title of Oc de mulieribus, and represents the parable of the Foolish Virgins, is, in my opinion, directly connected with the so-called Epistolæ farsitæ, and is in itself perhaps nothing but a development of the epistola farsita with more of a dramatic form. This supposition is supported not only by the character of the whole piece, the rather regular exchange of passages from the Bible in Latin and verses with couplets in the Langue d'Oc, as also by the musical signs, which in the old manuscript are given throughout above the text, but more especially by the sudden transition from the parable of the Foolish Virgins to the Christological prophecies of the Old Testament. The Ludus super iconia S. Nicolai,' by Hilarius, from the twelfth century, and published by Champollion-Figeac, seems to be merely a dramatised epistola farsita. At least, here too, the actual speeches in Latin alternate with refrains in the Romano-French dialect.* But the epistolæ farsita which were common in France, at least as early as the eleventh century, were chants sung alternately by the deacon and two ecclesiastics, or, according to others, by the clergy and the congregation, in which the former used the Latin, the latter the vernacular, in relating the acts and sufferings of a saint (more frequently those of Saint Stephen and S. Nicholas); they had probably originated out of the so-called prose (edifying descriptions from the life and the miracles of the saints, several of which are contained in the rituals of the eleventh and twelfth centuries).†

The epistola farsitæ, moreover, appear to have been the means of introducing the language of the people into the Mysteries. For when these became more and more dramatised, it probably became the custom to let the people take part in the representation by giving musical responses, and the popular idiom thus gradually passed over into the actual Mysteries. This, in the first place, gave

* Also, No. 1, in Wright's Early Mysteries, p. 3, sq., likewise a Miracle play of Saint Nicholas and belonging to the twelfth century, with its repetition of the lines, makes the impression of a mere alternating chant among the acting persons. Yet it is Latin throughout. + Jubinal, i. p. 9, Ideler, Geschichte der Altfranz. Nat.-Liter.,

p. 228.

rise to those plays in which the language of the Church alternates with the profane dialects in a confused medley.* Moreover, the increasing fondness of the people, and of the priests themselves, for these representations, the greater development and more complicated construction which gradually surrounded these latter, and which rendered the whole performance unintelligible without the knowledge of the words (thus thwarting the object which the Church had intended), and lastly, the participation of the laity in the representation no doubt essentially contributed to the addition of a paraphrase in the vernacular. This paraphrase was in the first instance placed side by side with the interpolated Latin lines not already known from the liturgy, and afterwards by the side of the liturgical passages themselves,† and this in the end gradually resulted in the Latin disappearing entirely from the plays.

The more the dramatic element developed towards a more perfect purity, the more the musical element, which had at first predominated, necessarily disappeared. Many of the oldest Mysteries in the old MSS. are furnished throughout with musical signs, and, to judge from these, they were doubtless not spoken but chanted. Yet there seems from the very beginning to have been a difference in the musical recitation, which in the old MSS. is indicated by the expressions dicere and cantare. This is the case in the above-mentioned old Passion-play,‡ for, although with few exceptions there are musical signs above the text throughout, still it has alternately: hic Magdalena cantet, hic Jesus cantando, etc., but, as frequently, Zachæus dicit, Jesus respondet, Pharisæus dicat, etc.§ This was probably the same difference as has existed at all times in the Catholic

* Several examples of this are given in Michel, Hoffmann, and Mone in the works already referred to.

See No. 7 in Mone, p. 72 sq.

See Hoffmann, p. 245.

We find the same distinction between the cantare and dicere in the old Latin Mysteries of French origin (Monmerqué and Wright, l.c.) which treat of Biblical subjects, and with which those in Pez and Mone from the German MSS. have the greatest similarity in style and character, except that they are more detailed and more dramatically developed. This is especially the case with No. 1, Herodis s. magcrum Adoratio' in Wright, l.c., pp. 21-28. But the dicere greatly

6

liturgy between a more recitative and a more melodious, modulating, or chanting delivery. The more the Mysteries became something apart from the actual service of the Church and were a special addition, the more it seems that the musical recital passed over into simple declamation, that the latter became the chief performance, and that the chant or song (as in the case of our so-called melodramas or vaudevilles), was merely an interpolation. In this respect, also, France appears to have led the way; the French have little talent for music, but all the more for rhetoric. Still, as long as the Mysteries remained in the hands of the clergy, the musical element seems in all cases to have retained a more or less important part. It is very likely that it was not till the time of its transition from its original home in the bosom of the Church, and its entering the free wide world, that the Mystery completely cast aside its musical shroud, and took the form of the recitative drama, even though with the occasional insertion of songs.

