Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.2003, Blaðsíða 84
70
Michael Chesnutt
<0) tw hellige martyr Sancte Knwd hertwg som haffwer vwndeth heme-
len meth thy(n) hellige pyne oc døt oc blotz vtgiffwelse [...], oc saa
haffwer tw effther fvlt vor herres Ihesu Christi fodspor oc haffwer forsmaat
verdens lysth oc rygdom, etc.121
There is nothing in the prayers to indicate contact with the specifically
liturgical tradition, whereas the vemacular play Ludus de S. Canuto
duce, surviving only in Copenhagen, Royal Library Thott 1409 4to,
must have been written by someone who had access to the official text
of the Vita in the liturgical library of the Ringsted monks (or to an ex-
emplar derived therefrom). Since the play has received scant attention
from philologists since its first publication 135 years ago,1221 shall focus
briefly on a few important features of its transmission and contents.
Thott 1409 4to comprises several unrelated parts that have been
brought together in a single binding.123 One of these parts, consisting of
two distinet articles, was written by a certain Wilhelmus Erasmides
Horsnetianus, i.e. Villum Rasmussen from Horsens, who styles himself
primus collaborator scholæ [...] Ring(stadiensis) (f. 24v). The play is
the second of the two articles and is a copy at one or more removes from
the archetype.124 The first article (ff. 23-46) is a compilation by Villum
Rasmussen himself, listing distinguished people buried at Ringsted,
Sorø, and Antvorskov; it is dated April 13, 1574 and dedicated to Bennth
Gregerfienn Abbet vdi Rinngstedt kloster, til en føge skenck och tienist-
actighed (f. 23r). Most of the existing literary scholarship explicitly
treats Ludus de S. Canuto duce as an open-air mystery play enacted by
121 Ibid. 406-07, no. 785, here 406,28^107,1 and 407,3-4.
122 Soph. Birket Smith (ed.), Ludus de Sancto Kanuto Duce [...], Copenhagen 1868 [LSK],
- A modernised text with explanatory notes was edited by the late Iver Kjær for instruc-
tional purposes at the University of Copenhagen but issued only in a limited number of
stencilled copies: Ludus de Sancto Kanuto Duce. Et spil om Hellig Knud Hertug [...] sprog-
ligt bearbejdet og kommenteret af Iver Kjær, Copenhagen 21970.
123 For detailed descriptions see LSK xxxm-xxxiv and E. Gigas, Katalog over Det store
kongelige Bibliotheks Haandskrifter vedrørende Norden, særlig Danmark, Copenhagen/
Kristiania 1903-11, II 271-72.
124 To the errors listed at LSK xxxv may be added the corrupt musical text of the messen-
ger’s song on ff. 71v-72r; there is of course no way of knowing whether Villum Ras-
mussen or a previous copyist was ultimately responsible in this case. Cf. commentary by
A. R Berggreen to his arrangement of the song printed in LSK 58-59 (where the key sig-
nature of the source is gratuitously altered).