Typology, Criticism, and Medieval Drama: Some Observations on Method

Typology, Criticism, and Medieval Drama: Some Observations on Method Patrick J. Collins Students of medieval drama frequently suggest that typo­ logical exegesis provides a method by which the essential poetic meaning and the unifying compositional principle of the cycle plays become intelligible to its audience. The following essay examines the manner in which systems of doctrinal concor­ dances appear in the pictorial programs of biblical art. Hope­ fully, by looking at selected examples of religious art we can develop an awareness of when and how typology was used in the depiction of the bible story; and, more importantly, we can develop a standard for a more trustworthy reading of the cycle drama. The typological or figural interpretation of the scriptures was a method of interpretation bequeathed to the Middle Ages by the Church Fathers.1 The basic principle of the method is the establishment of “a connection between two events or persons, the first of which signifies not only itself but also the second, while the second encompasses or fulfills the first.”2 The use of the typological method as a tool for analyzing the drama is not recent. Karl Young accounted for the subject matter of the Latin Old Testament plays on the basis of the “mysterious har­ mony between the Old Testament and the New, the ‘types’ of the former anticipating and conforming to the ‘antitypes’ of the latter.”3 Since Young, a host of other critics have explained the distinctive selection of episodes within the English cycle plays by means of typological analysis.4 While acknowledging that certain episodes within the cycles may, by virtue of verbal allu­ sions in the dialogue, invite a typological interpretation, it is invalid to assume that an underlying typological system controls the subject matter and form of the dramatic cycles. 298 Patrick J. Collins 299 Evidence from the pictorial traditions of medieval Europe can be particularly helpful for the student of medieval drama. Many illuminated manuscripts and decorated buildings contain sequences of bible scenes which are analogous to the subjects and format of the later medieval mystery plays. Examination of narrative picture cycles can reveal the long-standing traditions which underlie the selection and arrangement of episodes in the later dramatic bible cycles.5 A general review of the data from the pictorial medium, however, indicates that, unlike the cycle plays, typological programs in the plastic arts do not follow a linear, sequential, narrative pattern, but rather match scenes according to their doctrinal or theological significance with little or no attention to straightforward chronology. Both the order and number of Old and New Testament episodes within programs of figural art differ from the format of the narrative art and drama cycles. For each antitype (New Testament event) in a typological series there must be at least one type (Old Testament scene). In every case, the number of Old Testament scenes must at least equal the number of New Testament epi­ sodes; and, in most cases, the number of Old Testament epi­ sodes far exceeds the number of New Testament antitypes. The very process of matching episodes usually precludes an unin­ terrupted sequence of Old Testament events followed by a New Testament history. A pattern of alternation rather than a pattern of narrative chronology characterizes the type-antitype art of the Middle Ages. Evidence will later show that typological programs select episodes which are greatly dissimilar to the scenes chosen for the English drama cycles. The typological formats constructed by the Church Fathers had a lasting influence upon the intellectual activities of the Middle Ages. The twelfth-century renaissance saw a vigorous pursuit of biblical studies, and pictorial artistry of the period often reflects the new theological scholarship. One of the best known and most influential works of art is the altar retable of Klostemeuberg made by Nicholas of Verdun in 1181 and re­ vised with the addition of two subjects in 1329. Nicholas’s altarpiece contains a representative scheme of typological decoration: the central column lists New Testament antitypes, labelled sub gracia, and is flanked on either side by a column of Old Testa­ ment types, one list labelled ante legem, the other sub lege. The entire scheme is as follows...