WHEN AND HOW DOES GOD APPEAR ON CROATIAN STAGE
(THE DIVINE ON CROATIAN MEDIEVAL STAGE)
Before saying anything about God and the other abstract persons as stage characters in the Croatian medieval theatre, I would like to give a brief introduction about Croatian medieval theatre in order to provide the context for my paper.
The history of Croatian religious drama and theatre begins with two liturgical dramas (Visitatio Sepulchri and Tractus stellae) preserved in so-called Missale Aniqussimum, which was brought to Zagreb at the end of 11th century. Because of neumas, notes on margins, small changes of text, we can be sure that Tractus Stellae (Play of Three Magi) was performed and not only once, but there’s no such evidence for Visitatio Sepulchri. There’s also a fragment – Adoration of the Cross – written in Old Church Slavic language which was liturgical language of southern part of Croatia.
If we say that liturgical drama developed in the northern (continental) part of Croatia (this Old Church Slavic fragment isn’t enough to state that there was liturgical drama on that liturgical language), would it be a surprise that all vernacular drama was written in southern (Adriatic) part of Croatia. Sudden development of theatre and drama in vernacular was stimulated by fraternities that emerged and widespread in 13th century under Italian influence.
Extant plays could be classified according to various criteria:
The easiest way is to say that there are mystery plays, saints’ plays and "embryos" of morality plays. There is no Corpus Christi play or cycle but only one cycle performed during the Holy Week.
Mystery plays are the oldest and the longest-lasting genre of Croatian medieval drama. Many Croatian scholars find the development of Croatian religious medieval drama in vernacular very alike to Italian one, so they adopt the scheme: laud – dialogued laud – rudimentary dramatisation – a play; and usually extend that scheme replacing last part of the chain with anonymous authors’ plays and authors’ plays. The most popular and the most elaborated subject of Croatian mystery plays is Christ’s Passion, Death and Resurrection. The oldest preserved fragments (from early 14th century) are on this subject, precisely on Passion. Passion plays were written even in Renaissance and Baroque, so the "youngest" drama containing some medieval features is written in second half of the 18th century.
In 16th century, together with the authors, an important change in choice of the subject of the play “arrived “: suddenly the stories from Old Testament became an interesting material for dramatisation. The most popular one is about Isaac (Abraham’s sacrifice), and Mavro Vetranović, who also wrote the play about Susanna and the play about Joseph the Prophet, made the first dramatisation of that story. There are many plays about Isaac but almost half of them are adaptations of Metastasio’s libretto.
Eschatological plays are very rare and almost all of them are adaptations of some foreign origin. The reason why there’s not so many preserved Nativity plays lies probably in performing circumstances. The weather was much better in the early spring and there was only rain that could stop the performance. Even the religious fanatics would find hard to perform or watch something in the open area (almost all performances were held that way) because of the cold wind that blows during the winter, especially in Christmas time.
There are two miracle/saints’ plays that shouldn’t be excluded even from the shortest speech about Croatian medieval drama: Play of Saint Lawrence, not only because it is very complex and long, but also because it has been performed during centuries, almost to the present day; and Play of Saint Margaret, the most popular woman saint in this area, which is preserved in four versions.
And what can we say about so-called moralities: those plays are discussions between flash and soul that take place in the very last minutes of their being together.
Croatian religious medieval drama is interesting because it doesn’t vanish with the arrival of Renaissance drama and theatre, but goes alongside. As mentioned before, the pattern of medieval play lasts until the end of 18th century. One of the reasons is Counter-Reformation, but we can’t exclude the taste of the audience. It is obvious that people liked this kind of theatre; if they hadn’t, no new plays would be written, and the authors who also wrote secular plays wouldn’t wasted time writing something that no one would put on stage. Of course, these plays were not exactly the same as their medieval "ancestors" – sometimes the verse is different, sometimes there are elaboration and extensions because of the taste of the Period, but the tastes changed and these plays always "spoke medieval language".
