ROSWITHA THE NUN 



Were her plays ever performed ? To this 

 question no certain answer can be given, since 

 no record has yet been found of their perform- 

 ance, and the best critics are at variance on the 

 subject. But judging from analogy, there seems 

 to be no reason why they should not have been. 

 We know that as early as the fifth and sixth 

 centuries the monks played Terence, probably 

 on some fete-day, or before their scholars as a 

 means of instruction, and doubtless Roswitha's 

 plays were also acted on special occasions, such as 

 when the Emperor sojourned at Gandersheim, 

 or the Bishop made a visitation. As they were 

 written in Latin, the literary language of the 

 time, this in itself, even if their themes had 

 appealed to the people, would have prevented 

 them from being performed save before the 

 educated few. So if we would picture to 

 ourselves a performance of one of them by her 

 companion nuns in the Chapter House, or it 

 may be in the refectory, it must be before the 

 Bishop and his clergy, and perhaps also some 

 members of the Imperial family, and lords and 

 ladies of the Court. How refreshing must 

 such an entertainment have been to this dis- 

 tinguished company as it found itself* carried 

 away into an atmosphere of poetry and passion, 

 of movement and colour, in place of the sobriety 

 induced by the stiff liturgical dramas that 

 probably formed the usual diversion ! Such a 

 drama was that of The Wise and Foolish 

 Virgins^ a specially favourite old-world dramatic 



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