In scenam datus est cum plausu: Das Theater der Jesuiten in Passau (1612-1775) by Sandra Krump (review)

Abstract

MLRy 98.4, 2003 1035 and of German poetry of the high and later Middle Ages generally. She offerssome excellent analyses of particular songs (such as the allegories ofthe artistas falconer and as silver miner in songs 331 and 250) or groups of songs (such as Beheim's variations on the 'Wolfram-Rolle' in songs 283,161, and 71). Another section examines Beheim's variation of and experimentation with differentposes in his songs and his relationship with his public. Her particular concern, however, is with the question of the nature of what she calls Beheim's "'Ich"-Rolle'. While acknowledging the importance of work by Ingeborg Spriewald, Frieder Schanze, Albrecht Classen, Ulrich Muller, William C. McDonald, and many others, she finds that previous scholarship has not addressed adequately the'" Ich"-Rolle' which is such a prominent feature of Beheim's work. Given that the formula Ich, Michel Peham occurs forty-seven times while a third-person reference to himself is found thirty-six times, it is evident that these self-references merit thorough investigation. By means of close reading and detailed analysis of the songs concerned, she is able to demonstrate how Beheim's use of selfreference develops and changes during the three phases of his career, how traditional topoi are adapted, and where the boundaries may lie between fact and fictionality. This book is no easy read, but it is very clearly a significant contribution not only to the assessment of Beheim specifically but also to the study of late medieval poetry more generally, inasmuch as it constructively addresses important questions about the nature of 'autobiographical' elements in such verse. The book has a good index, a substantial bibliography, and more than twelve hundred (often lengthy) footnotes. Institute of Germanic Studies, London John L. Flood In scenam datus est cum plausu: Das Theater der Jesuiten in Passau (1612-iyy^). By Sandra Krump. (Studium Litterarum: Studien und Texte zur deutschen Literaturgeschichte, 3) Berlin: Weidler. 2000. 2 vols. 290 and 410 pp. ?79. ISBN 3-89693-159-9 (pbk). To some readers local studies may seem an outdated genre, but there is nothing tradi? tional or parochial about this remarkable contribution to our ever-widening awareness of the drama of the Jesuits. Sandra Krump's study covers a century and a half and displays a keen understanding of her topic in its wider historical context. Moreover, she is able to relate what was being written and performed at the Jesuit College in Passau to the multimedia events of our own day and even to science fiction without for a moment lapsing into anachronism or over-simplification. No publication in the domain of Jesuit drama, not even the late Elida Maria Szarota's monumental Dasjesuitendramaim deutschenSprachgebiet, 3 vols (Munich: Fink, 1979-83),or Jean-Marie Valentin's invaluable Le Theatre desjesuites dans les pays de langue allemande, 2 vols (Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1983-84), has made a better case for its intrinsic qualities: indeed the brief section with which she concludes the firstvolume of her study ('Das Jesuitentheater im 17., 18. und 21. Jahrhundert', 1, 271-74) not only tells the reader more about Jesuit drama than any other four pages on the subject ever published: it is also a masterpiece of focused, cogent summing-up. Krump opens her second volume with a particularly interesting example of Passau 's Jesuit drama entitled FerdinandusCastellanus, produced on 29 September 1630. The Latin text, reproduced in full (n, 37-73), is furnished with a parallel transla? tion, useful footnotes, and an efficientplot summary, and may be read with pleasure and profit thanks to her discussion of its topical relevance at a turning point in the Thirty Years War, the position its anonymous author carefully adopts regarding the justification of warfare, and its value as an example of effectivepropaganda on behalf of the Catholic cause. Nor is its literary interest overlooked: its debts to the Aeneid, 1036 Reviews frequently pinpointed in Krump's footnotes to the text, are discussed in satisfying detail. Two other dramas, Deodatus (1713) and Parmenio (1763), are given equally spacious treatment, and are complemented by programme summaries of eight other plays in facsimile with contemporary or modern translations. Latin drama in Passau had...