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Working on the audience: Allegorical Strategies in Rhetoricians Plays.

Elsa Strietman

Most Rhetoricians plays were performed in public for audiences which consisted of fellow Rhetoricians but also of members of the general public. The Chambers of Rhetoric performed in their home towns on occasions of civic and religious feasts or events but were also frequently engaged in drama competitions which took them to other towns in the region or even to other provinces. Competition plays were written on a set theme and could therefore not refer too much to strictly local issues. Non-competition plays might be written for religious festivals or special occasions of local and wider interests: a Royal Entry, a ducal birth, a wedding, a funeral, or the end of a war or the conclusion of a peace treaty. It is safe to say that most of the drama of the Rhetoricians evolves round a disputatio, whether it is to discuss a religious issue, a civic concern, a political question or a moral stance. The Rhetoricians aimed to entertain and, in entertaining, to persuade their audience of the point of view advocated in the text, on the stage. They skilfully used verbal and visual means to that end, in particular verbal and visual allegory in a variety of strategies. One of these was to represent and evoke emotion and thus express a special point of view and persuade the audience of the validity of that view. Another strategy is that of an analysis of a particular question by means of detailed allegorical personifications. The representation of emotion cannot be seen only in terms of didactic convenience and moral efficacy; part of being entertained must surely have been the sharing of an emotional experience. The joys, pains, passions shown 'in action' on the stage were on the whole familiar emotions with which any audience could identify even if the analysis of individual emotions does not seem to have been part of medieval and late-medieval life. Whilst we cannot, for lack of evidence, evaluate the effectiveness of the methods of the Rhetoricians playwrights and actors, we can at least surmise that they must have been felt to be effective as many Rhetoricians plays show a remarkable consistency in the use of allegorical devices. The examples are chosen from a range of plays in Dutch which bear great resemblance to not only the themes but also the methods of the drama of Britain, France and Germany and no doubt to other European traditions.1

1 L.R. Muir, The Biblical Drama of Medieval Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995) proves this with a wealth of detail in respect of the biblical drama. However, drama that does not go back to biblical sources shows remarkable similarities in sources, in message and in medium. Muir's book has fortunately extended the notion of 'medieval Europe' into the sixteenth century and what is true for biblical drama is also applicable to non-biblical drama. The sixteenth-century drama of the Low Countries is distinct in the very great number of moralities which were written and produced. Their themes and methods however demonstrate that the Rhetoricians are part of a European tradition even though they may have been distinct in their organization and modes of performance. 2

1. An allegorical parable in a non-allegorical play: the tree, the blossom and the falcon in Lanseloet van Denemerken. In the drama of the Low Countries allegory is not confined to Rhetoricians plays and I would like to cite an example from an early play to use this to compare with some illustrative examples from Rhetoricians drama. This will show that the Rhetoricians developed the use of allegory in a remarkably varied and detailed manner for a variety of purposes, prominently so to express emotions and to evoke an emotional rapport with the audience. In all this it must be remembered that we cannot ascribe their efforts to a desire to achieve psychological verity but rather a pursuit of inescapable conviction: allegory as a weapon of mass persuasion. The following example is taken from Lanseloet van Denemerken, one of four, late fourteenth-century, serious plays, the Abele Spelen. In these a range of human emotions is presented in the context of secular plots resembling those of the medieval romances. Love relationships are central to these plays and they are used, broadly speaking, to show the unbalancing effects of misguided, mismatched love and, by contrast, the harmony resulting from well-matched relationships.2 In Lanseloet van Denemerken the lady Sanderijn becomes the victim of Lanseloet's passion and the venomous interference of his mother who deems her of far too lowly descent to become the wife of her high born son. When she finds herself in a situation which might hold the promise of a new life, she is far too ashamed and frightened to explain to her new would-be suitor that she has been raped and abandoned. The disclosure of her history is a matter of life and death. If her suitor is put off by her 'imperfect' state, he may not convert his sexual pursuit of her into an offer of marriage and for Sanderijn marriage is her only chance of moral as well as physical survival. She resorts to indirectness and paints a picture in words: if a tree were in full blossom but a noble falcon would come and rob it of some of its blossoms, would the tree therefore be worthless and damaged beyond redemption? Tree, blossom and falcon form the parts of an allegorical structure in which an event and its potential consequences are set out for consideration. It is not a moral allegory but an imagistic emotional appeal.The passage is a masterpiece of emotional delicacy structured as a continuous rhetorical question which does not invite debate but a re-assuring answer which, indeed, is given by the lover who sustains the metaphor. Thus this non-allegorical play creates an allegorical tactics to resolve something. Interestingly, the allegory does two things simultaneously. The spectators had been left in no doubt about Lanseloet's brutal physical and verbal attack on Sanderijn. They now hear that event elegantly allegorised in her parable whilst Sanderijn's new suitor hears the parable reveal the harsh reality of her experience. The parable conveys and evokes several emotions, disgust, compassion, tenderness, in a formulaic, though extremely poignant, manner. The characters themselves are not allegorical but presented as types: the nobly born but weak lover, the innocent girl, the venomous mother. Emotions are manifested and represented in a manner which the contemporaries clearly deemed suitable for the stage. In

2 See also Annelies van Gijsen, 'De dramatisering van begeerte en vrees', in R.E.V. Stuip and C. Vellekoop, Emoties in de Middeleeuwen (Hilversum: Verloren, 1998), pp. 157-182, who discusses the implications of the portrayal of emotions relating to love in several texts, amongst which the French and Dutch versions of the story of Narcissus and Echo and the late fifteenth-century Spiegel der Minnen, all belonging to a group of older rhetoricians plays known as the 'amourous plays'. 3 the case of this play ideas are conveyed about the importance of the suitability of partners in marriage. There is a strong, implicit, warning here that incompatibility of wealth, rank and status might result in disharmony: in a family, in a community and, if it affected royalty, in a realm.

