of Cologne, using Aristotelian concepts and methods of exposition and proof. By not
writing on plainchant and by not using the traditional lore about music’s utility and
classification, Jehan set a precedent for later writers to focus more on the practical
problems of contemporary music.
Tony Zbaraschuk
[See also: ARS NOVA; FRANCO OF COLOGNE; MUSIC THEORY]
Michels, Ulrich, ed. Die Musiktraktate des Johannes de Muris. Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1970.
JEU D’ADAM
. The only extant manuscript of this early vernacular biblical play was copied in
southwest France in the second quarter of the 13th century, though the original language
was mid-12th-century Anglo-Norman. The play’s Latin title, Ordo representacionis Ade,
has a liturgical flavor, and its three vernacular episodes—the Fall, Cain and Abel, and the
Prophets of Redemption—are framed by Latin lections, responsories, and prophecies.
Moreover, the Latin stage directions, which prescribe not only costume and decor but
movement, formal gesture, and manner of speaking, are reminiscent of church service
books. The stage direction ad ecclesiam has traditionally been taken to indicate a
performance outside the church building, but may designate a lieu, or stage location,
opposite the synagogue referred to in the stage direction de sinagoga. In this case, a
performance inside the church would be possible.
The long episode of the Fall (590 of the 944 lines) may be divided into three parts.
The first and third, formal in tone and highlighted by choral interventions, are separated
by the lively dialogue of the Temptation sequence. In the first part, Adam and Eve,
clothed respectively in red and white, are joined in marriage by the Salvator, vested in a
dalmatic and referred to thereafter as Figura. (God the Son, the figure of his father
[Hebrews 1:3], usually replaces the Father as Creator in art before 1200.) God establishes
the relationship of Adam and Eve to each other and then to himself as Creator and feudal
overlord; he reminds them that they have free will and gives them Paradise as their fief.
In the second part, demons running about the platea, or central playing space, usher in the
rare scene of Satan vainly tempting Adam to disobey his lord. Next comes the justly
celebrated temptation of Eve by the now flattering and soft-spoken “infernal Don Juan.”
Eve mimes listening to the advice of an artificial serpent before picking and eating the
fatal apple. The last part of the Fall comprises lamentations by Adam, the Expulsion from
Paradise, and more lamentations on earth. It ends with Adam and Eve being led off by
rejoicing demons to a cacophonous welcome in Hell.
Cain and Abel, representing respectively the wicked who will be damned and the
righteous who will be redeemed, are followed by a procession of prophets who foretell
the coming of the Redeemer. The play, which is incomplete, breaks off in the scene of
Nebuchadnezzar and the fiery furnace. The Jeu d’Adam exhibits a wide range of
language registers and versification; vivid characterization, especially of Eve and Satan;
and a subtle mixture of prophecy, biblical allusions, feudal terms, and internal cross-
The Encyclopedia 943