A collaborative translation of the Juttenspiel, the play which tells the legend of Pope Joan, was created as part of the Women’s Responses to the Reformation workshop on 23rd June 2016. The drama was first performed in the fifteenth century, but survives only in a 1565 print. The first few scenes to be translated were performed on the evening of the workshop. Photos and text will be added soon.
These scenes were:
1: The Hellish council and Jutta’s deal with the devil
2: Studying in Paris
3: The expulsion of the devils, and Jutta’s decision and death
Resources:
The critical edition of the ‘Juttenspiel’, including the Reformation paratexts, is Dietrich Schernberg: Ein schön Spiel von Frau Jutten. Nach dem Eislebener Druck von 1565, edited by Manfred Lemmer. Berlin 1971 (Texte des späten Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit 24). available in the Taylorian Library. The text of the ‘Juttenspiel’ (without the Reformation paratexts) is online in the edition Fastnachtsspiele aus dem fünfzehnten Jahrhundert, edited by Adalbert von Keller, II. Teil. Stuttgart 1853 (= BLLV 29), pp. 900–955. He based his reprint on the first modern edition of the play Des nöthigen Vorraths zur Geschichte der deutschen Dramatischen Dichtkunst, Zweyter Theil, oder Nachlese aller deutschen Trauer- Lust- und Singspiele, die vom 1450sten bis zum 1760sten Jahre im Drucke erschienen. Gesammlet und ans Licht gestellet von Johann Christoph Gottscheden. Leipzig 1765, pp. 81–142, which is also online. For an introduction to the play as podcast and for a handout with bibliographic detail, consult the weblearn page ‘Early Modern German’. We have also uploaded Professor Henrike Lähnemann’s modernisation of the scenes in question. You might also like to read Christopher Marlowe’s late-sixteenth-century Doctor Faustus for inspiration.