2. The battle for the soul of mankind

2.i. Die Eerste Bliscap van Maria One of the central concerns in fifteenth-century drama was the battle for the soul of mankind, a battle which often involved the mediation of Our Lady. Mariolatry and affective piety had by then a long history in the Low Countries and had freed the way for a strongly emotional approach to mankind's relationship with the divine, which is testified in religious literature as well as in the visual arts. I will for the moment disregard the chronology of the plays and simply order them according to the length of the discussion. They provide examples of allegorical structures which either facilitate or allow a manipulation of emotion geared towards evoking in the audience the fear of God, pity for the plight of His mother and His Son, and ultimately instilling remorse and penitence. In the mystery play Die eerste bliscap van Maria allegory is not extensively employed. It does however contain a version of the well-known Debate between the Four Daughters of God. This is an episode which is central to what Lynette Muir has called 'the play of God' and variations of it can be found in abundance in medieval European drama as well as in many non-dramatic texts.3 The purpose of the debate as well as its participants and its outcome are of course broadly the same in many of the texts. It would be misleading to claim the rhetorical crafting and the structuring of emotional tension in the version in Die eerste bliscap as particularly belonging to or characteristic of the Low Countries. Nevertheless, this is an example in which a complex rhetorical, allegorical structure with allegorical personifications is employed most effectively to express and evoke emotion. The audience needs to be persuaded of the unimaginable sacrifice, for their benefit, demanded of the Son of God. All attempts at finding an angel prepared to suffer the passion for the sake of mankind are shown to have failed and the attention then switches to the only other obvious person, Christ. The overwhelming fear when he learns of his impending fate foreshadows the words on the Cross and demonstrates palpably the human side of the Son of God: Why is it that justice demands That I will have to suffer for this, That I will have to open that which Adam closed, With torments and with suffering More than he should? Mark my words, Holy Spirit, I ask you that, You who are as powerful as we are.

3 P.Meredith and L.R.Muir, 'The Trial in Heaven in the Eerste bliscap and other European plays', inDutch Crossing 22 (1984), pp. 84-92; see also L.R.Muir, The Biblical Drama of Medieval Europe(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 1-9, 87-89. 4

The lines in which he submits to God's will and declares that he will bleed and die for love of those who are now held captive in Hell, are an equally emotive, implicit plea directed to the spectators. It demonstrates that God's mercy is unlimited, that Christ's sacrifice is unimaginable, and it implores the audience to pay heed.4 The Bliscap is a mystery play not a morality and yet contained in this particular part is a strong moral lesson: 'try to live without sinning' as well as an emotional plea: behold the extent of God's love'.5

2.ii. tSpel van Masscheroen6 Another instance of a tightly structured allegory portraying the battle for mankind's soul, is that of the Spel van Masscheroen in Mariken van Nieumeghen. Masscheroen, the Devil's advocate, tries to persuade God that justice has to be done and that mankind is no longer 'eligible' for forgiveness: his sins demand punishment. This episode, the Trial of Satan, is found, like the Debate of the Four Daughters of God, in numerous dramatic and non-dramatic texts and is always characterised, despite its occurrence in different literary genres, by its highly formulaic nature. This is the art of persuasion, of the disputatio, in its most rhetorical form. Scholars have drawn attention to the strongly legalistic aspects which many versions of this episode have in common and have analysed the very complex theological arguments which they contain.7 The version in the Mariken too adheres closely to the form of a trial and the language contains many legal terms and allusions. The prosecution and the defence state their case concisely and clearly: "why is God prepared to extend forgiveness to mankind ad infinitum when Lucifer, Masscheroen and all the other 'poor spirits' are doomed to suffer eternal punishment?" God, although presenting himself as a God of Mercy, is inclined to go along with Masscheroen's demand for punishment since His own sacrifice has seemingly been in vain.8 Since Masscheroen seems to have right on his side, Our Lady tries to play for time in ensuring that all the rules are strictly adhered too: is God not obliged to send signs

4 W.H.Beuken ed., Die eerste bliscap van Maria(Culemborg: Tjeenk Willink/Noorduijn, 1978), p. 107, ll. 1269-1275; p. 109, ll. 1333-1345. 5 An other instance of moral teaching is the addition of the allegorical embodiment of Lucifer's envy of mankind in the character Nijt (Envy). This addition which has a function in the dramatic representation of the history of salvation and is at the same time a moral warning for the audience about the lure of temptation and the destructive power of envy. 6 Masscheroen or mascaron is derived from the Arabic 'maskhara', indicating a jester, a fool or a ridiculous figure. Masscheroen in the Mariken is not a figure to be laughed at, nor an ineffectual figure. His legal logic in the debate is impeccable and not so much defeated as disarmed by Our Lady's appeal. Cp. C. Coigneau (ed.), Mariken van Nieumeghen ('s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1982), pp.167-8. 7.See for a detailed discussion of the theological arguments about the devil's rights C.W.Marx, The devil's rights and the redemption in the literature of medieval England (Cambridge: D.S.Brewer, 1995), passim. 8 It has to be remembered that the dispute takes place after the Redemption and that Masscheroen's arguments are based on the fact that God has already shown mankind the ultimate proof of mercy: his own death. See D.Coigneau (1982), pp.112, ll.766-769,where God says: "Waarom ben ic die doot ghestorven, Soo schandelijck, soo smadelijc, aen tscrucen hout, Dan om dat elc mensche, ionc ende oudt, Ter ghenaden soude staen van mijnen vadre?" [Why have I died this death, So shamefully, so scandalously, on the wood of the cross, Other than [to ensure] that each human being, young and old, Would receive mercy from my father?] 5 to mankind as He had done before? Would the logical outcome of that not be that mankind will mend his ways? When these tactics fail and the Devil's Advocate seems about to win his case, Our Lady resorts to what in a less exalted personage one would call emotional blackmail:

Oh Son, the people will see the error of their ways; Don't be too hasty with your punishment. Think of the little breasts which you suckled, Think of the little womb in which you lay, Think of the passion which you have suffered, Think of the blood that you have shed in this conflict Was it not so that mankind would be granted your father's mercy? You yourself have said - and that you can't change- Even if a person had committed all the sins together Which have ever been committed in the world, If he truly once appealed to your mercy, He would be received with open arms. This is your word, and many people know it.9

God can only admit that this is so, that true repentance will result in mercy, that he would rather suffer all his torments again than lose a single remorseful soul. Our Lady's speech shows intricate rhetorical craftsmanship, with the lyrical device of an anaphora in the persuasive repetition of "Think…" which creates a lyric mode. The use of diminutives suggests the infinite tenderness of the mother-child relationship and the double reference to the reason that Christ was asked to suffer his awesome torment adds poignancy to the figure of Christ. The rhetorical question "Was it not so…" can after all that indeed only be answered in the affirmative. The next six lines, though they seem to be a return to the legal argumentation of the debate, are in fact no longer a plea or a question: Our Lady rests her case, trusting in the force of the emotional appeal she has launched. The assumption is that the audience too has conceded what has been urged, are once more wholly convinced of the infinite mercy of God and will be stimulated to confess their sins and do penitence. Mariken, the intended audience in the play, is indeed affected in this way and her spiritual journey eventually earns her God's mercy.

9 See Coigneau (1982), pp. 116, ll. 836-849. The core of this text goes back to Luke 11:27 where Jesus exorcises a devil and warns his listeners against being possessed by the devil and evil spirits. A woman praises Him, saying: "Blessed is the womb which has carried you, and the breasts which you have suckled." The tradition of Our Lady who, as advocate of mankind, points to her breasts, is extant in the literature since the twelfth century: see Coigneau (1982), p. 169. I am most indebted to Dr. Lynette Muir who drew my attention to other European versions of the Trial in which Our Lady makes a similar emotional appeal; Dr. Muir also allowed me to quote from a section of her forthcoming book. For instance, Our Lady's emotional tactics similar to that in the Mariken can be found in a Swedish miracle play, De uno peccatore qui promeruit gratiam (c. 1492), where the Virgin reminds her Son of the breasts which suckled him and uses this to obtain his forgiveness for the sinner. Cp. StephenWright, in Comparative Drama 27 (1993), pp.4-16. 9 R.Vos ed., Den Spiegel der Salicheit van Elckerlijc. (Groningen: Wolters-Noordhoff, 1967) and Bart.Ramakers and Willem Wimink (eds.), Mariken van Nieumeghen & Elckerlijc. Zonde, hoop en verlossing in de late Middeleeuwen (Amsterdam: Prometheus/Bert Bakker, 1998). 9 W. Helmich, Les Moralités Françaises(Geneva, 1980). 6

2.iii.a. De Spiegel der Salicheit van Elckerlijc

My third example from the fifteenth-century comes from Elckerlijc, a play which is very complex and elaborate in its allegory and very single minded in its emotive strategy of evoking the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom.10 Werner Helmich, in his magisterial introductions to Les Moralités Françaises has set out the characteristics of a prototypical morality.11 Elckerlijc does possess some of these, foremost among them the fact that there is a central mankind figure who is forced to undertake a pilgrimage, one of the most frequently employed of all allegorical structures, in order to make the journey from sin to insight to repentance and forgiveness. Not only therefore is the play itself an allegory, its characters are all personifications (except for God) of categories of people, of positive and negative notions, aspects of and activities in mankind's existence. All of these personifications and the interplay between them have but one aim: to exhort the audience to adopt a better mode of living, to prepare for a better way of dying, in order to avert God's wrath and receive His mercy. It is achieved mostly by one emotional strategy: the evocation of horror. This is apparent, amongst others, in Elckerlijc's stunned reaction to the sudden summons of Death. The shock reverberates in the reactions of his relatives and friends when they realise the nature of Elckerlijc's 'pilgrimage' and in Elckerlijc's horrified response when he stands in front of the gaping grave and realises that all his faculties are deserting him. I do not want to focus on the play as an allegorical entity at present, but will instead discuss the allegorical personifications, their intricate connections, and their functions. They sound familiar but they illustrate markedly just how complex and problematic their use can be, even though (or perhaps because?) they are all used to work on the audience with relentless singlemindedness. In his hour of need Elckerlijc calls upon his acquaintances and friends, Gheselscap and his relations by marriage, Neve, and by blood, Maghe. One might wonder whether these are truly allegorical: they embody a category of people not a particular kind, such as would ' Greedy Relations' or 'Sponging Friends'. Nevertheless, the three personifications together do turn out to have a conceptual dimension: that of Elckerlijc's past, which he has to relinquish. They have two functions, one structural and one moral. The structural function is needed because the play does not depict the full span of mankind's life from innocence to fall to repentance and mercy. It starts at the moment of death when judgement is about to be pronounced and mercy has not yet been earned since insight and repentance are wholly lacking. At the moment of death neither friends nor relatives can be retained. In this respect these figures do not function as either positive or negative but as neutral characters. Morally these three personifications have, individually and together, a double negative function. They represent Elckerlijc's sins, his debauched unheeding life, and they demonstrate the hollowness of Elckerlijc's friendships and blood relationships by their blatant admission that they only wanted to share the good times.12 In so doing they emphasize and foreshadow the fact that Elckerlijc will be alone in the hour of his death,