When I applied for participating in this Conference I wanted to give the paper about the character of God on the Croatian medieval stage, but after the research I decided to include all manifestations of divine power on that stage – according to the topic: The verbal made visual.
The Divine from the subtitle of my paper includes: God in his Trinity (God the Father; Christ, the Son; and the Holy Ghost) together with the Virtues and Angels. I also had in mind the triple activity of God as Creator, Redeemer and Judge.
God the Father doesn’t often step on the Croatian medieval stage, especially not in person, and when he does and has a great deal of action it is almost always in plays in which Christ can’t replace him. For example God the Father appears in Annunciation plays.
There are two extant Annunciation plays, both written in 16th century and both in octosyllabic couplets. The synopsis is also similar for both plays: Old Testament Patriarchs and Prophets in Limbo discuss the prophecies of the coming of Messiah and that he will be conceived by the virgin. This discussion is led by Adam; the source for this scene could be found in the Ordo Prophetarum, which was part of Christmas liturgy, and it ended the same way as in these plays with prophecies of various Sybille. After Limbo scene follows the scene in the Heaven (so-called Trial in Heaven): angels are praying God the Father to listen to pleads of the souls from Limbo, he consults the Virtues, and after a while decides to send the Son to the Earth. Gabriel descends to the Earth and announces the News to Mary.
The older play is found on island of Krk (Northern part of the Adriatic) and it is written by anonymous author. More than half of the action is in Limbo, and the scenes on Heaven are shorter. God the Father consults Virtues: Truth, Mercy, Peace and Justice first, but they can’t agree should he fulfil pleads from Limbo, especially because of Adam’s sin Truth and Justice are against it. Then God the Father asks for the judgement of Love. After short argument Love wins and God sends angels to the Earth to find the Man without sin that could redeem the human race. Angels couldn’t find any man with such qualities and advice God to send his own Son. They agree and God the Father sends Gabriel accompanied with two angels to the Earth to find Mary and tell her that she is chosen to give birth to Son of God. At that moment Mary is, after having read Isaiah’s prophecy about the Virgin that is to bear the Messiah, praying to God that she may meet and serve that virgin. After Gabriel’s speech comes the dove (on the rope) and touches Mary’s lips. The play ends with Magnificat in vernacular.
The other play is written by Sabić Mladinić, who lived on island of Brač (southern pa
rt of Adriatic). This play has a prologue and ends with song dedicated to the Virgin. It is divided to four acts which are taking place on different locations. First act is in Limbo: the same actions as in the older play but shorter, and with more elaborated stage directions. The second act is taking place in Heaven: it is also shorter in "trial scenes" (only the Justice and the Mercy), but has additional devils’ scene. When Michael is sent to find the person that could redeem the human race, on his way to the Earth, he stops by the Limbo to bring good news to the Patriarchs. Hearing the news Lucifer and his "army" jump out of the Hell to hear more, and Lucifer remembers that after Fall of Man God told him that one day the woman would stop his dirty activities. The second act ends with Michael’s wandering on the Earth and he comes back to Heaven in the beginning of the third act. God is determinant to save the human race, but on the Earth there’s only one woman that is pure. God asks Wisdom for advice. She tells him to send his own Son and he does so. The Annunciation scene is basically the same as in older play, just a bit shorter. The fourth act is Visit to Elisabeth.In both plays the complete Saint Trinity is on the scene. God the Father is, according to the stage directions, represented as a sovereign – he has advisors, couriers and the army, of course. He sits on throne and gives orders. Those that speak to him have to get down on their knees first. Christ is mentioned as the Son, therefore he looks like sovereign’s son. His action is limited – he only agrees with the orders. The Holy Ghost is present in the form of the dove, the same way as medieval iconography prescribes for the Annunciation scene, and that manner of representing the Holy Ghost remained in almost all artistic representations of the Biblical scenes.
