Women in Drama in Medieval Times
Hrosvitha of Gandersheim
Around 960 a German aristocratic born canoness called Hrosvitha of Gandersheim (935-1005), wrote six dramas which she based around some of Terence’s comedies. These are often acknowledged as the first known dramas written by a female. She lived in 10th Century Germany in Gandersheim Abbey in Lower Saxony in a community of unmarried daughters of high nobility. Read at least one of the plays of Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim. She wrote in Latin but here is an English translation of her plays.
Because plays based on Terence could have been counted as immoral for reading and performance, Hrosvitha prefaces her collection by stating that the works are moral and parables whose purpose was to save Christians and that her representation of some less than moral deeds and people were meant to act as a moral lesson for Christians. In this sense her plays ultimately put down the immorality, weakness and over emotionality of some women compared to the chastity, strength and intellect of Christian women. Her comedies concentrate on the love stories of Terence’s work and the plays are didactic in their style and are dialogues more than character and story based dramas.
The most famous of Hrotsvitha’s comedies include Gallicanus, Dulcitius, Callimachus, Abraham and Paphnutius. We do not know whether Hrotsvitha’s plays were performed, read with accompanied moving or ‘living’ tableaux or simply heard in readings. Woman certainly would have been in the audience of these plays even if they were performed as ‘chamber theatre’ readings or performed in private houses.
The most famous of Hrotsvitha’s comedies include Gallicanus, Dulcitius, Callimachus, Abraham and Paphnutius. We do not know whether Hrotsvitha’s plays were performed, read with accompanied moving or ‘living’ tableaux or simply heard in readings. Woman certainly would have been in the audience of these plays even if they were performed as ‘chamber theatre’ readings or performed in private houses.
Here is a speech extract from the character of Constance
(Constantine’s Daughter) from Hrotsvitha’s Gallicanus:
Constance: Oh Christ, lover of virginity and fount of
charity,
Thou Who through the
intercession of Thou holy martyr Agnes
Has preserved my
body from stain and my mind from pagan errors!
Thou Who has shown me as an example thy
Mother’s virgin bed
Where thou didst manifest thyself true God!
Thou Who before time began wast born of God the
Father
And in the fullness of time wast born again
true man of a mother’s womb –
I implore Thee – true Wisdom, co-eternal with
the Father, the Creator,
Upholder and Governor
of the Universe, grant my prayer.Saint Hildegard of Bingen
Around this time the second great female of western drama and one of the first great female composers started to write and compose. Saint Hildegard of Bingen was a German Benedictine abbess who wrote Ordo Virtutum one of the oldest surviving Morality Plays along with incredible early church music.
Ordo Virtutum is a musical Morality Drama in Five Parts concerning the struggle for a human soul between the Virtues and the Devil. The major character is sung and performed by a female and is the character of the Soul. The first part of the liturgical drama is a Prologue where the Virtues are introduced. In Part II, the audience hears the complaints of souls imprisoned in bodies and the Devil seduces the Soul away. In Part III, the virtues one by one describe themselves to the Devil. The Soul returns repentant in Part IV and the Virtues embrace her back into the fold and they attack the Devil and tie him up as they praise God. Part V ends like many Morality and Liturgical Dramas with a procession of all the characters.
The drama may have first been performed in 1152 at the opening and dedication of St. Rupertsberg Church. Many parts are written for female voices in Hildegard’s pieces so we know that females would have sung and performed in her performances. Here is a video-clip of a modern performance of the piece.
Ordo Virtutum is a musical Morality Drama in Five Parts concerning the struggle for a human soul between the Virtues and the Devil. The major character is sung and performed by a female and is the character of the Soul. The first part of the liturgical drama is a Prologue where the Virtues are introduced. In Part II, the audience hears the complaints of souls imprisoned in bodies and the Devil seduces the Soul away. In Part III, the virtues one by one describe themselves to the Devil. The Soul returns repentant in Part IV and the Virtues embrace her back into the fold and they attack the Devil and tie him up as they praise God. Part V ends like many Morality and Liturgical Dramas with a procession of all the characters.
Here is an extract from the end of Ordo Virtutum:
Victory:
Bravest
and most glorious warriors, come, help me to vanquish this deceitful one!
Virtues:
Oh
sweetest warrior, in the scorching fountain that swallowed up the voracious
wolf glorious, crowned one, how gladly we’ll fight against that deceiver, at
your side!
Humility:
Bind
him then, you shining Virtues!