12 R. Vos, (1967), ll. 186-338. 7 that each and every spectator will then be alone too. This is the moral implication of the three characters together but individually they constitute an emotional concept: love of relations or friends may have real value in life but in death it counts for nothing: an awesome realisation. Helmich has drawn attention to a peculiar strategy in the religious morality which aims to forge the strongest possible identification between spectators and characters on the stage.13 This we encounter in the French moralities as in those from the Low Countries and most likely in other European drama as well. Normally the forces battling for the soul of mankind are static, immortal and eternal, unlike the figures representing mankind. There are however instances where some of these opposing forces are seen to experience and a change and thereby become dynamic. Helmich points at some instances where vices become penitent, confess and receive absolution. In other words, they leave their allegorical status behind and become 'human'.14 Helmich gives examples of figures almost political in their inconstancy, such as Le Monde in the Moralité de la Charité who changes in status several times, but there do not seem to be any virtues which change their status from allegorical and immovable to human and dynamic. We do find something akin to this in Elckerlijc, namely the figure of Doecht (Righteousness), who like the other positive figures Kennisse (Knowledge of God) and Biechte (Confession), has a complex and individual connection with Elckerlijc. Doecht is the personification of the abstract notion of righteousness. She is also the personification of an aspect of Elckerlijc, his righteousness, and portrayed as bedridden, wasted by weakness, unable to move. Doecht promises Elckerlijc that she will regain her health and strength and will be able to accompany him on his pilgrimage on the condition that he will have found Kennisse (Knowledge of God) and through her gone to Biechte (Confession). Indeed, Doecht does improve and is able to sort and clear all Elckerlijc's accounts and accompany him beyond the grave to before God's throne. In other words, Doecht signifies both an abstract, static notion as well as a dynamic aspect of the protagonist; she goes through a human cycle of change: from illness to health. There is a complication here: as mentioned, Doecht is an abstract notion as well as an aspect of Elckerlijc that is deficient. Doecht is not, strictly speaking, a good force doing battle for Elckerlijc against bad forces but she will battle for him in pleading his cause before God. She does not change from bad to good or vice versa but activates both a static and a dynamic allegorical concept, the latter Elckerlijc's righteousness.

13 W. Helmich, Les Moralités Françaises, I, p. XXIII and id. Die Allegorie im französischen Theater des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts, vol. I, Das religiöse Theater, Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für Romanische Philologie 156, (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1976), pp. 88-92. For instance, in Les sept Pechie mortels the deadly sins are destined for eternal damnation and evoke pity in another character; in La Condamnacion des Banquetz the evildoer Banquetz who is the murderer of many people, gets condemned to death himself, confesses, implores mercy and receives absolution. 14 In Rhetoricians' drama we encounter negative personifications such as the sinnekens who display, though momentarily, human traits. One such example is in Een Esbattement van sMenschen Sin ende Verganckelijcke Schoonheit/Man's Desire and Fleeting Beauty (eds. R. Potter and E.Strietman), (Leeds: Leeds Medieval Studies, 1994), where the sinnekens (characters resembling the English Vices) reporting on the progress of a seduction, become themselves sexually aroused. A moment more strikingly akin to some of Helmich's examples is at the end of the play where the sinnekens flee in mortal terror from Death who has come to punish the lovers Fleeting Beauty and Man's Desire. At that instant the sinnekens become one with the audience in whom this scene is supposed to evoke fear. 8

2.iii.b. Psychomachia? Many moralities make use of the allegorical strategy of the psychomachia but Elckerlijc does not really fit in that category. The complexity of the figure of Doecht demonstrates that but Doecht is not the only complex figure. Kennisse is the personification of an abstract notion that remains static but contributes greatly to the dynamic of Elckerlijc's journey from sin to insight to repentance. The connection between Elckerlijc and Doecht and between Elckerlijc and Kennisse differs; in the first instance an internal dynamic occurs which changes Doecht's status from an ill to an healthy person and with it Elckerlijc's status from sinner to penitent. Kennisse remains static but there is a change in external dynamic: intially far removed from Elckerlijc, Kennisse will become a close companion and, like Doecht, will accompany Elckerlijc beyond the grave to hear God's Judgement. Biechte combines two allegorical functions; that of the person who receives the sinner's confession, a priest figure, and that of the act of confession itself. Biechte is however addressed as female, and in that guise seems to encompass the act as well as the significance of Elckerlijc's confession. Another group of personifications consists of Vroescap (Wisdom), Cracht (Strength), Schoenheit (Beauty) and the Vijf Sinnen (Five Senses). These too are demonstrably distinct in their allegorical significance. Vroescap is the personification of an abstract notion who is unwilling to escort Elckerlijc beyond the grave. This points to earthly wisdom not the wisdom that links mankind to God. Cracht can mean both physical and mental strength; though both aspects are alluded to Cracht does not want to come further than the gates of death: both physical and mental strength fail.15 Schoenheit personifies not an esthetic but a contrastive concept: it distinguishes the living body from the one corrupted by the grave. The Five Senses are naturally earthbound and therefore, even in their collectivity, one-dimensional. For all the difference between these personifications, they cannot be clearly separated into good and bad characters battling for Elkerlijc: the allegorical strategy does therefore not consist of a psychomachia. It also shows that the psychomachia is an inadequate model for the morality; this is certainly so in the case of the sixteenth-century morality in which the allegorical constructs are subtle and detailed.

