Category Archives: Anonymous

Gawain: Bertilak’s wife tries to seduce Gawain

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About the scene and clip:
On his journey to find the Green Knight—and to receive the return blow—Gawain is welcomed at a great castle whose lord is named Bertilak. The lord’s beautiful wife tries three times to seduce Gawain—but each time he manages to refuse her courteously and to refrain from committing the grave sin of adultery. This scene shows the first seduction attempt.

About the work:
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, one of the best loved works of medieval literature, is an anonymous Middle English romance of the 14th century. The style is “alliterative”: each poetic line is dominated by a certain letter sound that is repeated.

The story: At Christmas, a strange, huge, all-green knight arrives at King Arthur’s court. He challenges all present to an exchange of blows with his great axe. Gawain accepts, and cuts off the knight’s head—but the green man does not die! Rather, he picks up his head and, before riding away, reminds Gawain that in a year it will be his turn to receive his blow. Gawain, in his dutiful quest for the Green Knight, encounters many adventures—in particular, at a castle where he has an exchange of gifts with the lord, and where the lady attempts repeatedly to seduce the virtuous and honorable Gawain. He finally finds the Green Knight—in a surprising conclusion to the romance.

About the genre:
Medieval romances are typically long narratives of love and adventure in which an aristocratic hero (or occasionally a heroine) proves himself in combat and courtship. Medieval romance arose in France and Anglo-Norman England in the 12th century and spread through Western and even Eastern Europe. Many early romances tell the stories of knights and ladies at King Arthur’s court. In the 12th and 13th centuries, romances are composed in verse (typically octosyllabic rhymed couplets), and are commonly performed aloud from memory by minstrels; romances are also sometimes read aloud. In the 13th century, some romances begin to be written in prose; public and private readings become more frequent.

About the edition/translation:
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, tr. Brian Stone, Penguin, 2nd ed., 1974, III:45, pp. 67ff. One edition of this frequently-edited work is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, ed. J. R. R. Tolkien and E. V. Gordon, 2nd ed. revised by Norman Davis, Oxford, Clarendon, 1968.

About the performer/ensemble:
Emily Cramer is a Drama student in the CAP 21 Studio 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.

Gawain: Green Knight leaves and King Arthur reacts

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About the scene and clip:
The Green Knight has just picked up his head and left the hall. King Arthur manages to respond to this astounding—and disturbing—marvel in a kingly and cheerful manner, and the Christmas feast begins.

About the work:
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, one of the best loved works of medieval literature, is an anonymous Middle English romance of the 14th century. The style is “alliterative”: each poetic line is dominated by a certain letter sound that is repeated.

The story: At Christmas, a strange, huge, all-green knight arrives at King Arthur’s court. He challenges all present to an exchange of blows with his great axe. Gawain accepts, and cuts off the knight’s head—but the green man does not die! Rather, he picks up his head and, before riding away, reminds Gawain that in a year it will be his turn to receive his blow. Gawain, in his dutiful quest for the Green Knight, encounters many adventures—in particular, at a castle where he has an exchange of gifts with the lord, and where the lady attempts repeatedly to seduce the virtuous and honorable Gawain. He finally finds the Green Knight—in a surprising conclusion to the romance.

About the genre:
Medieval romances are typically long narratives of love and adventure in which an aristocratic hero (or occasionally a heroine) proves himself in combat and courtship. Medieval romance arose in France and Anglo-Norman England in the 12th century and spread through Western and even Eastern Europe. Many early romances tell the stories of knights and ladies at King Arthur’s court. In the 12th and 13th centuries, romances are composed in verse (typically octosyllabic rhymed couplets), and are commonly performed aloud from memory by minstrels; romances are also sometimes read aloud. In the 13th century, some romances begin to be written in prose; public and private readings become more frequent.

About the edition/translation:
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, tr. Brian Stone, Penguin, 2nd ed., London, 1974, I: 21, pp. 38ff. One edition of this frequently-edited work is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, ed. J. R. R. Tolkien and E. V. Gordon, 2nd ed. revised by Norman Davis, Oxford, Clarendon, 1968.

