.”

This story also belongs to the genre of hagiography. Stories about the saintly wisdom, heroism, or miracles of remarkable men and women exist in many religious traditions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Such stories are termed “hagiography.” In medieval Europe, the saint’s life or legend was an extremely popular type of work. A great many stories (and plays) about male and female Christian saints exist in Latin and in all the vernacular languages. These works may focus on the saint’s dramatic death by martyrdom, or recount the remarkable miracles performed by the saint, or may relate the entire life of the holy man or woman. Among the most important collections of saints’ lives and legends is The Golden Legend by Jacobus of Voragine. Chaucer’s “Prioress’s Tale” in The Canterbury Tales is a tale of martyrdom. Miracle and pious tales about the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, constitute a special, and highly important, category of saintly legends.

About the edition/translation:
The Jataka, or Stories of the Buddha’s Former Births. Translated from the Pali by various hands under the editorship of Professor E. B. Cowell. London, Published for the Pali Text Society by Luzac & Comp., 1969, 6 v.; Vols. I-II translated by Robert Chalmers (1895); I, pp. 269ff; II, pp. 108ff.

About the performer/ensemble:
Dave Perlow is a Drama student in the CAP 21 Studio at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2005).

About the production:
This performance was created for a group independent study with Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz in fall 2005. It took place on December 15, 2005, as part of an event titled “Making It Real: Performing the Middle Ages,” at an Off-off-Broadway venue in New York City—The American Place Theatre, 266 West 37th St (22nd floor). The performance was also sponsored by “Storytelling in Performance,” a workshop funded by the Humanities Council of New York University and co-directed by Profs. Timmie Vitz, Nancy Regalado and Martha Hodes. Gina Guadagnino was the videographer.

William in Monastery: William forces his way into monastery and beats up monks

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About the scene and clip:
In this scene, William, the great—and comic—warrior-turned-monk, forces his way into his monastery and beats up the monks for having tried to have him killed. He then asks the prior for permission to leave for good. The strongly physical performer tells the story, acting out all the parts.

About the work:
The epic William in the Monastery tells the final part of the great career of William of Orange (Guillaume d’Orange), the hero of an entire cycle of French medieval epic songs. (He was an historical figure, a 9th-century contemporary of Charlemagne; many legends arose about him, and he was revered as a saint.) William is a strongly colorful, often comic, hero. Like most medieval French epics, William in the Monastery is composed in laisses (or stanzas) of variable length with ten-syllable lines in assonance (the final vowel is the same within each laisse). Such epics were originally sung by jongleurs, often with vielle accompaniment. This very funny epic dates from the late 12th century; it deals with William’s life after the death of his wife, Guibourc. William decides to become a monk and enters a monastery, but he does not fit in at all: he is huge and alarming, has a violent temper, and eats much more than the other monks. His fellow monks try to get rid of him by having him killed by robbers in a forest, but he defeats and kills all the brigands after having invited them to attack him. He then returns to the monastery; he forces his way in, beats up the monks, then asks the prior for pardon and permission to leave forever: granted! William becomes a saintly—but still warlike—hermit. (His hermitage was called “Saint-Guillaume-du Désert”; the place still exists in the south of France.) After this point, the two surviving manuscripts differ—and one is damaged—but in both versions William has a few final fights with Saracens; in one he must fight with the devil himself (need we say that William wins?).

About the genre:
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).

This story also belongs to the genre of hagiography. Stories about the saintly wisdom, heroism, or miracles of remarkable men and women exist in many religious traditions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Such stories are termed “hagiography.” In medieval Europe, the saint’s life or legend was an extremely popular type of work. A great many stories (and plays) about male and female Christian saints exist in Latin and in all the vernacular languages. These works may focus on the saint’s dramatic death by martyrdom, or recount the remarkable miracles performed by the saint, or may relate the entire life of the holy man or woman. Among the most important collections of saints’ lives and legends is The Golden Legend by Jacobus of Voragine. Chaucer’s “Prioress’s Tale” in The Canterbury Tales is a tale of martyrdom. Miracle and pious tales about the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, constitute a special, and highly important, category of saintly legends.

