The Ordo Virtutum: Ancestor of the English Moralities?

Authors

Robert Potter, University of California at Santa Barbara

Abstract

In lieu of an abstract, the first paragraph of the essay follows:

Hildegard of Bingen's Ordo Virtutum (c.1151) is one of the masterpieces of medieval music drama and arguably the first morality play, but it has been shamefully neglected by generations of scholars. My book The English Morality Play, an unfortunate case in point, mentions the Ordo Virtutum only in a hurried footnote. It is hardly exceptional; such standard authorities as Young, Chambers, Curtius, Hardison, Collins and Smoldon seem to have been unaware of Hildegard and her play's existence.¹

Recommended Citation

Potter, Robert (1986) "The Ordo Virtutum: Ancestor of the English Moralities?," Comparative Drama: Vol. 20: Iss. 3, Article 2.
Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/compdr/vol20/iss3/2