Macropedius — Wikipedia
George Macropédius , from his real name Joris Van Lanckvelt ( (?) 1487 – At the end of July 1558), is a Dutch humanist, both schoolmaster and the greatest dramatic author of the XVI It is century that wrote in Latin.
Macropedius was born in 1487 in Gemert (Brabant-Septentrional, Netherlands) under the name of Joris Van Lanckvelt. We know little about his youth. After having attended Gemert’s parish school for a few years, where he learned to read, write, sing and speak Latin, he lives in Bois-le-Duc in order to continue his training at the Latin school. In Bois-le-Duc, he lived in one of the pensions of the brothers in common life, members of the movement of modern devotion. In 1502, at the age of 15, he became a member of the community of brothers in common life and was preparing for a career in teaching and priesthood. Ten years later, he was ordained a priest and he teaches at the Latin school in Bois-le-Duc.
Between 1506 and 1510, he began to write school books and plays in Latin. The first versions of his room Asotus ( The lost son ) date from this period. He had taken a classic name, as he was customary at the time: ‘Joris’ had become ‘Georgius’ and ‘Van Lanckvelt’ was replaced by ‘Macropedius’.
Around 1525, he was appointed rector of the Saint Jérôme college in Liège. With a few other teachers, Macropedius contributes to the rise of this Latin school. In 1527, he returned to Bois-le-Duc and, three years later, in 1530, he moved to Utrecht, the largest city in the North North at the time. It becomes more and more famous and it is renowned for its loyalty to Catholicism. In 1531, he returned to Gemert to liquidate a succession. Under his direction, Saint Jérôme college in Utrecht becomes the most important Latin school in the North Netherlands. Macropedius teaches Latin, Greek, perhaps Hebrew, poetic art, rhetoric, mathematics and music there. Each year, especially for school, he composes the text and music of a Latin song. He also writes most of his school books and his plays, which are published not only in Bois-le-Duc and Utrecht, but also in Antwerp, London, Cologne, Frankfurt, Basel as well as than in other major cities.
In the years 1552-1554, his complete works were reviewed, corrected and reissued in two volumes with music: All George Macropedii Legends comic . Subsequently, Macropedius published only one play, Jesus Scholasticus . In 1557 or in 1558, he left the Saint Jérôme and Utrecht college to return to the Brabant. He died at the house of the Brothers of Common Life during an epidemic of plague in 1558 and he was buried in the brothers’ church. After his death, some of his former grateful students paint a funeral monument in his honor with an epitaph and a portrait of their loved master. Today, the monument as well as the church have disappeared.
Macropedius has published a dozen school books, including the famous Epistolica (1543), a book on epistolary art and rhetoric. This book had been published for the first time in 1543 in Antwerp, then in Bois-le-Duc, in Cologne, Frankfurt, Basel, Dillingen and Leyde under the title A method for writing letters . Many schools in the Netherlands, England and the German Empire have used it. Thirty-six different editions are known. From 1576, English editions were also published. Shakespeare was able to know this work, since his printer and fellow citizen friend Richard Field, with whom he remained, had printed a new edition. The last edition appeared in 1649, in London, a hundred years after the first.
His school books show that Macropedius was a great humanist and a faithful disciple of Dédérius Erasmus. He knew the seven liberal arts and the three languages (Latin, Greek and Hebrew). He also knew Greek and Latin literature, the Bible and religious texts. The numerous reissues of his works in the Netherlands, in the German Empire, France and England, show that Macropedius’ activities were approved by his contemporaries and the next generation of humanists. Between 1542 and 1561, his school book on the Greek language, entitled Græcarum organizations , was printed seven times in Paris (T. Richard), which shows that it was used in France. Macropedius strongly contributed to the success of the reform of humanist teaching of the first half of XVI It is century. Tireless, it stimulated the use of Greek, not only in order to make it possible to read the New Testament, but also to facilitate the study of conventional Greek writers.
Macropedius owes his greatest glory to his twelve plays, including Rebels And Aluta (1535), Petriscus (1536), Asotus (1537), Andrisca (1538), Hecastus (1539), Bassarus (1540), Lazarus beggar (1541), Josephus (1544). In the Netherlands and in the German Empire, he was the best dramatic author who wrote in Latin and the most productive author of the XVI It is century.
