[176] Texts ed. L. Delisle, in Romania, iv (1875), 1. The earlier version is from Bibl. Nat. Lat. 9449 (†1060, a Gradual, or, according to Gautier, Les Tropes, 123, a Troper). The text is headed ‘Versus ad Stellam faciendam.’ The later is from B. N. Lat. 1235 (twelfth-century Gradual). It is headed ‘Ad Comm[unionem].’ Of the first part, down to the end of the interview with Herod, there are two alternative forms in this MS. The one, a free revision of the normal text, is headed:
[177] Text in K. A. M. Hartmann, Über das altspanische Dreikönigsspiel (Leipzig Diss. 1879), 43, from eleventh-century B. N. Lat. MS. 16,819.
[178] This line is not actually in the Compiègne text. But it is in most of the later versions of this scene, and is interesting, as being a classical tag from Sallust, Catilina, c. 32; cf. Köppen, 21; Creizenach, i. 63. Reminiscences of Aeneid, viii. 112; ix. 376, are sometimes put into Herod’s mouth in the scene with the Magi (Du Méril, 164, 166).
[179] The version is described, but unfortunately not printed by Gasté, 53. It is from the De ratione divini officii in Montpellier MS. H. 304.
[180] Text, headed ‘Ordo Stellae’ in U. Chevalier, Ordinaires de l’église de Laon, xxxvi, 389 from Laon MS. 263 (thirteenth-century Trophonarium).
[181] Text printed by Lange in Zeitsch. f. deutsch. Alterthum, xxxii. 412, from B. M. Add. MS. 23,922 (Antiphoner of †1200). The play was ‘In octava Epiphaniae’ after the Magnificat at Vespers.
[182] Text in C. Cahier and A. Martin, Mélanges d’Archéologie, i. (1847-9), 258; Clément, 113, from eleventh-century Evangeliarium, now in a Bollandist monastery in Brussels (Meyer, 41). It is a revision of the normal text. The author has been so industrious as even to put many of the rubrics in hexameters. The opening is
The ‘rex’ who presided and possibly acted Herod (cf. p. 56) was, I suppose, an Epiphany king or ‘rex fatuorum.’
[183] Translation only in P. Piolin, Théâtre chrétien dans le Maine (1891), 21. The exact source is not given.
[184] The first text in Du Méril, 156; Davidson, 174, from Munich MS. 6264ᵃ (eleventh century). Apparently it begins with a bit of dumb show, ‘Rex sedens in solio quaerat consilium: exeat edictum ut pereant continuo qui detrahunt eius imperio.’ Then comes ‘Angelus, in primis.’ Second text, headed ‘Ordo Rachaelis’ in Du Méril, 171; Froning, 871, from Munich MS. 6264 (eleventh century). It is mainly metrical.
[185] Texts in Du Méril, 162, 175; Davidson, 175; Coussemaker, 143; Wright, 32, from Orleans MS. 178. The first part begins with the rubric ‘Parato Herode et ceteris personis ...’; the second with ‘Ad interfectionem Puerorum....’
[186] Wordsworth, 147, suggests that the name ‘Le Galilee,’ given at Lincoln to a room over the south porch and also found elsewhere, may be ‘derived from some incident in the half-dramatic Paschal ceremonies.’ For another liturgical drama in which ‘Galilee’ is required as a scene, cf. p. 60.
[187] B. N. Lat. 1152 (eleventh century) in Bibl. de l’École des Chartes, xxxiv. 657. Einsiedeln fragment (eleventh-twelfth century) printed by G. Morel in Pilger (1849), 401; cf. Köppen, 13.
[188] Text in Du Méril, 151, from Vienne MS. 941 (fourteenth century). It is entitled ‘Ad adorandum filium Dei per Stellam invitantur Eoy.’ The first three lines, headed ‘Stella,’ are an address to the ‘exotica plebs’; each of the remaining ten lines is divided between three speakers, ‘Aureolus,’ ‘Thureolus,’ ‘Myrrheolus.’
[189] On the use of tropes at these points in the Mass, cf. Frere, xix.
[190] Use of Sarum, i. 280.
[191] Martene, iii. 44; in England the royal offering is still made, by proxy, at the Chapel Royal, St. James’s (Ashton, 237).
