SOURCE: "Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim," in Hrotsvitha: The Theatricality of Her Plays, Philosophical Library, 1960, pp. 62-84.

[In the following excerpt, Butler presents an overview of Hroswitha's life and early writings, then outlines the significant sources, style, influences, and intent of her dramatic works.]

The Woman and Nun

Most theatre historians admit that there is scant documentary evidence about Hrotsvitha's chronology and background. Three sources will be related here as representative of typical available data.

Magnin, relying on the Hildesheim Chronicles, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, and on the Anti-quitates Gandersheimenses of Leuckfeld volubly states:

Hrotsvitha informs us that she was born a long time after the death of Otto the Illustrious, Duke of Saxony, father of Henry the Fowler, which event [the death of Otto] occurred on November 30, 912. In another source (the preface of her poetic works) she says she was a little older than the daughter of Henry, Duke of Bavaria, Gerberga II, the abbess of Gandersheim [consecrated] in 959, who was born, according to all indications, about the year 940. From these two events, it may be deduced that Hrotsvitha was born between 912 and 940, and much nearer the second date than the first, consequently, about 930 or 935. The date of her death is even more uncertain. One fact alone is beyond doubt—that her writing career extended beyond the year 968; since the fragment which still exists of the Panegyric to the Ottos, contains the events of that year and since subsequent to its completion, Hrotsvitha composed another poem to recognize the foundation of the monastery at Gandersheim. Casimir Oudin says she died in the year 1001; she was in her sixty-seventh year, if we are right in our preceding calculations.

Oudin bases his statement on the fact that Hrotsvitha wrote about the first three Ottos. True, the first book of poems, the only extant one, finished with the death of Otto I, but the very title of this work (Panegyris Oddonum), proves that we have only the first part. The second dedication addressed to Otto II, king of the Romans, probably served as the preface to the second book, devoted to the deeds of this prince. Let us add to this that in the Hildesheim Chronicles it states that Hrotsvitha had honored the three Ottos. If this were true, it would mean that Hrotsvitha was still living in the year 1002, which, incidentally, would only be most probable.¹

Algermissen states more succinctly:

Neither her birth year nor the year of her death is historically documented; since the earliest year of her birth which could possibly be recognized is 932, and the earliest year of her death, 1003, therefore, she lived to be approximately seventy years old.2

St. John explicitly believes that Hrotsvitha's references to certain historical events and personages in her writings prove that she was born after 912 and before 940 and that she entered the cloister when about twenty-three years old.³

Aside from these express statements, there is the evidence within the works themselves. In speaking of Gerberga II, Hrotsvitha describes her as aetate minor though scientia provectior.4 Blashfield places Gerberga's birth as approximately 940, alleging she was the daughter of Henry, Duke of Bavaria, who was married to Judith in 938.⁵ This fortifies the preceding evidence that Hrotsvitha was born about 935.

Frequent references to contemporaries give further credence to the above-mentioned dates. Hrotsvitha refers to her tyrocinium as an author under sapientissimae atque benignissimae Rikkardis magistrae (ca. 950-970) and to Gerberga (955-1001) cuius nunc subdor dominio abbatissae.⁶ She venerates the martyr of Cordova, Pelagius (d. ca. 921), in a tribute, the subject matter of which was told to her by an eyewitness. She defers to the Archbishop Willigis (975-1011) to whom Gerberga presumed to show Hrotsvitha's "unpolished lines."⁷ She asserts her interest in the contemporary educational scene by including in Pafnutius and Sapientia impressive dialogue based on the trivium and quadrivium. She presents to Otto II (973-983) an account of the deeds of his illustrious father, saying, "If I were not urged by this dread command, under no circumstances should I have such self-assurance as to presume to offer to thy scrutiny this little book with its obvious lack of polish."⁸ Such are the data which justify the statement that the brilliance of Hrotsvitha spanned the Ottonian Renaissance.

It has already been noted that the fourth abbess of Gandersheim, the first to assume ruling power over the monastery after the death of the last of Duke Liudolf s daughters, was a religious named Hrotsvitha, for "which learned lady," Blashfield says, "our more famous playwright [the second Hroswitha] of the same name is often mistaken; a pardonable confusion since the abbess was also an author and continued the literary traditions of the convent."⁹

Magnin, quoting from the Hildesheim sources, says that "some claim this Hrotsvitha, the fourth abbess of Gandersheim, came from the second branch of the ducal family of Saxony, and was the daughter of Duke Otto the Illustrious, the second son of Liudolf and father of Henry the Fowler."¹⁰

Whatever her family heritage, the first Hrotsvitha apparently had connections with a royal family. Algermissen supports this statement in his discussion of the Gandersheim foundation when he says "the nuns who entered the foundation convent were from noble families of the neighborhood."¹¹ "The fourth abbess," according to Algermissen, "was probably the aunt of our poetess; she was elected by the community in 916 and was installed by Bishop Walbert of Hildesheim (903-919)."¹²

It seems likely, therefore, that Hrotsvitha, the poetess, was of the same royal family as Hrotsvitha, the abbess. It has not been uncommon from the very earliest days for families to perpetuate the names of respected members through their use in succeeding generations. For example, Gerberga II, the ruling abbess of the monastery (955-1001) during the second Hrotsvitha's lifetime, was the daughter of Duke Henry and granddaughter of Otto the Illustrious, brother of the first Gerberga. It would not be an improbable assumption to assert that the younger Hrotsvitha honored in her name the memory of the abbess Hrotsvitha and might have been a relative.¹³

Little or no data are available about Hrotsvitha's immediate family either from historians or through allusions in her own writings. Numerous and unsubstantiated are the conjectures concerning her birthplace and parentage. Algermissen states that due to the conditions of the time, there are only two facts of which we can be certain, namely, that she was from the Eastphalian area of Lower Saxony and that she entered the Kanonissenstift of Gandersheim which was, at that time, the most famous monastery in the area. Since reliable sources have affirmed that this was a canoness convent, we have concluded that Hrotsvitha lived under the canoness rule rather than that of the stricter Benedictines Regular, and that her life was essentially freer, admitting of such privileges which afforded the canonesses contact with members of the court and with those who attended the monastery school.

However, regardless of the paucity of documented facts, a careful reading of the prefaces which she composed for each of her individual works, as well as an analysis of the content and style of her writing, reveals the character of the woman, her great stature as a religious, and her status as a writer.¹⁴

Of her character and experience before her entrance into Gandersheim much is inferred from her writings, for in them she shows an intimate knowledge of the world and its human conflicts. The fact that she does not suppress this knowledge, but uses it to advantage as a nun and as a littérateur, marks her as a person of integrity and courage.