We can conclude that Heaven looks like contemporary court and that scenic gesture is also "copied" from the same source. These plays are interesting because they confirm the Creed – three persons in one, all three are the God, and they together are the God too. Christ was born from his Father, descended to the Earth to redeem the human race and was born by Mary that conceived him with the help of the Holy Ghost.
In The Assumption of the Virgin
written by Mladinić too, we find the same way of staging Heaven and representing God the Father. At the opening of the play he consults Virtues (Justice, Strength, Mercy and Wisdom) and his Son if they should “call Mary to join them in Heaven”. Son (in stage direction Jesus) sends Gabriel to fetch her and she accepts the invitation. The rest of the play depicts Mary’s farewell to her friends and apostles, the Assumption, when Christ comes accompanied by the angels to take Mary’s body and brings it to the Heaven, her meeting with God the Father when he puts crown made of stars on her head (Coronation in Heaven). The play ends on Earth with her "funeral" and the miracles that happened during it. God the Father is again a sovereign, and in this occasion he invests with an order his devoted subjects.The play about John the Baptist was probable written by the same author, Mladinić. All three persons of the Holy Trinity appear here. Christ in his Earthly role as a man, God the Father as the “Voice from the Heave
n" and the Holy Ghost as the dove in the moment of Christ’s baptism.In Old Testament play about Abraham’s sacrifice, written by Mavro Vetranović in the early 16
th century, God the Father was represented by "Voice from Heaven".Vetranović’s plays are ver
y interesting because he is the late medieval and early Renaissance author – his plays are medieval but he adds some Renaissance elements. For example, his shepherds live life of their own; they have personality and are concerned with practical matters. They talk about wolfs that kill sheep, bad weather, not having enough food and water. They are afraid of outlaws in the hills, but at the same time dream about wood nymphs. Vetranović also uses some expressions that were part of poems in Petrarcha’s manner that his contemporaries used to write. Like in Nativity plays shepherds are those that have seen "the sign" from Heaven. They usually describe it as an enormous bliss, and ask who was that beautiful shining man in white that came down – in this play they saw the angel that stopped the sacrifice. There are also few interesting extremely long monologues in which persons give descriptions of the nature that surrounds them (locus amoenus and locus horridus) as well as visions of the peace on Earth. Vetranović is a very interesting author but here’s not enough space here to talk a lot about him.He also wrote Resurrection in which God appears only as a mute figure. After the Harrowing of Hell Lucifer turns to God the Father and complains saying that that act isn’t a good example for human race, because no one would be afraid of Hell any more. Angels are "defending" Christ’s action. God the Father doesn’t say a word and the play ends with procession of Old Testament Patriarchs and Prophets that are coming to Heaven, led by Christ. God was probable represented by a picture or a statue, and maybe there was an "extra" dressed as the King of Heaven.
God the Father will enter Vetranović’s stage once more: in Jacob’s dream in the Old Testament play about Joseph. There’s no stage direction that could give us a hint how it was realised on the scene.
God the Father also appears in the Last Judgement plays, but mostly as a support to Christ who is the Judge. Rarely he is the character in the Passion plays or in the saints’ plays.
He sends a message to the Son in the oldest extant 14th century Passion play: "the Heaven opens and God the Father sends the angel to encourage Christ who is praying on Mount of Olives. The angel showing cross and chalice descends from Heaven and comforts Christ saying that his sacrifice won’t be in vain and that it was his Father’s will. We are not sure how the stage for this play looked like, but we can assume that it was the most common Croatian medieval type of staging, the horizontal place-and-scaffold type, that included several mansions, one of which was Heaven that wasn’t constantly "opened" like others but only in important moments such as this one. The stage direction says: "Here the Father appears and says: (…)". This mansion was probably active in moments of Christ’s death: stage directions mention changing colours of the Heaven and the earthquake "as consequence". If we see this changes in nature as means of God’s "speech" we can say that it is the other way of his presence on the stage. The eclipse and earthquake mentioned in the Scripture were excellent impulse for medieval people to put some fireworks and other lightning effects on scene and get more interesting performance. According to the stage directions and records we suppose that some kind of firework was made very near to the Heaven mansion.
