SINGING SHEPHERDS, DISCORDANT DEVILS: Music and Song in Medieval Pastoral Plays

Vicente Chacón Carmona

Music features prominently in almost all medieval Shepherds’ Plays, even if they are not musical dramas proper. This essay examines and compares the role of music, song, and dance in a series of biblical Shepherds’ Plays from England, France, and the Iberian Peninsula. A comparative approach seems to be particularly appropriate in the case of late medieval drama, for, as Richardson argues, ‘it allows us to distinguish what may be seen as variants on a universal given theme as the result of certain local conditions of place, associations, or tradition’.1 The purpose of this work is to determine the main dramatic, narrative, and theological functions of musical elements in the aforementioned national traditions in order to ascertain their similarities and differences. The dramas under analysis are fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century English, French, and Luso-Spanish Nativity plays in which shepherds feature as relevant characters.2 These plays are: the Chester Painters’ Play;3 the Towneley First and Second Shepherds Plays;4 the Coventry Shearmen and Tailors’ Pageant;5 the York Chandlers’ Play;6 Arnould Gréban’s Le Mystère de la Passion de Notre Sauveur Jésus-Christ;7 Marguerite de Navarre’s Comédie de la Nativité de Jésus-Christ;8 Fray Íñigo de Mendoza’s Coplas de Vita Christi;9 Juan del Encina’s Égloga Representada en la Mesma Noche de Navidad;10 Lucas Fernández’s Égloga o Farsa del Nascimiento de Nuestro Redemptor Jesucristo,11 and Auto o Farsa del Nascimiento de Nuestro Señor Iesu Christo;12 and finally, Gil Vicente’s Auto Pastoril Castelhano, Auto dos Reis Magos, and Auto dos Quatro Tempos.13 The unnamed, unnumbered, and undetermined shepherds of Luke’s Gospel served as particularly useful tools in the hands of playwrights, who tried to turn them into representatives of mankind, thus enabling the audience to identify with them.14 There are several substantial differences between the English, French, and Luso-Spanish plays. To begin with, the Luso-Spanish works seem to be isolated pieces and, in addition, few of them have survived. This may point to the fact that the dramatic activity in Portugal and Castile was scarce during the Middle Ages. Actually, the majority of the playwrights included in this study keep up the medieval tradition of biblical drama, although their craft is closer to that of the

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Renaissance.15 It should be noted that the Renaissance spirit had already taken root at the University of Salamanca, and that both Juan del Encina and his disciple Lucas Fernández were musicians at the Salamanca Cathedral, where they met in the late fifteenth century. Juan del Encina translated Virgil’s eclogues, and both del Encina and Fernández wrote pastoral secular works.16 Both of them travelled to Italy and were influenced by Italian works; at that time the kingdom of Naples was part of the incipient Spanish Empire. Italian influence began under the rule of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella and Ferdinand (1479–1516), and continued with Charles I (1516–56; the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V) and his son, Philip II (1556–98). The works written by Juan del Encina (1469–1529), Lucas Fernández (1474–1541), and Gil Vicente (1470–1536) share with those of Marguerite de Navarre the noble audiences for whom their plays were devised. Their spectacles were actually sponsored by members of the nobility. As opposed to the English and French biblical dramas, the Spanish productions were performed indoors, normally in private houses. Surtz points out, for instance, that Juan del Encina and Gil Vicente wrote ‘self-conscious’ plays in the sense that the characters actually express their awareness of the audience witnessing them and in many cases actually directly address the royalty watching their performance; a very significant case is that of Gil Vicente’s Comédia do Viúvo, in which the characters ask Prince John of Portugal, who is actually watching the performance, for advice.17 Similarly, the plays of Marguerite de Navarre (1492–1549) were intended to be staged before a select group of people, such as the ladies of the court or her (second) husband, Henry II of Navarre. She tended to recruit well- reputed Italian actors for her exclusive shows.18 As critics have noticed, her biblical plays are less realistic and theatrical, ‘privileging hearing over seeing’.19 All these Shepherds Plays consist largely of spoken dialogue, and therefore songs and music make up only a short section of the dramatic action. Music, however, seems to be essential in all types of drama, particularly those performed in the late Middle Ages, perhaps because the earliest known dramatic texts originated within the solemn liturgy of the Church, which invariably involved the chanting of prayers and hymns. The numerous Officium Pastorum tropes, composed in the eleventh century, which rapidly spread throughout Europe, were sung antiphonally as part of the liturgy of the Mass or the canonical hours. Those tropes, which enacted Luke’s Shepherds’ episode,20 followed in the footsteps of the