She is conscious of her talents; and we do not object when she acknowledges the praise of critics to whom she submitted her works, undoubtedly, at the command of her superiors. Following the "Prefatio" there is an "Epistola Eiusdem ad Quosdam Sapientes Huius Libri Fautores," a letter to certain learned patrons of this book, in which she says in part:

You have not praised me but the Giver of the grace which works in me.… I rejoice from the depths of my soul that God through whose grace alone I am what I am, should be praised in me, but I am afraid of being thought greater than I am. I know that it is as wrong to deny a divine gift as to pretend falsely that we have received it. So I will not deny that through the grace of the Creator I have acquired some knowledge of the arts. He has given me ability to learn—I am a teachable creature—yet of myself I should know nothing.⁵

Hrotsvitha in any era would have emerged as a woman of stature—noble in origin, learned in mind, great in heart, gentle in word—an honor to womanhood.

Concerning Hrotsvitha, the nun, her prefaces again are the definitive source from which her virtues may be divined. She exhibits sincere humility and industry when she says, "It must be remembered that when I began it [her writing], I was far from possessing the necessary qualifications, being young in both years and learning." Then she relates how she toiled secretly, writing, and rewriting, fearing to submit what she had done lest experts might discourage her because of the "crudity" of her style. She acknowledges the training of her novice mistress, Rikkarda—"most learned and gentle," and the "kind favor and encouragement of a royal personage, Gerberga.…"¹⁶

She again reveals her humility and her ready obedience, when she writes about the deeds of Otto in poetic form, as she had been requested to do by her superiors, regardless of the difficulty of the task. She begins the "Prefatio" to this work by addressing Gerberga thus:

Illustrious Abbess, venerated no less for uprightness and honesty than for the high distinction of a royal and noble race, Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim, the last of the least of those fighting under your ladyship's rule, desires to give you all that a servant owes her mistress. O my lady, bright with the varied jewels of spiritual wisdom, your maternal kindness will not let you hesitate to read what, as you know, was written at your command! It was you who gave me the task of chronicling in verse the deeds of the Emperor, and you know that it was impossible to collect them together from hearsay. You can imagine the difficulties which my ignorance put in my way while I was engaged in this work… At present I am defenseless at every point, because I am not supported by any authority. I also fear I shall be accused of temerity in presuming to describe in my humble uncultured way matters which ought to be set forth with all the elegance of great learning. Yet if my work is examined by one who knows how to appraise things fairly, he will pardon me the more readily because of the weakness of my sex and my inferior knowledge, especially as I did not undertake this little work of my own presumption, but at your command.¹⁷

It was mentioned earlier that Goetting did not see mere coincidence in the fact that Hrotsvitha concluded her Primordia with the death of Christine. The subsequent history of the monastery reveals many administrative complications which resulted in the embarrassing Hildesheim controversy. Algermissen observes that her name does not appear among the nuns involved in the famous quarrel. Thus, Hrotsvitha, the nun, manifests her loyalty to her community.

The Poet

It has been shown that Gandersheim reached its highest point as a center of learning during the reign of the Abbess Gerberga II, which was simultaneous with that rich cultural period of German history known as the Ottonian Renaissance. Since this was also the time of Hrotsvitha's literary endeavors, it seems that she is a figure of far greater importance than literary and theatre historians are wont to recognize.

To her credit are the following works, divided conveniently into three books. Liber Primus contains a prose introduction, a verse dedication to the Abbess Gerberga, eight legends—"Maria," "Ascensio," "Gongolfus," "Pelagius," "Theophilus," "Basilius," "Dionysius," "Agnes," and a prose conclusion. In Liber Secundus are found a prose introduction, the "Epistola eiusdem ad quosdam sapientes huius libri fautores," six dramas—Gallicanus I and II, Dulcitius, Calimachus, Abraham, Pafnutius, Sapientia, and a poem of thirty-five lines on a "Vision of St. John." Liber Tertius includes a prose introduction, verse dedications to Otto I and to Otto II, Gesta Ottonis, a verse introduction, and the Primordia Coenobii Gandeshemensis.

In evaluating these works and in an attempt to place them chronologically, Eckenstein says:

Each kind of work has merits of its own and deserves attention. But while Hrotsvitha as a legend writer ranks with other writers of the age, and as an historical writer is classed by the historian Giesebrecht with Widukind and Ruotger, as a writer of Latin drama she stands entirely alone.… The first of her two sets of legends was put together and dedicated to Gerberg [sic] as abbess, that is after the year 959; she wrote and submitted part if not the whole of her history of Otto the Great to Wilhelm, Archbishop of Mainz, before the year 968, in which the prelate died. How the composition of her dramas is related in point of time to that of the legends and the historical poems cannot be definitely decided; probably the dramas were written in the middle period of Hrotsvitha's life. For the legends bear marks of being the outcome of early effort, while the historical poems, especially the one which tells of the early history of Gandersheim, were written in the full consciousness of power.¹⁸

Goetting claims that in the Primordia, as well as in the Gesta Ottonis, Hrotsvitha is not objective in her writing; that she omits certain historical facts.¹⁹ These observations are true, but it should be noted also that she was writing not only at the command of her superiors who were descendants of the royal founders, but without any objective chronicles for her source material, circumstances which certainly must have affected her writing.

In the preface which introductes the legendary poems, Hrotsvitha expresses the diffidence which she felt when she first began to write:

Unknown to others and secretly, so to speak, I worked by myself; sometimes I composed, sometimes I destroyed what I had written to the best of my abilities and yet badly.… Writing verse appears a difficult and arduous task especially for one of my sex, but trusting to the help of divine grace more than to my own powers, I have fitted the stories of this book to dactylic measures as best I could, for fear that the abilities that have been implanted in me should be dulled and wasted by neglect.²⁰

Actually, Hrotsvitha showed considerable skill in her use of the leonine hexameter, a form of verse popular with writers at that time. On the whole, her poetry is characterized by dignity and simplicity, and attests to her facile and sensitive powers of expression.

