The Anglo-Norman play of Adam survives in a
single 13th-century manuscript found in the
French city of Tours. The play, probably produced
in England in the mid- to late 12th century, is written (like many late medieval French texts) in octosyllabic (eight-syllable) couplets, and consists of
three scenes: The first, and by far the longest
(nearly 600 lines), presents the story of the Fall of
man and the expulsion from paradise; the second
is a brief version of the story of Cain and Abel; the
final scene presents a series of Old Testament
prophets, repeating passages from the messianic
tradition looking forward to the birth of Christ.
The play, which is fragmentary, breaks off after the
speech of Nebuchadnezzar. The script is interspersed with liturgical chants in Latin that are borrowed from the service of matins for Septuagesima
Sunday, along with other sources. The occasion
and manner of the performance of the play are in
dispute, but it appears that this vernacular drama
must have been intended for a secular audience,
that it may have been written to supplement the
Latin service and to “bring it to life” for the lay
congregation, and that it may have been performed outside the church itself.
The play is lively and sophisticated, and has attracted the interest of scholars studying the history
of theater. The elaborate stage directions in the text
are of particular interest, as they describe costuming, scenery, and advice on how the actors are to
gesture and react. (After they are confronted by
God, for instance, Adam and Eve are to be bent
over in shame.) The opening stage direction advises the actors that they are to say only what has
been written down, and are to add or leave out
nothing (suggesting that the writer may have had
some experience with ad-libbing actors in the
past).
The author takes some liberties himself,
though, with the story of Genesis. The plot of the
Adam and Eve story owes more to biblical exegesis
than to the Bible itself. The play begins with the
Second Person of the Trinity (“our Savior”), clad in
a “dalmatic” (the sort of outer garment worn by a
bishop or abbot), addressing Adam and Eve.
Thereafter, he is referred to in the stage directions
only as the “Figure.” In the play, the Devil character
approaches Adam twice before giving up on him
and concentrating on Eve. She is swayed, but rebuked by Adam. Then, when a serpent appears, apparently allied with the Devil, she takes the apple
(not simply a “fruit” here) and convinces Adam to
eat it as well. When the Figure of God confronts
them, he not only condemns them to hard work
and to the pains of childbirth, but also specifically
damns them to hell and everlasting torment, unless, he says, he should relent at some point.
The scene ends with Adam and Eve living outside paradise, the repentant Adam still blaming
Eve, and the sorrowing Eve blaming herself and
wishing for death. Her last words, though, reveal a
note of hope that God will someday relent and
save them. The final action of the scene portrays a
group of devils snatching Adam and Eve, putting
them in chains, and dragging them off to hell. This
motif is carried through the subsequent scenes as
well: After Cain has slain Abel, devils come and
drag them off, treating Abel gently but beating on
Cain mercilessly. Even in the scene with the
Prophets, each individual prophet is dragged to
hell by his own devils after he has spoken his messianic prophecy. Clearly the play’s point is that all
human beings are damned through Adam’s fall,
until God commutes his sentence by coming himself in the form of a Savior.
The play Adam is sometimes seen as an important link in the evolution of the great MYSTERY PLAY
cycles in late medieval England. Certainly the
combination and progression of Old Testament
scenes leading up to the salvation of humankind
mirrors the structure of the mystery cycles. However, the high level of theatrical expertise of the
play, as well as the psychology of its characters,
seem to be more sophisticated than the later mysteries. Thus the precise relationship between this
play and the cycle plays remains unclear.
Bibliography
Le Mystère d’Adam. Edited by P. Studer. Manchester,
U.K.: Manchester University Press, 1967.
The Play of Adam (Ordo representationis Ade). Translated by Carl J. Odenkirchen. Medieval Classics:
Texts and Studies 5. Brookline, Mass.: Classical
Folia Editions, 1976.