To Out-Herod Herod: The Development of a Dramatic Character

Abstract

Though Hamlet refers to the presentation of Herod as a raging braggart in the English mystery cycles, he is selecting only one of the two divergent strains which form medieval drama's continual fascination with the depiction of Herod. Hamlet's admonishment to the players, his objection to overacting, is based on the ranting tyrant who appears in some of the cycles. Within the figure of Herod, however, medieval drama finds much more than merely a bragging buffoon. Some cycles portray Herod as a tragic figure, the fatal victim of overreaching pride. More than any other single character in medieval drama, Herod becomes a variety of persons under one name. From the wretched villain of biblical and apocryphal accounts, Herod grows in liturgical drama to a figure of potential comedy, potential tragedy, and increasingly less villainy. In the mystery cycles he reaches the apex of his dramatic career as he becomes at times the comic braggart, at times the tragic ruler, at times a combination of comic and tragic hero. Through a brief study of Herod's growth, first in the apocryphal works and biblical commentaries and then in the liturgical drama, we can begin to see the formation of two separate strains,