Hrotsvitha is rightly considered among the first of women poets after Sappho. She is rightly called the first woman dramatist, the only recorded playwright between the Romans and the writers of the medieval church drama of the twelfth century. Algermissen claims, "The first Christian poetess of lower Saxony and of our diocese, she was also the first German poetess. She was the first dramatic writer of the Christian world whose works represent an attempt to write Christian drama."²¹

Frequently, the dramas are classified as prose. However, since Hrotsvitha was instinctively a poet, there is a natural poetic quality evident in her dialogue. Fife calls attention to the "rhymed prose of her dialogue" which he terms "an undulating prose with its suggestion of a liturgical recitative, with a peculiar charm."²²

Baldwin gives several examples of the use of tenth-century rhymed prose; and with reference to Hrotsvitha he says:

the use of rhyme and balance is most marked in passages of heightened emotional tone, particularly in the prayers. To one familiar with medieval hymnody, there is a rather striking similarity between these prayers and the 'transitional' sequences of the tenth and eleventh centuries, of which the most famous 'Victimae Paschali,' is the best example; and it seems possible that these passages may have been influenced to some extent by the church liturgy.²³

Chasles says that, at first sight, one believes he is reading prose. All editors of Hrotsvitha's dramas have reproduced them in this manner without rhyme or rhythm. If one rereads the lines carefully, Chasles continues, one will be struck by the constant recurrence of assonance and incomplete rhymes which cut the sentence, sometimes in two, and sometimes in three unequal parts. The variety and irregularity of the dialogue suspends in vain this symmetrical movement. The rhyme reappears with tenacity.…

Chasles believes this love of the same sound offers a curious singularity and raises the question of the origin of the rhyme of the moderns:

One feels the balance and the soft cadence of the verse. It is, in effect, modern verse. One has only, to convince oneself, to follow step by step, the Latin of Hrotsvitha and trace verse by verse, the French verse of an equal number of feet and rhymes under the Latin lines.…

Evidently, the religious has written in verse without knowing it.²⁶

All of her works were written in the same poetic manner. And thus, Chasles affirms, here is a religious writer, creative and imitative of the time in which she lived, who passed on her impressions clearly. If she held to antiquity by her studies, to the middle ages by the form of style and depth of ideas, she touched, by essential points, the development of the poetry of a new people. Thus, a place is assured Hrotsvitha in the literature of the moderns, for here was a poet who believed she imitated Terence and who announced Racine.²⁷

Such is the accolade Chasles accords Hrotsvitha, and in the same tradition, Magnin speaks of "this celebrated monastery which has been for Germany an intellectual oasis springing forth in the barbarian steppes,"²⁸ and to which Hrotsvitha brought literary immortality because in her poetical works are the origins of some of the great dramatic masterpieces of the centuries.

The Dramatist

Hrotsvitha's dramas have usually been treated in the light of literary and theatre history. It has been alleged that she lived in an age for which there are no established scientific data to prove the existence of a living theatre; thus, she had no immediate master. Drama was considered an alien literary form, one frowned upon by the Church and certainly not to be encouraged among scholars, much less in a woman, and far less in a nun. And so, literary and theatre historians have passed lightly over eight centuries, from the fourth to the twelfth, merely mentioning Hrotsvitha as the author of six short dramas; then they leave her in isolation with no link to the past nor impression upon the future.

Such casual treatment, based upon insufficient evidence, gives cause for serious concern. Research has proved, as shown above, that during these centuries, theatre existed in fluctuating emphasis in classical, mimetic, and liturgical forms; that the Church was, in turn, a friend and a foe to the theatre; that Hrotsvitha did not live in a vast dramatic wasteland since within her plays there can be discerned vestiges of the three forms of theatre existing during her day.

Her works were developed, of necessity, within the framework of medieval life. Realizing the impact of social, political, and religious institutions on the culture of the time, considerable space in this study has been devoted to the fusion of Graeco-Roman and Christian cultures; to the rise and significance of monasticism in general, and to Gandersheim in particular; to the tracing of the Carolingian and Saxon dynasties and Hrotsvitha's flowering within the latter; and to the waning relationship between Crown and Church and its repercussions on religious communities.

According to the Benedictine Annales, the rigidity and asceticism of the lives of the Regulars would have precluded the worldly contacts and freedom which, as a canoness, Hrotsvitha enjoyed. For this reason it seemed necessary to investigate as fully as possible the character of the canoness convent in order to understand the free and artistic climate within which she was inspired to write in the dramatic form, and to describe in detail the cloister-arcade which served as a background for much of the canoness' activity.

These data—a living tenth-century theatre, the cultural renaissance of the day, the canoness character, the natural cloister-stage—should not only clarify the problem under consideration, namely, the theatricality of Hrotsvitha's dramatic works, but should also justify the legitimacy of the problem and lend affirmative support to it. The remainder of the chapter will concern itself with Hrotsvitha's place as a dramatist. It will point out the rationale she used for selecting plot material; it will trace the development of the art form which she designed for the presentation of this material; finally, it will identify the dramatic influences which are evident in her plays.

Blashfield, quoting Magnin, says, "Hrotsvitha, like all playwrights, 'elle prenait son bien ou elle le trouvait,' and her goods were the legends of the saints"²⁹—the Acta Sanctorum, the Apocryphal Gospels, and the Christian legends of Greece. Hrotsvitha knew her authors and she knew her countrymen.

Köpke assures us that the library at Gandersheim contained not only the writings of Terence, but also the works of the outstanding Latin poets, historians, and essayists, as well as the writings of the Church Fathers.³⁰ Whether or not Hrotsvitha had access to the Greek legends in their original form is a matter of controversy. Ebert, in examining the sources of Hrotsvitha's dramas, contends that she read her Greek authors in Latin translations.³¹ Barack, pointing to her use of words notably of Greek derivation, would argue her familiarity with that language.³²

Regardless of the form of language in which Hrotsvitha found her sources, she apparently had the ability to use them in their entirety. As a member of the Gandersheim community, she had the accumulated wisdom of the ages at her disposal. She brought to this storehouse of knowledge a facility for learning, a creative flair, and a discerning eye. This combination impelled her to take material "wherever she found it," and to apply to it an artistic form which would appeal to a wide audience ("plures catholici"), an audience whose personal welfare was of vital concern to her.

The "plures catholici" of her day comprised almost all of the population. They were, for the most part, men and women of blunt candor, childlike in their needs and desires, whose entire way of life was oriented to the spiritual. The stories of the saints of the desert, of the early Christian martyrs, and of the miraculous conversion of the cruel pagan persecutors excited the imagination of the medieval mind just as the stories of the heroes and gods of the ancients exacted the homage of the pagan mind.

However, there is no need to appeal to secondary sources for a rationale to support Hrotsvitha's choice of subject matter and form. She supplies an authentic purpose in her own words:

There are many Christians, from whom we cannot claim to be excepted, who because of the charm of finished diction prefer heathen literature with its hollowness to our religious books; there are others who hold by the scripture and despise what is heathen, and yet eagerly peruse the poetic creations of Terence; while delighting in his flow of language, they are all polluted by the godless contents of his works. Therefore I 'the well-known mouthpiece of Gandersheim' have not hesitated in taking this poet's style as a model, and while others honour him by perusing his dramas, I have attempted, in the very way in which he treats of unchaste love among evil women, to celebrate according to my ability the praise-worthy chasteness of godlike maidens.

