A TENTH-CENTURY DRAMATIST, 

 ROSWITHA THE NUN 



IN this age of personal curiosity, politely called 

 psychological interest, when personalities are 

 analysed with all the thoroughness of the dis- 

 secting theatre, it seems almost courting failure 

 to try to call to remembrance one whose 

 personality has long since faded away, and of 

 whom, apparently, no contemporary writer has 

 made mention. Of Roswitha, the woman, we 

 know but little, and this little is gathered from 

 her own writings. 1 Presumably the date of her 

 birth was about A.D. 935, and that of her death 

 about A.D. 973. There is a tradition that she 

 was connected with the royal house of Germany, 

 at that time represented by the enlightened 

 Otho the Great. Be this as.it may, her life for 

 us begins when, probably at an early age, she 

 entered the Convent of Gandersheim. Ganders- 

 heim was a Benedictine nunnery in the Harz 

 Mountains, founded in the ninth century by 

 Liudolf, Duke of Saxony, and important enough 



1 The authenticity of these has been called in question by some 

 critics, but apparently upon insufficient data. 



I B 