[192] I follow the epoch-making étude of M. Sepet, Les Prophètes du Christ, in Bibl. de l’École des Chartes, xxviii. (1867), 1, 210, xxix. (1868), 205, 261, xxxviii. (1877), 397 (I am sorry not to be able to cite the separate edition printed at Paris, 1878); cf. also Creizenach, i. 67; Julleville, Myst. i. 35; and, especially, Weber, 41. But none of these writers could make use of the Laon version discovered by M. Chevalier. Meyer, 53, suggests that Sepet has exaggerated the importance of the Prophetae in the development of the O. T. dramatic cycle.
[193] Text in P. L. xlii. 1117; on the date cf. Weber, 41. The lectio is printed by Sepet, xxviii. 3.
[194] At Arles it was the sixth lectio at Matins on Christmas day (Sepet, xxviii. 2); at Rome the fourth lesson at Matins on Christmas eve (Martene, iii. 31); at Rouen it was read at Matins two days earlier (Martene, iii. 34); in the Sarum Breviary, i. cxxxv, it makes the fourth, fifth, and sixth lectiones at Matins on the fourth Sunday in Advent.
[195] Bucol. iv. 7.
[196] Eusebius, Orat. Const. Magn. ad Sanctorum Coetum, c. 18 (P.G. xx. 1288). On the Iudicii Signum and the Dit des quinze Signes (Text in Grass, Adamsspiel, 57) derived from it, cf. Sepet, xxviii. 8; Du Méril, 185. According to Martene, iii. 34, the Versus Sibyllae were often sung at Matins on Christmas day, apparently apart from the sermo. Thus at Limoges they were sung after the sixth responsorium.
[198] Text in Du Méril, 179; Coussemaker, 11; Wright, 60; from Bibl. Nat. Lat. 1139 (eleventh or twelfth century). Weber, 51, gives an interesting account of the Prophetae in art, and points out that the play seems to have influenced such representations in Italy early in the eleventh century.
[199] Text in U. Chevalier, Ordinaires de l’Église de Laon, xxxvi, 385, from Laon MS. 263 (thirteenth century Trophonarium). It is headed ‘Ordo Prophetarum.’
[200] Text in Gasté, 4, from Rouen MS. Y. 110 (fourteenth-century Ordinarium). The opening is ‘Nota, Cantor; si Festum Asinorum fiat, processio ordinetur post Terciam. Si non fiat Festum, tunc fiat processio, ut nunc praenotatur. Ordo Processionis Asinorum secundum Rothomagensem usum. Tercia cantata, paratis Prophetis iuxta suum ordinem, fornace in medio navis ecclesiae lintheo et stuppis constituta, processio moveat de claustro, et duo clerici de secunda sede, in cappis, processionem regant, hos versus canentes: Gloriosi et famosi.... Tunc processio in medio ecclesiae stet.’ At the end the ‘Prophetae et ministri’ rule the choir. Unfortunately the MS., like other Ordinaria, only gives the first words of many of the chants.
[201] The Gloriosi et famosi hymn occurs in a twelfth-century Einsiedeln MS. (Milchsack, 36) as an overture to the Quem quaeritis. It is arranged for ‘chorus’ and ‘Prophetae,’ and was therefore borrowed from Christmas. It is followed by another hymn, more strictly Paschal, the Hortum praedestinatio, and this, which is also used with the Sens Quem quaeritis (Milchsack, 58), is sung at the end of the Rouen Prophetae by ‘omnes prophetae et ministri [? = vocatores] in pulpito’—a curious double borrowing between the two feasts. Meyer, 51, argues that the Einsiedeln MS., which is in a fragmentary state, contained a Prophetae, to which, and not to the Quem quaeritis, the Gloriosi et famosi belonged.
[202] Sepet, xxviii. 25.
[203] So says Gasté, 4. But I think he must be wrong, for the Introit with which the text concludes is Puer natus est, which belongs to the Magna missa of the feast-day, and not to the eve.