In doing so, I have often hesitated with a blush on my cheeks through modesty, because the nature of the work obliged me to concentrate my attention on and apply my mind to the wicked passion of illicit love and to the tempting talk of the amorous, against which we at other times close our ears. But if I had hesitated on account of my blushes I could not have carried out my purpose, or have set forth the praise of innocence to the fullness of my ability. For in proportion as the blandishments of lovers are enticing, so much greater is the glory of our helper in heaven, so much more glorious the triumph of those who prevail, especially where woman's weak-ness triumphs and man's shameless strength is made to succumb.… If anyone is pleased with my work I shall rejoice, but if on account of my unpolished language it pleases no one, what I have done yet remains a satisfaction to myself, for while in other writings I have worked, however insufficiently, only in heroic strophe, here I have combined this with dramatic form, while avoiding the dangerous allurements of the heathen.³³

Many writers have paraphrased this quotation and many have fallen into the oft-repeated error of interpreting it from a contemporary point of view. Eckenstein, avoiding this fallacy, in a few brief paragraphs, has penetrated the essence of this rationale as stated by Hrots-vitha:

The keynote of her dramas one and all is to insist on the beauties of a steadfast adherence to chastity as opposed to the frenzy and the vagaries of passion. In doing so she is giving expression to the ideas of contemporary Christian teaching, which saw in passion, not the inborn force that can be applied to good or evil purpose, not the storage of strength which works for social advantage or disadvantage, but simply a tendency in human nature which manifests itself in lack of self-restraint, and the disturbing element which interferes with the attainment of calmness and candour.… For the nun does not disparage marriage, far from it; nor does she inculcate a doctrine of general celibacy. It is not a question with her of giving up a lesser joy for a greater, but simply of the way to remain true to the higher standard, which in accordance with the teaching of her age she identified with a life of chastity. Her position may appear untenable; confusion of thought is a reproach which a later age readily casts on an earlier. But underneath what may seem unreasonable there is the aspiration for self-control. It is this aspiration which gives a wide and an abiding interest to her plays. For she is not hampered by narrowness of thought or by pettiness of spirit.… In the plays we find ourselves in a variety of surroundings and in contact with a wide range of personalities. The transition period from heathendom to Christianity supplies in most cases the mental and moral conflicts round which centres the interest of these plays.³⁴

To see how she presented this material in a variety of moods—tragic, comic, heroic, romantic, and didactic—one needs only to examine the arguments contained in the title-prologue of each.

In Gallicanus, Part I, a woman's strategy results in the winning of a battle, the conversion of a would-be suitor, and his subsequent vow of celibacy. Part II retails his exile and martyrdom under Julian, the Apostate. John and Paul, who befriend him, also suffer death under the same tyrant and are thereby instrumental in converting their executioners.

In Dulcitius, the supernatural elements confound Dulcitius to his ridicule, and Sisinnius to his terror, when the virginity of the three maidens, Agape, Chionia, and Irena is preserved contrary to the merciless orders of Diocletian.

Calimachus' illicit and unwelcome love for Drusiana leads him to the brink of hell, when the intervention of John the Apostle restores him to life and grace.

Because of the prayerful influence of the holy monk, Abraham, Mary, his niece, turns from a life of sin and elects a life of penance and solitude.

The Thais legend lives again in Pafnutius. At the exhortation of this saintly hermit, the courtesan, Thais, renounces unlawful wordly pleasures for eternal joys.

The three Greek virgins, Faith, Hope, and Charity, through the sustaining strength and wisdom of their mother, Sapientia, endure a cruel and prolonged martyrdom at the hands of Hadrian.

Thus, Hrotsvitha selected her material on the basis of accessibility of sources, appeal to the contemporary mind, and antidotal force. In her zealous apostolate for the Church, although she complains of some little embarrassment in writing on such subjects, she nevertheless felt compelled to use the "manner" of Terence as well as the "matter," thus, her use of the dramatic form.

Zeydel chides the six reputable German scholars who authored Das deutsche Drama³⁵ for their neglect of Hrotsvitha as a figure to be reckoned with in a consideration of the dramatic form:

Far from beginning their work with Hrotsvitha, although her plays may well represent a clear-cut and acceptable basis for our knowledge of literature in the dramatic form during the tenth century, these scholars first devote over one hundred large pages to a discussion of the liturgical drama of the period from the twelfth to the fifteenth century growing out of the Easter and Christmas services of the Church, and their ex post facto deductions therefrom. Then finally, on page 109, in the opening portion of their chapter on the neo-Latin plays of the sixteenth century, written by Rudolf Wolkan, a short section is allotted to Hrotsvitha. The obvious reason for briefly disposing of her dramas thus belatedly derives from the feeling that, written in Latin and the sidetracked work of a recluse, these plays attained no significance until their publication by Conrad Celtes in 1501.³⁶

Zeydel³⁷ further reports that the German humanists, Tritheim, Pirckheimer, and Dalberg, categorized the form used by Hrotsvitha as a later comedy of manners. Blashfield³⁸ supports this opinion but Magnin³⁹ reserves judgment on this point. However, he too, reproves Hrotsvithan scholars because they lack the courage to give this unique nun-dramatist her rightful place in the historical stream of drama.⁴⁰ Among literary historians, it is generally agreed that her plays are not liturgical in character, nor are they forerunners of the mystery, miracle, or morality plays. The majority of writers dismiss them as "pious exercises—intentionally didactic."

This art form as Hrotsvitha conceived it—a blend of religion, humor, and didacticism—was ideally suited to the Teutonic temperament. Blashfield notes this when she says:

Hrotsvitha's work is of the new, the modem epoch, for it shows the form the Latin drama assumes in Teutonic hands.… It is a rough new wine of a younger race, of a more child-like faith, that Hrotsvitha pours into the old amphora, and the shapely vessel is fractured by the stir and ferment of the spirit within.⁴¹

Unlike the impatient audience of Terence, "the practical Teuton wanted plenty of time to be edified as well as delighted; he liked to be sermonized."⁴² At the same time he wanted to give full vent to his imagination, and his main concern was with "the thought conveyed by the diction, not the elegance of style."⁴³ The scenes might take place in the palace of a pagan Emperor, on the battlefield, or in the desert cell of a hermit, but the language was the same—that of educated tenth-century Saxony. Magnin, in speaking of Hrotsvitha's language says:

Strange thing! the language of the lover of the tenth century is as refined, as quintessential, as affected as that of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries … only, in the poet of the Court of Elizabeth, the young lover is lost in the conceits of the Italian manner, while in Hrotsvitha, he exhausts himself in academic subtleties and distinctions of the doctrine of the Universals.⁴⁴

This affectation of speech was as typical of the tenth century as euphemism was of the Elizabethan age. Blashfield, too, points out in the dialogue examples of "medieval courtesies" and of the "vernacular of the schoolmen of the tenth century."⁴⁵

In her first work, Gallicanus, Hrotsvitha occasionally used narration to advance the plot. According to Creizenach:

It took real inspiration to see that saints' legends which she and everyone else up to this time had handled in narrative form could be given as well, or better, in dialogue. And in adapting her material to the dramatic form, after the first awkward attempts, she shows a rare gift for seizing on the great moments of a story and presenting them strikingly.⁴⁶

Thus in her later plays "she arranges the dialogue in such a manner that the advancing plot is completely absorbed within it."⁴⁷

The strongest arguments offered to justify the inclusion of Hrotsvitha's works in dramatic anthology is the fact that her characters are authentic tenth-century Saxons. They are flesh and blood, three-dimensional, recognizable, not merely the personifications of vice and virtue.