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Visitatio Sepulchri which, in turn, had developed from the Quem Quaeritis, first recorded in the ninth century.21 It is difficult to ascertain, however, whether the shepherds’ plays were directly or indirectly influenced by the aforementioned liturgical tropes. Music, no doubt, makes those plays more attractive. In addition, as Dutka suggests, ‘[music] is used in conjunction with the three components of drama: to delineate character, to establish setting, and to advance action’.22 The musical turns are also employed as a means to draw a line between what critics have traditionally regarded as the unredeemed postlapsarian world and redeemed mankind. A similar distinction operates with regard to characters, for the Shepherds, who have not yet received the message of salvation,23 are influenced in their skill by the angel’s song, or simply improve their knowledge of musical theoretical terms after their encounter with the angel, or after they hear about Jesus’s birth via another character (as in the Spanish plays).24 In this sense, all theatrical shepherds present a dual nature; on the one hand, they are presented as European contemporary herdsmen — the numerous references to locations, daily routine, clothing, and accoutrements indicate that this is so — and therefore a contemporary audience would most likely have considered them real shepherds of their own time. On the other hand, they also stand for historical, though fictitious, shepherds who are not yet aware of Jesus’s birth. In most cases, music virtually divides each play into two nearly symmetrical halves, thus contributing to a sense of scene division which otherwise would not have been evident. Actually, most plays consist of two clearly defined sections; namely a first comic or farcical episode and a final Nativity play proper.25 Music and/or harmony — or rather, a lack thereof — feature as essential elements that help to characterise the stage business in the farcical induction. This division is particularly evident in the two Towneley plays, but is also apparent in Lucas Fernandez’s Égloga o Farsa, and in his Auto o Farsa, and also in Fray Íñigo’s Vita Christi, in which one or more shepherds first appear as clownish figures; they are very keen on eating, drinking, and swearing, and are easily carried away by brawls and quarrels, thus providing material for several farcical scenes. Mak’s exploits in the Towneley Second Shepherds Play is a well-known example of one such comic episode, but Bonifacio in Lucas Fernandez’s Égloga o Farsa is similarly clownish.26 Such types are usually characterized by their sinful, unredeemed state; this explains why in Fray Íñigo’s Vita Christi the angel refers to the shepherds as pobrezillos pecadores (‘poor little

64 SINGING SHEPHERDS, DISCORDANT DEVILS sinners’; stanza 122),27 while in Vicente’s Auto dos Reis Magos the Cavaleiro (‘Knight’) regards them as beasts: ¡Qué linage tan bestial, | animal, | este bruto pastoriego! (‘what a beastly and animal-like ancestry, | [is] that of these brutish shepherds’; lines 262–4). In Lucas Fernandez’s plays the shepherds even exhibit certain superstitious attitudes, as their comments on magic and witchcraft reveal — a fact that highlights their fallen nature.28 In addition, the different musical turns help to solve the technical problem of showing the passing of time onstage, and also function as markers for entrances, exits, the descent of heavenly beings, and even the conclusion of the stage business itself. Since Heaven is usually described both in medieval drama and in the tradition of the Church as a musical place,29 angels, as its direct representatives, sing ‘heavenly’ — that is, harmonious — songs, thus turning their scenes into musical episodes. In this sense, Stevens argues that the actual dramatic function of music in biblical plays is ‘to symbolize heaven’; he recalls that in the Middle Ages, the Boethian concept of music was standard in its tripartite division (musica mundana, musica humana and musica instrumentalis)30 and that angels stand for ‘a higher harmony, a more complete “order” than we know on earth. Music is a mirror or speculum (to use their favourite image) of the God- created Universe’.31 In nearly all the plays analysed, shepherds cease their quarrels about earthly issues as soon as they hear the angel’s celestial chanting, after which they gradually turn their minds to heavenly matters and express their yearning to visit and worship the infant Jesus, finally becoming the spokesmen of Christ’s salvific message. In those texts in which the angel does not feature as a character, shepherds begin to sing as soon as they learn — through other characters — that Jesus is born. Singing, therefore, marks the beginning of a journey, both physical and spiritual, which turns those rough, ignorant, ‘European’ contemporary rustics into Christian converts who travel to Bethlehem in a historical context. Both the singing and the trip usually trigger the creation of a new atmosphere, leading up to the enactment of the Nativity episode proper, for which the preceding action has been a mere introductory sequence or induction. For instance, in Marguerite de Navarre’s text, a choir of angels sing to the shepherds and shepherdesses who, according to a stage direction, s’en vont chantans (‘they go offstage singing’; line 671). Similarly, the shepherds of the Coventry Shearmen and Tailors’ Pageant are said to sing a folk song upon their departure: There the scheppardis syngis ‘Ase I Owt Rodde’ ֹ (sd at line 263). In

65 VICENTE CHACÓN the same manner, the Chester Painters’ Play indicates: Tunc cantabunt ... (‘Here singe “troly, loly, loly, loo”’; sd at line 447). In Fernandez’s Égloga o Farsa the Shepherds suggest: Pues ¡sus!, ¡todos a cantar | con voluntad muy graciosa! (‘and so, let us all sing with a very generous will’; lines 599–600) and in his Auto o Farsa they say: Cantemos | y más aquí no paremos (‘Let us sing, and let us not stop’; lines 531–2), after which they sing and dance several times. In all of these cases music marks the conclusion of the play, adding a festive atmosphere to the enactment of a well known Christmas episode. In the Spanish texts, shepherds mention a trip to Bethlehem even if they do not travel and never actually meet Jesus, which might have involved having a man acting the part of Mary, a situation that might have been considered embarrassing.32 Those shepherds, nonetheless, go offstage while singing a villancico.33 In Coventry, when the Shepherds leave the stage, music is heard, and then two Prophets appear: There the scheppardis syngith ageyne and goth forthe of þe place; and the ij profettis cumyth in (sd at line 312). The Towneley First Shepherds Play thus ends: ‘With myrth and gam, | To the lawde of this lam | Syng we in syght’ (lines 722–4). Similarly, one of the Shepherds says in the Towneley Second Shepherds Play ‘To syng ar we bun — | Let take on loft!’ (lines 1087–8) before the play ends, while in the Chester Painters’ Play the Shepherd also extends a final invitation to sing (Amen): ‘Amen, all singe you; good men, farewell yee’ (lines 691-2). In Marguerite de Navarre’s Comédie an angel asks all other angels to join in: Chantons, car tous est consommé et fait (‘Let us sing since everything is consummated and done’; line 1274), after which they all sing a French religious song, thus bringing the Nativity episode to its conclusion. In Vicente’s Auto dos Reis Magos, the last stage direction indicates that all characters sing after the Magi have offered their gifts: Y cantando así todos juntamente, ofrecen los reyes sus regalos. Y así muy alegremente cantando se van (‘And so while they all sing together the Magi offer their gifts. And so, singing very cheerfully, they all leave’; sds after line 352). Among other things, music stands out as a useful device to distinguish between good and evil. Thus, unredeemed characters and devilish creatures tend to appear as having a poor musical aptitude. In this sense, Gréban alternates and juxtaposes biblical and hellish scenes, each one of the latter called scène infernale by the author; needless to say, Lucifer and his crew feature prominently in them. Although these devils play instruments and sing, their performance is very poor when compared with

