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''The Digby Conversion of Saint Paul'' (or ''The Conuersyon of Seynt Paule'') is a Middle English miracle play of the late fifteenth century. Written in rhyme royal, it tells the story of the conversion of Paul the Apostle.〔 It is part of a collection of mystery plays that was bequeathed to the Bodleian Library by Sir Kenelm Digby in 1634. ==The Play== The action is in three well-defined parts, often, following medieval practice, referred to as "stations". Each of these stations is introduced and concluded by "Poeta" (Latin for poet). The first station represents Jerusalem. After the prologue there follows a dance, the direction for which has been added in by a later hand, seemingly in an attempt to make the piece more exciting.〔''Chief Pre-Shakespearean Dramas'' edited by Joseph Quincy Adams, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1924〕 The play proper begins with Saul, dressed in rich apparel, boasting of his power and of the fear which he inspires, doing so "a little in the Herod style".〔''Ancient Mysteries from the Digby Manuscripts'' edited by Thomas Sharp, printed for the Abbotsford Club by the Edinburgh Printing Company, 1835〕 The priests Caypha and Anna give him letters to take to Damascus, where he is to suppress heresy (i.e. the worship of Jesus). Saul then gathers together his knights and servants, who agree to follow him. There follows a comic scene, not present in other versions of the Conversion, between one of Saul's servants and an hostler, who ready a horse which Saul then rides off on. Poeta re-enters to "mak a conclusyon" of this first station, and again the stage direction "daunce" has been written in a later hand. In the next station, on the road to Damascus, God, amidst thunder and lightning, visits Saul and rebukes him for persecuting His followers and tells him to enter Damascus. When the visitation is over Saul finds that he is blind and lame. God also visits Ananias, an inhabitant of Damscus, and tells him to go and cure Saul, assuring him that from now on Saul will advance, rather than persecute, Christianity. As Ananias visits Saul the Holy Spirit appears above them, and Saul is healed and baptised. In the third station Saul's knights have returned to Jerusalem,〔 where they tell an angry Caypha and Anna of Paul's conversion to and preaching of Christianity. At this point three leaves have been inserted in a different hand. They make up a comic scene between the demon Belial (whose first line is "the usual Satanic exclamation of the mystery writers 'Ho ho'"〔) and his messenger, named Mercury. Again, Joseph Quincy Adams believes this has been included to make the play more exciting.〔 The choice of Belial as the chief demon seems to have been influenced by Saul's swearing "By the god Bellyall" in his first scene. The interpolated text also contains material that could be seen as anti-Semitic and which is not mirrored in the main text – Belial claims that he is worshipped "In the temples and synogoges" and that Caypha and Anna are his "prelates" and are planning to persecute Saul on his suggestion. Heather Hill-Vásquez, however, interprets Caypha and Anna (in the 16th-century version) as standing for Catholic bishops and their link to Belial as a Protestant Reformation attack on the old religion in a play that is an appropriation of one of its forms of dissemination, the (processional) Saint play.〔''Sacred Players: The Politics of Response in the Middle English Religious Drama'' by Heather Hill-Vásquez, Catholic University of America Press, 2007〕 The play proper resumes with Saul (the play does not include his renaming as Paul), now dressed as a disciple of Jesus, delivering to the audience a rather lengthy sermon on the Seven Deadly Sins. Saul is taken to Caypha and Anna, who order the gates of the city to be locked that they might kill him shortly. However, an angel appears and tells Saul that he will not die yet, and that a place for him in heaven is assured. Saul's escape from the city in a basket is described, not staged. The play ends with Poeta inviting the audience to sing the hymn ''Exultet caelum laudibus''. While Scherb praises the swift ending and finds its reliance on words rather than images appropriate to the play's thematic focus on faith and the movement from iconography to rhetoric,〔 Coldewey simply finds it abrupt.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Digby Conversion of Saint Paul」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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