Akademik

(Ordo representationis Ade, Le Jeu d’Adam, Le Mystère d’Adam)

(ca. 1170)

   The Anglo-Norman play of Adam survives in a single 13th-century manuscript found in the French city of Tours. The play, probably produced in England in the mid- to late 12th century, is written (like many late medieval French texts) in octosyllabic (eight-syllable) couplets, and consists of three scenes: The first, and by far the longest (nearly 600 lines), presents the story of the Fall of man and the expulsion from paradise; the second is a brief version of the story of Cain and Abel; the final scene presents a series of Old Testament prophets, repeating passages from the messianic tradition looking forward to the birth of Christ. The play, which is fragmentary, breaks off after the speech of Nebuchadnezzar. The script is interspersed with liturgical chants in Latin that are borrowed from the service of matins for Septuagesima Sunday, along with other sources. The occasion and manner of the performance of the play are in dispute, but it appears that this vernacular drama must have been intended for a secular audience, that it may have been written to supplement the Latin service and to “bring it to life” for the lay congregation, and that it may have been performed outside the church itself.

   The play is lively and sophisticated, and has attracted the interest of scholars studying the history of theater. The elaborate stage directions in the text are of particular interest, as they describe costuming, scenery, and advice on how the actors are to gesture and react. (After they are confronted by God, for instance, Adam and Eve are to be bent over in shame.) The opening stage direction advises the actors that they are to say only what has been written down, and are to add or leave out nothing (suggesting that the writer may have had some experience with ad-libbing actors in the past).

   The author takes some liberties himself, though, with the story of Genesis. The plot of the Adam and Eve story owes more to biblical exegesis than to the Bible itself. The play begins with the Second Person of the Trinity (“our Savior”), clad in a “dalmatic” (the sort of outer garment worn by a bishop or abbot), addressing Adam and Eve. Thereafter, he is referred to in the stage directions only as the “Figure.” In the play, the Devil character approaches Adam twice before giving up on him and concentrating on Eve. She is swayed, but rebuked by Adam. Then,when a serpent appears, apparently allied with the Devil, she takes the apple (not simply a “fruit” here) and convinces Adam to eat it as well.When the Figure of God confronts them, he not only condemns them to hard work and to the pains of childbirth, but also specifically damns them to hell and everlasting torment, unless, he says, he should relent at some point. The scene ends with Adam and Eve living outside paradise, the repentant Adam still blaming Eve, and the sorrowing Eve blaming herself and wishing for death. Her last words, though, reveal a note of hope that God will someday relent and save them. The final action of the scene portrays a group of devils snatching Adam and Eve, putting them in chains, and dragging them off to hell. This motif is carried through the subsequent scenes as well: After Cain has slain Abel, devils come and drag them off, treating Abel gently but beating on Cain mercilessly. Even in the scene with the Prophets, each individual prophet is dragged to hell by his own devils after he has spoken his messianic prophecy. Clearly the play’s point is that all human beings are damned through Adam’s fall, until God commutes his sentence by coming himself in the form of a Savior.

   The play Adam is sometimes seen as an important link in the evolution of the great MYSTERY PLAY cycles in late medieval England. Certainly the combination and progression of Old Testament scenes leading up to the salvation of humankind mirrors the structure of the mystery cycles. However, the high level of theatrical expertise of the play, as well as the psychology of its characters, seem to be more sophisticated than the later mysteries. Thus the precise relationship between this play and the cycle plays remains unclear.

   Bibliography

   ■ Le Mystère d’Adam. Edited by P. Studer. Manchester, U.K.:Manchester University Press, 1967.

   ■ The Play of Adam (Ordo representationis Ade). Translated by Carl J. Odenkirchen. Medieval Classics: Texts and Studies 5. Brookline, Mass.: Classical Folia Editions, 1976.