Biblical Stories on the Medieval and Early Modern Stage: A Transnational Approach

Abstract

This contribution offers a survey of the field of biblical drama research and of several approaches. It makes a plea for a transnational approach of studying early modern drama, especially biblical drama. Such a transnational approach is a continuation of many of these earlier approaches, makes use of some and breaks with others. The contribution also shows that it is important to include Neo-Latin drama in the study of early modern drama at the cost of losing sight on a crucial constituent part of the development of this drama and this theatre. Neo-Latin drama contributed to the knowledge and reception of the Bible among the elites and among the ordinary people who attended performances of these plays or of one of the many translations and adapations.

1. Introduction

“Biblical drama” is not a straightforward combination. Christian religion and drama often had a problematic relationship. The Fathers of the Church warned against the dangers of pleasure, the licentiousness associated with the theatre, and the illicitness of pretending to be someone else. Moreover, Augustine (for example) associated theatre with the degeneration of Rome, believing that it incited the audience to bad morals. Ecclesiastical dignitaries’ opposition continued into the early modern period. In the Netherlands, as elsewhere in Europe, Protestant ministers had an aversion to drama, and opposed performances.

By contrast, the medieval Roman Catholic Church saw the pedagogical possibilities of staging biblical stories or scenes on the stage, as part of the liturgy or beyond it. A well-known example is the Easter trope “Quem quaeritis,” a four-line dialogue between the women at Jesus’ tomb and the angels at its entrance, which was introduced in the tenth century as part of a pre-Mass processional ceremony or the Roman liturgy itself. It was once thought that such tropes formed the basis of liturgical drama (especially “Visitatio sepulchri” plays) and mystery plays. However, nowadays this view is being challenged and the developments of liturgical drama – or Latin drama on the margins of the liturgy – and dramatic liturgy are seen to have developed more separately.

In any case, the Middle Ages saw considerable theatrical activity related to the Church and the Bible, both within and outside the liturgy. In addition to the “Quem quaeritis” trope, plays were written on Old Testament themes such as the Creation (Adam and Eve) and the Fall (including the story of Noah), the patriarchs, Moses, the prophets, and New Testament themes and characters such as John the Baptist, the Nativity and public life of Jesus, including some of the parables, the Passion and Resurrection, Pentecost and eschatology. The fact that these plays were taken from the Bible made them inherently international, since the Bible itself was ubiquitous; the Latin language in which they were written also contributed to this European reach. In the twelfth century, medieval religious drama underwent fundamental changes. In the thirteenth century, the Latin Easter play reached its zenith, and in the same century Passion drama developed, while in the twelfth century civic drama outside the liturgy had emerged. The sixteenth century saw another major change. Developments in economy, religion, politics and education (i.e., the influence of humanism and the classical tradition on schooling and literature) prevented the medieval drama tradition from continuing in the same way.

The early modern humanists embraced Latin drama as an important educational tool – in one sense continuing medieval drama by using the Bible for theatrical plays, and in another sense breaking with tradition by turning to classical drama. They began to have their students perform ancient Roman comedies by Plautus and Terence, rediscovering the latter as a playwright rather than an author of dialogues. However, the subjects of these fabulae palliatae were not always respectable. Moreover, the repertoire was limited: six widely read plays by Terence were transmitted, and twenty-one by Plautus, of which only eight were read in the Middle Ages, with Amphitryo being the most popular one. For this reason, the humanists began to write their own, more moralistic plays and had them read and performed by their pupils and students. Vernacular authors also devoted plays to stories and other pericopes of the Bible. Hence in medieval and early modern Europe, when the Bible was materially and culturally omnipresent and everyone was religious in some way, the genre of “biblical drama” emerged.

In principle, “biblical drama” is any theatrical text or performance that takes as its subject a story or theme from the Bible, but in a narrower sense it denotes a type of drama that was spread mainly in Protestant regions in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with it being possible to view the genesis and rise of the validity of this type in the context of humanist and (Counter-)Reformation efforts. Stories from the Old Testament such as those of Abraham, the patriarch Joseph, King David and Queen Esther, and from the New Testament, especially parables such as the Prodigal Son, the Lost Sheep and the Rich Man and Poor Lazarus. were brought to the stage.