This transition is of the utmost importance for the development of the Mysteries, and consequently for the history of dramatic art. It seems to have occurred in different ways at different times in different countries. One cause or occasion lay in the first instance in the degenerate manner in which the Mysteries were now sometimes represented, even by the priests themselves. As early as the year 1210 Pope Innocent III.* prohibited the degenerate ludi theatrales, with obscene gestures, rude jokes, and monstrous masks from being performed in the churches, and the clergy from taking part in them. The more dramatised the Mysteries became, and the greater the skill demanded for their representation, the more the clergy themselves not only permitted, but claimed the participation of the laity;, hence the latter no longer merely joined the choir but began also to take part in the performance. It thus came to pass that the so-called homines vagi, that is, the wandering jugglers (jongleurs),

predominates, a proof that the musical element began to decrease in the French Mysteries, probably as early as the twelfth century. *Corp. Jur. Canon, LC.'

dancers, mummers and jesters by profession, broke through the wall which until then had separated them from the Church; they soon found their services enlisted on account of their skill in music, their readiness in making jokes, and their mimic and dramatic talents, and became indispensable for certain parts, such as the merchant, the mountebank or doctor. These people in very early times, that is, from their first appearance soon after the migration of nations, had connected themselves with the mementoes of ante-Christian times which still existed among the people, and with the remains of heathen customs and religious ideas. They also practised quackery and sorcery, and not only continued to recite ancient legends and mythological tales in their songs, but also in their so-called cures made use of ancient rites, and ancient forms of sorcery and exorcisms. But they also played all kinds of pranks with the ancient divinities, they represented them in masks and disguises, and as early as the twelfth century appear to have laid the foundation of the Mummings which subsequently became so popular.* Soon after this the young men in the larger towns imitated these Mummings and mimic jokes; this gradually gave rise to the carnival plays, and the people began to take more and more pleasure in masquerades and spectacular plays. When, therefore, the ecclesiastical plays were first accepted, and the popular wit had taken hold of them, it was natural that they were soon no longer performed in the confined space of churches, but acted in the streets and in the open places, at first with the co-operation of the clergy. By degrees the latter may have withdrawn their assistance entirely, and the plays may have been given on festivals by the members of the companies and guilds independently of the clergy.

This was no doubt generally the course of events. At first the Mysteries appear to have thereby gained considerably in artistic development, in form and substance, without losing their plastic, solemn, moral, and religious character. In my opinion, at all events, it is chiefly the transition of the Mystery from the Church into the hands

* Compare Grimm: Deutsche Mythologie, Ed. 1st, p. 288 f.

of the people, that explains the great and (as it seems) the sudden progressive development which commenced in Germany with the fourteenth century. This is evident from the plays preserved from that period.* In the thirteenth century it was only some of the principal events from Sacred History, such as the Passion, the so-called Lament of Mary Magdalene, and the Resurrection of Christ, that were represented, and these in general gave briefly the chief features from the Bible; in the fourteenth century, however, we already find cyclical and artistically arranged compositions embracing the whole life and sufferings of Christ, from His baptism upwards, or at all events, the complete story of His childhood. The Biblical substance was expanded by freely invented characters, such as Rufus, the wife of Pilate, etc.; the whole piece received more action and dramatic animation. It was natural that with the disappearance of the clerical and liturgic restraints, such as the consideration of locality and the person of the actor, the spirit should take a freer flight, and that artistic interests should come more prominently forward, even though, as seems generally to have been the case, the priests themselves wrote the plays, and assisted in the representation. But it was also a matter of course that this resulted in the complete secularisation of the ecclesiastical drama. This, however, did not take place in Germany till the fifteenth century; it was not till that time† that Mysteries had become pretty much the same thing as the drama nowadays is to the majority of the public, a mere play for the entertainment of the idle crowd; this interest at all events decidedly predominated.

It was again in France that the change first took place and proceeded most rapidly, and this probably occurred as early as the twelfth century; it also seems as if special circumstances had greatly contributed to this change, more particularly the origin of the so-called confréries. The thirteenth century already shows us that the drama there was completely free from ecclesiastical influences. It is only a few of the extant plays which treat of religious *See Mone, l.c., Nos. 7, 8, and the Altdeutschen Schauspiele, Quedlinb. 1841, which he published previously.

† As in the example given in Hoffmann, p. 296 ff.