Combat between the genders
- farcical elements in some Fastnachtspiele.

Next to the eternal triangle the combat between man and woman in general and between husband and wife in particular is the most common motif in literature - and since the combat is often provoked by adultery the motifs can readily be linked together. Medieval literature all over Europe, ranging from fabliaux, Schwänke and anecdotes to farces and Fastnachtspiele, is densely populated with men and women, especially husbands and wives, mocking one another, quarreling and frequently resorting to reciprocal violence.

Twenty and more late-medieval Fastnachtspiele, most of them from Nürnberg, but also from other German towns and from the Sterzing in the Tyrol deal extensively with the problems which emerge from the relations between the two genders. 1 It is significant, in contrast, that none of the names or descriptions of the 73 plays on the list contained in the administration book of the Zirkelgesellschaft in Lübeck from the period 1430 to 1515, suggest that any of the plays deal with marital quarrels. 2

In this analysis I do not include the wooing plays in which young peasants, fools or representatives of different social classes compete in wooing Frau Venus - always with the apple in her hand - or another woman. In these plays young men expose their merits, primarily in the sexual field, and display them in obscene dances in order to attract the woman's attention. She will choose from among them her preferred lover, and so in a symbolic way, her husband. Even if the woman mocks one or several of the wooers, the potential conflict is essentially between men, rather than between man and woman.

It is difficult to draw an exact distinction between plays where man and woman quarrel and plays where they just talk together about similar problems. In Ein spil ein hochzeit zu machen (Keller 7) the bride in spe asks the young man whom she is going to marry if he can fulfil her sexual wishes - and she gets a satisfactory answer. Sometimes the problems are handled by other people than the involved men and women. In Ein hubsch vasnachtspil (Keller, 24) four men, whose daughters or wives have been seduced by a young man, bring their complaints before the court. In Ein hubsch spil (Keller, 27) a man accuses his newly married wife before the court because she refuses to talk to him in a proper way. The woman does not defend herself, but leaves it to a defender to tell the reason, i.e. she is thirsty and hungry (for sexual activity).

In Ein vasnachtspil: die egen (Keller 30) the problem is that some maids are not willing to marry any of the young men available so they are hitched to a plough. Der Gerdraut einsalzen, vasnacht (Keller, 76), Di vasnacht vom maigtum einsalzen (Keller, 77) and Ain Einsalzen vasnacht (Keller, 91) deal with the same problem and these short plays (the two first of them probably fragments) show how the maids who remain unmarried during a year are to be rubbed with salt at Shrovetide to force them to marry. A similar procedure is used to pacify and tame the angry ill-natured woman in the play from Northern Germany Ein schöne spil wo men böse frouwens främ maken kan (Keller, 114). These examples have to be sufficient to show that the Carnival plays may deal with the problems concerning the relations between the sexes in many other ways than direct confrontation man versus woman.

On the other hand confrontations may be contained in plays where other items are paid more attention than the marital strife. In the Danish play Den utro hustru one of three wooers, i.e. the peasant, is fetched by his wife who storms and rages while she beats him up and accuses him of being of no use in the bed at home. In the Sterzing Venus- play (Bauer, IV, 2) a peasant in a similar way wooes Venus, but the peasant's wife shows up and initiates a quarrel with her husband. Ein hubsch vasnachtspil (Keller, 55) primarily satirizes a merchant cheating in his business, but when the peasant wants to buy the merchant's horse and carriage his wife immediately shows up to beat her husband while she accuses him of spending money, drinking, playing and wooing. In the late play from Luzern (early 16th Century) Der kluge knecht (Keller, 107) the angry woman at the beginning of the play accuses her husband of excessive drinking, careless buying and selling and superstition.

