§ 134. THE RELIGIOUS DRAMA. 871
about by the devil. It is not known whether these plays were acted out or not.1
Hroswitha was an isolated personality and the mediaeval play had its origin not with her, but in the liturgical ritual for the festivals of Easter, Good Friday, and Christmas. To make the impression of the service more vivid than the read ing or chanting of the text could do, dramatic features were introduced which were at first little more than the simplest tableaux vivants. They can be traced beyond the eleventh century and have their ancestry in the tropes or poetical interpolations inserted into the liturgy for popular effect.2
The first dramatic action was associated with the services on Good Friday and Easter. On Good Friday the cross was hid in a cloth or in a recess in the walls, or in a wooden enclosure, specially put together. Such recesses in the walls, called "sepulchres," are still found in Northwold,Navenby,and other English churches. On Easter day the crucifix was taken out from its place of concealment with solemn ritual. In Davis' Ancient Rites of Durham is the following description : 3 —
" Within the church of Durham upon Good Friday there was a marvel lous solemn service in which two of the ancient monks took a goodly large crucifix all of gold of the picture of our Saviour Christ, nailed upon the cross. . . . The service being ended, the said two monks carried the cross to the Sepulchre with great reverence (which Sepulchre was set up that morning on the north side of the quire, nigh unto the high altar before the service time) and there did lay it within the said Sepulchre with great devotion."
To this simple ceremony, adapted to impress the popular imagination, were soon added other realistic elements, such as the appearance of the angels and the women at the sepulchre, the race between Peter and John, and the conver sation between Mary and the gardener. Dialogues made up of biblical language were introduced, one of the earliest of
1 The text is given by Migne, 137. 975-1062, together with some poems attributed to Hroswitha, one of which, "The Fall and Conversion of St. Theophilus," has often been regarded as the original of the tale of Faust.
2 See Blume, Tropen d. Missale in Analecta hymn., XLVII. 7. 8 Chambers II. 310.
872 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1204.
which is the conversation between the women and the angels : —
Whom seek ye in the sepulchre, worshippers of Christ ? Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified, 0 heavenly denizens.
Quam quceritis in sepulchro, Christocolce ? Jesum Nazarenum, crucijixum, 0 coelicolce.
On Christmas the dramatic action included the angels, the Magi, and other actors, and a real cradle or manger. Priests in the garb of shepherds, as they approached the stable, were met with the question, —
Whom seek ye in the stable, O shepherds, say ? Quern quceritis in pramepe, pastores, dicite f
To which they replied,
The Saviour, Christ the Lord, the infant wound in swaddling clothes.
From such beginnings, the field was easily extended so as to include all Scriptural subjects, from Adam's fall to the last judgment.
The first notice of a miracle play in England is the play of St. Katherine, presented by the schoolboys of D unstable abbey, soon after the year 1100. l William Fitz-Stephen, writing about 1180, contrasted the religious plays performed in his day in London with the stage of pagan Rome.
An ambitious German play of the thirteenth century represents Augustine seated in front of a church, Isaiah, Daniel, and other prophets at his right hand, and at his left the High Priest and Jews. Isaiah uttered his prophecy of the Messiah. The Sibyl pointed to the star. Aaron entered with the budding rod. Balaam and the ass then take their turn. An angel blocks the way. The ass speaks. Balaam recites his prediction of the star of Jacob. The prophetic, announcements being made, the high priest appeared with much circumstance, and a discussion followed between him on the one side and the prophets and Augustine on the other. Another act followed and the angel announced the
1 Pollard, p. xix. M. Paris calls it a ". miracle," — quern miracula vulgariter appcllamus.