ROSWITHA THE NUN 



up continuity in the tradition of drama. The 

 gradual movement in the Church towards 

 elaboration in its services which began in the 

 ninth century, a movement which led to the 

 dramatising of the Mass, out of which the 

 liturgical drama, and eventually the miracle- 

 play, were evolved, was a popular movement. 

 To a people ignorant of Latin, yet fond of shows, 

 it provided instruction and diversion alike. 

 Roswitha, on the other hand, avowedly wrote 

 for the literary world, and with a special end 

 in view as regards that world. To attain this 

 end, she set before her, as her master in style, 

 Terence, who himself had aimed at a high ideal 

 of artistic perfection, and of whom it has been 

 said that he perpetuated the art and genius of 

 Menander just as a master engraver perpetuates 

 the designs of a great painter whose works have 

 since perished. Still, in spite of the glamour 

 of the style to which she aspires, and poetess 

 though she is by nature, her plays reflect the 

 handiwork of the moralist rather than that of 

 the artist, for though beauty charms her by the 

 way, her goal is moral truth, and to this all else 

 must yield. If we would see the beauty of 

 holiness as she saw it, we must enter in spirit 

 within the shrine of her thought and feeling, 

 just as the traveller, standing without the simple 

 brick exterior of the tomb of Galla Placidia, at 

 Ravenna, must penetrate within if he would 

 know of the beauty there enshrined. " II faut 

 etre saint, pour comprendre la saintete." 



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