Herod the Great in Medieval European Drama Miriam Anne Skey Herod the Great, as he appears in the English mystery plays, has recently been the subject of critical attention which has shown him to be a complex and multi-faceted character. Penelope Doob visualizes him as a mad sinner whose “wilful madness could never be cured” so that he was doomed to death and damnation,1 while David Staines sees a “diversity in the presentation of Herod in the mystery cycles . . . as he becomes at times the comic braggart, at times the tragic ruler, at times the combination of comic and tragic hero.”2 Thus complexity and variety in the presentations of Herod in English drama have been adequately appreciated. However, European drama developed even different traditions for representing Herod the Great, and it is the European approach to Herod that will be the subject of this paper. In the vernacular drama of the con tinent, great emphasis was often placed on the role of Herod as a courteous and sophisticated ruler, meeting foreign guests in a highly civilized and sumptuous medieval court, while in English drama he tended to develop into an arrogant, blustering, and blaspheming tyrant in a relatively simple and somewhat crude court. An examination of the treatment of Herod in the vernacular drama of Europe prior to the sixteenth century, a topic which has not yet received sufficient attention by modem scholars,3 may serve to deepen our appreciation of the English Herod still further, while giving us a view of an entirely dif ferent interpretation of this king by the continental dramatists. I Sources for the interpretation of Herod, both as the success ful king of European drama and as the infamous villain of 330 Miriam Anne Skey 331 English drama, date from the first century and enjoyed great popularity throughout the Middle Ages. The earliest source, Josephus, the first-century Jewish historian, included the many successes as well as the horrible disasters of Herod’s career in his extensive versions of this monarch’s role in Jewish history in the War of the Jews4 and the Antiquities of the Jews.5 Herod ruled successfully for thirty-seven years (longer than any other Jewish king) until his death at the advanced age of seventy. During his reign the country was at peace; old cities were re stored and new ones built; Jerusalem was transformed and Solo mon’s Temple rebuilt; trade flourished.6 However, according to Josephus, Herod was plagued by domestic troubles and, at the end of his life, by a horrible, wasting disease which drove him to savage acts and to a desperate, though unsuccessful, attempt at suicide. Josephus describes in detail Herod’s appalling illness and savagery, just as he did his earlier military and diplomatic brilliance. Biblical, apocryphal, and patristic writers took an entirely different attitude towards Herod since they stressed his villainy. The only canonical gospel to mention Herod’s interview with the Magi and his plan to massacre the Innocents is Matthew’s. Although it is quite likely that Josephus was one of the sources for the writer of the Gospel of Matthew, it should be noted that nowhere in Josephus or in any other contemporary his tories is there any mention of the Massacre of the Innocents.7 Early Christian writers were interested in emphasizing only the evil aspects of Herod the Great: they concentrated on his wily reception of the Magi and their news, his hypocrisy in bidding them report back to him, his rage at being deceived and his savagery in ordering the Massacre of the Innocents. He was primarily the first enemy of Christ, just as Satan was the first enemy of God, and was accordingly vilified and condemned, becoming a grand symbol of evil, wickedness, and misused power. Ultimately he became associated with the devil himself.8 Patristic writers especially delighted in describing Herod’s death. As this event is given full treatment in European drama, the historical facts of the matter and the medieval interpretation of these facts should be noted here. Although Matthew gives no details about Herod’s death, Josephus had made it quite clear that near the end of his...