Drama
As in most European nations, the religious drama takes a prominent place in a survey of medieval literature in the Low Countries. The earliest existing fragment is part of a Maastricht Passover Play of about 1360. There is also a Holy Sacrament, composed by a certain Smeken at Breda and performed in 1500. In addition to these purely theological dramas there were acted mundane plays and farces, performed outside the churches by semi-religious companies; these curious moralities were known as Abele Spelen ("Worthy Plays") and Sotternien ("Silly Plays"). In these pieces we discover the first traces of that genius for low comedy which was afterwards to take perfect form in the dramas of Bredero and the paintings of Teniers.
As for prose, the oldest pieces of Dutch prose now in existence are charters of towns in Flanders and Zeeland, dated 1249, 1251 and 1254. Beatrice of Nazareth (1200–1268) was the first known prose writer in the Dutch language, the author of the notable dissertation known as the Seven Ways of Holy Love. From the other Dutch mystics whose writings have reached us, the Brussels friar Jan van Ruusbroec (better known in English as the Blessed John of Ruysbroeck, 1293/4–1381), the "father of Dutch prose" stands out. A prose translation of the Old Testament was made about 1300, and there exists a Life of Jesus of around the same date.
Interesting relics of medieval Dutch narrative, as far as the formation of the language is concerned, are the popular romances in which the romantic stories of the minstrels were translated for the benefit of the unlettered public into simple language.
Read more about this topic: Medieval Dutch Literature
Famous quotes containing the word drama:
“By whatever means it is accomplished, the prime business of a play is to arouse the passions of its audience so that by the route of passion may be opened up new relationships between a man and men, and between men and Man. Drama is akin to the other inventions of man in that it ought to help us to know more, and not merely to spend our feelings.”
—Arthur Miller (b. 1915)
“To save the theatre, the theatre must be destroyed, the actors and actresses must all die of the plague. They poison the air, they make art impossible. It is not drama that they play, but pieces for the theatre. We should return to the Greeks, play in the open air: the drama dies of stalls and boxes and evening dress, and people who come to digest their dinner.”
—Eleonora Duse (1858–1924)
“A good drama critic is one who perceives what is happening in the theatre of his time. A great drama critic also perceives what is not happening.”
—Kenneth Tynan (1927–1980)