About the performer/ensemble:
Colleen Smith is a Drama student in the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute 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.

Wife’s Lament: She tells of her sorrow

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About the scene and clip:
The performer speaks this moving lament.

About the work:
The “Wife’s Lament” from the famous Anglo-Saxon Exeter Book is a short poem in which a woman speaks of her many sorrows and her despair: she is abandoned, betrayed, surrounded by hostile forces. Many narrative details remain obscure and have received diverse interpretations—but the poignant tones are clear and powerful.

About the genre:
Many works of the medieval period (indeed, throughout history) are laments or elegies—expressions of sorrow over the death of a great leader or a loved one, or over some deep personal grief.

About the edition/translation:
Modern English trans.: R.M. Liuzza, in Broadview Anthology of British Literature, Vol. I, gen.ed. Joseph Black, Peterborough, Ont./ Orchard Park, NY, Broadview Press, 2006, p. 21. Original: Muir, Bernard J. Muir (ed.), The Exeter anthology of Old English poetry: An Edition of Exeter Dean and Chapter MS 3501, 2nd ed., Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2000.

About the performer/ensemble:
Emily Leonard is a student of Dramatic Literature and Journalism in the College of Arts and Science at New York University (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.

Gesta: Magician

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About the scene and clip:
The performer tells the story of a magician who invites people into a beautiful garden where he tricks them out of their inheritance, then cuts them off with nothing. (The use of an apple as a prop serves as a reminder of the story of Adam and Eve, in Genesis.) The performer chose not to perform the Christian allegorical interpretation, considering that the audience might enjoy figuring it out for themselves—but the moral is in fact a bit surprising: the magician is “the world,” not the devil, as one might expect.

About the work:
The Gesta Romanorum is an anonymous collection of stories, written in Latin. Though the earliest manuscripts date from the 14th c., the stories were probably written earlier. The tales consist of stories allegedly about deeds of the ancient Romans, with a Christian moral attached at the end, and were probably used by preachers in their sermons. The work was widely known, and Boccaccio, Chaucer, and Shakespeare all retold tales drawn from it.

About the genre:
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.”

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.

About the edition/translation:
The Tales of the Gesta Romanorum, translated from the Latin by Charles Swan, revised by Wynnard Hooper, New York, Everest Books, 1959, pp. 55-6. (Note: The title given for this tale in the English translation is “Of the Suggestions of the Devil”—but it is in fact about a magician.) Medieval Latin:Märchen und Legenden aus den Gesta Romanorum, mit Holzschnitten von Axel von Leckoschek, Leipzig, Insel, 1926.

About the performer/ensemble:
Alexandra Dalton in a student of Dramatic Literature in the College of Arts and Science at New York University (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.

Gawain: Lady attempts to seduce Gawain

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About the scene and clip:
The lady of the castle begins her attempt to seduce Sir Gawain. The performer plays both parts.

About the work:
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, one of the best loved works of medieval literature, is an anonymous Middle English romance of the 14th century. The style is “alliterative”: each poetic line is dominated by a certain letter sound that is repeated.

The story: At Christmas, a strange, huge, all-green knight arrives at King Arthur’s court. He challenges all present to an exchange of blows with his great axe. Gawain accepts, and cuts off the knight’s head—but the green man does not die! Rather, he picks up his head and, before riding away, reminds Gawain that in a year it will be his turn to receive his blow. Gawain, in his dutiful quest for the Green Knight, encounters many adventures—in particular, at a castle where he has an exchange of gifts with the lord, and where the lady attempts repeatedly to seduce the virtuous and honorable Gawain. He finally finds the Green Knight—in a surprising conclusion to the romance.

About the genre:
Medieval romances are typically long narratives of love and adventure in which an aristocratic hero (or occasionally a heroine) proves himself in combat and courtship. Medieval romance arose in France and Anglo-Norman England in the 12th century and spread through Western and even Eastern Europe. Many early romances tell the stories of knights and ladies at King Arthur’s court. In the 12th and 13th centuries, romances are composed in verse (typically octosyllabic rhymed couplets), and are commonly performed aloud from memory by minstrels; romances are also sometimes read aloud. In the 13th century, some romances begin to be written in prose; public and private readings become more frequent.

