Divus Joannes Nepomucenus patiendo Martyr gloriosissimus
- First performance: 21st May 1729, Uherské Hradiště, middle grammar class
- Author: Joannes Winkler, SJ (1705–1772)
St. John of Nepomuk, Through his Suffering the Most Glorious Martyris a typical example of a martyrdom play. Here, all key points of the legend are covered; in contrast to other plays, the author does not add anything from his own imagination. John of Nepomuk, the confessor of Queen Johanna, refuses to share her confession with her husband King Wenceslas. The King summons him to a feast, tries to persuade him with flattery, promises, money, and in the end – threats and torture. John does not waver, keeps silent and chooses a martyred death instead. At night he is thrown from the Prague Bridge and drowned. The play ends in a lamentation over John’s death and the fate of the Czech lands, and holds John as an example to the whole world. Winkler’s play is the only one from the corpus where Queen Johanna actually appears; still, the author intertwines her with allegorical Piety (Pietas), probably to avoid major participation of a female character, which were very rare in Jesuit school drama. More info in Czech
Text
[Joannes Winkler]: Divus Joannes Nepomucenus patiendo Martyr gloriosissimus. A media classe grammatices Hradistii cothurnum induta pro scena exhibitus anno 1729, die 21. Martii National archives CR, fond Jesuitica, sign. IIIo-446, box 175, f. 55r–66v
Synopsis
Not preserved
Kateřina Bobková-Valentová – Alena Bočková – Magdaléna Jacková – Martin Bažil – Eva Pauerová – Jan Zdichynec – Zdeněk Žalud: Sv. Jan Nepomucký na jezuitských školních scénách. Praha: Academia, 2015. (= Theatrum Neolatinum. Latinské divadlo v českých zemích, 1.), p. 250-303.
Bibliography
Alena Bočková: From sanctulus to sacer. Suggested Typology of Jesuit School Plays Featuring St. John of Nepomuk in the Czech Province, Acta Universitatis Carolinae – Philologica, Graecolatina Pragensia 25, 2015, p. 113–133.