2.iii.c. Morality?

The one obvious candidate for a negative persona is tGoet (Earthly Wealth) but one of the features of this text is that wealth as such is not condemned. Elckerlijc is called to account (another of the allegorical strategies of this text) for his use of tGoet and shown that he has grievously abused it. The play charts not Mankind's life but his death and that excludes any dynamic representation of the lure of earthly riches, as does happen prominently in many other morality plays. That is a strategy which calls for conflict between negative and positive personifications, as we will see later. A form of conflict in this text is created by the frivolously expressed broken promises of the friends and relatives with regard to joining the pilgrimage and equally by

15 See R. Vos (1967), ll. 653-4: Cracht indicates that he will come with Elckerlijc even into battle and ll. 759- 6 where Cracht emphasises that he is both brave and strong. 9 the final desertion of Wisdom, Strength, Beauty and the Five Senses who voice their refusals harshly and without pity.16 None of these personifications are portrayed as inherently bad, not in the sense in which in many morality plays negative concepts are embodied. Neither are they inherently good, they are merely necessities for life on earth. Moreover, because of the time span of the play (from the first summons of Death to the Judgement of God) actively good characters are not needed. The play focuses on the punishment that awaits mankind because he has lived badly. It is not about forewarning him if he were to fall into temptation or if he were to let himself be deflected from choosing the right path. Such scenarios frequently form the structure of morality plays and provide their didactic and moral significance. Elckerlijc, like Mariken van Nieumeghen, may not initially have been intended for the stage but may have originated in, or intended as, a sermonizing reading text.17 It adopts the structure of a pilgrimage but in a truncated fashion, from the warning of impending death to the moment of Judgement and the granting of salvation. Its content and structure follow closely those of the many fifteenth-century ars moriendi, with aspects of the dance macabre, which urge ' memento mori' and 'estote parati'. Its allegorical personifications are not as clear cut as in many moralities. There are no personifications of temptations, indeed there are no sinnekens unlike many moralities in the Low Countries in the fifteenth century and later. As there are no temptations, the way to God is not deliberately made impassable, by the devil or other evil characters, on the contrary, one by one the obstacles towards achieving 'salicheit' are removed or overcome. It is no use to adhere to rigid notions of genre, certainly not those imposed by non- contemporaries. What Elckerlijc and the other examples of fifteenth-century drama demonstrate, as would French, German and English examples, is that the authors and playwrights of medieval and late-medieval allegorical texts manipulated and enriched inherited and respected traditions, didactic, homiletic, literary and theatrical. Their aim was to reach and to teach their audience and they used verbal and visual allegory to analyse the human predicament and to evoke emotions to steer the spectators towards a mode of well being, good living and a blessed ending. The proliferation of allegorical drama in the late fifteenth, and in the sixteenth, century is implicit and ample proof that they succeeded in their aims.

3. Rhetoricians drama in the sixteenth century

There is no clear delineation between fifteenth- and sixteenth-century drama in terms of allegory and the use of emotion but what does become obvious is that they increase greatly in detail and complexity. It would be difficult to argue a direct correlation between a changing worldview and the proliferation of allegorical and emotional strategies.

16 R.Vos (1967), ll. 767-823. 17 Its textual history differs greatly from that of most plays in that it has been transmitted in several printed editions (1495, 1501,1525) and in one very late manuscript version (1593). In one edition the textual lay out contains lengthy prose headings just like chapters in early printed books. Its title is more suitable for a treatise than for a play: Den spiegel der salicheit van Elckerlijc hoe dat elckerlijc mensche wert ghedaecht rekeninghe te doen van sinen wercken (The mirror of blessedness of Everyman how every man was summoned to give account of his works). The presentation of the English translation continues that ambiguity: "here begynneth a treatise…and is in maner of a morall playe". Cp. G.Cooper and C. Wortham (eds.), Everyman (Nedlands WA:University of Western Australia Press, 1980). 10

However, the Rhetoricians very often produced their plays in areas and in circumstances in which new factors had to be processed: conflicts and developments in religion, greater political uncertainties, greater social changes. It might be argued that this greater complexity made heavier demands on intellectual understanding and emotional 'digestion'. Rhetoricians playwrights showed great skill and inventiveness in the use and the development of allegory in drama and both cerebral analysis and the evocation of emotions were frequently employed. We encounter such tactics in plays with serious or comic, secular or religious, biblical, classical or contemporary material. Language and imagery were used as weapons of mass persuasion, whether the objective was to convince the audience of eternal verities or local power politics, of sophisticated theological issues or simple moral guidelines for everyday living. The question of the evocation of emotion is a difficult one and it is perhaps helpful to try and formulate what Rhetoricians plays did not aim to do: they did not portray or attempt to explain the emotional and psychological complexities of a particular personality. For example, late sixteenth and seventeenth drama in the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands was often pointedly propagandistic in respect of national values and deliberately controversial with regard to religious or political issues. Such plays, for instance Gysbreght van Aemstel or Palamedes, aimed at persuading the audience of particular truths or ideas just as the Rhetoricians had done earlier. They were however often constructed around the detailed portrayal of a particular, biblical, classical or historical individual. Their individuality, the emotions which are attributed to them as driving forces, helped to set on the stage a convincing persona. Such a character could be presented as admirable or reprehensible but was nevertheless used to illustrate and elucidate a supra-individual cause. The playwright aimed to convince the audience of the good or evil of a particular cause of action or set of ideas which could be significantly applied to their own experience as citizens of the Republic. Rhetoricians playwrights did not have the detailed creation of a particular persona as their first concern. Instead, the protagonists are frequently conceptual allegorical constructs, for example, God's Grace, Man's Desire or collective allegorical figures, Mankind, Everyman, A play of most people who cry out for peace. Non-allegorical characters could be employed because of their emblematic significance: King David as the well-intentioned but weak king, Susanna as the falsely accused woman and as the tender loyal wife, King Philip II of Spain as a representative of earthly power, Mars and Venus as embodiments of sexual passion. 18 If specific emotions are attributed to such characters and if they are effectively and 'realistically' presented on the stage, they still do not aim at a portrayal of the character as such. For instance, in Lauris Jansz's A play of most people who cry out for peace, Philip II of Spain voices his horror at the devastation caused by the character of War. The war in question is that of the conflict between Spain and France which came to an end with the Peace Treaty of Cateau-Cambrai in 1559. The portrayal of the King as an individual upset

