Text: Jakob Bidermann, Cenodoxus (1602, written around the time of "Hamlet")

• International network of theaters
• Europe alone: 100,000 plays at 566 colleges (1550 - 1650)
• Precursor of modern mass media

• 1578 Ehingen, Jesuit pupil first, then Jesuit - professor of rethoric in Munich; censor of books in Rome
• Cenodoxus outside St. Michael in 1609 - Possible Layout - Elaborate Stage Sets: Example 1; Example 2
• Professor of rhetoric directs production
• Students as actors: Preparation for their public roles -- male actors, mixed audiences
• It's all in Latin - "sex-linked language"/"male puberty rite" (Walter Ong)
• Help for non-speakers: Cast of Characters; Perioche (Plot Summary)
• An early modern horror movie -- fear central emotion

• An old plot: Legend of the doctor of Paris - foundation of Carthusian Order
• A new twist: We now know what his problem was - "Cenodoxia"

"This man has every vice--yes, all, I say (...) Ommitting detail, they're comprehended in one word: he's proud, I've won: he's proud (...) My case rests here for where pride has its seat. All other sinds are found." (Act Vi, Scene I, 1660ff.

• Knowledge/individual fame more important than faith/glory of God (Dangers of Humanism)
• Cenodoxus as an Anti-Ignatius
• Making the wrong choice over and over again: Meditation on the Two Standards:

"Shall he be claimed by heaven, Who always did my bidding, never yours? (...) Whose every deed Was done at my behest and in my name, Who served for countless years under my flag, Fighting his own creator, shall this man be sundered from me?" (Act V, Scene I, 1673ff)

• Making the right choice is pretty complicated, though: Rules for Making an Election

"I assume that there are three kinds of thoughts in myself: That is, one kind is my own, which arises strictly from my own freedom and desire; the other two come from outside myself, the one from the good spirit and the other from the evil." (Spiritual Exercises, 134)

 

"I will imagine a person whom I have never seen or known. Desiring all perfection for him or her, I will consider what I would say in order to bring such a one to act and elect for the greater glory of God our Lord and the greater perfection of his or her soul. Then, doing the same for myself, I will keep the rule which I set up for another." (Spiritual Exercises, 156)

• Comic Scenes: Laugh while you can.... Mariscus and Darma
• Sometimes even God and Satan surprise you:
• "It's I who have closed his eyes with sleep. He shall be terrified through dreams" (Act III, Scene 1, 958ff.)
• "I'll show the power to sooth, with laughter, song and music. For devils too know how to play the lyre, the lute and harp; we are not as black and raucous as fearful people paint us in their dreams (....) I'll endeavour to make the patient think he's being refreshed by heavenly music" (Act III, Scene VIII, 1214ff.)

• Cenodoxus and his environment: they can't see what Cenodoxus is really doing
• Supernatural forces: Recognize Cenodoxus but he cannot recognize them
• Bruno and his companions: Recognize that Cenodoxus is damned but cannot see why
• Audience: like the supernatural forces, audience can see what is really going on, but once they leave the theater they become more like Bruno and his companions
• What to do? Bruno has the answer...
• Audience members convert, lead actor becomes a Jesuit (Greek work for actor: hypocrites)
• "More than a hundred sermons" - play as purgative

• "Well, he was the ablest of the very wise, cleverest men. The very fount of wisdom and of learning. Why then, we'll make him Dean of Liberal Studies in fiery hell. A curse on liberal studies and all the art. But it was from the arts You gain your glory! Gained my wretchedness (Act V, Scene VII, 2119ff.)
• "Wakeless and ceaseless are my days and nights, consumed in careful studies" (Act I, Scence III, 234f.)
• "Gaze, Cenodoxus, at the stars. What can you see more noble than the radiance of their great glory? This glory you should seek!" (Act IV, Scene V, 1506ff.)