Arnoul Greban

The Nativity

Translated by Shelly Sewall

Southern Illinois University Press 1991

Stron XI+110, format: 16x23 cm

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The Nativity is a fifteenth-century French Christmas play, based on an or­thodox interpretation of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, that is part of Ar-noul Greban's vast cyclic drama in verse, The Mystery of the Passion.

Grebans masterpiece (circa 1450) calls for hundreds of characters and requires several days for a production that covers the period from the Creation through the Resurrection. Shelley Sewall has ex­tracted approximately five thousand lines of verse from the 35,ooo-line drama and divided them under the traditional titles: The athity of Our Lord and The Play of the Three Kings. She has added scene di­visions and titles for clarity as well as relevant stage directions from the Mons Promptbook of 1501. The result is a pro­ducible English translation of a French medieval Christmas play. To aid in the performance of this remarkable achieve­ment, the book is illustrated with con­temporary miniatures from manuscripts of Passions clearly showing the details of polyscenic French staging.

Shelley Sewall holds a master of letters in French medieval studies from the Uni­versity of St. Andrews, Scotland, and a master of arts in drama and theater from the University of Hawaii. She is cur­rently at work on an iconographic study of the miniatures in the Arras Passion.

Contents

Preface  VII

Introduction  1

Notes on the Translation  15

The NAtivity by Arnoul Greban   17

    The Nativity of Our Lord   19

    The Play of the Three Kings  67