Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/406

 402 Rudwin THE ORIGIN OF THE GERMAN CARNIVAL COMEDY I. INTRODUCTORY The secular drama of medieval Germany, it is now generally agreed, is of independent origin. The view that it developed out of the fun-making scenes in the religious plays, where they were in reality foreign matter and could, therefore, be easily detached and acted separately, has been discarded by modern historians of the drama. The Fastnachts spiel or Carni- val play, the form in which the secular drama appears in Ger- many towards the close of the Middle Ages, is but the natural outgrowth of the Carnival customs themselves. 1 The drama, among all peoples, originated in the magical rites of heathen wor- ship. 2 It can scarcely be doubted that the ceremonies of the old heathen religion were essentially dramatic. 3 Neither can the fact be questioned that Greek comedy sprang up and took shape in connection with Dionysiac ritual. 4 We may rightly assume, therefore, that the practices of the Germanic cult also had some embryonic dramatic tendencies. As a matter of fact, the Germanic peoples, in the usages of their religion, had a better opportunity for spontaneous acting than the Greeks in their Dionysia. 5 Love of the drama, indeed, seems always to have been 1 Cf. R. R. Prutz, Vorlesungen uber die Geschichte des deutschen Theaters (1847), pp. 18*0; Wilh. Creizenach, Geschichte des neueren Dramas i.(1893) 409; Th. Hampe, "Die Entwicklung des Theaterwesens in Niirnberg von der 2. Halftedes 15. Jahrhunderts bis 1806," MitteilungendesVereinsfurGeschich- le der Stadt Niirnberg xii. (1897) 94; E. K. Chambers, The Mediaeval Stage (1903) i. 182. The older view is represented among others by A. Vilmar, Geschichte d. deutschen National-Literatur* (1905), p. 234; E. Haueis, Das deutsche Fastnachts- spiel im XF. Jahrhundert, Progr. d. Realgymnasiums zu Baden bei Wien (1874), p. 12; V. Michels, Studien uber die dltesten deutschen Fastnachts spiele, Quellen u. Forschungen z. Sprach = und Kulturgeschichte d. germ. Vb'lker, Bd. LXXVTI (1896), p. 48; G. G. Smith, The Transition Period (1900), p. 317; O. Weltzien, Das niederdeutsche Drama. Sein Werden in Dichtung u. Vorstellung, 'Beitrage z. Geschichte d. ndd. Dichtung, Bd. 3 (1913), p. 20. 2 Cf. J. G. Frazer. The Golden Bough. A Study in Magic and Religion. 1 Vols. I-XI (1911-1914) U. 142*0., v. 4, vii. 187*0., ix. 373*0. 8 Cf. K. Pearson, The Chances of Death and Other Studies in Evolution (1897) ii. 281. 4 Cf. F. M. Cornford, The Origin of Attic Comedy (1914), p. 3. Cf. Pearson, op. cit., ii. 280.