ANÁLISIS QUÍMICO PUNTUAL EN LA FALLA CON SEM-EDX

Although it is not a carnival play. Tod, Teufel und Engel would readily lend itself to a dramatic presentation and, Xxk^X Alter and Die Gouchmat, it deals with sinful behaviour. It is an undated song, probably by Gengenbach, 228 lines long, with an irregular six-line rhyming scheme, that could be sung or spoken. It is apparently based on a real and salutary story which occurred in May 1517 (page 32, lines 21-22). At face value this is a piece o f poetic journalism which Gengenbach probably wrote shortly after the story was heard in Basel, the kind of story about a young heroine foiling vicious young criminals that would still command headlines today. Three young villains dress up as death, the devil, and an angel, in order to scare an inn landlord into handing them his money. The landlord is so taken in by the three apparitions and their demands that he believes that he is giving his money as an act of contrition so that God will spare him:

)

die Schlüssel nam er bey der wand, ^

vnd gieng da er ein kisten fand, Sprach Gott sey globt ewiglichen. Der mich erloB hat von dem todt, vnd auch vons Teuffels hende, die Kisten schloB er auff gedrot, nach dem gut griffen sie behende, (p.36, lines 162-68).

Luckily his daughter wakes up and is not so easy to fool so the young men are duly exposed and punished. The moral o f the tale, in the last 27 lines, starts simply enough

with a warning to young men to work hard like that which was heard m X A lter. Solch kauffinanschatz gibt bosen lohn,

jr jungen Gsellen lond darnon, thund euch mit arbeit neren, boB gsellschaft thut gar selten gut, (p.37, lines 201-204).

The ending is a modified version o f the Lord’s Prayer whose last lines are; Ach Herre Gott in ewigkeit,

gib gnad vns deinem kinde, behut vns vor solchem hertzeleid, vh vergib vns vnser Sünde, die wir begond auff diser erden laB vns darinn nit sterben, behut vns vor helle glut vnd die drey gsellen gut. AMEN.

(p.38, lines 223-28).

The dressing up that fools the landlord emphasises the warning message o f the song against gullibility, suggesting that it is an attack on religious superstition. It may even be criticising the Church for its exploitation of these traits for its own benefit. The Church’s misuse o f its wealth was a recurrent theme from now on in Gengenbach’s work. The central character in his next play, a Lollard monk called der Bruder, was a symbol of clerical poverty and simplicity that sharply contrasted with the Church that most people knew.

IV. SONGS

As well as Tod, Teufel und Engel Gengenbach wrote and printed a wide range o f songs - not surprisingly as they were an important popular medium of expression. These songs did not serve any one specific function for Gengenbach, unlike Luther, for example, perhaps the most famous popular ‘songwriter’ o f the generation who was clear that vernacular hymns were an important way of promoting religious and moral ideas. Some of Gengenbach’s were on religious themes: Von dem heiligen Sakrament published in

1511 or 1512 (number 1 in Appendix A), Gotes Ursprung from 1516 (number 26 in Appendix A), and Der goldene Paradiesapfel which is undated (number 117 in

written by Gengenbach/'^ Very late in his life Gengenbach also produced a simple hymn, Neues evœigelisches Lied (number 114 in Appendix A). Another song, also anonymous, Der welt from 1518 (number 47 in Appendix A), was not really a religious one but is concerned with moral frailty. Prietzel sums up its theme: ‘Man kann es der Welt nicht recht machen - und soil es daher gar nicht erst versuchen.’'^^

There are four longer pieces that were stories written in rhyme that describe events and behaviour from which a religious/moral lesson was drawn: FiinfJuden (1515), which is discussed in chapter 5, IV (page 147); Jakobsbriider (1518), which is discussed in chapter 6, lib (page 172); Anzeigung, which is discussed in chapters 5, Illb (page 138), and 8, Ille (page 262); and Tod, Teufel mvL Engel, discussed above. The first and the last of these he wrote himself, and describes them as Lieder. Anzeigung, whose authorship is uncertain, even has a line o f music printed on its front page. Jakobsbriider was a story o f fourteenth century origin which Goedeke thought that Gengenbach had rewritten. It is in verse, but there are no indications as to whether it was intended to be sung. The fact that Gengenbach was producing these various pieces may suggest that there was a local Sangschule in Basel, but Nagel says there is no evidence either way o f such a school at this time."^

There were also a few songs published by Gengenbach that were entirely secular: drinking songs: Rebhanslin (number 9 in Appendix A), Weinschlauch (number 118 in Appendix A); or on love: Alda (number 32 in Appendix A), Vier M bsche Lieder (number 116 in Appendix A); or on important events such as Adda-Schlachi which is described in its opening lines as a Lied and which was referred to in chapter 3 , 1 (page 71).