This article aims to outline several approaches to pre-modern biblical drama, discussing medieval theatre, but focussing on early modern plays. It will elaborate and argue for a transnational approach to this type of drama, exploring the connections between dramas from different countries and different times and the ways in which new contexts add new meanings and interpretations to dramas and themes. This approach of Transnational Literary Studies (TLS) will turn out to bring together the two main traditions in the study of biblical drama that on the other hand constitute its context. Although important, I will not discuss theatrical-historical and dramaturgical approaches in this survey because, as a literary historian, I focus on the texts and their vicissitudes and will take them as my starting point.

2. Transnational Literary Studies and Earlier Approaches to Early Modern Biblical Drama

Several approaches have been chosen to study biblical drama, the subject of this special issue, which now exist side by side. I will list and briefly discuss some of these approaches, in an order that is neither historical nor evaluatively hierarchical nor exhaustive. I do so in order to offer context for my own analysis, below, which employs a transnational literary reading of several plays. TLS combine several contextual and literary-historical approaches. These approaches will be outlined here, mainly to position TLS in the history of scholarship, partly as an introduction to this issue on pre-modern biblical drama.

Schematically, there are two main traditions in the study of biblical drama: the Anglo-Saxon and the German traditions. Both overlap but tend to have their own focus and way of dealing with biblical drama. The Anglo-Saxon tradition focuses on plays in England, and – almost as a consequence of English theatre history – on periods defined by the ruler (Elizabethan drama, Jacobean theatre, drama under the Tudors, etc.). By contrast, the German tradition tends to focus on themes (King David plays, the theme of the Prodigal Son in theatre), which may be a consequence of Germany being a conglomerate of smaller countries and states that were more or less loosely connected in the Holy Roman Empire under the Habsburgs. It seems that Dutch and Flemish scholars in particular tend to combine the two traditions, because of the relatively small size of their countries and the need to learn several languages as a result of the mercantile part of their economies.

The first approach is that of literary history. Questions asked include: Which themes are treated in which way, and how does this type of drama develop? Which authors were important and became part of the canon? Often such literary histories have focused on the literature of one country, for example the history of Dutch, French, German or Italian drama. Even when such overviews are European or global, they are often structured along the lines of individual countries or linguistic regions.

A subgenre of this approach is the study of particular biblical themes along the lines of dramatic writing. This approach includes studies of Susanna and Esther, the Joseph story and the Prodigal Son, for example. Literary history might also include studies of the structure and style of these plays, or aspects of them, such as the chorus, either acting as a group or in the sense of a chorus song.

The literary history strand also includes comparative literature. This deals with the study of literature across borders and languages too, comparing the treatment of themes, different interpretations of them in different literary works, and different functions and contexts. It is related to transnational literary studies, which will be discussed below.

We can also regard intertextuality as a part of literary history that considers how the meaning or meanings of a text are shaped by another text or texts. There are two main strands to this approach. One looks for deliberate compositional strategies such as translations, quotations and allusions to other, earlier works, while the other proceeds from the conviction that all texts are interrelated when perceived by a reader or an audience.

In line with such literary-historical approaches, philological-critical editions have appeared – and are still appearing – of many dramas written in the vernacular or in Latin. In the case of Neo-Latin drama, the classical reception is often studied, as I myself did in my dissertation, an edition of a Neo-Latin history tragedy in which I assessed the reception of Senecan tragedy in the play. Such editions constitute indispensable material for other approaches by giving in-depth analyses of separate plays and by offering the opportunity to read them, often in translation.

Next, there is a more functionalist approach. This strand looks at (for example) the pedagogical function of Neo-Latin drama as a means of learning conversational Latin, or of biblical drama as a medium for showing how characters from the Bible are examples of good behaviour or counterexamples of bad conduct. This approach might also include the study of early modern (biblical) drama as a medium for developing and communicating political ideas, for example about good or bad governance. This category also includes studies of biblical drama in the confessional struggles of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as a medium of communication or outright propaganda. And one can conceive of theatre as a kind of sermon or worship. Alternatively, theatre was used in the confessional struggle within one city. Another functionalist approach is to look at the role of the audience and their horizon of expectation. This functionalist approach also includes a sociological approach.

