Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/455

 The Origin of the German Carnival Comedy 451 ancient gods and, without meaning any special offense thereby, he gave the same treatment to the god, who had been imported from Syria. It cannot be denied that there is a great similarity between the Carnival play and the ancient mime. The risus mimicus may distinctly be heard at the Carnival. The essence of the Roman mime as of the Carnival play was keen observation and audacious portrayal of contemporary life, but both later extended their scope to mythological themes. 358 As in the an- cient mime so in the Carnival play of the earlier type the characters have no personal names, (e.g. Nos. 16, 18, 25, 33, 35, 36, 64, 65, 74, 86, 90, 91, 94, 99, 100). The imitation of classes and professions was already customary among the mimes of ancient Rome. 359 The peasant was the laughing-stock of the mime of all peoples. 360 The practice of ridiculing monks on the stage was a favorite pastime with all mimes. 361 The miles gloriosus, the ancient prototype of the medieval knight, is present in the mime of India, Greece and Italy. 362 An especially favorite object for ridicule in the ancient mime was the Jew, 363 and he is not overlooked in the medieval farce, either. The old woman in the Carnival plays is the cata carissa, and the inn- keeper (No. 56) the copo compilatus of the Roman mime. Marital infidelity, which forms such a prominent motive in the medieval pieces, is also prominent in the ancient mimes, 364 as is also the realistic-burlesque conception of woman, which we find to be such a marked feature of the Carnival plays. These are all artes mimicae, as Petron calls them. The similarities between the ancient mime and the medieval Carnival comedy may be explained by the fact that the medieval entertainers, the inheritors of the ancient mimes, as has been shown, 365 very probably took a prominent part in the Carnival festivities and contributed to the humor of the season. How 368 Ibid., i. 4. 369 Cf. Creizenach, op. cit., i. 383. 860 Cf. Reich, op. cit., p. 41. 881 Ibid., p. 835. m Ibid., p. 42. 363 Ibid., p. 858n. 864 Ibid., p. 835. 365 Supra, pp. 449sqq.