This study examines the sociocultural context of ten plays performed during the formative years of the Bernese Reformation. It treats not only three pre-reform carnival plays by Niklaus Manuel, but also six newly edited works by local court secretary Hans von Rüte.
Individual chapters focus on the plays’ polemics, staging, and choruses, as well as on local Zwinglian reform. An appendix contains the plays’ fifteen song texts.
The vivid staging and choral interludes of Bern’s Reformation theater belie the assumption that the city’s Zwinglian reform, which eliminated imagery and song from religious worship, rejected images and music in all forms. The confessional diatribe of Rüte’s later works further illuminates Bern’s policies towards Zurich and Geneva, demonstrating that biblical plays were no less political than their carnival predecessors.
Glenn Ehrstine, Ph.D. (1995), University of Texas at Austin, is Associate Professor of German at the University of Iowa. He has authored articles on medieval and Reformation literature in Daphnis, Euphorion, The Sixteenth Century Journal, and other publications.
Winner of the 2003 David Bevington Award for the Best New Book in Early Drama Studies of the Medieval and Renaissance Drama Society.
‘
…erudite and imaginative book…This monograph is a sparkling corrective to our stereotype of the calm, undecorated Zwinlian liturgy, when viewed alone.’
Susan C. Karant-Nunn,
Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 2004.
‘
…a valuable addition to the study of culture and politics in the era of reform.’
Patrick Hayden-Roy,
Renaissance Quarterly.
Preface and Acknowledgements
Illustrations
Abbreviations
1. Performing the Protestant Reformation
2. Bern at the Crossroads of Reform
3. Protestant Carnival: A Contradiction in Terms?
4. Theocracy and Theater
5. Protestant Visual Culture and the Stage
6. Music, Play, and Worship
7. Mediating Change
Appendix: Song Texts
Bibliography
Index of Persons
Index of Places
Index of Subjects
Index of Biblical Citations
The book will interest scholars of literature, theater, Reformation history, Swiss history, art history, musicology, and hymnology.