18 See Een spel van sinnen van Saul ende David, in: W.N.M.Husken, B.A.M. Ramakers, F.A.M. Schaars (eds.), Trou Moet Blijcken, Deel 4, Boek D (Assen: Uitgeverij Quarto, 1994), ff. 94v-92r. See for King Philip, God's Grace and Most people who cry out for peace: Een ander spel van sinnen van Meestal die om paijs roepen, in Trou Moet Blijcken Deel 5, Boek E(1994), ff. 139v-152v. For the Dutch text and an English translation of Hue Mars ende Venus dallied together and Susanna, Elsa Strietman and Peter Happé (trs.), Mixing Profit and Pleasure: Six Dutch Plays, forthcoming. 11 by a situation in which the real Philip II was heavily implicated, is a necessary allegorical construct for Jansz's purposes. The objective was to demonstrate that war is an evil unleashed by the moral degeneration of mankind. Whatever Jansz's private opinions or personal knowledge about this war were, they are not aired in the text. It might have been dangerous to do so in a publicly performed play, or censorship might have prevented its performance. Rhetoricians had voiced controversial ideas and sentiments and had been punished for it. Even so, censorship and punishment did not totally succeed in halting the Rhetoricians' involvement with controversial issues or the reflection of these in their plays. Rhetoricians were interested in putting on the stage embodiments of ideas and truths and issues. In doing so the individuality of the protagonists and their specific psychological make-up is not their concern. Allegorical strategies aiming at emotional impact on the audience were the means with which they waged their campaigns of persuasion. At the same time we might also surmise that the extent and range of emotional devices were valued for themselves, not only for didactic/moral purposes.19

4 Devices and Desires

That is an impression which certainly emanates from for instance Hue Mars ende Venus tsaemen bueleerden. The moral warnings, implicit and explicit, in this play about the adulterous relationship between the two protagonists and their deception and ridicule of Venus' husband Vulcan concern marriage and partnerships. Suitability and compatibility are presented as vital to achieve balance and harmony, in marriage but in other partnerships in society as well. What we also see and hear on the stage is the all powerful, inescapable drive for sexual gratification and if it is presented as funny, as reprehensible, it is also shown to be uncontrollable and delicious. Punishment is inevitable but seems worth it. No one reading it, or better, seeing it performed, can help feeling included in and exhilarated by what seems a celebration of emotions and an analysis of those emotions relating to a primal human drive: sexual fulfilment.20 The representation of mankind's natural desires, such as lust for power, sexual gratification, indulgence in luxury, greed for wealth and status is most powerfully present on the Rhetoricians stage. Connected with this are mankind's weaknesses, for instance his tendency to be persuaded by false advisers and lured into a variety of temptations. The awareness of these inclinations as sinful, as in conflict with God's purposes, and causing despair, remorse and longing for reparation, is presented by a range of allegorical characters which often embody internal aspects of the human mind. One of Lauris Jansz's plays is that about the World giving a banquet aiming at luring the characters representing aspects of mankind into stupefying luxury, which obliterates moral sensitivity. The climax is the arrival of the character called The Day of Judgement who destroys the characters embodying worldliness.21

20 Mars ende Venus is an early (c. 1500) classical amorous play written by the Brussels Rhetorician Jan Smeecken. A sparkling performance of the play was produced in Groningen in 1991 by the director Femke Kramer and her group Marot. 21 Een spel van sinnen hoe dat die Werlt haer versufte maeltijt gheeft ende nae van den dach des heeren vernielt wert, in W.N.M. Hüsken et al., Trou Moet Blijcken Deel 4, Boek E (Assen: 1994) ff. 117v-133v. 12