One can also take a theological point of departure. What happens theologically in biblical plays? Are there traces of Reformation or Counter-Reformation, or – later – of confessionalization? How are the stories interpreted? Or are they simply told and shown?

One of the issues in early modern drama is the role of women playwrights. Their work has often been suppressed, and they generally are under-researched. Fortunately, this has been remedied in recent decades by gender studies.

Another recent line of research on drama is postcolonial studies. Questions asked include: How are characters or cultures from other continents represented in early modern drama? How did drama reach the colonies and what were its functions there? Issues discussed include the ‘image of Japan’ in drama, the representation of Moors and so on.

3. Transnational Literary Studies

Many of the aforementioned approaches converge in the focus of Transnational Literary Studies on early modern drama. This approach explores and analyses how authors, plays and themes crossed borders – in time and place – and linked countries within Europe and between Europe and the colonies in the West and the East. It shows how drama helped to shape a respublica literaria or a respublica dramatica, and finally asks how themes acquire new interpretations in new contexts and before new audiences. This transnational approach is a strand that has been en vogue for about two decades now and is still evolving. It considers literary history as a dynamic process of ever new relationships between plays and playwrights. This approach examines early modern drama and theatre as part of these dynamic processes, in which playwrights, plays, actors and themes cross borders, travel and circulate, are translated, adapted, and performed, and thus acquire new meanings in new contexts. As such, it combines literary history with other approaches, and in the case of biblical drama it takes into account theological notions and implications that belong to literary history (how themes are presented) but above all to the functions of the dramas: Were they “sermons”; did they function as “propaganda”; were they part of an educational programme that included theology?

But what do we mean by “transnational”? The following may serve as a useful definition of Transnational Literary Studies (TLS):

TLS is concerned with the historical study of texts within one of more networks of literary production and circulation that cross linguistic, geographical, or political boundaries. TLS emphasizes the interdependence of literary texts produced over time and the movement of texts, authors, publishers, and readers in transmitting and shaping the reception and interpretation of literary writing. It focuses on the ways in which the interrelationship and circulation of texts by authors, readers, and the institutions of print culture, and theatre companies determine literary-historical significance of a work – also within and across particular identities – and its meaning within a specific economic, socio-political, and religious context.

TLS therefore goes beyond the boundaries of “the great names” and takes into account what has been called “the great unread,” which may have been local or transnational. It assumes that literary history is not or is not only shaped by the canonical authors but also, perhaps even more so, by those authors who are now unknown yet advanced the dissemination of drama or dramatic elements or themes.

There is one caveat to be made. However useful it may be, the very use of the term “transnational” can be problematic. In an attempt to get rid of national boundaries and the concept of “nation,” the use of the term “transnational” labels a particular territory as a nation and reintroduces the concept of the nation, which was only introduced in the nineteenth century. For this reason, we might be better off terming it “transregional,” but in some cases the regions are quite distant from each other or include countries such as the Netherlands and Spain, or England and Germany. It is important to note that “transnational” exists by the grace of the existence of “national” – in other words, when a text from one “nation” acquires new meanings and functions in another one, the process of change in these meanings and functions implies differences between the two “nations.” In order to analyse this web of transnational connections, the concept of the “polysystem” as developed by the Israeli literary scholar Itamar Even-Zohar is a useful tool – with some adjustments – for analysing the crossing of borders of plays and themes through circulation in print, translation or adaptation, through the migration of authors, in performance by travelling troupes, and over time.

4. Three Transnational Themes in Early Modern Theatre

Some themes were very popular in the early modern period. Three of these may show how a transnational approach can contribute to our understanding.

The most popular theme in early modern theatre was that of the Old Testament patriarch Joseph, which may read like a fairy tale. It has been studied by such scholars as Jean Lebeau, who took a literary-historical point of view and showed the relationships between the dramas, and Ruprecht Wimmer, who took a more functional approach. The theme allowed for functional, political and theological interpretations in drama. Recently, Dinah Wouters has written about transnational aspects of this theme: the introduction and diffusion of names for the wife of Potiphar, the patriarch’s seductress who remained nameless in the Bible, which also shows the dissemination of the theme and of specific plays. She also discussed the justification of innovations in comedy in the Low Countries and Spain, which can be related and are therefore transnational. We will leave it aside and only refer to her publications.

