OF SIX MEDIEVAL WOMEN 



pleasure what is carven in stones than what is 

 written in books, and would rather gaze all day 

 upon these singular creations than meditate upon 

 the Divine Word." 



It has been maintained that the classic 

 theatre decayed and disappeared as Christianity 

 became all - powerful in Europe, and that the 

 modern theatre seemingly arose in the twelfth 

 century out of the services of the Church, and 

 owed no debt to the past. But neither Nature 

 nor Art works in this way except to our own 

 unperceiving minds. After the fall of the 

 Roman Empire, and the consequent disruption 

 of society, classic civilisation gradually with- 

 drew into the security of the religious com- 

 munities, seeking, like distraught humanity, 

 shelter and protection. It was in such tranquil 

 atmosphere as this that Latin drama, though con- 

 demned in substance, was fostered and favoured 

 as an education in style. Roswitha's plays may, 

 as has been said, have been the last ray of classical 

 antiquity, but if so, it was a ray, like the pillar 

 of fire, bright enough to guide through the 

 dark night of feudalism to the coming day. 



Whether her dramatic efforts were an 

 isolated phenomenon or not, must remain 

 undecided, but it is reasonable to assume that 

 any work surviving to the present day is but a 

 sample of much else of the same sort that has 

 disappeared in the course of time. Still all we 

 would claim for them, apart from their intrinsic 

 value and interest, is that they helped to keep 



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