Blashfield calls attention to male characters who are "the forerunners of the lovers, villains, and traitors of the Elizabethan drama," whose like, she says, "do not exist in the comedy of the ancients;" nor would we find "their counterparts among the cheats and rogues of Terence and Plautus."⁴⁸" Because of their modem blend of feminine dignity and dauntless spirit, the women characters are far removed from the soft, sweet, pagan heroines; they are "inhabitants of a different moral planet,"⁴⁹ representative of the mind which had not yet released itself from the chains of tradition, but which had gone far beyond to the freedom of inquiry. Hrotsvitha's characters, as it were, stood upon the crest of the millennium.

Blashfield, like many of the critics, accuses Hrotsvitha of violating the dramatic unities.⁵⁰ It is strange that so many theatre historians refer to this "famous neo-classic superstition." As for "unity of time," it finds support only in one brief passage of the Poetics. "Unity of place" is a deduction drawn by critics from the "unity of time." Should proponents of the "Three Unities" attempt to evaluate a Greek tragedy or even a later Greek comedy against this literary tradition, they would find more exception than adherence to the rule.⁵¹ This study contends that Hrotsvitha does not violate the "one and only dramatic unity enjoined by Aristotle, the 'unity of action."'⁵²

Creizenach is one of the most vehement of the critics in his rejection of the dramas on this point. He claims that Hrotsvitha disregarded the limitations of stage presentation—"the distances, the spatial and temporal areas, in such a manner that her pieces would have been impossible upon the ancient stage."⁵³ This is not an acceptable thesis. The spatial and temporal disparities argued above do not present a problem in the actual staging of the plays. The scenes change in somewhat the same manner as the Elizabethan play of five centuries later. The opening lines of each scene set the time and place and create the mood; the closing lines provide the "curtain" as in the plays of both Terence and Shakespeare.

Throughout each play there is a "unity of action," which, according to Aristotle, is an "organic unity, an inward principle revealing itself in the form of an outward whole,"⁵⁴—a dramatically constructed plot with a beginning, a middle, and an end representing a coherent organism and producing the pleasure proper to it.⁵⁵ Clearly, this absolves Hrotsvitha from the perennial accusation that she "violates the three unities," and it supports the conclusion that it is her expert and intuitively dramatic handling of material that merits for her a place among the playwrights.

Finally, there are strong evidences of three contemporary dramatic streams within Hrotsvitha's writings—the literary tradition of classical antiquity, the mimetic influence, and the liturgical form—and the traces of their concomitant theatrical characteristics.

Numerous are the comments—from derogatory to laudatory—regarding these traces of classic authors:

Terence, the dear delight of the medieval monastery, was in the tenth century pruned of his pagan charm and naughtiness, and planted out in six persimmon comedies by a Saxon nun of Gandersheim, Hrotsvitha,—comedies of tedious saints and hircine sinners and a stuffy Latin style.⁵⁶

A woman of the darkest of the dark ages, she pored over the pagan poets, and knew her Terence as well as she did Boëthius, or the New Testament.⁵⁷

But though she might say of Terence as Dante did of Virgil, 'Tu duca, tu maestro, e tu signore,' she was moved by the greater master; indeed her convent-garden is fragrant with many grafts from antique groves, and the spiritual spouse of Christ was a child of the pagan poets as well.⁵⁸

The fact that a nun was well aware and able not only to read and understand the poets, Horace, Ovid, Virgil, Plautus, and Terence but also set out to oppose these pagan authors and their works with a Christian work of art, was bound to attract the attention of everyone.⁵⁹

The mimetic influence is strongly supported by Hermann Reich, a classical philologist, who edited Paul von Winterfeld's Deutsche Dichter des lateinischen Mittelalters:

Reich believes that Hrotsvitha's age was 'völlig dramenlos' and that although her dramas fairly cry for performance and she herself, with the blood of the theatre in her veins, would have welcomed their production, her superiors would have vetoed any suggestion to have such sacred materials presented by profane jugglers and mimes, the only possible media of representation before spectators of that time. But both von Winterfeld and Reich are convinced that as a writer Hrotsvitha is strongly under the influence of the contemporary mimes, and that her plays according to von Winterfeld are 'bühnensicher'.⁶⁰

The scholar, Wilhelm Scherer, not only admits the influence of the mimes on Hrotsvitha's plays but goes so far as to suggest the possibility of their performance by the mimes of her day.⁶¹

Zeydel contributes to the plausible existence of the third dramatic stream in Hrotsvitha's work. He affirms that if the nun-dramatist knew Notker's sequences and, as von Winterfeld believes, wrote her own, she would forge a link between her work and the liturgical drama.⁶² That Hrotsvitha knew Notker is implied in Reich when he cites several instances which show similarities of style—devotion to detail, homely humor, terseness, anecdotal interspersions, insight into human behavior, and mystical elements.⁶³ These, as will be demonstrated, Hrotsvitha used in her dramas—some profusely, some sparingly. In addition, this study will identify passages which seem to contain the language of the liturgy.

Before proceeding with an examination of the text within the boundaries of these three influences—the classical, mimetic, and liturgical—some statement should be given summarizing the implications concerning Hrotsvitha's intention in writing in the dramatic form. Were the plays merely literary exercises intended for reading or were they genuine dramatic pieces intended for performance?