4.1. King David

Another popular Old Testament figure was the Israelite King David. This character was highly appealing to dramatists because of his many-sidedness: he was a shepherd, a musician, a king, an adulterer, a victor over the giant Goliath, a close friend of Jonathan, a murderer of the “brothers,” i.e., the seven sons of Saul, a repentant sinner, and so on. He was a king by the grace of God, and at the same time human, all too human – for example in his illicit love for Bathsheba, whose husband he had killed on the battlefield. In Jesuit theatre, this king of Israel was very popular, especially as an example of the repentant sinner; the famous Italian Jesuit playwright Nicolaus Avancini even published five tragedies about David in a five-volume collection of his plays in 1680. Even more than the printed plays, however, the popularity of the theme can be seen in the programmes, the periochae that the Jesuits often produced. In his Repertory of performances, Jean-Marie Valentin lists 81 plays in the German lands that feature King David as the protagonist or in their titles, and in the periochae edition of Elida Szarota at least 60 Joseph plays appear, ten percent of all plays. Of course, the popularity of the theme was enhanced by the exegetical tradition of the Church, which saw David as a prefiguration of Christ, although the actual typology was rarely brought to the stage. More often than not, from the literal sense of the text David was presented as an example of good or bad behaviour. And in his capacity as king, the figure could serve as a model for kings and rulers, and plays could have political implications as mirrors-of-princes. In any case, through such interpretations, medieval and early modern people placed their own lives in line with God’s plan and within a larger narrative.

In drama, the themes of David were transnational. One example may illustrate this concept. The Dutch poet Joost van den Vondel – who wrote a play called Gebroeders (Brothers, 1640) about the murder of the seven sons of Saul to appease the Gibeonites and stop a famine – must have been familiar with some French tragedies, such as Antoine de Montchrestien’s David ou l’adultère (1600), and Jean de la Taille’s Famine ou les Gabéonites (Famine or the Gibeonites, written between 1563 and 1573). In turn, Vondel’s tragedy was adapted for the German theatre in German by Andreas Gryphius in his Die sieben Brüder (performed in Breslau 1652).

David was also brought to the English stage, albeit not often, for example by George Peele in his The Love of King David and Fair Bethsabe (written 1590; entered into the Stationers’ Register 1594; published 1599). Peele followed the Bible, 2 Samuel 11, as well as Les semaines by the French poet Guillaume du Bartas. A comparison of Dutch and Latin dramas about David in the Low Countries shows that they differed in their treatment of the subject: while Dutch plays often mention contemporary themes or figures, comparing William of Orange or Prince Maurice with David, for instance, the Latin plays confine themselves to the moral aspects of fear of God and pride, which is related to their audience, namely the bourgeoisie for the Dutch plays, pupils and students and their families for the Latin ones. The choice of subjects is also related to this difference, with Dutch plays often showing David defeating his enemies (David and Saul, David and Goliath) and Latin ones tending to focus on the story of David and Absalom, when David defeats his rebellious son. This theme allowed the authors to thematize punishment, repentance and sorrow. Whereas comparison highlights the specific character and functions of each play, transnationalism seeks to understand how the theme travelled and what was changed and why, and what changes in meaning and function were involved in this circulation.

4.2. Esther/Hester or Haman Story

Another Old Testament theme that was often brought to the early modern stage was that of Queen Esther/Hester/Edessa and Haman, known from the Book of Esther. This book reads like a novel – the Persian King Ahasuerus dispels his wife, Queen Vashti, for disobeying his orders. A new queen must be found and a beauty contest is held. Esther, a Jewish girl, is chosen. Her cousin Mordechai, a Jewish leader, discovers that Haman, one of the King’s advisors, is plotting to kill all the Jews in the Persian Empire. Mordechai persuades Esther to plead with the King to save the Jewish people, which she does – successfully. Haman is hanged, and the Israelites are saved. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, six chapters were added, including a prayer by Mordechai.