The Carnival plays with the combat between the genders as a primary motif - as well as the plays in general - were performed in Nürnberg and other German towns in connection with Shrovetide festivities in craft guilds. The plays typically deal with problems in the family between the husband and his wife. Mother and father on both sides may be involved, just to show that these problems are not restricted to one specific generation. Children are only mentioned together with their mother as victims of the husband who spends all the family's money on drinking and gambling. Other relatives and neighbours may participate, either as advisers, judges or as accomplices. More than one couple may be involved in quarrels so we get the impression that the problems are general in scope. We may conclude that the social setting of the plays is restricted to the family and its immediate surroundings.

At the same time the problems are social problems of importance to the urban society. If too many craftsmen spend their time at the inn instead of working in their workshops it may cause social problems not only for the families, but for the town as a whole. If too many men and women commit adultery (at least when discovered) it may cause widespread disruption. If the marital strife develops too far it may cause slander and feuds between the families involved in the quarrel.

The players and the audience are (with a few exceptions) craftsmen, their wives apprentices and possibly their household, so it may seem surprising that all the plays (except the Aristotle plays) are set in the social context of the peasantry in the countryside. Until the Reformation period in the beginning of the 16th Century townspeople take the peasants to be coarse and filthy people who satisfy their material and sexual needs immediately and without hesitation. Craftsmen and merchants in the towns ridicule the peasants and their way of life in order to strengthen their own social identity as a social class whose importance grows considerably during the 15th Century. All this is evident in the Carnival plays where peasants are presented as literary stereotypes: they are always ignorant, rude, crude and dirty. 3

On the other hand the peasants life in the the coutryside is much less controlled than the town life which is regulated (that is at least the intention) by Stadtrechte and guild statutes condemning bad conduct and unacceptable manners. The guild members are not allowed to beat or kick their fellow brethren and sisters, to push them into the fire, to hit them with their tankards, to trip them up while dancing, to spill more beer than they can cover with one hand, to piss in the corners of the guild house or to go to a whore's house after the meetings and so on. If the members break the guild laws they are obliged to pay a penalty, typically a cask of beer or money for buying candles. The guild statutes are overloaded with rules of this kind. According to the civic statutes in Nürnberg and other towns masking and disguising are prohibited or only allowed during Fastnacht in order to prevent rebellions. 4

By locating the plays among the peasantry in the countryside the playwriters and the actors achieve some evident advantages. The distance to the immediate social problems among the townspeople, the craftsmen and their wives and families allow the plays to deal with dangerous matters in a mocking and ridiculing way. The citizens project their problems into the peasant world in a kind of displacement, but nobody doubts the relevance of the message to their own way of life.

The Carnival plays deal with the social problems in the special context of festivity. They are in no way moralities or moralistic plays, but in contrast use laughter as a means of correcting bad manners or unacceptable conduct. The deviations from the social norm are presented as extremely foolish, so the audience has to laugh at the peasants and their stupid excesses. On the other hand the constant occupation, not only at Shrovetide, with sex and violence discloses corporal demands and needs that may more easily find their outlet under the circumstances that prevail during the Carnival period.

The plays where man and woman quarrel or even fight each other may be grouped into different categories in terms of the central issues or causes of the conflict:

a) husband eats, drinks and plays dice or cards with his friends while his wife and his children starve:

Ein ander spil von den pauren (Keller, 5).
Ein hubsch vasnachtspil (Keller, 31).
Von der pösen ee (Bauer, V, 5).

b) husband complains that his wife spends too much money:

Aliud von frauenriemen (Keller, 11).

c) the power in the family at stake:

Ein paurenspil mit einem posem altem weib (Keller, 4).
Ain spil von dreien pösen weiben (Keller, 56).
Ein schöne spil wo men böse frouwens främ maken kan (Keller, 114).
Der verstossen Rumpolt (Bauer, V, 7).

d) adultery and sexual problems between husband and wife:

Ein spil von einem sweher, schwiger, tochter und eiden etc. (Keller, 3)
Aber ein hubsch vasnachtspil von zweien eleuten (Keller, 19).
Von den männern (Keller, 117).

e) (sexual) problems in the family brought before a mock tribunal:

Ein vasnachtspil (Keller, 29).
Das ist die eefrau, wie sie ihren man verklagt vor hofgericht (Keller, 40)
Ain verklagung vor dem officiall genant das korgericht (Keller, 42).
Ein fasnachtspil (Keller, 61).
Die Frauenschender vasnacht (Keller, 87).
Der neu official (Keller, 102).
Ludus de erhardo de playttntall (Bauer, V, 2).
Schaydung ains eevolks (Bauer, V, 9).

f) considerable difference in age: young man / old woman or young woman / old man:

Ein spil von einem sweher, schwiger, tochter und eiden etc. (Keller, 3)
Ein paurenspil mit einem posem altem weib (Keller, 4).
Ein vasnachtspil (Keller, 29).
Schaydung ains eevolks (Bauer, V, 9).

g) promise to marry is broken:

Ludus solatiosus (Keller, 115).
Ein Recht von Rumpolt und Marecht, dy yn dy ee ansprach (Keller, 130).
Consistorij rumpoldi (I, Bauer V, 1).
Consistorij rumpoldi (II, Bauer V, 3).

h) plays with antique motifs concerning woman subduing man:

Ein spil von fürsten und herren (Keller, 17).
Hie hebt sich ain spil an von Mayster Aristotiles (Keller, 128).
Aristoteles der Hayd (Bauer, II, 3).

The play Ein ander spil von den pauren (Keller, 5) is typical of the first group of plays. The husband tries to carry a hare, a piece of cheese and some meat balls (vassnachtskrapfen) away from home to have a party with some friends, but his wife shows up and accuses him: "Dan hurerei, fressen und saufen zu aller frist, / Darauf dein sinn und gedanken steen." (p. 55, ll. 20-21). While he drinks four or five glasses of wine in good friends' company his wife has not even bread in the house and the children cry from hunger. The mutual accusations reach a climax where the husband complains that his wife lies with a monk, and the woman matches this by saying that his sister has born three of the parson's children. It is remarkable that the man's behavior is not condemned. One of the wife's friends tells her to accept his way of life and his friends, because the man has a good reputation in town, and the neighbour peasant speaks in favour of the man, while he accuses the wife of humiliating her husband.

In Ein hubsch vasnachtspil (Keller, 31) the husband tries to hide at a pub to celebrate Shrovetide eating and drinking, playing and dancing. He asks the innkeeper to bring board, dice and playing cards. The time of the performance (Shrovetide) here is identical with the fictional time in the play, and in the same way the real place of the performance (the inn) and the fictional place inside the play are identical. The step from the social reality in which the plays are located to the fictional universe in the plays is very short.

The wife rages and calls her husband a rascal because he spends their money on drinking and gambling, and she even threatens to beat him up with a girdle. The farcical culmination in this play is a scene where the couple gets involved in mutual flyting. The woman is able to find more than seventy derogatory terms to fire at her husband before he returns more than forty against her. The woman's position is that her husband is a drunkard who does not leave money for food and clothes. He on his side maintains the position that his wife rages like a witch so he has to leave his home just to get away from the hag. The play does not support either of these positions, but leaves it open to the audience to decide, and the neighbour tries to mediate, telling them to forgive each other and to live peacefully together. In Von der pösen ee (Bauer, V, 5) which adapts the Nürnberg play to the Tyrol circumstances the neighbour tells the wife to be humble and submit to her husband's wishes.

Excessive spending which causes economic problems in the familiy is not restricted to the husbands drinking and gambling at the inn. The wife may spend much money on beautiful clothes, adorned with silk, furs and other expensive fabrics in order to look pretty so that the husbands pocket is totally emptied. This is the problem dealt with in Aliud von frauenriemen (Keller, 11), the only play preserved from the later middle ages in category b.