Prietzel, AGB, p.406. Prietzel, AGB, p.392.

CHAPTER 5: POLITICS AND RELIGION - DER NOLLHART & FÜNF JUDEN

The miderlwed reference indicates the version o f the work used in the text from which any quotes are drawn. A name in brackets at the end o f the reference indicates the shortened title usedfor it in the text.

25. Pam philus Gengenbach, Dz ist ein erschrockenliche history || von fU n f schnoden Juden (1516 ?).

Kohler MF: 1766/4562. (Fiinf Juden).

27 & 28. Pam philus Gengenbach, Der NoUhart (early 1517). BL: 11515.bb.8 and Werren-UfFer. Der NoUhart.

102. Pam philus Gengenbach, Von drien Christen (Feb.-Aug. 1523).

BL: 1226.b.6, and in Flusschriften. ed. bv Laube et al. ii. pp.227-42. {Drei Christen). 113. Pam philus Gengenbach, Anzeigung ze eroberen || [S] die T u rk y/vn erlosung der Christenheit (June 1523-1524).

BL: 11517.d.37(2\ (Anzeigung).

I. DER NO LLH ART{ \ S \ i y INTRODUCTION

Der NoUhart is a. Fastnachtspiel written for carnival 1517 that intertwines the political and the religious. On the one hand, in its discussion of the political situation it is reminiscent o f Gengenbach’s first plays, Welsch Flusz and Alt Eydgnosz, although it is longer and more complex. A range of characters appear that were in both those other plays - the Pope, the Emperor, the King of France, the Venetian, and the Confederate. Those plays also included characters specifically relevant to the Italian political situation, whereas the additional characters in Der NoUhart shift the focus to ‘German’ politics: the Bishop o f Mainz, the Pfalzgraf (the Count Palatine), the Turk, the Landknecht and the Bruder Veit (two names for a German mercenary soldier), and the Jew.

On the other hand, there is an equally important religious dimension in this play that is missing from the earlier dramas. In Der NoUhart the political characters discuss their future with four prophetic characters: Der Bruder (the Lollard); W\ih Methodius, the Bishop of Olympia martyred in 311 A D whose alleged thoughts first saw light o f day in

the seventh century; and with the prophetesses, Birgitia (St.Bridget), the Swedish saint who lived 1303-1373, and Sybylla Chumea, the origins o f whose thought are more obscure.* Following the traditional Reihempiel structure each of the play’s characters enters the stage in succession to have discussions with the prophets who have an apocalyptic vision of the future. The apocalyptic was a hugely important theme in this period, not least in Luther’s writings.^ A huge variety of prophecies and manifestos appeared, some containing intensely apocalyptic visions.^

Nearly fifteen hundred lines long, Der NoUhart is considerably longer than any o f Gengenbach’s other plays and some of the individual dialogues in it are longer than in any other play. The longest single speech (after the Introduction) in Alt Eydgtiosz, for instance, is twenty-five lines long (lines 128-153) - whereas several in Der NoUhart exceed fifty lines. While the character o f der Bruder has the anchor role as narrator and commentator, sustaining the dialogue throughout, the structural role o f the other three wise people is less clear as they ‘dip’ in and out of the discussion. The Sybylla has only two short speeches (lines 219-38 and 246-56) before she disappears from the play. Birgitta lasts until halfway - her last line is line 695. Methodius makes one quite

substantial fifty-six line contribution (lines 553-609) in the first half and then resurfaces in the second for a relatively lengthy 169 line debate with the Turk.

The play represents a significant advance in Gengenbach’s dramatic technique. Van Abbé argues that:

* The sybils were pre-Christian classical prophetesses, but sybilline prophecies appeared during the Middle Ages relating to the Turks, the Christian Empire and the coming o f the Antichrist.

^ Heiko Oberman, ‘Teufelsdreck:Eschatology and Scatology in the ‘Old’ Luther’, in The Impact o f the Reformation (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1994), pp. 51-68. Oberman argues that Luther had an apocalyptic perspective throughout his life.

^ Translations o f a selection o f manifestos, and a contemporary description of the 1513 rising in the Breisgau, wrongly attributed to Gengenbach, can be found in: Strauss, pp. 144-69.