In Passion play written a century later God the Father shows his power again by eclipse and earthquake, and by breaking the Temple’s roof too.
In the 18th century God the Father doesn’t show himself in the play about his Son’s passion (in this play Christ is mute, he doesn’t say a word) but is present through the events in the nature, not only eclipse and earthquake: echo that condemns Judas but forgives Peter, "burning words on Heaven" and the Elements’ speech condemning Judas could also be seen as means of God’s presence on the stage.
As mentioned before, God the Father appears rarely in saints’ plays. The only example that could be interpreted as God’s intervention on the stage is "the voice from Heaven" that encourages Saint Margaret during her martyrdom (in one of four plays about this saint, to be more precisely – in the most elaborated one). "The Voice from Heaven" is common way of God’s contacting people on the Earth, especially in the Old Testament and it is not surprising that dramatist that wrote this version of Saint Margaret’s play decided to add this, surely
impressive, scene in his play. This play is probably written by Marko Marulić, “the father of Croatian literature” whose Latin religious works were known in whole Catholic Europe of his time (in the late 15th and the early 16th century) and later. He probably wrote the first Croatian Last Judgement’s play which is translation and adaptation of Italian original, Del dì del giudizio (About the Judgement Day) written by Aralda A. di Miglio and Feo Belcari. But in this Last Judgement’s play there’s only Christ in the role of the Judge, the same way as in Saint Bernard’s Vision when neither his favourite disciple John, nor his Mother Mary can make him forgive soul that committed many sins and hasn’t repented for them on time. In both plays Christ is said to speak with "frightening voice", the same way as his Father is described in some other plays.Speaking about eschatological plays it moment to say a few words about appearance of God the Father in other two Last Judgement plays, both written in the first half of 17th century and both inspired by Latin original, Christus Iudexs (third part of trilogy about Chris’s life, written in 1569 by Italian Stefano Tucci from Messina). The older Last Judgement, written by Juraj Žuvetić is almost a word for word translation of the original. There are few changes but the author/translator strictly firms to the original: Latin hexameters are translated with dodecasillabic couplets (which were common in 16th century Croatian religious drama), there are few changes of names and some shortened or elaborated scenes, but that is all. Žuvetić subtitled the play: The Translation of Tucci’s Christus Iudex from Latin to Slavic Language; and in the preface for the printed version mentions the translating difficulties.
The other 17th century Last Judgement play, written by anonymous author, could be defined as shorter translated version of Tucci’s play. The author, who is according to the language and the town where manuscript was found probably from the same area as Žuvetić, shortened the original and added few scenes but remained close to the original in the most important scenes. Therefore these two plays have almost the same way of God’s appearance. The main Judge is Christ and he organises all "Last Events", and the Father appears only in one scene, when the Son is consulting him about proceeding the action, that is before Second descending to the Earth.
Christ, the Son, is present on medieval stage in two ways – as God and as a man, like the Creed thought.
In Passion plays and in John the Baptist play he is a man, like everyone around him.
In the plays that represent events before and after his Ministry he is always Son of God or God himself (acting in the name of Trinity). In the Harrowing of Hell plays as well as in Resurrection plays he is represented as God, the Winner. Stage directions inform us about his costume and props, and about lightning effects that go together with his appearance on scene. He is always dressed in white robes, carrying the banner, and there’s always light around him, like medieval iconography prescribed. Probably some kind of pyrotechnics was used to obtain this stage effect. This "strong" and powerful Christ is to be found also in Last Judgement plays. He is dressed luxurious as a king, but still holds a banner and light is everywhere around him.