Twelve women (number five missing in the Keller text) express their individual wishes to dress smartly to gain a first rank social position and to be envied by their fellow sisters. The bourgeois women want to look like the women of the nobility. They endeavour to follow every new fashion. And each one of them wants to appear as beautiful as possible at the parties and feasts in order to outdo the other women. One of the women is well aware that extravangance in dressing may cause serious problems, not only to the single woman but to all women in town, so she condemns too excessive dressing.

The four husbands in the play on their side complain at the expensive and vain manners of their wives because they have to spend too much money, but also because the wives may attract young lovers. Excess in dressing is not only a problem within the framework of the family. The king, the duke or the count who govern the town impose certain rules for the dress, Kleiderverordnungen - as well as for marriages and other parties - on different social groups, notably the merchants and craftsmen, in order to exclude them from the privileges and the power of the nobility. This practice is well known also from Nürnberg, and it is reflected in the play where one of the women endeavours "Das ich die pot nicht ubertret" (p. 107, l. 1) and another woman complains that her husband and the authorities "tet mich auf das rathaus tragen" to punish her (p. 106, l. 22).

The mutual complaints and scolding between husband and wife may be aggravated into veritable combats where the power in the family is at stake (category c). In late medieval society the social norms prescribe that the husband must have power and that the wife must accept his superior status without any attempt at challenging him. The comic in the Carnival plays originate out of deviations from these norms. The typical situation shows a strong and powerful wife versus a subdued husband who tries to defend himself the best he can. In Ein paurenspil mit einem posem altem weib (Keller, 4) the wife rages and threatens before she throws pots and pans at him. A neighbour peasant tries to defend the husband but he is beaten up by the woman and both of the men have to hide under a bench. They are not set free untill the submission is total:

Hör auf, liebs weip, es ist zu ser,
Hor auf, schlag nimmer, des pit ich dich,
Was du furpas begerst an mich,
Zum rocken gen oder anderst wo,
Will ich thun nach deinem willen do,
Und was du mich haist, das will ich thun,
Und mit dir halten fried und sun,
Und laß mich auf und laß von mir,
Das wil ich immer danken dir.
(p. 51, ll 11-20).

In Ain spil von dreien pösen weiben (Keller, 56) three women go to the inn to enjoy themselves and while drinking they all boast of the ways they dominate their husbands. They leave the inn without paying and beat the innkeeper who tries in vain to get his money. This everyday story is linked to the anecdote about the women who fetch the cattle from before hell and conquer Lucifer himself and all his subdevils. The motif of the woman who is stronger and more evil than even the devil and his subjects is well known from many contexts during the middle ages. The problems are exposed to the audience and its laughter without any moralistic conclusions in both of these plays.

That is not the case in Ein schöne spil wo men böse frouwens främ maken kan (Keller, 114) from Northern Germany. The initial situation here is 'normal', i. e. the young wife does the washing, milks the cows and takes care of the household without any complaints, and her husband treats her well. Her mother does not like "Dat du so ym huse soldest slaven" (p. 972, l. 4) and she tells her daughter that she had a long quarrel with her husband who finally took over all the housework while she could sleep as long in bed as she liked. She suggests her daughter to do the same to gain the power: "so blifstu ym huse wol der averman". In consequence she refuses to do all the work at home. At the end the husband asks a doctor to intervene, and aften having examined her water - a typical farce scene - he prescribes a cure. The woman is to have her skin whipped, strewn with ashes and covered with a buck's skin for three days and three nights (in other plays it may be a horseskin rubbed with salt). This seems to do the trick:

Ich wyl hyrna mit allem flydt
Iuw gehorsam wesen alle tydt,
De pagenhudt hefft my gelerdt,
Wo ick mynen man und werdt
Schal holden yn groten eren.
(p. 985, ll. 1-4).

Here the woman is corrected and the usual order reestablished efter a period where the roles in the family have been reversed.

