Entertainers In The Middle Ages Essay

Both entertainment and education have been integrals parts of the human experience since the beginnings of time. Many scholars insist that the two institutions often serve jointly, with entertainers and entertainment serving as a main source of education. There is little argument, then, that in addition to generally appealing to the masses, entertainers have regularly fulfilled the role of a teacher to typically unsuspecting audiences. Entertainers have served as educators throughout history, from the origins of oral narratives through the Middle Ages.
The earliest forms of unwritten communication were essentially used to spread knowledge from one source to another. Religious disciplines were the first information passed from person to person through
For example, King
David in the Cante! Rbury Psalter tells that ³musical sonorities² were introduced into the service of the church (Young 46). Monteverdi¹s opera L¹Incoronazions di
Poppea educated audiences with its historical context and characters
(Young 77). The popularity of music remained dominant throughout the
Middle Ages, although writers began to entertain through the use of written poetry as well.
European writers of the Middle Ages continued to comment on morals and acceptable behavior through their works as their predecessors did almost 2,000 years before. Hroswitha von Gandersheim, the first known woman writer, was a nun who used the Roman playwright Terence as a model for her morality plays (Hering 1). Dutch writer Jacob van Maerlant wrote poems that showcased chivalry (Flaxman 1). Spanish playwright Lope de Vega encouraged national patriotism and honor in his works that dealt with dramatic conflicts and combined tragic and comedy elements (Gasset 3).
Calderon also stresses the Spanish code of honor in his masterpiece The
Mayor of Zalamea (Gasset 3). Later Francisco Gomez de Quevedo Y