Sometimes Christ appears from Heaven as a support to the martyrs. For example, in already mentioned Saint Margaret’s play, during the torture she prays for strength – first comes the dove, than there’s the Cross in the air (representing Christ), the dove (representing the Holy Ghost and his Gifts) stands on the Cross and the "Voice from Heaven" is heard accompanied with the shining light. This "picture" is repeated several times during the long process of torture. In other Saint Margaret’s play the Heaven opens (probably the same way as opening of the Heaven in Passion plays) and Christ appears. He sends Gabriel to the Earth to give more strength to Margaret, the same way as God the Father sends Michael to encourage Christ on Mount of Olives.
The Holy Ghost appears in a few plays and it is always in form of dove. Sometimes he is the only martyrs contact with divine powers.
Other "inhabitants of Heaven" that appear in the plays are the Angels and the Virtues.
The Virtues walk on the Croatian stage in Passion plays and in plays when some decision has to be made on Heaven. In Passion plays they come to encourage Christ on Mount of Olives – they are always dressed as women, each having specific colour, and prescribed prop. For example: "Faith, dressed in blue, with her sign made from paper", "Hope, dressed in yellow, carrying the sun on the stick", "Wisdom, dressed in red, with the mirror", "Justice, dressed in white, with sword" etc. As already mentioned they are stage characters in the plays where God the Father has to decide about something important. In those plays they are the advisors, dressed and equipped the same way as in Passion plays.
The Angels are the most frequent characters in Croatian medieval plays. It is very difficult to find even one play that has no angel. They are present at every performance at least to say the prologue. Most of the stage directions describe them as beautiful young men with shining faces and wings, almost always dressed in white. The only exceptions from this simple way of representing the angels are Archangels, who sometimes wear coloured garments but always have some denoting prop. Michael always has the sword, sometimes he has three pairs of wings, Gabriel always carries lilac (except in Resurrection plays when changes lilac for sword), Uriel also has a sword etc. There is the 16th century play Deposition of Christ in which nineteen angels are on the scene, seventeen of them showing objects connected with Passion and each saying few words about it. Their function on the stage is to help in fulfilling the God’s Will – an angel stops Abraham’s sacrifice, Gabriel comes to Mary, angels bring the Holy Word to the shepherds and send them to Bethlehem, angels encourage Christ and all that suffer because of the Faith, angels bring souls to the Last Judgement etc.
In the end we can conclude that God the Father is mostly represented by the "Voice from Heaven". He is present in person only when his Son can’t replace him, and then is depicted as a fair sovereign that gives orders. On the contrary, his Son, in all scenes in which he isn’t a man, but God, appears in more active way; if the Father is the sovereign, the Son is the warrior, the army leader. The Holy Ghost, represented by dove, comes to the scene in almost all saints’ plays as a sign of strength and God’s support to the martyr or saint. And he is the unomittable character of the Annunciation plays. Virtues come when someone needs support or help in making decisions and always have iconographically recognisable garments and props. And, finally, the angels – present in almost all Croatian religious plays, as signs of Divine power and presence in every place and in every time.
It is difficult to find the reasons why there is no play representing Creation and Fall, with God the Creator, Alpha and Omega. Generally speaking there aren’t many Old Testament plays preserved in this area. We don’t know if there were written and lost or not written at all. Reading the extant plays, all we can conclude is that Croatian authors (and audience) were afraid of setting God the Father, on the stage. He was an abstract person, especially as the Creator, the same way as the Holy Ghost. Christ, who is both man and God, was much closer to the audience.
And maybe I am wrong, maybe God shouted: "I am the Alpha and Omega" on some Croatian stage but manuscript with that play is burned or lost in some private library. The history of Croatian old literature has not been finished yet, especially because of constant discoveries of the manuscripts that had been travelling over Europe from one private library to another or had been covered with dust for centuries. For example, erotic poetry written by Marulić (already mentioned as distinguished religious author) was discovered in Dublin few years ago. Should I say anything more?
ZRINKA PULIŠELIĆ
University of Zagreb
Academy of Dramatic Art
Department of Dramaturgy