About the edition/translation:
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, tr. Brian Stone, Penguin, 2nd ed., London, 1974, III: 48, pp 66ff. One edition of this frequently-edited work is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, ed. J. R. R. Tolkien and E. V. Gordon, 2nd ed. revised by Norman Davis, Oxford, Clarendon, 1968.

About the performer/ensemble:
Andrew Long is a Drama student in CAP 21 at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, with a minor in Spanish literature and culture in the College of Arts and Science (2008).

About the production:
This performance was created for the course “Acting Medieval Literature,” taught by Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz at New York University in fall 2004.

Hebrew Arthur: Author speaks; Merlin’s trick

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About the scene and clip:
This clip is in three parts. First, the solo performer reads aloud in English the opening passages of the work. Next, he reads aloud in English the scene where the enchanter Merlin arranges for Uther Pendragon to spend a night with the beautiful Duchess Yzerna (Ygerna), in the likeness of her husband. The performer then does the same scene again, but in Hebrew, from memory.

About the work:
King Artus is an adaptation into Hebrew of parts of the story of King Arthur. It was written in 1279 by an anonymous Italian Jew.

About the genre:
Medieval romances are typically long narratives of love and adventure in which an aristocratic hero (or occasionally a heroine) proves himself in combat and courtship. Medieval romance arose in France and Anglo-Norman England in the 12th century and spread through Western and even Eastern Europe. Many early romances tell the stories of knights and ladies at King Arthur’s court. In the 12th and 13th centuries, romances are composed in verse (typically octosyllabic rhymed couplets), and are commonly performed aloud from memory by minstrels; romances are also sometimes read aloud. In the 13th century, some romances begin to be written in prose; public and private readings become more frequent.

About the edition/translation:
A Hebrew Arthurian Romance of 1279: King Artus, ed. /trans. Curt Leviant, Syracuse NY, Syracuse University Press, 2003, pp. 8-11; 16-19.

About the performer/ensemble:
Nitzan Rotschild is a student in Film & Television at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (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.

Partridges with four performers

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About the scene and clip:
In this strongly physical clip, four performers, wearing simple costumes and using props, divide up and act out the roles. One performer (Jenn Messina) adds lively fiddle accompaniment.

About the work:
In The Partridges (Les Perdris), an anonymous fabliau, a wife cannot resist devouring the partridges she and her husband were to eat for dinner. The priest, who was to have joined them for dinner, arrives just as the husband is sharpening his knife to carve the partridges. The wife tells her husband that the priest has stolen the partridges, and she tells the priest that her husband wants to castrate him with his knife. The terrified priest runs away with the husband at his heels.

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:
This performance is drawn from Fabliaux, Fair and Foul, trans. John DuVal, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, Binghamton, NY, 1992, pp. 46-49. Original: Le Nouveau recueil complet des fabliaux, eds. Willem Noomen & Nico van den Boogaard, Assen: Van Gorcum, Vol. IV (1983), pp. 8-12.

About the performer/ensemble:
Michael Abourizk is a major in Dramatic Literature and Theater History, with a minor in French, in the College of Arts and Science at New York University. Brittany Holtsclaw is a Drama student in the Stonestreet Studio at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Jen Messina is a Drama student in the Atlantic Acting School at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, with a minor in Chemistry. Kim Woycke is a Drama student in the CAP 21 Studio at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2008).

About the production:
This performance was created for the course “Acting Medieval Literature,” taught by Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz at New York University in spring 2008. It took place at the Maison Française at an event called “Making It Real 2008” in April 2008; it was videoed by Gina Guadagnino.

Tam Lin: Unaccompanied song

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About the scene and clip:
A solo performer sings the full version of Child ballad 39A unaccompanied.

About the work:
Tam Lin is number 39 of 305 English and Scottish ballads collected by Francis James Child in the late 19th century. Child collected 14 variations of the Tam Lin ballad; 39A he considered to be the oldest variation, although the inherent oral tradition of the ballad makes it impossible to date it with accuracy. The earliest printed reference to the ballad comes from an anonymous 1549 tract titled The Complaynt of Scotlande: vyth ane Exortatione to the Thre Estaits to be vigilante in the Deffens of their Public veil. The ballad is referred to as one of the “ancient” tales told in Scotland.