The scenes are not merely simple dialogues between two personages alone [...] (but) The protagonists are bandied about between the ‘prophets’, so that the stage, despite the length of individual speeches, must have presented a lively picture o f movement all the tim e/

The play’s prophecies have relatively loose links with the real prophecies o f (or those previously attributed to) the prophets whose characters appear in it. For one thing, as Raillard points out, prophets who lived in the Middle Ages and earlier were hardly likely to have much to say about the Swiss Confederacy, so Gengenbach just wrote it in;

Da keine alten, auf die Zukunft der Schweizer gemiinzten Weissagungen vorliegen, muB sich Gengenbach selbst helfen, und das fallt ihm keineswegs schwer.^

Violanta Werren-Uffer has made a detailed analysis o f the text’s sources. She estimates that 4.5% of the verses were ‘borrowed’ from original prophetic texts, but that much higher proportions were based on the 1488 Prognosticatio o f Johann Lichtenberger and Wolfgang AytmgQps Meihodius, which accounted for some 8% and 13% respectively.^ Significant though Lichtenberger's ideas were, his eschatology was considerably darker than Gengenbach's and far more astrologically based. Peukert says o f Lichtenberger’s ideas:

Der Untergang ist vor der Tiire und seine Wirbel ergreifen jeden Menschen dieser letzten Zeit; selbst der, der widerstrebt, wird in das Kreisen und das Saugen dieses immer starker und zu immer flirchtbarerer Gewalt ansteigenden Stromes gezogen. Selbst der, der widerstrebt, doch so und so viele widerstreben nicht; sie überlassen sich dem Strom; sein Tosen und Jagen fasziniert sie, ihre Augen halten unverwandt und unablassig an den in den Abgrund zielenden Strudeln; ja es ergreift sie eine Wollust, die Abgriinde noch um vieles dunkler zu erkennen, als sie es wirklich sind. Ein solcher, der allés dunkel sich noch dunkler machen muB, ist jener pfalzische Astrologe Lichtenberger.^

In the Vorred o f Der NoUhart, der Bruder tells us that his original prophecies were made

'‘ Van Abbé, Development, p. 56. ^ Raillard, p.24.

^ Werren-Uffer {1983), p.l 16. Chapter 3, pp.56-120, is a detailed analysis of Gengenbach’s use of these sources.

^ Will-Erich Peukert, Die gi^osse Wende, 2 vols (Darmstadt: Wissenschaffliche Buchgesellschaff, 1966), i, p. 152.

in his book o f 1488 and astronomical events are regarded as warnings to people that they should heed biblical ones:

Btracht ich groB farlicheit vnd plag / Die mirs Ecclipsis do anzeigt Vnd es biBhar sich hat geeiigt / (pp.23-25, lines 33-35).

The reference to astrological signs reappears some lines later: Hend gsehen wie sich Sun vnd Mon

An den hymel hand verkert DeBglichen ouch blutige schwert /

Dar Z Ù sind kon groB wasser briich /

(p.27, lines 89-92).

Lichtenberger’s book o f 1488 featured a 'Bruder Rainhart der Lollhari ’ to which Gengenbach’s Bruder NoUhart was a very clear reference. Raillard lists the three

thematic links between the Prognosticatio and Der NoUhart as: the astrological; the idea that the Apocalypse can be prevented through repentance; and Church Reform.* O f these the astrological theme is the least important, despite Lichtenberger’s influence: after the lines in the Introduction noted above there are only two further references in the play to astrological signs, which in both cases mention the Eclipse again.^

The links with Methodius are focussed on the prophecies relating to the Final Days. A frequent motif in various pseudo-Methodius prophecies was o f a resurrected, reforming emperor who would level the mighty landlords and usher in a period o f plenty.'^ Not surprisingly the Bundschuh and other peasant conspiracies frequently drew upon these

)

and Gengenbach faintly echoes this in Der NoUhart with such lines about the emperor as:

* Raillard, pp.27-28. 9

Werren-Uffer, Der NoUhart, p. 87, line 378 ( Der Bruder to the Der Babst)\ and p.90, line 507 {Der Bruder to the Der Keyser).

10_{For more discussion on the various pseudo-Methodius prophecies see: Norman}

Cohn, The Pursuit o f the Millennium (London: Seeker and Warburg, 1957), pp.72-74; and Peuckert, i, p.l65ff.

All stand wirt er do reformieren Dan wirt ein volck on houbt regieren (p.33, lines 235-36),

Brant reproduced Aytinger's version o f the Methodius in 1498 and it was very popular, but in their own writings neither he nor Gengenbach showed much interest in the

fantasies o f a resurrected Frederick II or other symbols o f a mythical past golden age. In Der NoUhart Gengenbach focuses rather on the need for the present emperor,

Maximilian, to play a central role in tackling the problems of Christianity.

The treatment of a mixture o f political and religious themes in Der NoUhart was an ambitious project and it was the first time a writer had attempted it on the stage in German-speaking Europe. The nearest plays to deal with such themes are the religious Last Judgement Plays that were performed throughout this period, sometimes at carnival. Hans Sachs, for example, wrote one entitled Tragediamit 34 persomn, des jiingsten gerichtes, aufi der schrift uberal zu sammen gezogen, und hat 7 actus. In

acknowledging the different strands o f thought that he drew on throughout the play, Gengenbach has the narrator say in the Vorred.