Andrisca is a comedy on two cunning adulterous women who wear the pants and argue with their husbands. At the end of XVI It is century, Shakespeare had treated this same theme in The Apprivoisée Crear . Bassarus is a comedy on Mardi Gras. In Asotus , Macropedius deals with the biblical theme of the lost son. His play is played in Trinity College in Cambridge and the University of Prague. In 1539 was by its greatest success, Hogast . It is a free adaptation in Latin of the Dutch work Elckerlyc . The main character is Hécastus (“everyone”), a healthy teenager who enjoys life. When he learns that he will soon die, none of his best friends, no member of his family and no knowledge is ready to accompany him during his last trip. Hogast is Macropedius’ masterpiece. Before the end of XVI It is century, Hogast is printed, translated and played many times in several countries, both in Latin and in other languages. There are twelve different editions and six translations in German. One of these translations is Hans Sachs, the poet of the German reform. Hogast is also translated into Danish, Dutch and Swedish. The Swedish translation dates from 1681, 142 years after the first edition. It is especially in the German Empire that the play is most successful, with eighteen known representations, mainly in the Protestant regions. (Dutch work Elckerlyc And Hogast Macropedius are at the origin of the German play Anyone . Each year, we still play this play in the cathedral of Bamberg, as at the Salzburg Festival.) In 1552, Macropedius published a new edition of Hogast . From the preface, one could conclude that he was forced there. It seems that the tolerant humanist Macropedius was suspected of having sympathies for the reform.
The success of Macropedius is not limited to his school books and his plays. Professor and rector of the Latin schools of Bois-le-Duc, Liège and Utrecht, he is among his students the Hellenist Arnoldus Arlenius, the linguist Willem Canter, the professor of medicine at the University of Leiden Johannes Heurnius, the Geographer Gerardus Mercator, the printer Laurentius Torrentinus (who was very successful in Italy) and the doctor Johannes Wier, who in 1563 already denounced witchcraft and witch hunt.
In 1565, seven years after his death, a group of former students published a collection of poems in order to commemorate their master, Apotheosis of George Macropedii . At XVII It is century, however, Macropedius and his works gradually fall into oblivion. We play less and less his pieces and his works are no longer reissued. His pieces were written in Latin, while the poets of the Republic of the Netherlands wrote more and more in Dutch.
At the end of XIX It is century, German and Belgian scientists rediscovered Macropedius. At XX It is century, many books and articles on this humanist and his works are published. In 1972, American scientist Thomas W. Best published Book on Macropedius ( Twaynes World Authors Series , New York). More recently, his pieces have been translated into Dutch and it appears translations in English, also on the Internet.
French editions of Macropedius works [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
- Josephus: The story of Joseph, extracted from Saincte Bible and reduces in the form of a comedy, newly translated from the Latin of Macropedius, in François Language, by Antoine Tiron , Avers, 1564 (J. Waesberg).
- Lazarus menteus: Moraltité Nouvelle Du Mauvais Rice ET DEARD (Anonymous translation), Aix-en-Provence 1823 (A. Pontier).
- In French
- Bibliotheca Belgica. General Bibliography of the Netherlands , Journey. Van der Haeghen et R. van den Berts., Gand 1880-1890; M. Longer, ed., 6 h., Bruxelles 1964, t. 4.
- Gerlo A. ET H.D.L. Vervliet, Bibliography of the humanism of the ancient Netherlands. With a bibliographic repertoire of neo-Latin humanists and poets , Bruxelles 1972; Supplément 1970-1985, M. de Schepper et C. Heesakkers, Bruxelles 1988.
- Halkin, L., The Liège college of the Brothers of Common Life, Annals of the Archaeological and Historical Federation of Belgium , 31 (1938) 299-311.
- Halkin, L. The Brothers of La Vie Common de la Maison Saint-Jérome A Liège (1495-1595), Bulletin of the Liège Archaeological Institute , 65 (1945) 5-70.
- Lebeau, J., Salvator Mundi. Joseph’s example in German theater in the 16th century , 2 t., Nieuwkoop 1977.
- Leys, F., L’Hecastus de Macropedius et le “Landjuweel” de Gand (1539), Humanistica Lovaniensia t. 37 (1988) 267-268.
- Roersch, A., ‘A description of the city of Liège in the sixteenth century’, Bulletin of the Liège Society of Bibliography t. 1 (1892) 177-185. (French translation of a Latin letter from Macropedius to the city of Liège approximately 1525!)
- Roern, A., ‘Macropedius’ Dans: National Biography of Belgium , (Royal Academy of Sciences, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium), t. 13, Brussels 1894-1895, 10-22.
- In German
- Bolte, j., George Macropedius, Rebels und Aluta , (Latin literary monuments of the XV and XVI century 13) Berlin 1897 (Reprint 1983).
- Bolte, j., Three spectacles from the dying person , Leipzig 1927 (Reprint Hildesheim 1986).
- in English
- Best, Thomas W., Macropedius , (Twayne’s World Authors Series 218) New-York 1972.
- The Latin Playwright Georgius Macropedius (1487-1558) in European Contexts , ed. Jan Bloemendal; European Medieval Drama 13 (2009). Brepols Publishers, Turnhout 2010; 233 pages; (ISBN 978-2-503-53091-8 ) .
- In Dutch
- Giebels H. & Slits, F., Georgius Macropedius 1487-1558. Life and works of a Brabant humanist , Tilburg (Zuidelijk Historisch Contact) 2005 (with CDROM containing the transcriptions of all his literary works). (ISBN 90-70641-65-8 ) .
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Notes in generalist dictionaries or encyclopedias :
- Music resource :
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