Chapter 9 - Revisiting the Plays of the Codex Buranus

Summary

INTERROGATING THE BURANUS PLAYS

Bernhard Bischoff 's critical edition of the Codex Buranus plays, published as part of Hilka/Schumann, is a magnum opus of medieval scholarship. The text of the plays it offers, however, has a number of unsolved editorial problems which have excited the interest of readers and commentators. CB 227 and CB 228 place a number of their chants in odd contexts; CB 26^* lacks a rubric and there are questions over whether it should be considered as a standalone play or as a unit with the play that follows (commonly designated as CB 26^*a). The present chapter addresses these questions by offering readings of the plays that diverge from the commentary in Bischoff 's critical edition, and suggests that the sequence of scenes in the manuscript does not require radical revision to restore meaning. The conclusion of CB 227 and CB 228, individual passages in CB 15^*, CB 16^*, and CB 26^*, as well as the interpretation of CB 13^* as a whole, are the main points to be analysed in this chapter. Previous scholarship is considered with a view to the content-related, formal, and structural aspects of the plays in their specific medieval liturgical settings, as they have been handed down from the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

CB 228

Modern scholars have argued that the concluding chant in CB 228 (The Ludus Rex Egipti) is not in its proper place because its contents do not fit at the end of the play, sitting uneasily with its earlier action. Arguably, however, the chant does belong to the very place where it is found in the manuscript, if it is seen to be sung during the exit of the participants, redeundo. It seems highly likely that this chant held the liturgical function of redeundo since the ‘pueri’ are also assigned songs to enter the stage, eundo. Chants intended to accompany the movement to and from the various loci should not be considered part of the play's dramatic action. Instead, the elaborate chant at the end of CB 228 is to be sung after the ceremony has ended – which is why it is copied into the manuscript without rubrics, as in many comparable cases.