Nine Carnival Plays (Carleton Renaissance Plays in Translation)

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.