The struggle to gain superiority in the marriage may be connected to adultery on the part of the man, the woman or both of them. In Ein spil von einem sweher, schwiger, tochter und eiden etc. (Keller, 3) the extremely jelous husband accuses his wife of lying with the parson, and he feels himself compelled by public opinion in the neighbourhood to beat her up. The mother reacts to this mistreatment of her daughter and tells her to find a secret a lover to enjoy herself and thus gain sexual freedom. As she puts it: "So tet ich auch, do ich was junk" (p. 44, l. 30). The young wife takes the advice and beats her husband in return so that a neighbour peasant has to separate them to reinstate peace in the family.

In Aber ein hubsch vasnachtspil von zweien eleuten (Keller, 19) adultery is the main motif. The wife accuses her husband of lying with other women, but he on his side maintains that she lets the lovers circle around her like dogs who are attracted by the light, so that enmity reigns between them. A message from his brother in the Netherlands asks the husband to go there on business - a typical pretext to get the husband away. As soon as he has left the house a procuress shows up to tempt the wife by saying that a young man would like to get involved with her. She rejects this, supported by her maid servant, and welcomes her husband back saying that her body and all her limbs have been longing for him. The conflict is resolved, the couple is reconciled and they reestablish the full harmony in the family.

In this play the farcical comedy evolves primarily from the erotic metaphors used:

Und er hab in fremden scheuren gedroschen (p. 160, l. 11).
When sie der nachthunger anficht hart,
So geb er ir ein wurst mit eim part; (p. 160, ll. 18-19).
Piß er ir das sper bringt in die futerwannen (p. 161, l. 4).
Du fidelst auf fremden geigen (p. 161, l. 9).
Hast du dir laßen in das fleischgadem prechen" (p. 165, l. 16).
So wil ich deinem esel futers genug geben. (p. 166, l. 20).

Many of the Carnival plays in general are overloaded with similar erotic metaphors, either for vagina or penis or - as is mostly the case here - for sexual intercourse. The metaphors may be divided into groups: intercourse as work: ploughing the field, intercourse as a meal: eating a sausage, feeding the ass, intercourse as song, dance or music: playing the fiddle, intercourse as theft, break-in, robbery or rape: breaking into the "meatstreet". 5

The two plays Von den männern (Keller, 117) and Von den weibern (Keller, 118) are both preserved on a broadsheet from Berlin, and they have probably been performed together. The first of the plays deals with the problems concerning adultery. Clar(a) asks her friend Agnes to pretend she is dead, so that she can see whether her husband Jan preserves his fidelity towards her. Convinced that his wife is dead, Jan first complains, but rather quickly he turns around and proposes to marry Clar, and he is extremely surprised when his wife rises again, mocks him and convinces him that he should be faithful. The play has the double moral, that the villainy of man will be exposed, and that the woman will win the victory:

Heb auf zwen fingr und schwere hier,
Daß du gehorsam leistest mir
und haltest mich für deinen herrn,
und diene mir in grossen ehrn. (p. 1020, ll. 5-8).

The women take the active parts in this play, and Jan is intrigued against, mocked, corrected, subdued and delivered to the laughter of the audience.

Many of the marital problems, especially of a sexual character, are brought before a court where a sort of mock trial takes place (category e). In Ain verklagung vor dem officiall genant das korgericht (Keller, 42) three peasant wives accuse their husbands of visiting other fields while they do not touch the grass on their own fields:

Lieber Herr, es ist darzuo kumen,
Das ich sein esel han pein oren gnumen
Und ward in auf die wisen füeren;
Noch wolt er das gras nit entrüeren. (p. 326, ll. 9-12).

The farcical effects arise from the erotic metaphors, the mocknames: Herman Sumerglanz, Eberhart Bluomental and Dietrich Seidinswanz (the last with evident sexual overtones) and the excuses used by the three peasants. The first of them tells that he is lying with women in town because his wife is so young that he fears to cause damage, the second argues that he has a weak and sick wife, and the third accuses his wife of farting. The official tells them all to solve their problems and live together in peace.

