Undoing the Dramatic History of the Riga Ludus Prophetarum

Authors

Regula Meyer Evitt, San Francisco State University

Abstract

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

In Appendix D of The Drama of the Medieval Church,¹ Karl Young brings together a selection of what he considers to be "a few of the more striking records or mentions of plays or dramatic ceremonies associated with churches" - a total of nine excerpts from various municipal records and monastic chronicles from England as well as the continent.² Young offers all of these with no critical exposition, leaving his readers to assess for themselves what is most "striking" in each example. Among these excerpts one in particular - a passage from the thirteenth-century Chronicon Livoniae, written by Heinrich von Lettland (Henricus Lettus)³ - has repeatedly caught the eye of historians of the drama. Even a partial listing of scholars who have referred to it is long and distinguished.⁴ The excerpt has been cited and discussed so frequently since the end of the nineteenth century that it has achieved a critical life of its own.

Recommended Citation

Evitt, Regula Meyer (1991) "Undoing the Dramatic History of the Riga Ludus Prophetarum," Comparative Drama: Vol. 25: Iss. 3, Article 2.
Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/compdr/vol25/iss3/2