Les mysteres : : studies in genre, text and theatricality / / edited by Petter Happe and Wim Husken.

• Superior document: Ludus ; 12
• TeilnehmendeR: Happe, Peter.; Husken, Wim.
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Language: English
• Series: Ludus ; 12.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (321 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

This collection of essays in English by scholars of international standing presents new insights into the contexts in which the fifteenth-century French mystères were created. It is centred upon the remarkable outburst of large-scale plays written for urban production and dealing with biblical and hagiological subjects which transformed the art of theatre in France and gave rise to a new and multi-faceted theatrical culture. Among the subjects treated are the means by which surviving texts preserve theatrical practice, and some of the ways in which the work of the principal dramatists Eustache Mercadé, Arnoul Gréban and Jean Michel interact with one another and with the work of others. The nature of some surviving texts is subjected to close scrutiny and this includes detailed work upon some manuscripts and their typology. Attention is also given to the related moralités , the convent drama, and to the large corpus of Catalan plays which deal with similar topics but in different circumstances. Further contexts are addressed through paradramatic aspects including sermons and the chansons de geste , as well as the political environment. One recurring feature is the nature and activities of ubiquitous and powerful evil characters and their theatrical and theological significance.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Introduction / Peter Happé -- Mystère, Farce, Moralité: A Reflection upon the Poetics of Drama in the Middle Ages Based on Ms. BnF fr. 904, Passion de Semur (Fifteenth Century), and Some Other Burgundian Manuscripts / Véronique Dominguez -- The Theatricality of Pre- and Post-Performance French Mystery Play Texts / Vicki L. Hamblin -- Michel Adapts Gréban: Some Aspects of the Passion Sequence / Peter Happé -- Chantilly, Musée Condé, Ms. 617: Mystères as Convent Drama / Olivia Robinson -- ‘Haro! Haro! Sus, dyablerie’: The Theatricality of Devils in Temptation Sequences / Charlotte Steenbrugge -- Le Mystère de Saint Sébastien’s Villain: “No Cuckoo is a Sparrowhawk” / Marla Carlson -- La Pucelle and the Godons in the Mistère du Siège d’Orléans: Civic Pageantry and Popular Tradition / Richard Hillman -- “Laisser l’Istoire ... et Moralisier ung Petit”: Aspects of Allegory in the Mystères / Alan Hindley -- Turning a Chanson de Geste into a Mystery, or Non-Religious and Chivalric Mystery Plays / Jelle Koopmans -- Sermons in the Passions of Mercadé, Gréban and Jehan Michel / Charles Mazouer -- A Typology of Catalan Play Manuscripts from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century / Francesc Massip and Lenke Kovács -- Contributors.