Das ist die eefrau, wie sie ihren man verklagt vor hofgericht (Keller, 40) uses the same sort of erotic metaphorics: the husband carries the "nachtfütter" out of the house so that his wife is threatened by (sexual) starvation. Ten peasants are appointed to form a jury which can convict the husband, all of them bearing comic mocknames: Jörg Leckenprei, Götz Mauzenpart, Lutz Kerbenfeger, Hainrich Seututt etc. One surpasses the other in farcical mock sentences: One of them decides that "Einer, der ein eebrecher ist / Den soll man schwertzen als ainn Morn" (s. 310, ll. 14-15). Another that "er hundert nacht / Soll nackt in aim ameishaufen schlafen" (p. 308, ll. 5-6). And yet another will "sein beide niern außschneiden / Und sol im ein salz reiben darein" (s. 309, l. 25 - s. 310, l. 1). At the end the judge tells them to go home and live peacefully together. Immediately after this play the scribe has written: "Finis am Erichtstag vor Viti 1486 Jar", so we know that this play (and Keller 1-39) in the Wolffenbüttler Handschrift dates back at least to this time.

In Der neu official (Keller, 102) three women accuse their husbands of adultery with bad consequences for the wives:

Und müßen allain ligen in dem pett
Und haben niemanz, der mit uns redt
Und mit uns schimpfen kan und lachen
Und danach ains auf der geigen machen. (p. 770, ll. 24-27).

One of the jury members has even seen him pay for four women at an inn. In all the other farcical Rechtsspiele the judge tells the husband and his wife to overcome their problems in order to reestablish order and harmony in the family. Here he is not sure what to do so he says that he has written everything in the "rechtpuch" and asks the women to come back in a two weeks time with their complaints so that he can finally decide whether the women and their husbands have to stick together or whether they can be allowed to divorce.

Problems concerning too little or too much sex are often brought before the court. In Ein fasnachtspil (Keller, 61) the wife complains that her husband goes out in town to get enough sex, but he replies that she always finds excuses for not having sex with him: one day she has to do penance, another day she is ill, or she has to go to the bath etc. In Die Frauenschender vasnacht (Keller, 87) three women are raped and thus exposed to a man's sexual lust against their own will. The jury members devise different funny ways of punishment, often in a rude erotic language, describing for instance his castraction in lively metaphors: "So scholl man im sein pruchnagel ab hauen / und auch die eir, die da pei gelunkern." (p. 707, ll. 25-26).

The problem is further sharpened in Schaydung ains eevolks (Bauer, V, 9), where the problem is: "Sy hat zu weit vnd er zu klain. / Das Ist ain mangl an In payden, / Darum welln sy sich vonnander schaiden." (p. 417, ll. 18-20). The problem is solved when three midwifes are appointed to measure his prick and determine that it is too small for the wife, so the wife is allowed to divorce so that both of them can find a partner who fits better.

In this last play the man is old and his wife young, and the differences in age may cause problems in many of the Carnival plays (category f). In Ein spil von einem sweher, schwiger, tochter und eiden etc. (Keller, 3) the old man turns very jealous because he knows that his wife is looking for opportunities to lie with other men, especially the priest. In Ein vasnachtspil (Keller, 29) the problem is reversed from old man / young wife to the opposite constellation: old wife / young husband. The old woman complains about her husbands excessive sexual demands, but she ends up by saying that she will accept: "Achtzehen mol ist nit zu vil" (p. 245, l. 10). The problems between the two partners of different age are not always of a sexual character. Sometimes the power in the family is at stake, and the old hag, who storms and rages worse than the devil himself, appears as a stereotype. This is the case in Ein paurenspil mit einem posem altem weib (Keller, 4). Here the old hag can only maintain her position in the family by means of violence.