The cast list is representative of such lists in many morality plays. Sinnekens do not feature in this case but many of the dramatis personae have names which could easily be those of sinnekens, such as Eijgen Baet (Self Interest), Heimelijcke Haet (Secret Hate), Dubbelt van Harten (Double-Hearted) and Versiert Gelaet (Two-Faced). The significance of the servants attending Die Werlt (The World), namely its major domo Roeckeloos Opwassen (Reckless Growing Up), its cup-bearer Ongetemde Wulpsheit (Untrammeled Voluptuousness) and its chamberlain Vluijende Weelde (Flowing Luxury) is quite complex. They are not themselves embodiments of emotions, except for Voluptuousness but forces inducing negative emotions, desires or actions. "I chase away knowledge", states Flowing Luxury, and "I rob people of their intelligence", declares Reckless Growing Up. Untrammeled Voluptuousness boasts that he causes people to invent lies, to neglect learning and to waste their youth. Four other characters, 'dressed in a vulgar manner', each embody a negative aspect of the human psyche which is generated by an emotion: Self Interest by egotism, Double-Hearted and Two-Faced by the wish to profit by deception, Secret Hate by envy. Mankind's better self is represented not by emotions but by intellectual capacities, that of Ernstich Opmerken (Serious Observation) and Boertich Aenschouwen which can best be interpreted as the capacity to recognise human folly (Recognition of Folly). The other positive characters do not represent emotions either but aspects of the divinity: Die stem des allerhoochsten (The Voice of the Almighty), dressed as a guard, and Den dach des heeren (The Day of the Lord, i.e. of Judgement), dressed as a man in armour with a scythe in his hand. They aim to return mankind to a mode of living in harmony with God's laws and they do this by pulling out all the stops to instil fear and dread, powerful emotions which should form the foundation and the beginning of wisdom, i.e. the wisdom to know God.22 This is a much used strategy in the moralities: characters who attempt to pull mankind back from perdition often employ a mixture of inescapable emotional blackmail and elaborate reasoned argument. It would seem that characters presenting emotions are more often the negative characters, amongst whom of course the sinnekens are prominent. This need not surprise us as Rhetoricians plays are very frequently about the error of mankind's ways. The struggle against sinfulness, however, is often waged by faculties of the mind, by reason and the intellect, such as Goed Onderwijs (Good Instruction), Conscienscij (Conscience). A variety of characters stands for the instruction or understanding of Scripture or by allegorical or non-allegorical embodiments of Christ, God or the Holy Spirit.23 The sinnekens are, in this as in other respects, complex figures. Often they represent blatantly negative human emotions such as lust and greed, Vleeschelijke Sin (Carnal Desire) and Quaet Gheloove (Evil Thought) in De wellustighen Mensch and Onversaedighe Begeerte (Insatiable Greed) and Nimmermeer Ghenoch (Never Enough) in Lauris Jansz's Het Cooren (The Grain).24 Equally common are those whose names indicate the cunning or

22 Ps. 111: 10 23 W.M.H.Hummelen, Repertorium van het rederijkersdrama 1500-1620 (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1968) lists forty-one characters whose names contain 'verstand' (intellect, mind); seventeen characters called Good Instruction and seven instances of Conscientie; there are some fifty names containing Reason or Reasonableness and names with Scripture or Scriptural run to c. eighty-five.Our Lady does not seem to be allegorized and I have not (yet) found any dramatis personae which represent aspects of Our Lady 24 C. Kruyskamp (ed.), Dichten en Spelen van Jan van den Berghe (Antwerpen: De Nederlandschen Boekhandel, 1950); WN.M. Hüsken et al.,(eds.), Trou Moet Blijcken Deel 1, Boek A ((Assen, 1992), ff. 85v- 13 the misplaced pride of mankind.25 Not uncommon either are sinnekens whose names indicate a neutral concept but turn out to be morally ambivalent.26

5. Van Eneas en Dido; the sharing of emotions. In many prologues and epilogues the Rhetoricians made it clear that they wished to entertain their audience and they expressed the hope that their art would find favour. They stressed that they were dedicated followers of Rhetorica and they explained, explicitly or 'in the maner of a play' the moral and didactic messages which were close to their heart. Passion, on the Rhetoricians stage, always comes with a (mental) health warning: it isn't good for you, it isn't good for society and it leads us into perdition. And yet, one cannot escape the conviction that the presentation of emotions on the stage is a part of the entertainment which is utterly gratifying: it allows the airing of feelings which are very much part of the human predicament. However hedged in with moral lessons, religious obstacles, men will be men and women will be women. I would like to conclude with one example of a Rhetoricians play which, notwithstanding all its conventional messages and well-intended warnings, nevertheless allows room for the expression of passion. It is a tragic passion, doomed to failure, to death even, and the effect is that the audience is confronted with the anguish of the human heart, is evoked to pity, to compassion. This is the story of a passion which for centuries gripped man's imagination, which did not originate at all in a prosperous trading town in the Low Countries, where profit and pleasure were meant to be mixed in a balanced manner. There is nothing measured or balanced in the story of Aeneas and Dido and the Rhetoricians playwright who made it the subject of his play, seems to me like Plato's Charioteer: in danger of losing his grip on his horses, but not caring. In Van Eneas en Dido the sinnekens' functions are curtailed and what is left for them is their role as commentators. This manifests itself to a large extent in their mockery of the protagonists. The passion, the anguish, the conflicting emotions of duty and desire expressed by Eneas and especially by Dido, given voice by Van Ghistele with great