Whatever their subsequent disposition—reading or acting—one thing is clearly perceived, namely, Hrotsvitha's seriousness of purpose in writing them. "It is my object," she said, "to glorify virtue in the same medium as is used to glorify vice."⁶⁴ Again, "Modesty cannot deter me from using my pen to glorify the innocent to the best of my ability."⁶⁵ And again, "I strive only to use what talent I have for the glory of Him Who gave it me. Nor is my self-love so great that I would, to avoid criticism, abstain from proclaiming wherever possible the virtue of Christ working in His saints."⁶⁶

Here are the words—strong and courageous—of a reformer. It is unthinkable that such clarity and singleness of purpose would be permitted to wither within a cloister cell. Hrotsvitha must have sought some means—quick and sure—to communicate her message. She found it in theatrical expression. Even though Reich believes that "Hrotsvitha's age was 'völlig dramenlos,'" here we have a playwright, a play, and an audience. Reich declares that her superiors would have vetoed any suggestion to use the mimes as actors. This is tantamount to declaring that the only legitimate theatre in existence during the tenth century was the theatre of the mimes. Since we know there was more than one type of theatre in existence, the problem of securing actors would not have been a serious one. Furthermore, it would have been highly inconsistent for her religious superiors to have spurred her efforts in the writing of this dramatic form and to have denied performance.

Further indications that the plays were meant to be acted, lie in the social structure of the day. The general public patronized the mimic shows and the liturgical dramas, leaving the more sophisticated plays of Terence to the educated class and to the nobility—either for viewing or reading. It was this group, the Terence admirers, that Hrotsvitha wished to reach. These people were frequently guests of the monastery. For their anticipated pleasure and subsequent edification, Hrotsvitha had no hesitancy in giving them the bitter pill of censure under the sweet cloak of drama, using the natural stage settings of the cloister and the natural talents of the canonesses.

Finally, the plays, in the words Zeydel, "fairly cry for performance."⁶⁷ The use of several dramatic devices within the dialogue—stichomythia, didascalia, oculia, and others—inherently require acting for effectiveness. Although, to the present, it has been impossible to marshal conclusive evidence for or against actual presentation, it should not prevent the acknowledgment that the plays themselves, the "spectacle-demanding" populace, and the talent and urgency of Hrotsvitha attest this intention.

Notes

¹ C. Magnin, Théâtre de Hrotsvitha (Paris: 1845), pp. xx-xxii. "Hrotsvitha nous apprend elle même qu'elle vint au monde longtemps après la mort d'Othon l'Illustre, duc de Saxe, père de Henri l'Oiseleur, arrivée le 30 novembre 912. Ailleurs (préface de ses légendes en vers), elle se dit un peu plus âgée que la fille de Henri, duc de Bavière, Gerberge II, sacrée abbesse de Gandersheim l'an 959, et née, suivant toutes les apparences, vers l'an 940. Il résulte de ces deux indices combinés, que Hrotsvitha a dû naître entre les années 912 et 940, et beaucoup plus près de la seconde date que de la première, par conséquent, vers 930 ou 935. La date de sa mort est encore plus incertaine. Un seul point est hors de doute, c'est qu'elle poussa sa carrière fort au delà de l'an 968, puisque le fragment que nous reste du Panégyrigue des Othons comprend les événements de cette année, et que postérieurement à ce poeme, Hrothsvitha en composa un autre sur la fondation du monastère de Gandersheim. Casimir Oudin dit qu'elle mourut l'an 1001; elle aurait eu soixantesept ans, si nous ne nous sommes pas trompés dans nos précédents calculs. Oudin fonde son opinion sur ce que Hrotsvitha a célébré les trois premiers Othons. II est vrai que le premier livre du poëme, le suel qui subsiste, finit à la mort d'Othon I^er; mais le titre même de l'ouvrage (Panegyris Oddonum), prouve que nous n'en possésdons que la première partie. La seconde dédicace addressée à Othon, roi des Romains, qui devint bientôt Othon II, formait probablement le préambule du second livre, consacré aux actions de ce prince. Ajoutons qu'on lit dans une chronique des évêques d'Hildesheim, que Hrotsvitha a célébré les trois Othons. De ce demier fait, s'il était bien établi, il résulterait que notre auteur aurait vécu au delà de l'an 1002, ce qui n'aurait, d'ailleurs, rien que de très-vraisemblable."

² K. Algermissen, "Die Gestalt Mariens," Unsere Diözese, XXIII (1954), 139. "Als frühestes Jahr ihrer Geburt kann wohl 932, als frühestes Jahr ihres Todes 1003 angesehen werden. Sie ist also gut 70 Jahre alt geworden."

³ C. St. John, The Plays of Roswitha (London: 1923), p. x.

⁴ K. Strecker, Hrotsvithae Opera (Leipzig: 1906), p. 2, fol. 2^r, 11. 3-4.

⁵ Evangeline W. Blashfield, Portraits and Backgrounds (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1917), p. 12.

⁶ Strecker, p. 1, fol. 2^r, 11. 28-29; p. 2, fol. 2^r, 11. 2-3.

⁷Ibid., p. 222, fol. 131^v, 1.21.

⁸Ibid., p. 224, fol. 133^r, vss. 11-14.

⁹ Blashfield, p. 25.

¹⁰ Magnin, p. xiii. "Suivant les uns, Hrotsvitha l'abbesse sortait de la seconde branche de la famille ducale de Saxe, et était fille du duc Othon l'Illustre, second fils de Ludolfe et père de l'empereur Henry l'Oiseleur."

¹¹ Algermissen, "Die Gestalt," p. 139.

¹²Ibid., p. 141. "Die vierte Äbtissin, Hrotsvitha, vermutlich eine Tante unserer Dichterin, war 919 vom Konvent gewählt und vom Hildesheimer Bischof Walbert (903-919) eingesegnet."

¹³ When Hrotsvitha said of herself, "I, the strong [or loud] voice of Gandersheim," she provided a fertile source of comment for writers who have attributed many and varied meanings to her statement. Algermissen explains that her name signifies "strong storm … it actually is a compound of Hroud (sound) and souid (strong or clear), and according to the original, the spelling of her name should have been "Hroudsouid," ("Die Gestalt," 139). This is undoubtedly the simplest and most nearly correct interpretation for "Ego, clamor validus." Cf p. 192, n. 91.

¹⁴ Algermissen, "Die Gestalt," p. 139.

¹⁵ Strecker, p. 114, fol. 79^r, 1. 32; p. 115, 11. 1-2, 16-19; fol. 79^v, 11. 20-23. "Vestra admiratione dignum duxistis et largitorem in me operantis gratiae.… Deum namque, cuius solummodo gratia sum id, quod sum, in me laudari cordetenus gaudeo; sed maior, quam sim, videri timeo, quia utrumque nefas esse non ambigo, et gratuitum dei donum negare, et non acceptum accepisse simulare. Unde non denego praestante gratia creatoris per dynamin me artes scire, quia sum animal capax disciplinae, sed per energian fateor omnino nescire."

¹⁶Ibid., p. 1, fol. 1^v, 11. 18-21; fol. 2^r, 11. 23, 28-29; p. 2, fol. 2^r, 1. 2… quanto in ipsa inceptione minus ulla proprii vigoris fulciebar sufficientia; quia nec matura adhuc aetate vigens nec scientia fui proficiens, … pro rusticitate, … sapientissimae atque benignissimae Rikkardis magistrae, … prona favente clementia regiae indolis Gerbergae."

