Ad imaginem suam: regional chant variants and the origins of the Jeu d'Adam

Comparative Drama, Fall-Wntr, 2002 by Charles T. Downey

The situation is similar with the play's fourth responsory, Dum deambularet dominus. (34) Verses A and B differ only by the addition of the words "quod nudus essem" in verse A, by which Adam explains why he was frightened when he heard God's voice in the garden. This part of verse A is translated ("e por co que sui tut nuz" [1.388]), along with portions of the respond, after the responsory is chanted. Verse A is found in the overwhelming majority of manuscripts in England, France, and Italy (including the sources used by Chailley and Muir), while verse B (again that selected by Noomen) appears primarily in manuscripts from German-speaking regions. (35)

However, verse selection is most significant with the responsory that commences the action of the play: Formavit igitur dominus. (36) The text of the respond, taken almost exactly from Genesis 2:7, proceeds from the point at which the introductory reading stopped--namely, God's creation of the first man. Among the twelve CAO sources, it was found with four different verses. The most common is verse A, a composite text based loosely on Genesis 1:1, found in manuscripts from France and England (and therefore selected by both Chailley and Muir), the Netherlands, and Italy. (37) Verse B is drawn from Genesis 2:1, the completion of creation, and represents a less common eastern verse found in manuscripts from Switzerland, Germany, northern Italy, and Austria. Verse C paraphrases Genesis 1:27 in order to underline the fact that Adam was created in the image of God. It was found in manuscripts from Liege and Verona (in CAO) and in manuscripts from the central-eastern or Midi regions of France. (38) Verse D, which describes the planting of Paradise from Genesis 2:8, was the least common, found only in the CAO manuscripts from Compiegne and Ivrea and in Rome, Bibliotheca Vallicelliana, MS. C-5 (from San Sisto); it is the verse given by Noomen. The geographical distribution of the four verses is shown on the map in figure 1 (shown as A, B, C, or D).

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

When the choir concludes the responsory, Figura reminds Adam of two things: "Fourme te ai/de limo terre" and "Je te aj fourme a mun semblant / A ma imagene taj feit de tere." (39) The first statement corresponds to the respond of Formavit igitur dominus and even cites the Latin, while the second corresponds to verse C "Creavitque deus hominem," which alters the third-person Latin narrative to the first person. The vernacular text of this section of the play appears to have no relation to the other possible verses. In effect, to have known the responsory Formavit igitur dominus with verse C--that is, in the form translated in the play itself--the author probably had some association with the central-eastern or Midi region of France, which happens to be the provenance of the only surviving manuscript copy of the play.

The connection between the Jeu d'Adam and the liturgical feast with which the responsories were associated is not clear. (40) Liturgical manuscripts assign the Adam responsories either to Sexagesima Sunday or to the preceding Sunday, Septuagesima. Historically, there is a shift from Sexagesima, the older position of the Adam responsories, to Septuagesima, which appears to take place in the twelfth century. (41) Generally in older manuscripts, Matins for Septuagesima is devoted to a sequence of responsories associated with the strange ceremony known as the Farewell to the Alleluia. (42) The Alleluia (not only the specific chant sung in Mass before the reading of the Gospel but the word itself which was included in several types of chants) was suspended from liturgical use in the Middle Ages during the penitential season from Septuagesima Sunday until the Easter vigil. (43) Later manuscripts tend to transpose the Adam responsories from Sexagesima to Septuagesima, celebrating the Farewell to the Alleluia only at Vespers, if at all. (44) The twelfth century appears to have been a period of flux, when a spirit of reform, which disapproved of the public spectacles associated with the Farewell to the Alleluia, caused many churches to move the Adam responsories from Sexagesima to Septuagesima in order to displace this ceremony. (45)