Mariken van Nimweghen

The second most reprinted Rederijker play, Mariken van Nimweghen (Mary of Nimeguen) comes closer to a contemporary version of drama. The play is about a girl who becomes the mistress of Satan. Mariken begins the play as an innocent who travels to the nearby town of Nimeguen to shop for her guardian/uncle. Finding she has stayed too late, Mariken seeks shelter for the night at the house of her aunt. The aunt insults the girl and drives her from her house, saying in the English translation:

"Alas, pore mayde! Ye nede nat to fere that for ye know well anoughe howe that ye shulde lye! And ye haue bene at the tauerne & dronke so muche that ye be dronke. For I knowe well that the younge men of the vyllages can teche maydens the nyght daunses in the corne when that it is hye, and tha haue ye well proued for in your vyllage dwell manye younge fellowes." Than sayd Mary, "A, good aunte, wherefore saye ye so?" "A dobell tonge it wyll nat tell the trowth, but I knowe well that ye haue daunsed many a daunse where there was no mynstrel! And ye be a mayde styll to your belly were great!"
The English translation is more restrained than the original Dutch. In the original, the aunt's insults include an allegation of an incestuous relationship between the girl and her uncle, as well as a hint that the aunt may attack Mariken. Mariken is so depressed that she walks out of town alone crying for help from "God or the Devil, it's all the same to me." Mariken encounters Lucifer, disguised as a one-eyed, itinerant scholar, who offers to teach her magic and the seven liberal arts in return for her submission. She becomes his mistress and together they travel the country. While in Antwerp, she happens to witness a wagon-play that convinces her to repent. She leaves Lucifer and returns to her old uncle. Together they journey to the Pope himself to find absolution for Mariken's sins. After many years of heavy penance, a miracle signals her divine forgiveness.
	Although most of the action of the plot takes place offstage, Mariken van Nimweghen is more than an illustrated lecture. The story is engaging. The characters, although not fully three dimensional, are recognizably human rather than just lightly personified virtues and vices. Spelen van zinne could be entertaining as well as edifying.