Category Archives: Public Performance Setting

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.

Beowulf: Beowulf fights Grendel

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About the scene and clip:
In this scene, Beowulf fights the monster Grendel and after a terrible struggle, finally succeeds in mortally wounding him.

The solo performer uses all facets of the voice—including singing, speaking, heightened speech and even unusual sounds—and combines these with the use of a six-stringed harp (an instrument with strings of equal length, sometimes known today as a lyre) which is tuned in the “mode” of the epic, a reconstruction based on our knowledge of medieval musical practice and theory. The resulting six tones do not yield “melodies” as such, but rather a large collection of modal gestures which provide the vocalist with his primary musical material. The performer accompanies himself at times, and at other times uses the instrument to create certain modal effects, denote the passage of time, the introduction of a new character, a change of scene, etc. The performance is in Old English, with modern English subtitles.

About the work:
Beowulf, an Old English epic that was written down in the early 11th century, may actually date from as early as the 7th century, and is one of the great surviving medieval epics. While we cannot know who “created” the written version, it is clear that the text has its roots in an older oral tradition of epic storytelling. This type of Germanic verse is recognizable by the structural unity of its unrhymed alliterative lines, each line containing four stressed syllables.

It tells of the mighty struggles between the legendary hero Beowulf and three great supernatural monsters: first Grendel, then Grendel’s mother, and finally the Dragon. This song also sings of Beowulf’s great leadership and loyalty and of the virtues for which he was famed.

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 yiming yao coke tin disposable 6000 puffs west lake longjing 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:
Bagby based his performance on Beowulf, ed. Friedrich Klaeber, 3rd ed., Lexington, MA, Heath, 1950, lines 99ff. There are many English translations of this famous work.

About the performer/ensemble:
The American vocalist and medievalist Benjamin Bagby directs Sequentia, the ensemble for medieval music which he founded together with the late Barbara Thornton in 1977. In addition to his work with Sequentia, Bagby is widely known for his solo performances of the Beowulf epic. He lives in Paris. See www.sequentia.org and www.BagbyBeowulf.com.

About the production:
This clip is taken from a professional DVD of Beowulf that was recorded live at a public performance at Dunkers Kulturhus in Helsingborg, Sweden, in 2006; producers, Jon Aaron and Charlie Morrow; director, Stellan Olsson; director of photography, Mats Harryson. This DVD can be purchased at www.BagbyBeowulf.com. We are grateful to Bagby, who is on the advisory board of the website, as well as to Jon Aaron, for permission to use this clip on the website.

Our Lady’s Tumbler

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About the scene and clip:
A solo performer tells the story of Our Lady’s Tumbler.

About the work:
Our Lady’s Tumbler is among the best-loved tales of the Middle Ages. It tells how an acrobat, weary of life in the world, entered a monastery. Ashamed at not knowing how to read, chant, or pray like the other monks, he began to do his tumbling acts before a statue of the Virgin, as loving service to her. The abbot learns of this unusual behavior and, going to witness it for himself, he sees the Virgin come down in person to wipe the brow of the tumbler, exhausted from his labors of love.

About the genre:
This story belongs to the genre of hagiography – that is, lives and legends of the saints and other holy people. This genre was particularly popular in the European Middle Ages, but in one form or another tag heuer carrera 43mm cbn2a10 ba0643 men stainless steel it exists almost everywhere in the world, since the lives, deeds, and miracles of holy men and women are widely appreciated. Stories about the saints 0 nicotine vape exist in Latin – and in other sacred languages, such as Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic – and in virtually all the vernaculars.

About the edition/translation:
Our Lady’s Tumbler, in Aucassin & Nicolette and Other Medieval Romances and Legends, tr. Eugene Mason, New York, E.P. Dutton & Co, 1958, pp. 59-73 [abridged and slightly modified]. French: Del Tombeor Nostre Dame/ Du jongleur de Notre-Dame, in Vierge et merveille: Les miracles de Notre-Dame narratifs au Moyen Age, ed./trans. Pierre Kunstmann, Paris, Bibliothèque mediévale, 10/18, pp. 142-177.

About the performer/ensemble:
Sasha Orr is an Economics Major in the College of Arts and Science at New York University (2005). She was a student in “Storytelling,” taught by Vitz, spring 2005.

About the production:
This performance was given at an event sponsored by the Medieval and Renaissance Center of New York University on “Mary: Mediterranean, European, Global,” held at St. Joseph’s Church in April 2005. Videography by NYU-TV.

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).

Golden Legend: Virgin Mary saves thief from hanging

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About the scene and clip:
This is a miracle of the Blessed Virgin Mary from The Golden Legend, where it is included under the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin on September 8. A solo performer recites the story in which the Virgin rescues a thief – a devotee of hers – from hanging.

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.427. Latin: Iacopo da Varazze, Legenda Aurea, ed. Giovanni Paolo Maggioni, 2nd ed., Firenze, SISMEL, Edizioni del Galluzzo, 1998, 2 vols.

About the performer/ensemble:
George Chavez is a student of Psychology at the College of Arts and Science at New York University. He participated in the course “Storytelling,” taught by Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz at New York University in spring 2005.

