A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

hearing the heavenly symphony 189
One of the most complex aspects of the drama is the organization of the
Virtues. As their unfolding creates the structure of the drama, an understanding
of Hildegard’s plan is of fundamental importance. Dabke offfers
the most compelling study of their presentation and ordering.80 She
points out that Hildegard worked with schemes of virtues throughout her
life, and believes (without making claims about chronology) that the virtues
in Scivias, Liber vite meritorum, and Liber diuinorum operum provide
a backdrop for understanding the Virtues in the play.81 The sixteen Virtues
can be organized into two groups of eight through their relationship to
Biblical Scripture and the exegetical tradition. The fijirst octad comprises
Hildegard’s “Gift Virtues”: those corresponding to the gifts of the Holy Spirit
named in Isaiah 11:1–5, similar to other medieval lists of such virtues.82 It
is deeply signifijicant that Hildegard begins with these virtues, for Isaiah
11 is the source of the Tree of Jesse image, and 12th-century iconography
often represented the spiritual gifts from which these virtues derive as
doves surrounding Christ’s head atop the Tree of Jesse. Hildegard’s Gift
Virtues arrive as a group in Scene Two,83 after Knowledge of God (Scientia
Dei) and Humility (Humilitas)84 have argued with Anima in Scene One. By
analyzing scriptural exegesis in the drama and in Hildegard’s other works,
Dabke posits that the second octad of Virtues relates to the Beatitudes of
the Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 5:1–12).85 According to this theory, then,
an Old Testament–inspired set of Virtues appears, followed by one based
on New Testament exegesis. This argument allows us to relate the ordo, or
succession, of Virtues to the graphic opening of the play, in which the Old
Testament fijigures proclaim themselves to be the roots of a new-blossoming
tree of life that operates on high. Anima moves through two “ranks”
of virtues and emerges from an older understanding of the Law into the
newer realm of Christian ethics. The following table lists the Virtues in
the order in which they speak: each identifijies herself and receives a group
response (modes of the responses are not listed).
80 Dabke, “Hidden Scheme.”
81 Ibid., esp. pp. 13–15, 33–34.
82 Ibid., pp. 15–17.
83 The description of the drama follows Dronke’s edition and translation of the Ordo,
in Nine Medieval Latin Plays.
84 Humility appears in every one of Dronke’s four scenes.
85 Dabke, “Hidden Scheme,” pp. 17–22.