Against this background it may seem reasonable that some men flee from their wives in order to get rid of them. In Ein Vassnachtspil, wie drei in ein hause entrunnen (Keller, 108) the first man leaves his wife because she is old and sick, the second to get away from a young woman he has promised to marry to have sex with her and the third after he has made a maiden pregnant. The category g plays deal with the problem that young men who have promised to marry young women in order to have sexual intercourse with them or maybe get money from them afterwards try to run away from their promises and obligations.

The Maret and Rumpolt plays form a special group of plays within the g category. Ein Recht von Rumpolt und Marecht, dy yn dy ee ansprach (Keller, 130) is probably the oldest of them, but three other manuscrips are preserved (Keller, 115 and Bauer V, 1 and 3). 6 Maret accuses Rumpolt of breaking his promise to marry aften having slept with her and scolds him furiously, her family moves in to defend her and force him to marry, and the case is brought before the court. The judges pronounce their sentence: Rumpolt must marry Maret.

The last group of plays (category h) deal with the struggle between man and woman in a general way. In the middle ages anecdotes about famous persons from Antiquity were told widely, often to mock and ridicule them. The anecdote about Solomon and Marcolf, which found its way into a Carnival play by Hans Folz, serves to demonstrate that the most mean peasant can outwit the wisest man in the world. Aristotle is regarded as the most clever man in the world, and he is the prototype of the rational man who cannot be affected by mean feelings like love and erotics. Nevertheless Queen Phyllis devises a plan to attract and outwit him, she succeeds and finally commands Aristotle to bend down and walk on all fours like a horse while she rides him. He is totally ridiculed and his rationalism exposed to the laughter of the public. This motif is well known from wood cuts and drawings during the later middle ages. The three plays in this category are all Aristotle plays where the man gets overruled by the cunning woman: Ein spil von fürsten und herren (Keller, 17), Hie hebt sich ain spil an von Mayster Aristotiles (Keller, 128) and Aristoteles der Hayd (Bauer, II, 3).

The Aristotle plays may be regarded as a sort of social criticism directed from labourers against intellectuals and from women against men who fancy themselves to be very clever. The plays in this last group are the only ones, dealing with problems between the genders in general terms. All the other groups are concerned about specific problems of social importance in a narrow social context comprising only family and neighbours.

All the problems are extremely serious for the persons involved in them. In medieval society (and in feudal society as a whole) a young woman who has been seduced by a young lad and may even be pregnant will face serious problems if she is not able to compell the lad to marriage - one way or the other. This is the social background for the Maret and Rumpolt plays. Another problem is the marriage between man and woman of totally different ages. When the husband (be he peasant or craftsman) dies the widow needs a new husband to take over as quickly as possible to secure her social position. For a young man an offer of marriage may give him the chance to move from apprentice to master and thus improve his conditions of life considerably. When he grows older his wife will die, he will take a young wife etc. This social mechanism form the background for the many marriages where young men have to live together with old wives and vice versa.

Differences of age may - as we have seen - cause sexual problems between husband and wife and lead the husband to lie with other women in the neighbourhood. It is not difficulty to imagine the possible consequences for the family or the relation between neighbours, if a husband has sexual intercourse with his neighbours wife. Likewise it may cause troubles for a shoemaker's, a baker's or a butcher's business if he and his wife quarrel so much with each other that the customers stay away. If the wife spends too much money on clothes, gloves and hats in the newest fashion or the husband spends all the family's money on eating and drinking at the inn, or playing dice and cards not only the social position is endangered, but the very basis of life for the whole family.

The Carnival plays are in Nürnberg and most other towns played by apprentices or craftsmen for craftsman and their wives in connection with their festivity at Shrovetide. At that time of the year excesses, which cannot normally be tolerated, are licensed. Nevertheless the playing groups often feel compelled to apologize and to remind the audience and especially the host about the special rights during the mad week at Shrovetide:

Ob wirs zu grob heten gemacht,
So schült irs für ainn schimp versteen (...)
Di vasnacht manchen narrn kan achen,
Das er in töreter weis umb geet."
(Keller 102, p. 772, ll. 29-30 and 33-34).

