Nine Carnival Plays

by Hans Sachs

Hans Sachs was sixteenth-century Germany's most important author-actor-producer of carnival plays. Written specifically for performance in the village squares and taverns of Nuremberg, these plays capture the spirit of Bavarian carnival. They feature such popular characters as the simpleton farmer, the domineering wife or the immoral priest, all of them caught up in a rich variety of tricks and quarrels that form the central actions. Abundant references to eating, drinking and love-making underscore the season as a time of license and self-indulgence, while the ribaldry and roistering of the dialogue is calculated to generate fun and laughter. This translation is pitched in a fresh and colloquial English designed to recreate the frolicsome mood of the originals. The nine texts are preceded by a critical and historical introduction that will be informative both for scholars and for students unacquainted with the genre, its origins and contexts.

Genres: Drama

94 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1990

About the author

People note many dramas, poems, and songs of Hans Sachs, a German writer and Meistersinger, a member of a guild, organized in the principal cities of Germany in the 14th century to 16th century to establish competitive standards for the composition and performance of music; his life inspired opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1868) of Richard Wagner.

A shoemaker, poet, and master of Meistergesang, art of singing original tunes. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe revived and popularized his work.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Sachs

Reviews

[Nicolas Shump · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed The Wandering Scholar from Paradise, which is one of nearly 200 plays that Hans Sachs wrote in the 16th century