[204] Martene, iii. 41, from a fourteenth-century Rituale: ‘dicto versiculo tertii nocturni, accenditur totum luminare, et veniunt Prophetae in capitulo revestiti, et post cantant insimul Lumen Patris, et clericus solus dicit In gaudio, et post legitur septima lectio. Post nonam lectionem ducunt prophetas de capitulo ad portam Thesaurarii cantilenas cantando, et post in chorum, ubi dicunt cantori prophetias, et duo clericuli in pulpito cantando eos appellant. Post dicitur nonum [responsorium?] in pulpito.... Post [primam] recitatur miraculum [Martene conjectures martyrologium] in claustro ... [Ad vesperas] dictis psalmis et antiphonis, ducunt ad portam Thesaurarii prophetas, sicut ad matutinum et reducunt in chorum similiter, et habent clerici virgas plenas candelis ardentibus, vocant eos clerici duo sicut ad vesperas [? matutinum].’ Presently follows the Deposuit: cf. vol. i. p. 309.
[205] Cf. vol. i. p. 313.
[206] Gasté, 20.
[207] Sepet, xxviii. 219, suggests that Balaam, when first introduced into the Prophetae, merely prophesied, as he does in the Adam (Grass, 46). Possibly, yet his introduction at the end of the Laon play (unknown to Sepet) looks as if he were an appendix for the sake of his ass.
[208] Champollion-Figeac, Hilarii Versus et Ludi (1838), from B. N. Lat. MS. 11,331. The plays are also printed by Du Méril, Or. Lat. On the life cf. Hist. Litt. de la France, xx. 627; D.N.B. s.v. Hilary; Morley, English Writers, iii. 107.
[209] Du Méril, 272 ‘Ludus super iconia Sancti Nicolai.’ There is a ‘persona iconie.’ A Barbarus speaks partly in French.
[210] Du Méril, 225 ‘Suscitatio Lazari: ad quam istae personae sunt necessariae: Persona Lazari, duarum Sororum, quatuor Iudaeorum, Iesu Christi, duodecim Apostolorum, vel sex ad minus ... (ends). Quo finito, si factum fuerit ad Matutinas, Lazarus in piat: Te Deum laudamus: si vero ad Vesperas: Magnificat anima mea Dominum.’
[211] Du Méril, 241 ‘Historia de Daniel repraesentanda,’ with a list of the ‘personae necessariae’ and a final rubric as in the ‘Suscitatio Lazari’: cf. Sepet, xxviii. 232, on this and similar plays and their relation to the Prophetae. From the names ‘Hilarius,’ ‘Iordanus,’ ‘Simon,’ attached to parts of the Daniel in the MS., it would seem that Hilarius had collaborators for this play (Sepet, xxviii. 248).
[212] E. Dümmler, in Z. f. d. Alterthum, xxxv. 401; xxxvi. 238, from B. M. Addl. MS. 22,414 (‘Liber Sancti Godehardi in Hild[esheim]’). On the group of Nicholas plays cf. Creizenach, i. 105.
[213] G. Morel, in Anzeiger für Kunde der deutschen Vorzeit, vi. (1859), 207, from Einsiedeln MS. 34.
[214] Golden Legend, ii. 109; Wace, Vie de Saint-Nicolas (ed. Delius, 1850).
[215] Du Méril, 262; Coussemaker, 100. The play ends with the Te Deum. The same subject is treated in the Einsiedeln play, and one of those from Hildesheim.
[216] Du Méril, 254; Coussemaker, 83. The play ends with the anthem ‘O Christi pietas,’ used at second Vespers on St. Nicholas’ day (Sarum Breviary, iii. 38). The same subject is treated in the other Hildesheim play.
[217] Du Méril, 276; Coussemaker, 123; begins ‘Ad repraesentandum quomodo Sanctus Nicolaus, &c. ...’: ends with anthem ‘Copiosae caritatis’ used at Lauds on St. Nicholas’ day (Sarum Breviary, iii. 37).
[218] Du Méril, 266; Coussemaker, 109; begins ‘Aliud miraculum de Sancto Nicolao, &c. ...’: ends with anthem ‘Statuit ei Dominus,’ not in Sarum Breviary, but used at Rome as Introit on feasts of Pontiffs. This is the subject of Hilarius’ play.
[219] Text in Du Méril, 213; Coussemaker, 220. The play contains a Paschal sequence and ends with a Te Deum. Part of the action is in a platea; Simon has a domus, which afterwards ‘efficiatur quasi Bethania.’ Other ‘loci’ represent ‘Ierusalem’ and ‘Galilaea’ (cf. p. 50), and the ‘Suscitatio’ takes place at a ‘monumentum’ (probably the Easter sepulchre).
