Het poppenspel van Oriande in Malagis en de Hystorie van Malegijs

Abstract

Two Middle Dutch verse adaptations of the Old French Maugis d'Aigremont have come down to us, albeit both only in fragments. Complete versions of these texts exist in the form of later renditions. The oldest adaptation, which came into being around 1300, is preserved completely in a late fourteenth-century German rendering from the Middle Dutch. The second adaptation has been transmitted to us in the form of a prose version, which was published in 1556 by the Antwerp printer Jan (II) van Ghelen. Both the German Malagis and the Hystorie van Malegijs feature the episode in which Oriande reveals her identity to her lover Malegijs by means of a puppet show. These episodes are analyzed here from the perspective of performativity. It is shown that the Malagis version of this episode is geared towards performing, whereas the printed prose version is lacking performance possibilities. It is suggested that this difference, which cannot be explained by the intended reception of the two texts, as both were meant to be read aloud, is understandable against the background of the varying literary features of verse and prose texts.