Aliud von frauenriemen (Keller, 11) especially points the attention towards the quarrel between wife and husband:

Der vasnacht man doch ir recht tut.
Heut schimpfen frauen und man,
Das man zu ander zeit muß lan." (p. 108, ll. 1-3).

Even if Shrovetide is a special period the Carnival plays tell a lot about the social needs in everyday life of the craftsmen and townspeople in general. Demands which have been at least partly suppressed during workdays emerge at Shrovetide and demand to be satisfied. From this perspective the festivities of Shrovetide may be regarded as a prolongation of everyday life under specific circumstances.

Several plays announce that during Shrovetide people shall enjoy themselves: "Das man zu vasnacht frölicher ist / Dann am Karfreitag, so man den passion list." (Keller 42, p. 328, ll. 13-14 - repeated in Keller 102, p. 773, ll. 2-3). The Carnival plays all have to bring pleasure and create laughter among the people assembled to celebrate their annual feast. As we have seen the scene is transferred from the town to the peasants in the countryside: the peasants are rough and filthy, but their rudeness ais considerably exaggerated - in good accordance with the farcical tradition. The mutual scolding of man and woman, sometimes developing into long sequences, the violent beating of preferably the man, the mock names, the mock trials with the funny sentences, the erotic metaphors and the sexual indications all contribute to the farce universe in the Carnival plays.

The Carnival plays do not only raise innocent laughter. They also express the values and norms of the craftsmen. Most of the plays tell husband and wife to stop quarreling and fighting, to stick together and solve their problems, make peace and live together in harmony. But not all of them. Some plays accept that the differences may be impossible to overcome so that a divorce can be allowed. The fun and the comedy arise out of situations where the behaviour of the persons transgresses the 'normal' limits, i.e. where the problems are exaggerated or the roles of the genders are reversed so that the woman is in command.

The audience is very well aware that the laughter is directed against its own follies:

Die vasnach kan manchen narren machen,
Das er in torechter weise umbget (...)
Wer das nicht glaubt von mannen und weiben,
Den wollen wir in unser narrenbuch schreiben.
(Keller 42, p. 329, ll. 10-11 and 15-16).

This is iconographically expressed in the fool figure holding his bauble in front of himself to recognize his own follies and consequently correct them. 7

Leif Søndergaard, Odense University.

Notes:

1 Adelbert von Keller (ed.): Fastnachtspiele aus dem fünfzehnten Jehrhundert, I-III, Stuttgart 1853, and Nachlese, Stuttgart 1858, (reprint Darmstadt 1965). Werner M. Bauer (ed.): Sterzinger Spiele (1510-1535) von Vigil Raber (nach Zingerle, 1886).

2 C. Wehrmann: "Fastnachtspiele der Patrizier in Lübeck", Niederdeutsches Jahrbuch, VI, 1880, pp. 1-5.

3 Johannes Merkel: Form und Funktion der Komik im Nürnberger Fastnachtspiel, Freiburg in Breisgau 1971, pp. 248-50.

4 Hans-Ulrich Roller: Der Nürnberger Schembartlauf. Studien zum Fest- und Maskenwesen des späten Mittelalters, Tübingen 1965.

5 Johannes Müller: Schwert und Scheide. Der sexuelle und skatologische Wortschatz im Nürnberger Fastnachtspiel des 15. Jahrhunderts, Bern u.a. 1988.

6 The relation between the plays have been discussed by many scholars, see Bauer, pp. 514-16.

7 Olaus Magnus:Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus, Rome 1555, reprint Copenhagen 1972, p. 524 . Diets-Rüdiger Moser: Fastnacht - Fasching - Karneval. Das Fest der 'Verkehrten' Welt, Graz 1986, p. 98-110. Werner Metzger: Narrenidee und Fastnachts-brauch. Studien zum Fortleben des Mittelalters in der europäischen Festkultur, Konstanz 1991, pp. 183-203.