66 SINGING SHEPHERDS, DISCORDANT DEVILS that of the angels, thus making the contrast even more striking. In fact, each scène infernale is characterized by bruit infernal, that is, cacophonic sound and sheer noise. Satan and Lucifer actually complain about this lack of musical skill:

SATHAN: Qui fait ceste mutacion?34 Lucifer, roi des ennemis, Vous hurlez comme ung lou famis, Quand vous voulez chanter ou rire. LUCIFER: Ha! Sathan, Dieu te puist maudire! Quand est de mes ris et mes chans, ilz sont malheureux et meschans; ma noblesse et ma grant beaulté est tournée en difformité, mon chant en lamentacion,35 mon ris en desolacion ... 3722–32 Satan: What has caused this change of pitch? Lucifer, king of devils, you howl like a starving wolf when you wish to sing or laugh. Lucifer: May God curse you, Satan! As for my laughter and my songs, they are [caused by] ill-luck and mischance. My nobility and my beauty is turned into deformity; my song into lamentation, my laughter into desolation ... Astaroth, another devil, is trying in vain to find the right key when he hears a trumpet (busine): c’est la note a prendre mon ton (‘This is the note to take my key!’ (3759). That trumpet serves to announce the meeting of the devils: Belzebuth la busine sonne | courons y veoir s’on y ordonne | quelque apointement infernal (‘The trumpet is sounding, let us run and see; some infernal get-together must be starting’; 3761–3). A wind instrument is used in the Chester Painters’ Play to summon the Shepherds: Primus Pastor first yells his mate’s name and, when he fails to appear, resorts to his horn: ‘Thow maye not here excepte I blowe, | as ever have I heale. | Hic flabit Primus Pastor’ (lines 47–8 and sd). A few minutes later he blows his horn again to call their boy-servant, Garcius (lines 161-4). Garcius himself hints that the other three shepherds are unmusical. This might well be another reason why he refuses to attend his masters’ summoning: ‘your sittinge withowt any songes!’ (line 205).36 Eventually,

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Primus Pastor admits that his musical skill is not as good as the Angel’s, and he describes all heavenly creatures as wonderful singers: ‘He had a mych better voyce then I have, | as in heaven all other have soe’ (lines 406–7). The association between noise and/or poor musical skill and the Devil, features in Marguerite de Navarre’s play in which an angel mentions Satan’s infernal bruit (‘noise’; lines 1260–61) as one of the devil’s attributes.37 In Gréban’s work, Lucifer commands the devils to sing a silete (line 3832),38 although this only reinforces the impression of their lack of musical skill when compared to the heavenly beings, as they are said to sing comme des marmottes ou vieux corbeaux famélique (‘like groundhogs, or old starving crows’; lines 3846–7). Similarly, in the Towneley Second Shepherds Play, Mak’s illegal actions — stealing the sheep — are apparently matched by his poor qualities as a singer: when he has gone back home, the Shepherds hear him singing a lullaby, and comment: ‘hard I neuer none crak | So clere out of toyne’ (lines 688–9). In fact he is singing ‘lullay’ as a warning that they are within hearing. Mak is actually associated with the Devil and even with the Antichrist over the course of the play; so when Mak states : ‘My belly farys not weyll; | It is out of astate’, Tercius Pastor remarks: ‘Seldom lyys the dewyll | Dede by the gate’. (330–33).39 A character’s inability to sing thus hints at his unredeemed spiritual state and the fact that he is not aware of Jesus’s message of salvation, as in Vicente’s Auto dos Quatro Tempos, in which angels clearly sing (all stage directions indicate that each angel cantiga/canta, that is ‘chants’/‘sings’), while each shepherd simply speaks (fala). Likewise, in Marguerite de Navarre’s play, there is a sharp contrast between the singing shepherds who have just worshipped Jesus in Bethlehem and the Devil, who, unable to sing, tries to talk them into thinking that what they have seen is a mere delusion (lines 964–91). Satan does not sing when he tempts the shepherds, whose songs seem to shield them from any evil: LES BERGERS, en chantant. Une Vierge qui est mere, A un beau Filz enfanté; Qui n’ha nul que Dieu pou Pere, Ce mot soit bien hault chanté. 976–83 A virgin who is a mother Has given birth to a fair son;

