Open Access‘Et dat alapam vita’: A Stage Direction in the Chester 'Noah’s Flood'
Author(s) -
Peter Whiteford
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
early theatre
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2293-7609
pISSN - 1206-9078
DOI - 10.12745/et.24.1.4502
Subject(s) - wife , context (archaeology) , stage (stratigraphy) , flood myth , period (music) , reading (process) , performance art , art , history , art history , cartography , geography , philosophy , linguistics , archaeology , theology , geology , aesthetics , paleontology
This note considers the role of one of the stage directions in the Chester cycle. The direction ‘et dat alapam vita’, found only in British Library MS Harley 2124, records the blow struck by Noah’s wife after her sons force her aboard the ark, and is typically discussed in the context of the misogynistic ‘humour’ found in other dramatic and non-dramatic texts of the period. In this note, I provide an alternative, typological reading of the stage direction.