Hrosvit

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Hrosvit
Hrosvit

Hrosvit, also known as Hroswitha, Hrotsvit, Roswitha, and Hroswitha of Gandersheim, (c. 935; after 973) was a Monastic Christian poet who lived and worked in Gandersheim, located in present-day Lower Saxony. She wrote in Latin, and is considered by some to be the first person since antiquity to compose drama.

Contents

[edit] Life

Albrecht Dürer woodcut of Roswitha and Otto the Great, 1501
Albrecht Dürer woodcut of Roswitha and Otto the Great, 1501

She was a nun at a Benedictine abbey in Gandersheim and was of a noble family. Her work shows familiarity with not only Church fathers, but also Classical poetry, including Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Plautus and Terence (on whom her verse form is modelled), and several of her plays draw on the so-called apocryphal gospels. Her works form part of the Ottonian Renaissance.

Hrosvit studied under Gerberg, daughter of Henry-the Heinrich, whose brother Otto penned a history. Otto's history became one of Hrosvit's poetical subjects-De Gestis Oddonis I. Imperatoris-which encompasses the period up to the coronation of Emperor Otto I in 962.

Hrosvit believed Otto had an affinity for Italy because of romances which are set there such as the story of Geoffrey Rudel. Pilgrims returned commending the troubled Queen Adelheid. Hrosvit penned a number of legends in verse. Two of these are St. Gingulphus and Theophilus.

The story of Theophilus was one of the most popular written in any language. It describes how the young archdeacon was disappointed about his promotion. He consults a Jewish sorcerer and is taken to a meeting of devils. Theophilus renounces God in a written document, then repents. He is rescued by the Virgin Mary. Hrosvit supplements the story with her description of Theophilus in The Seven Arts:- De Sophia rivis septeno fonte manantis.

The most well known and original of the works of Hrosvit is her imitation of Terence. It was written in prose as six comedies. She writes in her preface that her writing will appeal to many who are attracted by the charm of style.

The comedies of Hrosvit took the place of Terence in the studies of Gandersheim. Her themes remained love stories. Among them include Gallicanus, Dulcitius, Callimachus, Abraham, Paphnutius, and Sapientia. The reader will note Dulcitius being stricken with illusion, embracing the pots and kettles in the kitchen. In the meantime three lovely maidens, Agape, Chionia, and Irene, are rescued from his villainy.

[edit] Works

The most important manuscript of her works, containing all the texts other than Primorida, is the Codex Bayerische Staatsbibliothek(Bavarian State Library) Clm 14485, a manuscript written by several hands in Gandersehim toward the end of the 10th or start of the 11th centuries. It was discovered by the Humanist Conrad Celtis in 1493/94 in the Cloister of St. Emmeram in Regensburg and formed the first edition (illustrated by Albrecht Dürer).

Her plays feature the chastity and perseverance of Christian women and contrast these to the Latin portrayal of women as weak and emotional. Her Passio Sancti Pelagii is derived, she says, from an eyewitness to the martyrdom of Pelagius of Cordova.

Hrosvit divided her work herself into three books. The Book of Legends contained eight legends— with the exception of Gongolf—in dactylic hexameters:

The Book of Drama would present a Christian alternative to Terrence. These are the six plays, that are not so much Drama as "dialogues", and are a medieval example of closet drama:

The third book comprised two historical writings in Latin Hexameters: the Gesta Ottonis (a history of the Ottonian houses 919-965) and the Primordia coenobii Gandeshemensis (a history of her order from 846-919). Neither has survived, but further works may be discovered.

[edit] Modern editions

[edit] Contemporary References

Since 1973 Bad Gandersheim has annually awarded the Roswitha Prize, named for Hrosvit, to female writers; since 1974 the Roswitha Ring has been awarded at the close of each summer season of the Gandersheimer Domfestspiele to the outstanding actress.

In 2006, American feminist drama group Guerrilla Girls on Tour issued the "First Annual Hrosvitha Challenge" on their website, announcing that they would bestow the First Annual Hrosvitha Award on whichever professional theater decides "to scrap their plans of producing yet another production of a Greek tragedy and instead produce a play by Hrosvitha, the first female playwright".

Frequently referred to in John Kennedy Toole's comic masterpiece "A Confederacy of Dunces" as Hroswitha.

[edit] Sources

  • Fidel Rädle, Hrotsvit von Gandersheim. In: Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters. Verfasserlexikon 4 (1983) pp 196-210
  • R. Düchting, in: Lexikon des Mittelalters vol. 5, 148-149
  • Ker William Paton, The Dark Ages, Mentor Books, First Printing, May 1958, Pages 117-118.

[edit] External links

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