Demeter Júlia

From teaching a moral to professional entertainment*

            Professional stage in Hungary was established in 1790. There was practically no professional theatre earlier, as the rare experiments here and there could not develop any tradition, and the only form of theatre was that of the schools. Schools staged dramas as a part of their educational job. The four decades leading to 1790 saw school theatres functioning more and more as real, almost professional theatre. This process meant a fast, radical and manyfold change, both for the performers and for the audience. Before the mid 18^th century school performances were parts of the teachers’ job, his pedagogical routine, with the tradtitional purpose of teaching language, speech, proper behaviour, argument technics, mythology and history to the pupils. Around the mid 18^th century the main purpose of school theatre, even if undeclared, became pure entertainment, parallel with the teacher’s claim of being an author, a playwright. That period saw more and more plays published as a work of art, with the author’s name. The claim for entertainment quickly changed the language, the themes and the genre of school dramas. More and more comedies and profane dramas were played in the vernacular.

In our present survey we investigate how the purpose of entertainment brought Hungarian school drama closer and closer to professional stage. Didactics belonging closely to school theatre had to be kept but was evidently in change. We are going to examine the process how and what way the didactic function of school stages was changed.

I. A moral lesson

I.1. Historic plays

History being a frequent and typical Baroque theme of school dramas, especially for the Jesuits, was used for centuries to give examples for the works of Providence, for the right choice of man between our frail world and divine eternity. The main moral of history showed the tragic end of pursuing wordly values like power, crown, and ambition. Still, history itself was in the centre of the changes in school theatre. In the 18^th century a fresh interest in history arose as a new worldly message. The modern, i.e. 18^th century, Jesuit historical dramas omitted the didactic prologues and epilogues, probably because they recognised the strength of the story itself. The teachers still wanted to give a moral, but they gave it somewhat apart from the plot, in several forms:

A) An opening and/or closing poem or song was frequently added to the drama. Modern historical plays were mostly written in prose, therefore the verse form itself made the prologues and epilogues separate from the drama text proper written in prose.[1] We could say this is a tiny change as school stages often used choruses to emphasize a moral as well as to refresh the audience, but still one has to remember the first steps.

B) In many cases the opening and closing songs were completely omitted, and the message was to be found within the drama. The closing sentences of the play were often told by one of the most important (and positive) characters of the story, who thus finished the play stepping forward and sending a message to the audience: Learn from this and that…! or Learn from this example, etc.[2] This solution keeps the moral but hides it behind one of the roles/characters.

C) Biblical themes, especially those from the Old Testament, were also considered as historical topics. Here the authors often used Prophets to tell these last teaching sentences (e.g. Daniel finishes Balthasar’s story, Jeremiah Zedekiah’s story[3]). That case the authors used the special role of Prophets who, being a link between God and men, could also be a link between the stage and the aduience.

In all cases mentioned above the moral is rather short, one or two sentences, or one or two short strophes, which shows that the author let the drama, the story, the figures influence the audience.

I.2. Comedies

Comedies became the representative genre of the second half of the 18^th century. Comedies were to teach a moral, though moral was given only in the prologues and epilogues. During the play the harsh and fast buffo and farcical scenes did not let time for didactics, that is why the moral was given before and mainly after the play itself: as if the author had forgotten about didactics and then, reaching the end of the play, he suddenly realized the “deficit” and quickly gave the missing moral. Jesuit, Piarist and Minorite comedies are of a large number; about half of these plays do not give any moral. Most opening and closing verses, choruses turn to the audience and speak only of clowns, vagabonds, dancing, Carnival, entertainment as the opportunity of playing comedies. The Minorite school of the Transylvanian Kanta performed a series of Molièrian comedies in the 1770’s.[4] The main source of these comedies were Molière’s Scapin (Les fourberies de Scapin; The Cheats of Scapin) and L’Avare (The Miser). These comedies either do not give any moral or they have a prologue and an epilogue, most often sung, with some thin lesson.

Around the birth of professional theatre school stage was still flourishing. Late school comedies, i.e. around and after 1790, just entertain and do not give a moral. Or, if they do give a message, it is completely different and is involved in a preface added only to the written version of the play: the self conscious author, influenced by the Enlightenment, speaks of the neccessity and relevance of theatre, also of comic theatre, and of the author’s patriotic aims to improve the language and culture of his beloved country. These are the first signs of the Schillerean concept of theatre which soon became very important in Hungary.[5]

I.3. Parody of teaching a moral

Parodies belong to this process, too. Whole mythological parodies have survived where the pathetic language and the high figures (Gods and Godesses) of mythological dramas become subjects to satire: this proves a definite change in values. Some low comic dramas also use the means of parody: the summary of a Plautinian–Molièrean comedy[6]  e.g. refers to the 000^th item of the torn part of the lost book of Peter Dream where the audience should find the real, i.e. non-fiction story, just in the way how the summaries of historical plays gave their exact sources.