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Whose father is no other but God, These words should be sung very loud. Satan is eventually aware of his defeat and accepts the fact that Jesus is Saviour. Finally, when God the Father asks his angels to descend upon the earth, he encourages them to sing (1254–5), and they do so while they praise their Creator (1275–9). The aforementioned non-musical devils are not the only instances of discordant devils to be found in late medieval drama. In Hildegard von Bingen's Ordo Virtutum (‘The Play of the Virtues’), a twelfth-century musical morality play in Latin, Anima, the soul, is tempted by the Devil but is ultimately saved by the Virtues. All of the characters in the play sing, with the exception of Diabolus, whose speeches are written in prose and are spoken, not sung.40 Scholars have often pointed out the sophisticated approach to music in the Towneley Second Shepherds Play,41 which is quite exceptional, particularly if the following assignation of musical parts is taken into account: 1 Pastor Lett me sing the tenory. 2 Pastor And I the tryble so hye. 3 Pastor Then the meyne fallys to me. Lett se how ye chauntt 270–73 It is difficult, however, to figure out whether the shepherds succeed at their polyphony, though, according to Stevens and Cawley, the performers who acted those shepherds were probably accomplished singers.42 A more complex assignation of parts, which can only be compared to those of the First and Second Shepherds Plays, may be found in Gréban’s drama, in the same scene where the devils have a meeting to arrange their temptations on earth: ASTAROTH: Vous orrez belle chanterie tantost et ung motet d’onneur: Sathan, tu feras la teneur et j’asseray la contre sus; Belzebuth dira le dessus avec Berich a haulte double et Cerberus fera un trouble continué, Dieu seet comment. 3834–41

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You will soon hear beautiful singing, and a motet of honour: Satan, you do the tenor, and I will try the contratenor bassus; Beelzebub will voice the higher part, with Berich singing a haulte double, and Cerberus will keep up a continuous treble, God knows how. However, in spite of the technical knowledge of music both the English shepherds and the French devils display, it does not follow from the dramatic texts that the shepherds manage to sing well, or that the devils manage to produce acceptable polyphony. In the latter case, if they perform in the manner described above (see lines 3722–32), it may be assumed that their singing is very poor. A similar arrangement of parts is evident in del Encina’s Égloga: y dos a dos cantiquemos | porque vamos ensayados (‘Let us sing in pairs | so that we rehearse as we go along’; 179–80). Both Gréban’s work and the First and Second Shepherds Plays incorporate a great deal of precise musical terminology which is missing in other Shepherds Plays. In fact, the English shepherds perform a ‘descant’ in the Towneley Second Shepherds. According to the Oxford Music Dictionary, a ‘discant’ was ‘a type of medieval polyphony having a plainchant tenor, characterized by essentially note- against-note … It was not itself a musical form but a technique — in origin a technique for the improvising of two-voice polyphony’.43 A similar arrangement seems to be employed by Lucas Fernández in his Égloga o Farsa, since his shepherds sing en canto de órgano (‘in organum’), which is also a medieval polyphonic technique.44 Most other shepherds, however, tend to sing popular or folk songs in the vernacular, whereas angels perform solemn religious songs or chants in Latin (with the exception of the French plays, in which angels also employ the vernacular). In de Navarre’s play an angel sings Gloire soit au Dieu des dieux (‘Glory be to the God of gods’; 612–23); in the Spanish plays shepherds invariably sing a villancico, or folk song (see note 35). In the English plays, apart from the aforementioned ‘descant’, there are several popular songs as well. For example, in the Coventry Shearmen and Tailors’ Pageant the shepherds are said to sing ‘Ase I Owt Rodde’ (sd at 263), and in the Chester Painters’ Play they sing ‘troly, loly, loly, loo’ (sd at 447), both of which point to a popular origin.45 In Vicente’s Auto Pastoril Castelhano, Gil sings what is almost certainly a comic folk song, since the character himself refers to it as a chançoneta (16), which was a medieval Christmas folk song;46 the first line of the lyrics is mentioned by Gil

70 SINGING SHEPHERDS, DISCORDANT DEVILS himself as he comes onstage: Menga Gil me quita el sueño, que ño duermo (‘Gil keeps me awake and I can’t fall asleep’; 23–4). Even though the actual lyrics sung by angels in the English plays are not specified in the texts, some of the stage directions suggest that they sing Latin songs derived from the liturgical services. This is particularly evident in the Chester Painters’ Play: Tunc cantet Angelus: ‘Gloria in excelsis Deo et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis’ (‘Then the Angel shall sing: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will”’; sd at 337). Similarly, in the Towneley Second Shepherds Play, a stage direction indicates that Angelus cantat ‘Gloria in excelsis’ (‘The Angel sings, “Glory in the highest”’; sd at 919). The angel, as God’s representative, stands for Heaven’s harmony, whose high-quality vocal music is even acknowledged by the rude shepherds themselves. In Lucas Fernández’s Égloga o Farsa, Marcelo says: ¿No vos digo que no ha vn hora | que vn ángel vino a desora, cantando por dulces artes? (‘Haven’t I told you that not even an hour ago | an angel suddenly appeared, | singing sweetly and skilfully?’; 373–5). Likewise, in the Auto o Farsa, Juan rejoices in the following manner: ¡Quán alegre estoy! ¡Qüánto | desde que oý aquel dulce canto! (‘How happy I am | since I heard that sweet song!’; 269–70). In Vicente’s Auto Pastoril, Gil declares, after the angel has sung: ¡Oh, qué tónica acordada de tan fuertes caramillos! (‘Oh, what a well-tuned tonic from those strong flutes!’; 260–61). In the York Chandlers’ Play the angel’s song is described as a ‘noble noyse’ (71),47 while in Fray Íñigo’s Coplas de Vita Christi the angel is said to sing con çelestial dulçedumbre (‘with heavenly sweetness’; stanza 136). In the Coventry Shearmen and Tailors’ Pageant, Pastor III summons the other herdsmen so that they may ‘here there armony’ (253). Pastor I is also impressed by ‘the swettness of þer songe’ (255). In the Towneley First Shepherds Play, it is the heavenly music that finally convinces the shepherds that they have seen an angel: I wold that we knew Of this song so fre Of the angell; I hard by hys steuen He was send downe fro heuen 588–92 In the Towneley Second Shepherds Play, Primus Pastor describes the angelic music as ‘a meruell’ (935), and the shepherds are able to describe the sophisticated nature of the angel’s song in technical terms:

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Say, what was his song? Hard ye not how he crakyd it, Thre brefes48 to a long? Yee, Mary, he hakt it: Was no crochett wrong, Nor nothyng that lakt it. 946–51 Carpenter argues that such dwelling on musical terminology on the part of the shepherds serves to link the farcical and the nativity sections since by describing the technicalities of music they seem to anticipate the sophistication of angels.49 In all the plays, the coming of the angels brings about both a new atmosphere and a gradual spiritual awareness in the shepherds. For instance, Fray Íñigo’s Minguillo comments: ¿No sientes fuerte plazer | en oir aquél cantar? (‘Don’t you feel a deep pleasure | when you hear him singing?’; stanza 146). Similarly, Shophron in de Navarre’s play is deeply moved by the choir of angels: Mon Dieu, quest ceci que j’ay veu? Qu’ay-je ouy? Qu’ay-je receu? (‘My God, what is this that I have seen? What have I heard? What have I received?’; 624–5). Philetine later says: Au commencement peur j’avoye, | Mais après j’ay receu grand joye (‘At the beginning, I was afraid, | But afterwards I was given great joy’; 630–31). The harmonious singing of the angels makes the shepherds identify themselves with heavenly beings; one of the means of achieving such a transformation is the gradual use and/or understanding of Latin. This may be the reason behind the fact that Fernández’s shepherds sing Et homo factum est (‘And he was made man’; 460). On the other hand, one of Fray Íñigo’s pastores tries to imitate Latin without actually mastering it: Aún tengo en la mi mamoria sus cantos, asmo que creo unos gritavan vitoria, los otros cantavan groria, otros indaçielçis Deo, otros Dios es pietatis, otros et in tierra paz homanibus vanitatis, otros buena voluntatis. stanza 155 I still have in my mind his songs; I believe that some of them proclaimed victory, the others sang of glory, and others said

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indaçielcis Deo, others Dios es pietatis, others et in tierra paz homanibus vanitatis, others buena voluntatis. Pastor II in Coventry explains: ‘Glore glorea in exselsis — þat wase þer song’ (258); the repetition of the word glore/glorea which obviously stands for Latin gloria, may simply indicate the shepherds’ misunderstanding of Latin, a recurrent feature in other Shepherds’ plays. Pastor I, for instance, specifies that ‘we ma syng in his [Christ’s] presence Et in tarra pax omynibus’ (262–3). In the Chester Painters’ Play, the Shepherds discuss the Angel’s apparently incomprehensible lyrics until they finally make out that they are Gloria in excelsis Deo (358–435). The characters of the Towneley First Shepherds Play manage not only to imitate Latin, but also recite Virgil since, according to Church tradition, the Roman poet may be regarded as one of the ‘prophets’, since he had foretold the birth of Christ in his Fourth Eclogue:50 Virgill in his poetré Sayde in his verse … Iam noua progenies celo demittitur alto; Iam rediet Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna. 556–9 Although the use of Latin falls outside the scope of this article, it is worth noting that Latin enjoys a significant dramatic function in medieval plays, for not only was it used for stage directions, it also was also common in the speeches (or songs) of holy and virtuous characters to signify their agreement with the official doctrine of the Church.51 The singing of the Latin Gloria, for instance, becomes a recurring element in most Shepherds dramas. In Vicente’s Auto Pastoril Castelhano, Gil paraphrases the Song of Songs: he addresses the Virgin Mary with such compliments as columba mea fermosa (‘my fair dove’; 348), or tota pulchra amica mea (‘[Thou art] all fair, O my love’; 360).52 His fellow shepherds are astonished by his sudden sophistication, thus prompting Silvestre to remark: Con esso hablas llatin | tan a punto que es plazer (‘Moreover, you speak Latin | so accurately that it is a delight’; 366–7). As Rastall argues, ‘musica humana and the imitation of angelic music gives us two good reasons why God’s chosen mortals tend to be musical in the plays’.53 In other words, the Shepherds are now more spiritual characters and, because their body and soul are more harmoniously related, sin is nearly overcome. This explains why they are able to listen to angelic music and why (in most cases) they are able to sing harmoniously. Under the influence of the heavenly music, the shepherds are subsumed