¹⁷Ibid., p. 221, fol. 131^r, 11. 1-15; p. 222, fol. 131^v, 11. 5-14. Gerbergae, illustri abbatissae, cui pro sui eminentia probitatis haut minor obsequela venerationis, quam pro insigni regalis stemmate generositatis, Hrotsvit Gandeshemensis, ultima ultimarum sub huiusmodi personae dominio militantium, quod famula herae. O mea domna, quae rutilanti spiritalis varietate sapientiae prae lucetis, non pigescat vestri almitiem perlustrare, quod vestra confectum si ignoratis ex iussione. Id quidem oneris mihi inposuistis, ut gesta caesaris augusti, quae nec auditu unquam affatim valui colligere, metrica percurrerem ratione. In huius sudore progressionis quantum meae inscitiae obstiturit difficultatis, ipsa conicere potestis, quia haec eadem nec prius scripta repperi, nec ab aliquo digestim sufficienterque dicta elicere quivi.… Nunc autem omne latus tanto magis caret defensione, quanto minus ulla fulcitur auctoritate; unde etiam verior me temeritatis argui tendiculasque multorum non devitare convicii, eo quod pomposis facetae urbanitatis exponenda eloquentiis praesumpserim dehonestare inculti vilitate sermonis. Si tamen sanae mentis examen accesserit, quae res recte pensare non nescit, quanto sexus fragilior scientiaque minor, tanto venia erit facilior; praesertim cum si meae praesumptionis, sed vestrum causa iussionis huius stamen opusculi coeperim ordiri."

¹⁸ L. Eckenstein, Women in Monasticism (Cambridge: 1896), pp. 160-161.

¹⁹ H. Goetting, "Die Anfänge des Reichsstifts Gandersheim," Braunschweigisches Jahrbuch, XXXI (1950), 10.

²⁰ Strecker, p. 1, fol. 2^r, 11. 23-25; p. 2, fol. 2^r, 11. 6-12. "Unde clam cunctis et quasi furtim, nunc in componendis sola desudando, nunc male composita destruendo.… Quamvis etiam metrica modulatio femineae fragilitati difficilis videatur et ardua, solo tamen semper miserentis supernae gratiae auxilio, non propriis viribus, confisa, huius carmina opusculi dactilicis modulis succinere apposui, ne crediti talentum ingenioli sub obscuro torpens pectoris (antro) rubigine exterminaretur neglegentiae."

²¹ Algermissen, "Die Gestalt," p. 139 "Die erste christliche Dichterin Niedersachsens und unserer Hildesheimer Diözese ist zugleich die erste deutsche Dichterin. Sie ist die erste dramatische Dichterin der ganzen christlichen Welt, deren Dramen den ersten Versuch einer christlichen Dramatik überhaupt bedeuten."

²² Robert H. Fife, Roswitha of Gandersheim, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1947), pp. 6-7.

²³ Charles S. Baldwin, Medieval Rhetoric and Poetic (New York: Macmillan, 1928), p. 144.

²⁴ p. Chasles, Le Moyen Age (Paris: 1876), p. 297.

²⁵ Strecker, "Abraham," vi, 171, 27.

²⁶ Chasles, pp. 305-306. "… le balancement et la molle cadence de ces vers, ce sont en effet des vers modemes. On n'a, pour s'en convaincre, qu'à suivre spas à pas le latin de Hrotsvita et à calquer, vers pour vers, des lignes françaises d'un nombre égal de pieds et de rimes sous ses lignes latines: … Peut-on nommer cela de la prose? Evidemment la religieuse a écrit en vers sans le savoir."

²⁷Ibid., pp. 307-308.

²⁸ Magnin, pp. vi-vii. "Ce célèbre monastére a été pour I'Allemagne une sorte d'oasis intellectuelle, jetée au milieu des steppes de la barbarie."

²⁹ Blashfield, p. 30.

³⁰ Ernst Rudolf Köpke, Die älteste deutsche Dichterin (Berlin: E. S. Mittler und Sohn, 1869), p. 28.

³¹ A. Ebert, "Hrotsvith Opera," Allgemeine Geschichte der Literatur des Abdendlandes, III (1887), 285-290.

³² K. A. Barack, Die Werke der Hrotsvitha (Numberg: Bauer und Raspe, 1858), p. 54.

³³ Strecker, p. 113, fol. 78^r, 11. 1-25; p. 114, fol. 78^v, 11. 11-18. "Plures inveniuntur catholici, cuius nos penitus expurgare nequimus facti, qui pro cultioris facundia sermonis gentilium vanitatem librorum utilitati praeferunt sacrarum scripturarum. Sunt etiam alii, sacris inhaerentes paginis, qui licet alia gentilium spernant, Terrentii tamen fingmenta frequentius lectitant et, dum dulcedine sermonis delectantur, nefandarum notitia rerum maculantur. Unde ego, Clamor Validus Gandeshemensis, non recusavi illum imitari dictando, dum alii colunt legendo, quo eodem dictationis genere, quo turpia lascivarum incesta feminarum recitabantur, laudabilis sacrarum castimonia virginum iuxta mei facultatem ingenioli celebraretur. Hoc tamen facit non raro verecundari gravique rubore perfundi, quod, huiusmodo specie dictationis cogente detestabilem inlicite amantium dementiam et male dulcia colloquia eorum, quae nec nostro auditui permittuntur accom-modari, dictando mente tractavi et stili officio designavi. Sed (si) haec erubescendo neglegerem, nec proposito satisfacerem nec innocentium laudem adeo plene iuxta meum posse exponerem, quia, quanto blanditiae amantium promptiores ad illiciendum, tanto et superni adiutoris gloria sublimior et triumphantium victoria probatur gloriosior, praesertim cum feminea fragilitas vinceret et virilis robur confusioni subiaceret.… Si enim alicui placet mea devotio, gaudebo; si autem vel pro mei abiectione vel pro vitiosi sermonis rusticitate placet nulli, memet ipsam tamen iuvat, quod feci, quia, dum proprii vilitatem laboris, in aliis meae inscientiae opusculis heroico ligatam strophio, in hoc dramatica vinctam serie colo, perniciosas gentilium delicias abstinendo devito." (Translation from Eckenstein, pp. 168-169.)

³⁴ Eckenstein, pp. 169-170.

³⁵ E. Zeydel "Were Hrotsvitha's Dramas Performed?" Speculum, XX (1943), 447, n. 1.