Nit allein durcht Astronomy Sunder durch manche prophety Als dah Methodius ouch erklart Joachim vnd Cyrill der werdt Birgit / Sybill / vnd noch vyl me / Gen byspil vyl der alten ee / Hat als nut gholffen noch biB bar/ (p.27, lines 70-77).

Scribner describes the prevailing intensity o f apocalyptic expectation:

The emotive force of eschatological references for a sixteenth-century reader can be understood only by examining the greater sense of immediacy about the last days which prevailed at the beginning o f the sixteenth century. [...] the

" For further discussion, see: Bemd Neumann, GeistUches Schauspiel im Zeugnis der Zeit: zur Auffiihrung mittelalterlicher religioser Dramen im deutschen Sprachgebiet, 2 vols (Munich & Zurich: Artemis, 1987).

Hans Sachs (Werke), ed. by Adelbert von Keller, 26 vols (Tübingen: Laupp, 1870- 1908), X I, pp.400-50.

Reformation occurred in an apocalyptic age, an age which expected a great change in the world. This may have been understood as the end of the world or as the coming of a new epoch o f the world’s existence. In either case, the imminence o f this great change was proclaimed continually by prophetic works found in rich abundance during the two generations before the emergence o f an evangelical movement.

Scribner goes on to note that one o f the vital elements that contributed to the apocalyptic fervour was: ‘a strong sense o f pessimism and fatalism’.

II. DER NO LLHART{ \5 \iy . POLITICAL THEMES

a) Merigfiano

Werren-Uffer views the play as essentially fatalistic, written in response to the Swiss defeat by the French at Merignano in September 1515:

Solch fatalistische politische Haltung lasst sich wohl weitgehend als Ausdruck einer durch das Debakel von Merignano ausgelosten ‘Selbstbewusstseinskrise’ Gengenbachs deuten.*'*

One problem with this analysis is that Merignano is not directly mentioned or dwelt upon in the play.’^ This is not conclusive, but it means that it is possible that other important contemporary events not directly mentioned could also have contributed to the feeling o f fatalism. This is not to argue that the defeat at Merignano was not a real blow as far as many people in Basel were concerned, but the crisis in society went deeper, locally and internationally.

Here is an extract from the diary o f Fridolin RyfF (a Basel citizen) from the year Der i NoUhart was published:

Im jar alsz man zalt noch der gburt unsere erlosers 1517, kam ein groser sterben mit grosem houptwe, das die lut in grose doubsucht fiellen, und kam die pestilenz

Scribner, For the Sake, pp. 116-17. Werren-Uffer {1983), p. 166.

Der Babst refers to a 'Schlacht ’ near Milan, line 342, p.37. 128

dormit, das also vil namhafftiger burger sturben, des gemeinen volck ein grose zal, weret gar noch ein jor lang; wart den kilchen noch geschetzt, das by zweytusent menschen woren gestorben. Got sy unsz alien gnedig !

Do nu sollicher sterben uffhort, hat man hie zu Basel nit vil froud gehebt in zwey joren von wegen der schlacht und des sterbens;

A plague that kills thirty per cent of the city’s population is a major disaster - although arguably it was one of the ‘normal’ quota of life’s hazards. Ryff compares its impact to the Swiss defeat at the battle of Merignano eighteen months earlier (the 'Schlacht \ although far fewer people actually died in the battle than in the plague. Basel’s total contingent at Merignano was twelve hundred strong and if their losses were similar to the overall Swiss casualties of around twenty-five per cent, then some three hundred men died t h e r e . T h e main damage was psychological as previously smaller Swiss armies had nearly always managed to defeat the French. This unexpected humiliation proved to be a decisive blow to Swiss military and political ambitions. The resulting divisions among the confederates worried the Eydgnosz\

Wan durch vntrew sind sie enstanden Die man dah treib yn iren landen Durch die oberkeit / merck mich eben Thet sich ein solcher bundt erheben / (p.66, lines 1110-14).

These were years full o f critical events for Basel. The plague lasted at least six months and appears to have broken out after carnival 1517 so it would not have influenced

‘Die Chronik des Fridolin Ryff 1514-1541’, ed. by Wilhelm Vischer and Alfred Stern, 'm Easier Chrqmken, 1 (1872), 18-163, p.23.

This figure of twenty-five per cent casualties is taken from: Die Anonyme Chronik der Mailanderkriege 1507-1516’, published in Easier Chroniken, 6 (1902), 23-72, p.68. However, another report puts Swiss losses at over fifty per cent - 16,535 men out of a