II. Two exceptions: Franciscan and Calvinist theatre

As we saw, by the second half of the 18^th century school theatres got rather close to the entertaining professional stage performing mainly neo-classicist[7] plays. Only two types of school theatres remained completely untouched by this process: some of the Franciscan and all Calvinist schools.

II.1. Passion plays, misteries

The bulk of the Minorite repertoire of the Transylvanian Kanta[8] and the Observant Franciscan dramas of the Transylvanian Csíksomlyó largely differ from other Catholic plays. Their similarity might be easily explained: Csíksomlyó and Kanta were quite close to each other in Southern Transylvania, and many teachers of both orders were former pupils of the other school. A rather large part of the Minorite repertoire consists of moralities, passion plays, misteries and devotional themes. The observant Franciscan repertoire of Csíksomlyó gave a cycle of mysteries between 1721-1780’s: this corpus is to be dealt separately, especially from the aspect of didactics. The (Observant) Franciscan passion plays and misteries were performed in Csíksomlyó during the Easter festivities, most often on Good Friday, but also on two Sundays before Easter (Black Sunday, Palm Sunday), Whitsunday and on Corpus Christi Day. The Passion was their main theme, together with several Biblical scenes from both Testaments linked by typological symbolism. Most of these plays were performed in the school but sometimes the pupils performed the drama during the Easter process, in parts, in front of festive open air altars or of the stations of the Calvary. Both types of performances, those in the school and the moving ones in the open air, wanted to give a mutual experience of faith for the audience. In other words: it is not the traditional didactic purpose of school dramas, neither the new aim of entertainment, but the last point of a long, medieval tradition of devotion. This attitude explains the main task of the play, i.e. to sing and cry together with the people who are not an audience any more, but a community of one and the same devotional experience.

            II.2. Calvinist theatre

Protestant teachers were the first to recognize drama as a tool of religious propaganda in the middle of the 16^th century; Jesuits followed a bit later. Calvinist drama[9] remained a means of everyday teaching practice with a strong moral. Calvinist schools kept the purpose of moral and intellectual teaching, their teachers did not consider themselves as playwrights or authors. They used stage performances in teaching: for lower classes short drama performances made learning faster and easier, in higher classes dramas proved to be effective in teaching history, mythology, as well as behaviour. Calvinist dramas show a much closer link to everyday teaching practice than Catholic ones.[10] The slow, “illogic”, epic nature of Calvinist drama is to be explained with their different aspect of drama and stage. For Calvinist authors stage was considered as a treasury of examples; they wanted to show the way of the world, through several examples, illustrations. Due to their concept of life drama or world drama, i.e. the Baroque theatrum mundi, Calvinist theatre (unlike Catholic one) was able to stick to moral teaching as the central purpose of school theatre. That is why the rich tradition of Hungarian Calvinist school stage had to disappear by the beginning of the 19^th century being replaced by European neo-classicism and romanticism.

III. Women as danger

According to the general rule Catholic school plays had to be cleaned – “expurgated” – of female roles and of love scenes considered as immoral. This ban was, however, continuously broken, mainly because the didactic purpose of showing the dangers of love initiated by women proved to be much stronger. Most dangerous worldly vices come from and connected to women. That is why quite many dramas show lecherous women living in permanent fornication and thus sending men to Hell. Though women roles and love scenes were not taboos for Calvinism, Calvinist schools shared the negative view on women. A horror like (Minorite) love tragedy[11]  warns the young to be aware of the dangers of women and love, both in the opening and closing songs and within the drama text, too. The summary warns the audience: “Boys and girls, learn from the bitter example of Leonina [heroine of the drama], who, being made blind by enchanting love, caused the death of his own father, then his fiancé, finally she killed herself.” The main danger was Leonina’s oppinion about love: “true love wants to reach its goals, and therefore does not care for God, men, blood or good deeds.” We know several other dramas, both Catholic and Protestant ones, showing love’s cruelty. Still, in the second half of the 18^th century we find some obvious, important though hidden change in love themes, too. The pious, both Catholic and Calvinist, school authors must have known quite well the pains of love as well as female attraction or temptation; their heroines declare their deep and invincible love in tearful, poetic monologues, which seems to be just the opposite of the strict anti–love message of the original purpose.[12] By the end of the 18^th century love develops one of the most pathetic and valuable sentiments: perhaps that was the longest way from school theatre to professional stage.

© Demeter Júlia, 2002