73 VICENTE CHACÓN into its harmony and gradually cease their discord and quarrels. This new state of the soul is also reflected in the characters’ new attitude, as they express their desire to meet the infant Jesus and learn about his message of salvation; in the York Chandlers’ Play, after the Angel’s song, a stage direction indicates Et tunc cantant (‘And then they sing’; sd at 64). When Pastor II proposes ‘And make myrthe and melody, | With sange to seke our savyour’ (84–5), the directions again indicate Et tunc cantant. Similarly, in Fernández’s Égloga o Farsa, the stage directions specify: Aquí se han de fincar de rodillas todos cuatro y cantar en canto de órgano ‘Et homo factum est; et homo factum est; et homo factum est’ (‘Here all four of them should kneel down and sing a song in organum: “And was made man, and was made man, and was made man”’; sd after line 460). In the Auto o Farsa, Juan suggests that they sing, and the other characters agree: Pues devemos levantar | vn cantar con que lleguemos (‘So, we must raise | a song when we get there’; 525–6). They later call Minguillo and a villancico is both sung and danced (541). Likewise, in the Coventry Shearmen and Tailors’ Pageant, the Shepherds sing after they hear the Angel’s song (263). Similarly, in Marguerite de Navarre’s play, the Shepherds set off for Bethlehem and sing Partons, chantons, tous ensemble d’accord (‘Let us go, let us sing, all together in harmony’; line 670), after which they sing a similar song (line 672). In Vicente’s Auto Pastoril Castelhano the author clearly uses the Angel’s song to highlight the Shepherds’ transformation. When they present their gifts to Jesus in a moving ceremony, the formerly boisterous, selfish Shepherds have been completely transformed, and so they sing and dance in front of the Holy Family: Zagala sancta, bendita, graciosa y morenita, nuestro ganado visita que ningún mal no le venga. 331–5 Holy blessed girl, sweet and dark haired, visit our flocks, so they may be free from harm. To conclude, this comparative analysis of late medieval English, French, and Luso-Spanish plays has revealed how playwrights from different backgrounds use music with virtually the same theatrical and theological purposes. Music in these plays serves multiple functions: it helps to forward the action, it divides the stage business into several sections or scenes, it marks the climax of the play, it helps with characterisation, and, last but not least, it illustrates the profound

74 SINGING SHEPHERDS, DISCORDANT DEVILS conversion undergone by a group of earthly, rustic, sinful shepherds who eventually become devout, redeemed Christians. University of Seville NOTES 1. Christine Richardson ‘The Medieval English and French Shepherds Plays’ in Festive Drama edited Meg Twycross (Woodbridge: Brewer, 1996) 259. 2. Three of Gil Vicente’s plays are included in this study. Vicente (1470–1536) wrote in Portuguese and Spanish, and even in a mixture of both languages. For a critical analysis of his work see Gil Vicente: Clásico Luso-Español edited M.J. Fernández García and Andrés José Pociña López (Mérida: Editorial Regional de Extremadura, 2004). 3. The Chester Mystery Cycle edited R.M Lumiansky and David Mills, 2 vols, EETS SS 3 (1974) and SS 9 (1986). 4. The Towneley Plays edited Martin Stevens and A.C. Cawley, 2 vols, EETS SS 13 and 14 (1994). 5. The Coventry Corpus Christi Plays edited Pamela King and Clifford Davidson (EDAM Monograph Series 27; Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000). 6. The York Plays edited Richard Beadle (London: Arnold, 1982). 7. Arnoul Gréban Le Mystère de la Passion edited Gaston Paris and Gaston Raynaud (Paris: Vieweg, 1878; reprinted Geneva: Slatkine, 1970). 8. Marguerite de Navarre Comédie de la Nativité de Jésus Christe in Les comédies bibliques / Marguerite de Navarre edited Barbara Marczuk, Beata Skrzeszewska, and Piotr Tylus (Geneva: Droz, 2000). 9. Fray Íñigo de Mendoza Coplas de ‘Vita Christi’ (Madrid: Real Academia Española, 1953; facsimile edition of Zamora: Centenera, 1482) 1–153. Online edition in Biblioteca Virtual Cervantes (2002), collated with Fray Íñigo de Mendoza Cancionero edited Julio Rodríguez-Puértolas (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1968) at: http://bib.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/05810596599414995207857 /p0000002.htm. 10. Juan del Encina Égloga Representada en la Mesma Noche de Navidad in Cancionero de las obras de Juan del Enzina introduction by Emilio Cotarelo y Mori (Madrid: Real Academia Española, 1928 reprinted 1989; facsimile edition of Salamanca: s.i., 1496) fols 104r–105v. Online edition in Biblioteca Virtual Cervantes (1999), collated with edition by Miguel Ángel Pérez Priego (Madrid, Cátedra, 1991) 107–116, and other editions. Online at: http://bib.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/01159074653470455210035 /p0000001.htm.