The story was often performed in the early modern period. In his literary-historical study, Rudolf Schwartz discusses at least thirty versions in German and Latin from 1530 until well into the seventeenth century, including travelling troupes, puppet theatre and Jesuit plays. English troupes in Germany performed Königin Esther und Hoffartigen Haman (Queen Hester and Proud Haman) in Dresden in 1626. Such biblical plays aimed to spread biblical knowledge, but often Protestant authors used them to combat ‘papal erroneous teachings’, while the humanists added educational aims. One of the most influential ones was Thomas Naogeorgus’ (or Kirchmayer’s) Hamanus (1543). This play began a tradition of plays that centred on the downfall of the protagonist Haman, and which proved very popular, especially after the appearance of the German translation by the Hessen church minister Johannes Chryseus (1546) and another German translation by Joannes Mercurius and M. Joannes Postius (preserved in a Heidelberg manuscript, c. 1570). Wolfgang Kuntzel used Chryseus’ version of the play and added to it elements from plays in the second tradition of Esther plays in his Die schöne und sehr tröstlich Histori Esther (The Beautiful and Comforting History of Esther, printed in Jena, 1564). Plays in this second tradition featured the entire story, such as the Comedia: Die gantze hystori der Hester zu recedirn (Comedy That Will Tell the Entire Story of Esther, 1536) by the Nuremberg Meistersänger Hans Sachs, which inspired Andreas Pfeilschmidt (1555), who also drew on Chryseus’ translation and, living in Dresden, published his Esther play (Ein hübsch und Christlich Spiel des gantzen Buchs Esther, darinne schöne und tröstliche Exempel verfasset sind, or A Lovely and Christian Play of the Entire Book of Esther, which Includes Beautiful and Comforting Examples) in Frankfurt am Main in 1555. A transregional web of Esther plays was thus created.

The theme occurred also in other countries. An early example of an Esther play is the Italian verse mystery La Representatione della Reina Hester (c. 1500). In Spain, Felipe Godínez’s Comedia famosa Aman, y Mardoqueo, por otro titulo: La Horca para su dueño (The Famous Comedy of Haman and Mordechai, also: The Gallows for its Owner) appeared in 1777. As is often the case, Spain was developing on its own and had little contact with other countries. In England, William Gager had performed his Esther in English at Christ Church, Oxford in 1599. The story had also been the subject of at least one interlude (entertaining sixteenth-century short play): Godly Queen Hester (first printed in 1561). This play omitted the character of Vashti and muted the role of Mordechai but contained political undertones reflecting popular dissatisfaction with King Henry VIII and his government. In these treatments of the Esther story, England’s “splendid isolation” was also evident.

In France, Antoine de Montchrestien published his Aman ou la vanité in 1601, while Pierre du Ryer’s Esther appeared in 1642. It was not until 1689 that Jean Racine wrote Esther, une tragédie at the request of Françoise d’Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon, the wife of King Louis XIV, which in turn formed the basis of George Frederick Handel’s masque or chamber drama Esther (1718, revised 1720), and his full-length oratorio of the same title (1732). Handel thus took the theme – in a transnational way – from Paris to London.

In the Jewish tradition the Book of Esther was read at the Purim Feast (a kind of carnival). This gave rise to a number of Yiddish Purim plays (Purimshpiln), beginning in the mid-sixteenth century. These plays often depicted the inversion of the social order, as did the Book of Esther itself. One example is Solomon Usque’s Portuguese play Esther, first performed in Venice in 1558, and later revised by Leone Modena. It was quite successful and also attracted many non-Jews to its performances. These Purim plays were written in Yiddish or in another language. In Spanish, La comedia famosa de Aman y Mordechai was printed in Leiden in 1699 and also performed in Amsterdam.

The story of Esther was appealing and dramatic in itself for its contrast between the fall of the mighty and the exaltation of the lowly, or of the characters of Vashti versus Esther and Haman versus Mordechai. It was also appealing for its story of the salvation of the oppressed, which could be interpreted typologically in a broader sense, in the sense that the opposition between Jews and Persians could easily be applied to the opposition between Protestants and Roman Catholics. In the Low Countries, Cornelius Laurimannus used the theme to defend the Roman Catholic Church. The downfall of Haman was particularly suited to tragedy. The transnational history of the Esther plays can thus be approached in literary-historical (including comparative) as well as functionalist and theological ways, each of which contributes to a transnational understanding of the history of drama.