About the edition/translation:
Guillaume d’Orange: Four Twelfth-Century Epics, tr. Joan M. Ferrante, New York/London, Columbia University Press, 1974, laisses 28ff, pp. 301ff. Original text: Le Moniage Guillaume, ed. Wilhelm Cloetta, New York, Johnson Reprint Corporation, 1968, 2 vols. (Paris, 1901).

About the performer/ensemble:
Nick Robbins is a Drama student in the Meisner Studio at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2005).

About the production:
This performance was created for a group independent study with Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz in fall 2005. It took place on December 15, 2005, as part of an event titled “Making It Real: Performing the Middle Ages,” at an Off-off-Broadway venue in New York City—The American Place Theatre, 266 West 37th St (22nd floor). The performance was also sponsored by “Storytelling in Performance,” a workshop funded by the Humanities Council of New York University and co-directed by Profs. Timmie Vitz, Nancy Regalado and Martha Hodes. Gina Guadagnino was the videographer.

Miracle of Theophilus

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About the scene and clip:
This is the story of Theophilus, who sold his soul to the Devil and who was rescued by the Virgin Mary (this medieval legend is the primary source of the Faust story). The performers have amplified the brief account given in The Golden Legend with details from Rutebeuf’s Miracle of Theophilus. They have also added an interlude, in the modern spirit, of Mary’s fight with the Devil. The scene is performed by two actors who take turns reading and reciting, with recourse to cartoon-like illustrations projected as a slide show, and recorded music.

About the work:
The work known as the Legenda Aurea (The Golden Legend) is a massive compilation of stories about the saints by an Italian Dominican, Jacobus of Voragine (or Varazze), Archbishop of Genoa, writing around 1260. Organized around the Catholic liturgical year, The Golden Legend tells the lives and stories of many important saints, as well as of Christ and the Virgin Mary. It was very widely known; preachers and storytellers often told stories from The Golden Legend, and it inspired much medieval art. The work as a whole and stories drawn from it were translated into many vernacular languages. About 900 manuscripts of the The Golden Legend survive, and at the end of the Middle Ages it was even more frequently printed than the Bible. Le Miracle de Theophile is a play by Rutebeuf, a major 13th-century French poet, who wrote works in a variety of genres, including saints’ lives and miracle plays.

About the genre:
Stories about the saintly wisdom, heroism, or miracles jh rolex datejust m279384rbr 0019 rolex calibre 2671 mingzhu engine ladies silver tone of remarkable men and women exist in many religious traditions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Such stories are termed “hagiography.” In medieval Europe, the saint’s life or legend was an extremely popular type of work. A great many stories (and plays) about male and female Christian saints exist in Latin and in all the vernacular languages. These works may focus on the saint’s dramatic death by martyrdom, or recount the remarkable miracles performed by the saint, or may relate the entire life of the holy man or woman. Among the most important collections of saints’ lives and legends is The Golden Legend by Jacobus of Voragine. Chaucer’s “Prioress’s Tale” in The Canterbury Tales is a tale of martyrdom. Miracle and pious tales about the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, constitute a special, and highly important, category of saintly legends.

This story also belongs to the tale tradition. The tale, like the epic, is an ancient genre and one found everywhere in the world. Many tales are firmly rooted in oral tradition and are recited or told by amateur and professional storytellers and performers. Other tales are the work of literarily sophisticated authors and are often intended to be read aloud or silently from written texts. Some tales circulate separately, while others are alexander mcqueen 25833 fashion casual shoes part of collections, which may be set in complex frames (as in the case of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Boccaccio’s Decameron and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales). There are many sub-groups of tales with specific characteristics; see for example the “lai” and the “fabliau.”

About the edition/translation:
From The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine, translated by William G. Ryan and Helmut Ripperger, New York Press, 1969, pp. 528-9. Latin: Iacopo da Varazze, Legenda Aurea, ed. Giovanni Paolo Maggioni, 2nd ed., Firenze, SISMEL, Edizioni del Galluzzo, 1998, 2 vols. Rutebeuf, Le Miracle de Theophile, trans. Richard Axton and John E. Stevens, in Medieval French Drama, Oxford, Blackwell, 1971, pp. 167-92.

About the performer/ensemble:
Jenn Jordan completed her BA in Medieval and Renaissance Studies at New York University in 2005, and plans to attend graduate school; she is a member of the Advisory Board of this website. Adam Jones completed his BFA at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University in 2004.

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).