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11. Lucas Fernández’s Égloga o Farsa del Nascimiento de Nuestro Redemptor Jesucristo in Farsas y Églogas al Modo y Estilo Pastoril Castellano edited Emilio Cotarelo y Mori (Madrid: Real Academia Española, 1929; facsimile edition of Salamanca: Lorenzo de Liom Dedei, 1514). Online edition in Biblioteca Virtual Cervantes: (2002), at: http://bib.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/01372731999137728644024 /p0000003.htm. 12. Lucas Fernández Auto o Farsa del Nascimiento de Nuestro Señor Iesu Christo in Farsas y Églogas al Modo y Estilo Pastoril Castellano: see above note 11 for details. 13. All three in Gil Vicente’s Auto Pastoril Castelhano in Compilaçam de todaslas obras de Gil Vicente edited Maria Leonor Carvalhão Buescu, 2 vols (Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional-Casa da moneda, 1983). 14. The number of shepherds varies according to the different national traditions: three in the English plays, which may be related to the three Marys in the Quem Quaeritis or the subsequent Visitatio Sepulchri, though some scholars suggest that they may take after the three Magi present in the Ordo Stellae. In the Spanish and French plays, there are four. Also, in Spanish works, they are usually named after the Four Evangelists. 15. Coplas de Vita Christi by Fray Íñigo de Mendoza (1425–1507) does not show any pre-Renaissance features. It is not certain whether this long dramatic poem (ca. 1482) was ever enacted in front of an audience. For a discussion on the dramatic nature of this work, see Charlotte Sterne ‘Fray Íñigo de Mendoza and Medieval Dramatic Ritual’ in Hispanic Review 33 (July 1965) 197–245. 16. Juan del Encina is the author of secular pastoral plays whose titles include the term ‘égloga’ (eclogue), such as Égloga de Cristino y Febea, Aucto del repelón, Égloga de Fileno, Zambardo y Cardonio, Égloga de las grandes lluvias, Égloga de Mingo, Gil y Pascuala, Égloga de Plácida y Vitoriano. Lucas Fernández in his turn wrote a series secular and religious pastoral works which he collected in a volume significantly entitled Farsas y Églogas al modo pastoril (‘Farces and Eclogues in the Pastoral Mode’). 17. A stage direction in the Comédia do Viúvo indicates: e foram-se as moças a el-Rei dom João III, sendo príncipe … e ihle preguntaram dizendo (‘The maids approached King John the III, when he was still a prince, and asked him saying’) (sd at 919). The text indicates that the prince (future king) actually answered them (sd at 925). See Carvalhão Buescu 1 438–9. See also R. Surtz The Birth of a Theater: Dramatic Convention in the Spanish Theater from Juan del Encina to Lope de Vega (Princeton & Madrid: Editorial Castilla, 1979) 9–13. 18. Patricia F. Cholakian & Rouben C. Cholakian Marguerite de Navarre: Mother of the Renaissance (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006) 180.

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19. See Charles Mazouer ‘Marguerite de Navarre et le mystère médiéval’ Renaissance and Reformation 26: 4 (2002) 51. 20. See Luke 2: 8–22. 21. For an account of the origin and development of the Officium Pastorum and liturgical drama see, for instance, Karl Young The Drama of the Medieval Church 2 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962) 2 2–28; E. K. Chambers The Medieval Stage (Oxford UP, 1978) especially Book 3; Richard B. Donovan The Liturgical Drama in Medieval Spain (Toronto: Toronto Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1958); Teatro Medieval I: El Drama Litúrgico edited Eva Castro (Barcelona: Crítica, 1997), and Dramas Escolares Latinos: Siglos XII y XIII edited Eva Castro (Madrid: Akal, 2001). 22. JoAnna Dutka Music in the English Mystery Plays (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 1980) 6. 23. Strictly speaking, the shepherds are not Christian when the plays open because Jesus has not yet been born. 24. The only Spanish dramatic work in which the Angel appears is Fray Íñigo de Mendoza’s Vita Christi. 25. See Peter Happé ‘Farcical Elements in the English Mystery Cycles’ in Farce and Farcical Elements edited Wim Hüsken and Konrad Schoell, with Leif Søndergaard (Ludus: Medieval and Early Renaissance Theatre and Drama 6: 1; Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2002) 29–43. 26. For a detailed study on the figure of the clownish shepherd in Spanish literature before Lope de Vega see John Brotherton The ‘Pastor Bobo’ in the Spanish Theatre before the Time of Lope de Vega (London: Tamesis, 1975). 27. All translations into English are by the author. 28. See Égloga o Farsa line 166, and Auto o Farsa lines 203–6. 29. One of the Tridentine prefaces to the Mass includes the formula: Et ideo cum Angelis et Archangelis, cum Thronis et Dominationibus cumque omni militia caelestis excercitus himnum gloriae tuae canimus, sine fine dicentes ... See Missale Romanum (Ratisbona: Congregation of Rights, 1921) 301. 30. According to Boethius (c. 480–c. 525) in De institutione musica, book 1; 2, the universe was divinely created and, as in the case of the consonant musical intervals, was founded on simple mathematical proportions. Due to its mathematical and acoustic properties, music became a mirror or speculum for divine order. See for instance Boethius Sobre el fundamento de la Música: cinco libros edited and translated Jesús Luque and others (Madrid: Gredos, 2009) 76– 84. 31. See John Stevens ‘Music in Mediaeval Drama’ in Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association (1957–1958) 82. Stevens explains those musical items which were

