The Mistère du siège d'Orléans as a Representational Drama

The Mistère du siège d'Orléans as a Representational Drama V. L. Hamblin Université de Haute Bretagne Since the rediscovery of its only known manuscript some 150 years ago, the Mistere du siège d'Orléans has provoked inquiry on two different though not entirely distinct levels: first, from scholars who gleaned from the text facts relevant to its historical narration; and second, from other scholars who dissected the text for clues pertaining to its composition and intended audience. In the first case, study was directed at the play's depiction of events in fifteenth-century Orléans and especially at the portrayal of a girl called "Jehanne la Pucelle." In both areas the text was judged to be historically accurate but of little interest because its chronological base was the contemporary history already recorded in the chronicles of the day. This chronicle in verse, as one historian called it (Quicherat 5: 79), was thereby relegated to the category of sociodrama . In the second case, study has been directed at the question of authorship as well as at the relationship between the text and the perennial celebrations held in Orléans. Like many other misteres, the Siège d'Orléans remains an anonymous composite with, in this case, sections deriving from about 1435 to the end of the fifteenth century. While evidence continues to build toward confirmation of its role in commemorative performances in Orléans, most interest has focused on problems encountered in dating the manuscript. In any case it is clear that the vast panorama presented on the folios of the Mistere du siège d'Orléans has attracted attention of a generally socio-historical nature, that is, in reference to what the play might reveal about the events themselves, about the 120 historical characters who parade through more than twenty sites, and about the customs and crises of the Orléanais population in the fifteenth century. All of the above are essential and valuable pursuits, but they have resulted in the trivialization of investigations into the dramatic or literary value of the text. In 1868, Henri Tivier reported that the Siège d'Orléans offered "une trame fort lâche et une singulière mobilité d'action" (175), because it dramatized events in an episodic or chronicle-like fashion. While Tivier conceded that the overall chronological plan provided a natural unity to the text (112) and that the author-compiler had successfully capitaliz >n the dramatic effect of the events (115), he added that "Ie principal intérêt consiste le plus souvent dans un rapport aussi exact que possible entre la chose et l'image qu'en offre la scène, où rien n'est donné à l'étalage de l'esprit, tout à la ressemblance pouss ée jusqu'à la plus fastidieuse exactitude" (116). One hundred years later, another analysis agreed that the Siège d'Orléans's "adherence to 61 62Rocky Mountain Review historical and chronological fact certainly mars the play as a literary work" (Krnacik 116). From such criticism it would appear that the drama's manipulation of facts, or more precisely the manner in which the historical facts are fictionalized, has disappointed scholars of medieval theater. This mistere is not alone on this count, of course, since critics have often lamented in other mysteries what they perceived to be naive presentation rendered interesting by complex staging. The Siège d'Orléans could be held guilty on both points. While the text contains some faulty poetry and is necessarily repetitive, it is spectacular in its production . Oceans, boats, break-away towers, bridges, and numerous dead bodies are only some of the many props and engins required by the action-filled scenes of this drama. However, it is precisely in its dependence on historical fact that the Siège d'Orléans departs from the standard subject matter of mystery plays. Rather than depicting a narrative selected from Biblical lore or the saints' lives, the authorcompiler chose contemporary events involving historical personages, some of whom may have participated in an initial performance of the drama. We might contrast this drama with another fifteenth-century play, the Mystère...