About the production:
This performance was given at an event sponsored by the Medieval and Renaissance Center of New York University on “Mary: Mediterranean, European, Global,” held at St. Joseph’s Church in April 2005. Videography by NYU-TV.

Goatleaf: Romanesque harp accompaniment

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About the scene and clip:
The performer tells the story of Goatleaf, one of Marie de France’s Lais. He alternates between narrating and playing on a Romanesque harp. His instrument is based on images of medieval harps from this period. The music comes from the melody of a lai sung by Tristan in a French Prose Tristan manuscript in the National Library of Vienna, Austria.

About the work:
Marie de France, a major literary figure from the Middle Ages, is one of the few women writers of the period whose work has survived. Little is known of her, except that she was almost certainly of the nobility. She wrote in England apparently in the 1160s and ‘70s; her work is in French (or “Anglo-Norman”: the French language as spoken and written in medieval England). She wrote lais—a dozen short narrative poems with Breton roots, composed in octosyllabic rhymed couplets, and bearing on love in its many forms. The lais circulated separately, and also together in a volume that she dedicated to King Henry (probably English King Henry II). She also wrote Espurgatoire seint Patriz (St. Patrick’s Purgatory), about a pilgrimage down to the afterlife, based on Latin sources; and Fables, also based largely on Latin sources. She is now widely believed also to have been the author of the Anglo-Norman Vie seinte Audree (Life of Saint Audrey).

In this short lai, Tristan is in exile, but, unable to live without seeing Iseut, he returns home. Tristan arranges to intercept Iseut in the forest by leaving a specially-carved stick where she will see it and realize he is nearby. They meet briefly in the forest-and then he composes a lai to commemorate their meeting.

About the genre:
A narrative lai is a short poetic tale composed in verse, which claims to tell the story of how a musical lai from ancient Brittany came to be written. The 12th-century Anglo-Norman woman poet Marie de France is the best known author of narrative lais in French, and may be one of the creators of the genre.

About the edition/translation:
English verse by Ron Cook. Old French: Les Lais de Marie de France, ed. Jean Rychner, Paris, Champion, 1966.

About the performer/ensemble:
Ron Cook is a professional performer (and lawyer) in Columbus, Ohio. He plays medieval and Renaissance harps and recorder, and performs widely from medieval works.

About the production:
This performance was held at the Maison Française in September 2005. The gathering was sponsored by “Storytelling in Performance,” a workshop funded by the Humanities Council of New York University, and directed by Timmie Vitz, Nancy Freeman Regalado, and Martha Hodes. Videography by Gina Guadagnino.

Yvain: Yvain’s lion

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About the scene and clip:
The Lion is now Yvain’s companion. A solo performer, dressed in a full lion costume, narrates and acts out the part of the Lion.

About the work:
Yvain is one of the five surviving romances by Chrétien de Troyes, who is often considered the father of Arthurian romance. This great work, in octosyllabic rhymed couplets, was composed for Marie, Countess of Champagne, around 1170. The romance recounts the adventures of Yvain, a knight of King Arthur’s court, who wins the beautiful Laudine in marriage (having killed her husband in single combat). He then loses both her love and his honor through his failure to keep a vow to return home from his knightly activities by an agreed-upon date. The second half of the romance is devoted to adventures in which Yvain, accompanied by a lion, creates a new name for himself (the “Knight with the Lion”), recovers his honor through a series of good deeds, and finally wins back his wife.

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 Yvain or The Knight with the Lion, trans. Ruth Harwood Cline, Athens, GA, University of Georgia Press, 1975, pp. 95, 3219-3446. Old French: Le Chevalier au Lion (Yvain) , ed./trans. David F. Hult, in Romans de Chrétien de Troyes, eds./trans. J.M. Fritz et al, Paris, Classiques Modernes/ Livre de Poche, 1994.

About the performer/ensemble:
Brian Butnick is a student in the Dramatic Writing program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2004).

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. It took place in an open class held at the Maison Française in, and was videoed by Jeff Spangler.

Yvain: Love conquers Yvain

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About the scene and clip:
A solo performer describes Love and its effects.

About the work:
Yvain is one of the five surviving romances by Chrétien de Troyes, who is often considered the father of Arthurian romance. This great work, in octosyllabic rhymed couplets, was composed for Marie, Countess of Champagne, around 1170. The romance recounts the adventures of Yvain, a knight of King Arthur’s court, who wins the beautiful Laudine in marriage (having killed her husband in single combat). He then loses both her love and his honor through his failure to keep a vow to return home from his knightly activities by an agreed-upon date. The second half of the romance is devoted to adventures in which Yvain, accompanied by a lion, creates a new name for himself (the “Knight with the Lion”), recovers his honor through a series of good deeds, and finally wins back his wife.

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 Yvain or The Knight with the Lion, trans. Ruth Harwood Cline, Athens, GA, University of Georgia Press, 1975, pp. 38-39. Old French: Le Chevalier au Lion (Yvain) , ed./trans. David F. Hult, inRomans de Chrétien de Troyes, eds./trans. J.M. Fritz et al, Paris, Classiques Modernes/ Livre de Poche, 1994.

About the performer/ensemble:
Elyse Beyer a student at New York University (2004).

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. It took place in an open class held at the Maison Française in, and was videoed by Jeff Spangler.