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not governed by Boethian cosmology in terms of realism. However, Richard Rastall completely disagrees with this ‘realistic’ view since there are certain elements in the plays which are not realistic in a modern sense. For this discussion see Richard Rastall ‘“Alle Hefne Makyth Melody”’ in Aspects of Early English Drama edited Paula Neuss (Cambridge: Brewer, 1985) 1–12. See also Richard Rastall essay ‘Music in the Cycle Plays’ in Contexts for Early English Drama edited Marianne G. Briscoe and John C. Coldewey (Indiana University Press, 1989) 192–218; and, by the same author, Minstrels Playing: Music in Early English Religious Drama 2 (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2001) especially chapters 1-4. 32. Women were not allowed to act in the Spanish theatre throughout the fifteenth and even the first half of the sixteenth centuries. In Puente Genil, a Spanish town near Córdoba, there is an annual parade of all New Testament male and female characters, but significantly, the only one not featuring in it is the Virgin Mary, since all personages are enacted exclusively by men. See Manuel Gómez Lara and others ‘Easter Processions in Puente Genil, Córdoba, Spain’ in Medieval English Theatre 9:2 (1987) 93–124. 33. A Spanish and Portuguese type of folksong. According to an early-nineteenth- century English traveller, ‘The music … was … used in a species of dramatic interludes in the vulgar tongue, which were sung, not acted, at certain intervals of the service. These pieces had the name of villancicos, from villano, a clown, shepherds and shepherdesses being the interlocutors in these pastorals’; OED sv villancico. 34. The process of changing from one hexachord to another (Oxford Music Online: http: www.oxfordmusiconline.com) 35. A variation on Versa est in luctum cithara mea (Job 30: 30) from the Mass for the Dead. 36. For this discussion see Chester Mystery Cycle edited Lumiansky and Mills, 2 110. 37. Dutka in Music in the English Mystery Plays 11–13 points out that according to Satan and other devils, music is regarded as a mere din or noise in several English plays. For ‘sounds of Hell’ in English medieval plays see Richard Rastall The Heaven Singing: Music in Early English Religious Drama 1 (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1996) 199–215. 38. For a discussion of silete, at first a musical calling for ‘silence’ (Silete, silete, silentium habete), but then developed into a musical interlude to cover gaps in the action, see the modernised version of Arnoul Gréban Le Mystère de la Passion de Notre Sauveur Jésu-Christ edited Micheline Combarieu du Grès and Jean Subrenat (Paris: Gallimard, 1987) 471; Peter Macardle The St Gall Passion Play: Music and Performance (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2007) 165–72. 39. See related note in The Towneley Plays edited Stevens and Cawley 2 501.

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40. For an edition of the Ordo Virtutum, see Nine Medieval Latin Plays edited and translated Peter Dronke (Cambridge UP, 1994) 159–269. 41. For an analysis of music in The Second Shepherds Play see Dutka Music in the English Mystery Plays, especially 110–12, and Nan Cooke Carpenter ‘Music in the Secunda Pastorum’ in Speculum 26: 4 (October 1951) 696–700. See also Richard Rastall Minstrels Playing: Music in Early English Religious Drama 2 (Cambridge: D.S, Brewer, 2001) 137–178. 42. See The Towneley Plays edited Stevens and Cawley 2 496, note 620. For a discussion of professional and amateur performers in the English plays, see Richard Rastall The Heaven Singing: Music in Early Religious Drama 1 (Cambridge: D.S, Brewer, 1996) 300–368. 43. See Oxford Music Dictionary at http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com 44. See also Oxford Music Dictionary http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com 45. For an analysis of the non-religious songs contained in the English mystery plays see Dutka Music in the English Mystery Plays 65–81. 46. Definition by the Spanish Royal Academy Dictionary: http://www.rae.es. 47. The actual moment when the angel sings the Gloria is missing in the manuscript. This part must have contained the angel’s Gloria and his spoken message. See The York Plays edited Richard Beadle (London: Arnold, 1982) 130. In the late Middle Ages the significance of noise was ambiguous since it meant not only ‘din/noise’ but ‘A pleasant or melodious sound’; see OED sv noise. 48. A brefe (breve) has one half or one third the time value of a long; Dutka Music in the English Mystery Plays 95–101. 49. See Cooke Carpenter ‘Music in the Secunda Pastorum’ 697. 50. The whole eclogue can be consulted online at: http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/verg.html. For a Christian interpretation of the eclogue see for instance C.J. Metford Dictionary of Christian Lore and Legend (London: Thames and Hudson, 1983) 256. See also The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church edited F.L. Cross and E.A. Livingstone (Oxford University Press, 1974) 1444. 51. See Mayte Ridruejo and Rafael Portillo ‘La Traducción del Latín al Inglés en los “pageants” del “Ludus Coventriae”’ in Translation Across Cultures: La traducción entre el mundo hispánico y anglosajón: Relaciones lingüísticas, culturales y literarias. edited J.C. Santoyo (Actas XI Congreso AEDEAN; León: Universidad de León, Secretariado de Publicaciones, 1989) 153–8. 52. The actual words in the Vulgate are in the first case: ego dormio et cor meum vigilat vox dilecti mei pulsantis aperi mihi soror mea amica mea columba mea inmaculata mea quia caput meum plenum est rore et cincinni mei guttis noctium

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(Canticum Canticorum 5: 2); and in the second: quam pulchra es amica mea quam pulchra es oculi tui columbarum absque eo quod intrinsecus latet capilli tui sicut greges caprarum quae ascenderunt de monte Galaad (Canticum Canticorum 4:3). Text online at http://www.vatican.va/archive/bible/nova_vulgata/documents/nova- vulgata_vetus-testamentum_lt.html. 53. Richard Rastall ‘Alle Hefne Makyth Melody’ 195. See above, note 33.

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