Kervyn de Lettenhove, Joseph M.B.C. Chroniques relatives à l’histoire de la Belgique sous la
domination des ducs de Bourgogne. 3 vols. Brussels: Hayez, 1870–76.
——. Istore et chroniques de Flandres. 2 vols. Brussels: Hayez, 1870–80.
Krueger, Karl H. Die Universalchroniken. Turnhout: Brepols, 1976.
McCormick, Michael. Lesannales du haut moyen âge. Turnhout: Brepols, 1975.
Molinier, Auguste. Les sources de l’histoire de France des origines aux guerres d’Italie. 6 vols.
Paris: Picard, 1901–06. [Still the place to begin; an updated edition was begun in 1971.]
Sot, Michel. Gesta episcoporum, gesta abbatum. Turnhout, Brepols, 1981.
HISTORY PLAYS
. One of the primary functions of the theater in late-medieval society was to preserve the
memory of significant events by reenacting them in public spectacles. Providing a vivid
picture of humankind’s origin and destiny, history plays were a mirror in which both the
individual and the society found their identities confirmed.
In the Middle Ages, the history of the world was seen as the working out of a divine
plan for salvation in a temporal span lying between Creation and Doomsday. In this view,
the most important historical events were those recorded in the Bible. Most history plays
from the period consequently are dramatizations of biblical events. Because of the
centrality of salvation in the medieval concept of history, dramatizations of the life and
death of Jesus constitute the most significant group of biblical plays, the Passion plays.
These are treated in a separate article.
Much of the Old Testament was dramatized in a lengthy work called the Mistère du
Viel Testament, a col-lection of plays on biblical subjects brought together by a compiler
around the middle of the 15th century. The episodes are placed in Old Testament order
from Creation to the Queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon. This historical sequence is
followed by a group of individual plays centering on such characters as Job, Tobias,
Judith, and Esther. The authors of the plays made frequent use of legendary material to
supplement the biblical narratives. The story of Joseph in Egypt, for example, is set
against a conspiracy to poison Pharaoh. The plays circulated widely for more than a
century, and the whole compilation was printed at least three times in first half of the
16th century. Direct influence has been found in the Passion plays of Troyes and
Valenciennes, as well as in the Chester mystery cycle of England.
An unrelated series of biblical plays comes from Lille, where plays were presented on
pageant wagons at an annual procession. These short works were staged individually,
with new plays being written each year. Unlike the Mistère du Viel Testament, the Lille
plays contain no legendary material. The playwrights followed the biblical text closely,
adding only material found in the standard biblical commentaries, such as those of Peter
Comestor and Nicolas of Lyra. The forty-three Old Testament plays include episodes not
found in the Mistère du Viel Testament, such as the stories of Gideon, Ruth, Elijah, and
Ahab. Similarly, the twenty-one New Testament plays from Lille dramatize a number of
scenes not found in the Passion plays.
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