There are clues to the age of the ballad in the language used. For example, Janet is described as wearing a “kirtle,” a garment that was popularly worn in Scotland from the 14th through 16th centuries. The expression “syne,” meaning “directly after,” fell out of use in the mid 15th century, as did the term “aboon” for “above.” This version of the ballad is commonly dated to the late 14th century, as the majority of the colloquial terminology used in the ballad was at its peak popularity at that time.

The musical notation of this ballad, by James Johnson in the 18th century, was part of a large compilation he collected on popular Scottish songs.

The ballad tells the story of Janet, a young woman who is the daughter of a nobleman. She enters the woods of Carterhaugh (an area near modern-day Selkirk, Scotland), where she meets Tam Lin, a fairy knight who guards the well there. Tam Lin requires a tribute of all who pass the well, and Janet pays the tribute of her virginity. She becomes pregnant and returns to her father’s hall, where her pregnancy is discovered. Although her father wants her to marry one of his knights, Janet refuses, claiming that only Tam Lin – the true father of her child – will be her husband. She returns to the well, where Tam Lin tells her that he was once a mortal knight. He then explains that on Halloween, she can win him back from the fairies if she can pull him down off a white horse and hold him in her arms while he turns into various dangerous animals and objects. Janet accomplishes this, and Tam Lin is transformed from a fairy knight back into a naked mortal man. The Queen of Fairies curses the pair as she acknowledges that Tam Lin belongs to Janet now.

About the genre:
A ballad is a song that tells a story; ballads are often fairly long, composed of a dozen or more stanzas. Although many other songs, both long and short, also tell stories, the term “ballad” used in this particular sense dates from the late Middle Ages. Some late-medieval ballads and a great many early-modern ballads survive, some of them in multiple versions, and throughout the world. Documentation for ballad melodies is in general substantially later than for the texts.

About the edition/translation:
The classic edition for traditional ballad texts, often with many variants, is The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, ed. Francis James Child, New York, Dover, 1965, 5 vols (orig. 1888). This song is Vol. I, No. 39. The musical notation the performer uses comes from Scots Musical Museum, Originally Published by James Johnson with Illustrations of the Lyric Poetry and Music of Scotland by William Stenhouse, Hatboro, PA, Folklore Associates, 1962 (orig. 1787).

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. She has loved Tam Lin since childhood (2008).

About the production:
This performance was created for this website. It was videoed in a reception room at New York University in spring 2008.

Gawain: Hunting and wooing scenes

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About the scene and clip:
Eight performers take turns telling and performing the (abridged) hunting and wooing scenes, using costumes and adding some comic elements; among them: the hunting horn is a harmonica; students in animal costume act out the terrified animals; the cutting up of the deer becomes a surgical operation.

About the work:
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, one of the best loved works of medieval literature, is an anonymous Middle English romance of the 14th century. The style is “alliterative”: each poetic line is dominated by a certain letter sound that is repeated.

The story: At Christmas, a strange, huge, all-green knight arrives at King Arthur’s court. He challenges all present to an exchange of blows with his great axe. Gawain accepts, and cuts off the knight’s head—but the green man does not die! Rather, he picks up his head and, before riding away, reminds Gawain that in a year it will be his turn to receive his blow. Gawain, in his dutiful quest for the Green Knight, encounters many adventures—in particular, at a castle where he has an exchange of gifts with the lord, and where the lady attempts repeatedly to seduce the virtuous and honorable Gawain. He finally finds the Green Knight—in a surprising conclusion to the romance.

About the genre:
Medieval romances are typically long narratives of love and adventure in which an aristocratic hero (or occasionally a heroine) proves himself in combat and courtship. Medieval romance arose in France and Anglo-Norman England in the 12th century and spread through Western and even Eastern Europe. Many early romances tell the stories of knights and ladies at King Arthur’s court. In the 12th and 13th centuries, romances are composed in verse (typically octosyllabic rhymed couplets), and are commonly performed aloud from memory by minstrels; romances are also sometimes read aloud. In the 13th century, some romances begin to be written in prose; public and private readings become more frequent.