Virtues:
Queen
of us all, we obey you – we shall carry out your orders to the full.
Victory:
Comrades,
rejoice; the ancient serpent snake is bound!
Virtues:
Praise
be to you, Christ, King of the angels!
Chastity:
In
the mind of the Highest, Satan, I trod on your head, and in a virgin form, I
nurtured a sweet miracle when the Son of God came into the world; therefore you
are laid low…
Devil:
You
don’t know what you are nurturing, for your belly is devoid of the beautiful
form that woman receives from man; in this you transgress the command that God
enjoined in the sweet act of love; so you don’t even know what you are!
Chastity:
How
can what you say affect me? Even your suggestion smirches it with
foulness. I did bring forth man, who gathers up mankind to himself,
against you, through his nativity.
Virtues:
Who
are you, God, who held such great counsel in yourself, a counsel that destroyed
the draught of hell in publicans and sinners who know shine in paradisal
goodness… Almighty Father, from you flowed a fountain fiery love; guide your
children into a fair wind, sailing the waters, so that we too may steer them in
this way into the heavenly Jerusalem. In the beginning all creation was
verdant, flowers blossomed in the midst of it; later, greenness / Viriditas
(internal link) sank away. And, the champion saw this and said:
“I
know it, but the golden number is not yet full. You then, behold me,
mirror of your fatherhood; in my body I am suffering exhaustion, even my little
one’s faint. Now, remember that the fullness which was made in the
beginning need not have grown dry, and that then you resolved that your eye
would never fall until you saw my body full of jewels. For it wearies me
that all my limbs are exposed to mockery; Father, behold, I am showing you my
wounds.”So now, all you people, bend your knees o the Father, that he may reach
you his hand.
The drama may have first been performed in 1152 at the opening and dedication of St. Rupertsberg Church. Many parts are written for female voices in Hildegard’s pieces so we know that females would have sung and performed in her performances. Here is a video-clip of a modern performance of the piece.
Katherine of Sutton
Katherine of Sutton was born around 1328 and died in 1376. She was a Catholic of noble birth and was Abbess of barking from 1838 until 1376. She is credited as writing and directing several Mystery Plays whose purpose was to enrich the religious experience of laypeople during liturgies. Her most famous plays were Depositio, Descensus Christi, Elevatio, and Visitatio Sepulchri.
Despositio would have been performed on Good Friday and involved priests, the abbess and the convent community. It involves the taking down of Christ from the cross, the washing pf his wounds with wine and water and ends with the burying of the cross.
The time from Christ's crucifixion until his resurrection was performed on Easter Day or sometimes Easter Saturday and was depicted in Descensus Christi. This play presents the Harrowing of Hell when Christ travels through Hell to eventually open the gates of Heaven. The abbess along with a few priests would enter the chapel and the doors would have closed to symbolise the decent into Hell and the souls in limbo. Then another priest and two deacons come to the door with candles and a resurrection cross which symbolises Christ arriving at the gates of Hell. When the door is opened the final antiphon, Tollite portas is sung and the doors (the gates of Hell) are opened.
Elevatio depicts the delivering of Christ's cross to the altarand was performed on Easter Sunday representing the resurrection of Christ. The last play in this four play sequence was Visitatio which shows the three Marys plays by three nuns discovering the empty tomb of Jesus and proclaiming the resurrection to the apostles and the whole community.
Katherine of Sutton's dramas and her direction of these plays were replicated throughout many parts of Europe and her depictions are described as both realistic and ritualistic and moving. Her plays involved male and female performers and her use of females in central roles in her plays and her use of a female in the role of patriarchs in Descensus Christi meant that her work challenges today's understanding of gender roles and stereotypes.
Jodelle and Grevin
In the 15th and 16th Centuries, some more liberal attitudes towards the performances of Ancient Greek and Roman plays also saw a decline in religious drama. This also saw a rise in popularity for new secular dramatic forms such as the Commedia del arte and Humanist dramas (some translations of Greek and Roman histories) such as those created in France by male writers such as Jodelle with Cléopâtre Captive (1553) and Grevin with Jules César (1560). It is likely that females performed in as well as adapted some of the scenes for these new secular drama forms.
Females in Early & Medieval & Renaissance Japanese Drama
Performances of early Japanese storytelling, folk drama, dance and puppetry probably involved female performers but no records really exist of these early forms. The reading and performance of poetry and stories especially by women probably existed since 500 AD. However, the first novelist in the world Murasaki Shikibu was also once of the first people in Japan to act out and perform her stories.