³⁶Ibid., "Das deutsche Drama in Verbindung mit Julius Bab, Albert Ludwig, Friedrich Michael, Max J. Wolff und Rudolf Wolkan herausgegeben von Robert F. Arnold. Munich, 1925."

³⁷Ibid.

³⁸ Blashfield, pp. 20-23. "Hrotsvitha's comedies are, in spite of their archaic subject matter, comedies of manners.… It is no longer a comedy of movement and manners like that of Plautus, nor of situations and poetic declamation like the work of Terence. It seeks to become ethical like the drama of Greece."

³⁹ Magnin, p. lii. "S'il est vrai, conmme on l'a dit souvent, que la comédie soit l'expression de la société, la comparison que nous sommes à portée de faire entre les deux pièces de Hrothsvitha, le colloque d'Érasme et le drame de Decker nous offrirait un moyen sûr et piquant d'apprécier la valeur morale des trois époques."

⁴⁰Ibid., p. lv. "Ces six drames sont un dernier rayon de l'antiquité classique, une imitation prémédités et assez peu reconnaissable, j'en conviens; des comédiesde Térence, sur lesquels le christianisme et la barbarie ont déposé leur double empreinte; mais c'est précisément par ce qu'ils ont de chrétien et même de barbare, c'està-dire, par ce que leur physionomie nous offre de moderne, que ces drames m'ont paru mériter d'être recueillis à part et traduits avec soin, pour prendre rang à la suite du théâtre ancien, et à la tête des collections théâtrales de toutes les nations de l'Europe."

⁴¹ Blashfield, pp. 20-21.

⁴²Ibid., p. 21.

⁴³Ibid.

⁴⁴ Magnin, p. xlvii. "Chose étrange! la langue de l'amour au Xe siécle est aussi raffinée, aussi quintessenciée, aussi préscieuse qu' aux XVI et XVIIes sièscles … dans le poète de la cour d'Élizabeth, le jeune amoureux se perd en concetti à la mode italienne, tandis que, dans Hrotsvitha, il s'epuise, suivant le goût de l'époque, en arguties scolastiques et en distinctions tirées de la doctrine des universaux."

⁴⁵ Blashfield, p. 23.

⁴⁶ Wilhelm Creizenach, Geschichte des neueren Dramas (Halle: Niemeyer, 1911), I, 19.

⁴⁷Ibid.

⁴⁸ Blashfield, pp. 23-23.

⁴⁹Ibid., p. 24.

⁵⁰Ibid., pp. 25 and 33.

⁵¹ S. H. Butcher, Aristotle's Theory of Poetry (New York: 1951), p. 291. "In the Eumenides, months or years elapse between the opening of the play and the next scene. The Trachiniae of Sophocles and the Supplices of Euripides afford other and striking instances of the violation of the so-called rule. In the Agamemnon, even if a definite interval of days cannot be assumed between the fire-signals announcing the fall of Troy and the return of Agamemnon, at any rate, the conditions of time are disregarded and the march of events is imaginatively accelerated."

⁵²Ibid., pp. 288-289.

⁵³ Creizenach, p. 18.

⁵⁴ Butcher, pp. 31-35.

⁵⁵Ibid., pp. 187-188.

⁵⁶ C. M. Gayley, Plays of Our Forefathers (New York: Duffield, 1907), p. 2.

⁵⁷ Blashfield, p. 9.

⁵⁸Ibid., p. 27.

⁵⁹ Algermissen, "Die Gestalt," p. 142. "Dass eine Klosterfrau die römischen Dichter Horaz, Ovid, Vergil, Plautus and Terenz nicht nur las und verstand, dass sie auch daranging, jenen heidnischen Dichtern und ihren Werken ein christliches Dichtungswerk entgegenzustellen, musste aller Augen auf sich lenken."

⁶⁰ E. Zeydel, "Were Hrotsvitha's Dramas Performed?" Speculum, XX (1943), 445.

⁶¹Geschichte der deutschen Literatur (Berlin: Weidmann, 1899), pp. 57-59.

⁶² Zeydel, "Hrotsvitha's Dramas," p. 445.

⁶³ Winterfeld-Reich, Deutsche Dichter des lateinischen Mittelalters in deutschen Versen (Munich: 1913), p. 449. "Man denke an Notker und Hrotsvit. Notkers beste Kraft liegt in seinem echt schwäbischen, an G. Keller gemahnenden Humor, mit dem er alles zu vergolden weiss: die Fabel vom kranken Löwen und das Lügenmärchen vom Wunschbock, das noch heute an des Bodensees Ufem lebendig ist, wie die Anekdoten vom Kaiser Karl, dessen üiberragende Grösse sich im Andenken der Nachwelt nicht schöner abbilden konnte, als es in Notkers Geiste geschehen ist, alles umfassend, das Grösste wie das Kleinste. Der treue Lehrer seiner Schiuler, an denen er hängt, auch wenn sie est ihm nimmer danken, dessen Briefe an Mörikes 'Musterkärtchen' erinnern, und der geniale Schöpfer der Sequenz, der die geistliche Lyrik auf Jahrhunderte in neue Bahnen wies, dessen Grösse es ist, dass er im Göttlichen stets das Reinmenschliche zu sehen weiss, dass er das göttliche Geheimnis dem Herzen nahe zu bringen versteht, er ist in seiner liebevoll sinnigen Art Schwabe durch und durch. Ganz anders die Nonne von Gandersheim. Herbe und verschlossen is sie, trotz Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, und verbirgt die tief innerliche Weichheit ihres Wesens, dass sie nur hier und da, wo sie von ihrem lieben Gandersheim redet oder liebevoll verweilt bei der Charakteristik ihrer heiligen Jungfrauen, die ihr Schwester, Kind und heiliges Vorbild zugleich sind, unerwartet und schier elementar durchbricht. Ist Notkers Kennzeichen die Lust am Fabulieren, die liebevoll das Bild aus tausend kleinen, feinen Einzelzügen zusammenstrichelt, die ihn in den Sequenzen befähigt, das ganze Lied auf ein Bild zu stellen, daraus aber auch alles hervorzuholen, was darin liegt, so liebt sie es, kurz und knapp, mit wenigen Worten ihr Bild zu umreissen, und führt in ihren Dramen, worin ein geistvoller Erklärer Nordseeluft zu spüren gemeint hat, mit sicherer Hand die Fäden der Handlung: man denkt unwillkürlich an Hebbel. Freilich muss man dabei nicht Massstäbe anlegen, die füir ihre Zeit und deren so ganz eigen geartete Kunst nicht passen; doch darüber wird später zu reden sein."

⁶⁴ St. John, p. xxvi.

⁶⁵Ibid., p. xxvii.

⁶⁶Ibid.

⁶⁷ Zeydel, "Hrotsvitha's Dramas," p. 450.