BETULIUS, XYSTUS (SIXT BIRCK el. BIRCKUS).

Susanna. Comoedia tragica.

      - Augsburg, Philippus Ulhardus, 1537. Small 8vo. Unbound, with the original cordes. First two quires loose (in their entirety). Faint dampstaining throughout. A nice copy. Large woodcut vignette (the German double-eagle) to title-page. (46 ff. + final blank). Exceedingly scarce first Latin edition (being the first edition thus) of Sixt Birck's important and greatly influential political and religious Reformation drama, his highly interesting and original version of the Susanna legend.When living in Basel and working as a rector there (1530-34), the German dramatis and later Augsburg-rector Sixt Birck, or Xystus Betelius, (1501-1554) had been asked by the town council to write a religious play. Protestant town councils of the period took an especially active role in determining the theatrical repertory of their cities, so that the local stage at times became an extension of council policy. This did not please Birck, who had wanted to write a political play, but nonetheless he composed the first version of his first play, the famous "Susanna" (a later so frequently used theme of Reformation plays - with no less than 16 dramatizations in Germany alone from 1490 till 1627), which thus appeared in German in 1532. However, after having moved back to his home town Augsburg in 1534, he began writing his Latin-language version "Susanna", which appeared in 1537. In this, perhaps the most important edition of the work, Birck chastised the council for having required of him a religious drama instead of the political play that he would have preferred. The Latin version had thus become a much more politically oriented work, and the main goals of this Latin play seem to have been 1) to politically educate the audience, 2) to combine religion and politics in a sensible way, 3) to erect a model for how a Protestant republic should be governed, and finally 4) to create a genre of dramas to be played by school students. This Latin version is often considered a work in its own, as it differs so much in content from the German version.Unlike the German version of the play, the Latin version was written for Birck's students in Augsburg. And as such, "Susanna" in Latin, printed in 1537 is considered the first play within the tradition of the German "shool dramas", and Birck is considered the father of this tradition, which later established itself as a distinct branch within the "Jesuit theatre".Apart from this stylistic fact, the play sets out to create a model for the government of a Protestant republic, and with this aim in mind, Birck puts an entirely new focus on the Susanna-figure, which is very different from the classical account of her. Instead of focusing on Susanna'a chastity, Birck focuses on how her case was handled by the local magistrates and council, and at the same time he dramatically recreates the contemporary legal procedures. Completely untraditionally, he portrays Sussana's absolute faith in the law and her right to appeal, which guarantees that she will be given a fair trial. At the end, though, the drama changes from a mainly political point of view to a strictly religious one. "The "Susanna" of Sixt Birck or Xystus Betulius is chiefly remarkable for the extreme elaboration of its picture of the trial of the heroine, in which the respectable members of the court, who are extremely numerous, distinguish themselves by giving their judgment dead against Susanna, in great individual detail." (Saintsbury George, The Earlier Renaissance, p. 341)."The paradox in Protestant thought between man's fallen nature and his educability was more apparent in Sixt Birck's two Susanna plays (German, 1532; Latin, 1537). In these works, the theological significance of Birck's religious plot contradicted the sociopolitical lessons he had incorporated into his plays. The discrepancy was especially evident in the Latin drama where Birck developed his ideas about sociopolitical function of theater" (Parente, Religious Drama and the Humanist Tradition, [Attributes: First Edition]