4.3. The Prodigal Son

The most popular New Testament theme was the parable of the Prodigal Son. The early modern vogue of the theme began in the Netherlands with Guilielmus Gnapheus’ Acolastus (The Unbridled One, 1529) and in Germany with Burckhard Waldis’ De parabell vam vorlorn Sohn (The Parable of the Lost Son, 1527). It is probably no coincidence that both plays were written shortly after Martin Luther published his 95 theses in Wittenberg in 1517, marking the beginning of the confessional strife and the Reformation. Gnapheus’ play was translated into German, French, Swedish and English many times. It was thus read in Latin at many gymnasia and Latin schools, translated and performed, thereby receiving a transnational reception. Without listing the numerous performances and editions, it can be said that at least 30 plays were written and produced in Latin, German, Dutch, English, French, Spanish, Czech, Swedish and Italian.

The parable of Jesus as told in Lk 15:11–32 is well known: A father has two sons, and the youngest one wants to explore the world and asks for his share. He lives a life of luxury, squanders his possessions and is forced to tend swine. Then he returns to his father and, to the annoyance of the eldest son, is welcomed back and accepted in grace.

The popularity of the theme of the Prodigal Son in drama has several reasons. First, it fits in with some of the plays of Terence (and Plautus), as a part of the revival of the ancient comoedia palliata in sixteenth-century drama. In Terence’s Heautontimorumenos the Prodigal Son is restored by his father’s wisdom and the Adelphoi deals with the dilemma between the uncle’s overly liberal upbringing and the father’s excessively strict education. Secondly, the parable gave the playwrights the opportunity to stage three scenes: the scene in which the frivolous youngest son says goodbye to his old father, the stay in the “evil world,” and the return home – with or without the scene of the eldest son. Thirdly, in biblical exegesis the parable “worked” on at least four levels, which we could label with the medieval fourfold interpretation of the Bible, the quadriga: (1) the sensus literalis: the depiction of the relationship between a father and a son, the ‘clash of the generations’; (2) the sensus tropologicus or moralis: the wish of younger generations to live their own life and the admonition to avoid living an unholy life (3) the sensus typologicus: the father can be identified with the eternal Father, God, the son to every human being; (4) the sensus anagogicus: the father’s grace points to the eternal salvation of the repentant sinner, i.e., of every human. And fourth, there may also be a psychological-political reason for the Prodigal’s popularity. Authors in the Elizabethan era adapted the theme of the rebellious Prodigal to warn of the potential danger of rebellion and to deal with fears of social and political change. Theology could easily be turned into mentality, morality and politics.

Guilielmus Gnapheus (or Fullonius, or Willem de Volder, 1493–1568) was a transnational author. He had studied in Cologne and Leuven, and then became rector scholae in The Hague, where he performed and published his Acolastus (1528 and 1529, resp.). In 1531 he fled to Elbing in Royal Prussia where he founded a gymnasium. Another ten years later, in 1541 he was forced to emigrate, and he went to Königsberg in Ducal Prussia where he became Rector of the Pedagogium and a university professor. In 1547 he had to flee again and went to East Frisia.

The play Acolastus was probably first performed by Gnapheus himself in The Hague in 1528. He performed it again in Elbing in 1536. This comoedia sacra, written in imitation of the Roman comoedia palliata and based on a biblical theme, deals with a controversial subject: God’s grace, which was a shibboleth of Lutheranism. The father’s gracious pardon is vividly depicted. Despite its Lutheran theme, it has been debated whether the play is Lutheran or more generally Christian.

This corresponds to the Paris edition of 1554, which contains an extensive Latin commentary by the teacher and theologian Gabriel Dupreau or Prateolus. He treated the play as a drama from which a pupil or student could learn colloquial Latin. Furthermore, Dupreau also treated the play as a Fundgrube of Terentian phraseology, citing parallels from Terence’s plays and discussing its moral implications, while refraining from any confessional polemic. The 1540 edition of the Latin original featuring two English translations (one in prose, one in verse) and a commentary by John Palsgrave, is clearly an educational textbook. This edition probably had a considerable influence on English literature, perhaps even on Shakespeare’s drama.

