Frame elements in the earliest German Fastnacht plays

Abstract

Frame elements of early Nürnberg Fastnacht plays were examined with respect to audience-play relationships and staging, and compared with other, contemporary dramas. Possible source of Fastnacht-play prologues and epilogues and Passion-play prologues were found in the very simple Fastnacht speeches, and in the Silete. It was hypothesized that Vagantes helped adapt the latter to secularized contexts and transmitted the Passion-play prologue and staging to Tirolean secular plays. These later influenced the Nürnberg prologues. The Nürnberg frames preserved an "open" form; but one type of "closed" drama specific to the Nürnberg stage discarded or absorbed the prologue.