Murasaki Shikibu
Murasaki Shikibu (973-1031) was a novelist, poet, performer and lady-in--waiting at the Imperial court in Japan during the Heian Period. She learnt Chinese and writing which at that time women were excluded from learning. Her great novel The Tale of Genji was probably begun while she was married and before her husband died. After his death, knowledge of her stories and performed recitations reached the Empress and in about 1005 she became a lady-in-waiting at the court. Her works were written in the relatively new kana script and it is believed that she both wrote and performed her main three works the novel The Tale of Genji, the diary The Diary of lady Murasaki and her Poetic Memoirs. Sometimes her works were distributed and parts read by ladies of the court and it is thought that sometimes people came to hear her read and perform her writing at her minka.
Shikibu retired from court around 1011 after the Empress Shoshi retired after the death of her husband. It is said that she retired to Ishiyama-dera where she devoted her final days to writing, literature and religion She may have died in either 1014 or 1031 according to records of the period.
"Perhaps thinking that there would be another occasion to let her know of his interest, he had come provided with a fine bouquet of purple trousers. We may find in these flowers a symbol of the bond between us."
Hyakuman
References are made during the Kamakura Period (1192-1333) of a female performer Hyakuman who was famous for her kusemai, which is a dance which combines both Buddhist and Shinto themes. The suggestion is that these dances formed a vital part of the stage movements and stylized movements which become Noh Drama and Zeami even praises Hyakuman in his writings which help to form the treatise and basis for Noh Drama.
By the early 1600’s female performers were very much a part of Japanese theatre. The story goes that in 1596, a maiden from Izumo who was called Okuni, set up a makeshift stage then performed a new form of dance drama on that stage by the dry river bed in the town of Kyoto and this was the birth of female kabuki. In the Kabuki (a style of Japanese Dance Drama) females would play both male and female parts normally in comic scenes about everyday situations and incidents from everyday life. This female form of Kabuki was called onna-kabuki. Okuni ran her troupe as an exclusively female one and the use of song and colorful costumes made many see the form as a vibrant but gaudy.
Below are some haiku by females of the period that capture some of the lyrical elements which the onna-kabuki might have captured:
Haiku 1
from the shower, a sparkling
princess azelia
Haiku 2
a princess azalea sparkling
under the rain
Haiku 3
for summer, plum blossoms
in a white suit of snow
Elements of Kabuki and Noh Theatre
forms were advanced through Okuni troupe. Some believe that the runway staging
of Kabuki and Noh theatre has its origin in the hanamichi (path of
flowers) created by Okuni and her performers. Sometimes real flower petals were
used to create the entrance of her performers. Musical elements of her troupe’s
performances also influenced Japanese theatre forms.
Often poetic forms were used to
create performances and props such as fans and flower petals were used. The following exercises uses the poetry of a
Japanese poet who comes slightly after this period, Den Sutejo who was the
daughter of a samurai who married and had five sons and one daughter, and who
on her husband’s death became a Buddhist nun.
1.
In the following exercises, students should use slow,
stylized, symbolic movements. I often use fans as an element and prop to help
students find stylized movement. The movements should be done with a neutral
face or students can always use a neutral mask during some of this work.
2.
I always get students to start with everyday gestures
that have a symbolic aspect or are easily understood or ‘read’ but get students
to do these actions slower than in real life and to hold them for longer. I get
students to try ‘stop’, ‘come closer’, ‘be quiet’, ‘go away’ and ‘I love you’.
Students then slow these gestures even more.
3.
It is at this point that I get students to use a paper
fan (cheap Chinese fans can be found for about $2.00). I ask the students to
repeat some of the everyday movements and the emotions they did earlier to see
which work with the fan. Read out the following words and students do actions
for each word.
4.
The students get into groups of three, four or five
people.
Haiku 1
adorned with raindrops
colored by wetness -
too impatient to wait
5.
It is important to make sure that students know that
there is never a right or correct gesture. Emphasise that difference is good.
With the use of paper fan (Chinese or Japanese) create a short movement
sequence, which has a beginning, development and a conclusion, and a way of
expressing either revenge, jealousy or lost love (of a child or lover). Japanese
flute music could be played to accompany this exercise.
However, once again, soon after the early 1620's in Japan, the
perception of women performing became linked to concepts of licentiousness and
prostitution. By 1629, women’s kabuki was banned throughout Japan and young boys
started to play female characters in wakashu-kabuki.”
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