Acolastus was translated and adapted many times. Often, the final scene of the parable, the wrath of the elder brother, was omitted. However, one adaptation by Jörg or Georg Binder, published in 1535, deliberately added this scene, in which a servant and the father urge the other son, called Eunomius (“the one who keeps the law”), to reconcile with his brother. The focus thus shifts from the merciful grace of the father to the reconciliation of the brothers. This change may have come from a desire to bridge the gap between the Roman Catholic Church and the Reformation movement. In his representation of the parable, Binder has omitted the common interpretation of the parable in which the eldest son represents the Jewish people or Jewish leaders, and the youngest the non-Jews.

The play is a clear indication of the transnational fame of Latin drama from the Netherlands. Originally written for a Dutch context, it enjoyed transnational resonance. The influence of Neo-Latin drama from the Low Countries is particularly evident in the German-speaking countries, which is understandable since both were part of the same political entity, the Holy Roman Empire. The comedy played an important role in German and English literary history, and functioned in several ways: politically, theologically and pedagogically. With regard to theology and pedagogy, however, the authors failed to see the implicit tension between the theologians’ point of view of the necessity of God’s grace for salvation and humans’ inability to contribute to their own salvation, and the pedagogues’ confidence in the ability of humanity to learn to live a better life – also apart from divine grace.

Printers played an important role in the circulation of plays by printing, distributing and selling them. As a result, they also contributed to the dissemination of themes. Printers and publishers such as Ioannes Gymnicus or Johann Gymnich in Cologne, or Michael Hillenius or Michiel Hillen van Hoochstraten in Antwerp published many Latin plays, including Acolastus. It should be investigated whether the Cologne publishing house, which had an office in Antwerp, was in contact with local Antwerp printers and used Antwerp prints as copy for its own publications, or what contacts, if any, printers in the Low Countries had with colleagues in England, for instance. Or did they see and buy books at book fairs? In general, more research is needed into the interrelationships of printers in their role as mediators of dramatic texts.

Another way in which plays were disseminated was through travelling troupes. The theme of the Prodigal Son was also popular with, for example, English strolling players on the continent. Travelling companies performed Prodigal Son plays in Nördlingen (1604), Passau (1607) and Graz (1608), as well as in Dresden (1676), Bamberg (1760) and Riga (1718). However, the exact texts they performed are not known, especially as they often adapted them to their own wishes or according to the actors available in their troupes.

5. Concluding Remarks

Transnational Literary Studies (TLS) explores literary works in their transnational contexts and relationships and considers literature as a process. Each of the three themes discussed – David, Esther and the Prodigal Son – appealed to a European audience for its own reasons, which may have been different in each country and in each situation. Playwrights adapted the stories – even if a biblical story did not allow for much variation, since the Holy Scripture could not be changed – with their own additions and interpretations or hermeneutics. Humanists added the idea of learning good behaviour, without realizing the tension this didactic goal created with the theology of divine providence. Themes were also used to express political and confessional-political ideas, such as good and bad governance in the case of David, grace and good deeds in the case of the Prodigal Son, and the defence of the “old” religion against the Reformation or vice-versa.

TLS thus shows the many networks of dramas across countries, reveals new interpretations of themes in new contexts, and endeavours to answer the question of why such changes took place. TLS bases itself on such issues as the similarities and dissimilarities between plays. The similarities – and the relationships between them – can be further explored with the help of digital humanities. Tools for tracing textual reuses reveal similarities at the lexical and grammatical levels, stylometry at the stylistic level, and topic modelling at the thematic level, as my PhD student Andrea Peverelli has shown. Biblical themes, such as those of Joseph, King David, Esther and the Prodigal Son, can be studied in this way. It will be interesting to compare the spread and routes of dissemination of these and other themes, to discover the similarities and differences and to try to explain them. Digital humanities helps us to see connections between plays and playwrights more easily, and to map lines across countries. It allows us to place familiar, canonical works in new contexts, to evaluate them, to better understand their genesis and to understand how and why the plays or themes circulated. At a time when the Bible was ubiquitous and many themes were transnational, biblical drama is an excellent genre to focus on, especially biblical drama.