Neidhartspiele#

Neidhartspiele, plays that emerged from imitations of the farces by Neidhart von Reuental (especially the Veilchenschwank farce), which were performed during Shrovetide. The St. Paul Neidhartspiel play of Spital an der Pyhrn (Upper Austria, handed down only in fragments), which is named after the library of St. Paul Abbey in Carinthia, is the oldest secular German play (around 1360/70, Bavarian-Austrian with Latin stage directions). The Tyrolean or Great Neidhardspiel play is the most comprehensive mediaeval comic play (2,624 verses and more than 70 speaking parts). Two Neidhardspiel plays originating from South Tyrol are also extant.

Annotated edition: J. Margetts (ed.), Neidhartspiele, 1982; idem, facsimile-edition, 1986.

Literature#