87r and 88r-105v. An English translation is available: Peter King, The Voluptuous Man in Dutch Crossing. See W.M.H.Hummelen and G.R.Dibbets , Een spel van sinnen beroerende Het Cooren (1565) van Lauris Jansz, factor van de Haarlemse rederijkerskamer 'De wijngaertrancken' (Zutphen: Thieme, 1985).Hummelen (1968) lists some forty-four playing dramatis personae, all negative, whose names contain Bedrijf (Action or Behaviour), Begeren ([To]Desire), Begeerlijc (Desirable) or Begeerte (Desire). Names with Zin (sense, inclination) can be negative (16), neutral or positive (13). There are nine negative names with the adjective Zinnelijk (sensual) and three with the noun Zinnelijkheid (sensuality). 25 Such as False Perswacij (False persuasion) and Eigen Vernuft (Arrogance) in Jansz' Hoe dat menich bedruct hert aen een droege cisterne verleijt(1577), see Hüsken et al. (1994), ff. 133v-150r or his dEenvoudighe Mensch en Schijn van Deughden, Hüsken et al.Deel F, Boek 6 (1996)where False Persuasion operates in conjunction with Schijn voor Oogen ( Deceitful Appearance). 26 As occurs in Cornelis van Ghistele, Van Eneas en Dido where Jonstich Hert (Joyous or Loving Heart) and Fame van Eeren (Fame of Honour) do not indicate negative emotions or aspects. A large part of their function is in fact the manifestation and representation of emotions which lead the protagonists to perdition or to dishonourable behaviour. See for an edition with introduction K. Iwema, Van Eneas en Dido in Jaarboek De Fonteine 1982-1983, xxxiii (1983) and for the function of the sinnekens Elsa Strietman, 'Oude wijn in nieuwe zakken: klassieke thema's in rederijkersspelen, vooral met betrekking tot Cornelis van Ghistele', in Zweder von Martels, Piet Steenbakkers and ArjoVanderjagt (eds.), Limae labor et mora. Opstellen voor Fokke Akkerman ter gelegenheid van zijn zeventigste verjaardag (Leende:Damon, 2000), pp. 83-93 and id., 'God, gods, humans and sinnekens in Classical Plays of the Rhetoricians' , in Elsa Strietman and Peter Happé , Urban Theatre in the Low Countries, 1400-1625 (forthcoming). 14 conviction, are cruelly ridiculed by the sinnekens. The fact that this ridicule emanates from the sinnekens, the messengers the audience knows not to trust, actually has the effect of strengthening the way in which the experience of the lovers' emotions is shared with the audience. Next to the wish to drive home a particular message the Rhetoricians wanted to offer entertainment, and to elicit admiration and praise for the art of rhetoric and for the skills of its practitioners. The sinnekens are often the means by which the entertainment is effected. They frequently evoke laughter and complicity, a laughter which is more often than not at the expense of the characters and also serves for the modification of fear. The sinnekens laugh at all the human follies which the audience see enacted and in which, there but for fortune and the Grace of God, they too could be entangled. The sharing of emotions, the Rhetoricians knew this as well as we do, is a powerful part of being entertained. Two instances from the play will have to suffice. The scene in which Eneas and Dido hide in the cave during the thunderstorm is not directly portrayed on the stage, instead the sinnekens relate the story to each other amidst much crude sexual innuendo at the expense of Dido in particular.27 It has to be remembered that the sinnekens seldom aim at one effect only: in the midst of their mockery the implied moral condemnation of the lovers is strongly conveyed to the audience. The second example concerns the moment when Dido realises that Eneas has abandoned her. Her fury, her love, her longing and her abject grief are voiced with a pathos that would not be out of place in a classical or seventeenth-century tragedy. The sinnekens comment on this with malice and great Schadenfreude.28 They lament, they gesticulate, they exclaim, they mock: does't love make fools of everyone? Above all though, they warn, they hammer home the message: this is what foolish love does to people, beware, guard yourself against such folly. They may, with gestures and antics and voice, have made this appear funny though they are the conveyors of some deadly serious messages. And yet, here the messengers are not to be trusted either because they do not seem to be able to erase the memory and the effect of, amongst others, Dido's outpouring of grief.29 Here, as elsewhere on the Rhetoricians stage, persuasion and

27 K.Iwema (1983), ll. 1224-1324. 28 K.Iwema (1983), ll. 2186-2257. 29 I have discussed this passage elsewhere, cp. note 26, but will nevertheless give it as an example of the presentation of emotion in Van Eneas ende Dido: Isser gheen troost nu, hulpe noch raedt? Och, hij is wech, hij s wech, de vileijn obstinaet, En laet mij desolaet, midt een doodtlijcke quale! Tis nu tijdt, ick wil gaen na den saele, Daer ickt altemaele sal vinden ghereedt. Niet langere en can sijn vileijnicheijdt wreedt In mij ghewuelen, het is oultrage. Och dits de ghelijckenisse van sijn personage! O suete ijmage, o schoon figuere! O wel spreeckende mondt, balsemier van geure, Hue brengdij mij int ghetreure en in verdwijnen! O blinckende ooghen, de claerder schijnen Ja dan robijnen, muet ick u derven Noch u minlijck upsien niet meer verwerven In swerreldts erven, dies ick mijn ooghen vaeghen muet? Dit sijn sijn habijten die hij gedraeghen heeft suet, Die ick oock beclaeghen muet, mit verseeren; 15 entertainment cannot really be separated and neither can, I think, reasoned argument and the driving force of emotions. It demonstrates once more how cleverly the Rhetoricians employed a host of strategies, allegorical and other, that they knew a thing or two about playing to the gallery. The methods and means they employed for the winning of hearts and minds consisted to a large extent of appealing to our reason but more than that, they shared with their audience genuine human feeling, they knew how to stir the fever in our blood.

En dit is tbedde daer hij mijn om vruechts vermeeren Upbracht ter on eeren, die nu scheijdt mit onweerde: Dies ick sonder vertrek nu mit sijnen sweerde Dwelck ick hier aenveerde, sal sterven bluedich. …… [Iwema (1983), ll. 2152-1272.]

(Is there no comfort, no help or advice? O he has gone, he has gone, the obstinate villain, and leaves me desolate, with a mortal disease! 'Tis now time, I will go to the hall, where all has been readied for me. No longer can his venomous cruelty tear my insides, it is an outrage. Oh, this is the likeness of his persona! O sweet image, of handsome figure! Oh eloquent mouth, fragrant as balsam, how have you brought me to grief and to nothingness. Oh shining eyes, which shine clearer even than runbies, must I lack you and never again see your lovely glance in this world, so that my eyes must lose their brightness? These are his clothes which he wore so well, I must also cry over them in terrible pain. And this is the bed where he took me to give me joy and brought me dishonour, he who now leaves in indignity. That is why I now, without delay, with his own sword, which I lift up, will die in agony! [trs. E.S]