About the edition/translation:
Abridged from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, tr. Brian Stone, Penguin, 2nd ed., London, 1974, pp. 62ff. One edition of this frequently-edited work is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, ed. J. R. R. Tolkien and E. V. Gordon, 2nd ed. revised by Norman Davis, Oxford, Clarendon, 1968.

About the performer/ensemble:
Danielle Benzaken is a student in Psychology and English in the College of Arts and Science at New York University. Jessica Carei is a student in Journalism and Medieval and Renaissance Studies in the College of Arts and Science at New York University. Ruby Joy is a Drama student in the Playwrights Horizons Theater School at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Kat Keating is a student in English, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, and Music in the College of Arts and Science at New York University. Nick Kocher is a Drama student in the Experimental Theatre Wing at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Andrew Long is a Drama student in the CAP 21 Studio at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, and a student in Spanish literature and culture at the College of Arts and Science. Marielle Mosthof is a Drama student in the Stella Adler Studio of Acting at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Steven Northrup is a Drama student in the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2008).

About the production:
This performance was created for the course “Acting Medieval Literature,” taught by Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz at New York University in spring 2008. It took place at the Maison Française at an event called “Making It Real 2008” in April 2008; it was videoed by Gina Guadagnino.

Karagöz: Karagöz as boatman

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About the scene and clip:
This clip shows a scene from the traditional Turkish puppet shows called Karagöz (the word means “dark eye”). The central and ever-comic stock figure, Karagöz, is usually jobless. In this scene, his friend Hacivat has gotten him a job as a boatman. Karagöz begins to carry people between two places in Istanbul, Eminonu and Kagithane. Several people get on the boat, including the painter Matisse, some Arabs, and other people living in the city. The comic dialogues are based on Karagöz’s misunderstandings and naivety; he confuses the meanings of words. For example, when someone asks how the weather is, he answers, “He is fine, thank you”—thinking that weather is a real person.

Karagöz performances were traditionally one-man shows, where the puppeteer got logistical help from others. This performance used recorded music, but historically one or two musicians provided the music.

About the work:
Karagöz is a kind of shadow puppet theatre, which has been popular for centuries in Turkey. With stock comic characters and rolex oyster perpetual datejust fake plots, Karagöz puppetry was widely comic and satirical; for example, it made fun of all the people living in the city, of the language itself, and of relations between men and women; it also frequently mocked those in power. This sort of shadow puppetry came to Turkey from Egypt around the 16th century (its origins are perhaps Javanese), but the Turkish puppets are unusual in that they are translucent, and brightly and elaborately colored. Puppet shows with brightly colored puppets, plays on language, and strong comic elements were also common in medieval and Early Modern Europe.

About the genre:
Turkish Karagöz were comic performances that created language comedy, often through speech plays, misunderstandings, and miscommunications, and made fun of social rules of propriety, especially between men and women, and satirized those in power and authority. Historically, they had much in common with “Punch and Judy” shows.

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:
Each puppeteer has his own versions of Karagöz.

About the performer/ensemble:
Tacettin Diker and his associates, of Istanbul, Turkey, perform traditional Karagöz shadow puppets plays, along with more modern ways of drawing on the art of shadow puppetry.

About the production:
This Karagöz performance, sponsored by the Akbank Karagöz ve Kukla Tiyatrosu, took place at a conference entitled “Performance and Performers in the Eastern Mediterranean from the 11th to the 18th Centuries,” held at Bogazici University, June 7-9, 2007. The conference was organized by Profs. Arzu Ozturkmen of Bogazici University and Timmie Vitz of New York University. It was funded by the Humanities Council of New York University as part of the “Storytelling in Performance” workshop, as well as by Bogazici University and Tübitak. We are grateful to Ulrich Mueller, a member of the website’s Advisory Board, for making the video available to us, and to Tacettin Diker for giving us permission to use this clip.