[220] Text in Coussemaker, 49, and Danjou, Revue de la Musique religieuse, iv. (1848), 65. Cf. Sepet, xxviii. 232, and on the MS., vol. i. p. 284. As in the Beauvais Officium Circumcisionis, there are many processional chants or conductus, in one of which are the terms ‘celebremus Natalis solempnia’ and ‘in hoc Natalitio’ which attach the play to Christmas, or at least the Christmas season. The text begins ‘Incipit Danielis ludus,’ and ends with the Te Deum. The following quatrain serves as prologue:
Meyer, 56, finds relations between the Beauvais Daniel and that of Hilarius.
[221] Text in Anzeiger für Kunde d. deutschen Vorzeit (1877), 169, from late twelfth-century MS.; cf. Creizenach, i. 74.
[223] Creizenach, i. 6, 71. The unauthentic Annales of Corvei mention also a play on Joseph under the year 1264 (Creizenach, i. 75).
[224] Text in Du Méril, 237; Coussemaker, 210; begins ‘Ad repraesentandam conversionem beati Pauli apostoli, &c. ...’: ends with Te Deum. Four ‘sedes’ are required, and a ‘lectus’ for Ananias.
[225] Latest text, with long introduction, mainly philological, by W. Cloetta, in Romania, xxii. (1893), 177; others by Du Méril, 233; Coussemaker, 1; E. Boehmer, in Romanische Studien, iv. 99; K. Bartsch, Lang. et Litt. françaises, 13; cf. also Julleville, Les Myst. i. 27; E. Stengel, Z. f. rom. Phil. iii. 233; E. Schwan, Z. f. rom. Phil. xi. 469; H. Morf, Z. f. rom. Phil. xx. 385. The manuscript is Bibl. Nat. Lat. 1139. MM. Cloetta (p. 221) and G. Paris (Litt. fr. au moyen âge², 237, 246) assign the Sponsus to the earlier half or second third of the twelfth century, and the former, with the delightful diffidence of a philologist, thinks, on linguistic grounds, that it was written at Saint Amant de Boixe (sixteen kilomètres north of Angoulême). It only remains for some archivist to find a clerk of St. Martial of Limoges whose native place was this very village.
[227] H. Morf, loc. cit., considers the Sponsus an Easter play.
[228] Creizenach, i. 77. An Italian dramatic Lauda on the same subject is headed ‘In Dominica de Adventu’ (D’Ancona, i. 141).
[229] Text in Froning, 206, from edition of Zezschwitz, Vom römischen Kaisertum deutscher Nation (1877). The earliest edition is by Pez, Thesaurus Anecd. Noviss. (1721-9), ii. 3, 187. This writer introduced confusion by giving the play the title Ludus paschalis de adventu et interitu Antichristi. It has nothing to do with Easter. The latest and best edition is that by W. Meyer, in Sitzungsberichte d. hist.-phil. Classe d. königl. bayr. Akad. d. Wiss. (Munich), 1882, 1. The unique MS. is Munich MS. 19,411 (twelfth-thirteenth century), formerly in Kloster Tegernsee. Both Zezschwitz and Meyer have long and valuable introductions; cf. also Froning, 199; Creizenach, i. 78. T. Wright prints the play from Pez, in Chester Plays, ii. 227.
[230] 2 Thessalonians, ii. 3-12. According to York Missal, i. 10, part of this passage is read at Mass on Saturday in the Quatuor Tempora of Advent.
[231] ‘Templum domini et vii sedes regales primum collocentur in hunc modum:
Ad orientem templum domini; huic collocantur sedes regis Hierosolimorum et sedes Sinagogae.
Ad occidentem sedes imperatoris Romani; huic collocantur sedes regis Theotonicorum et sedes regis Francorum.
Ad austrum sedes regis Graecorum.
Ad meridiem sedes regis Babiloniae et Gentilitatis.’
Other than this direction the play has no heading, but in later stage-directions it is incidentally called a ‘ludus.’
[232] Printed in P. L. ci. 1291.
[233] Pseudo-Augustine, De altercatione Ecclesiae et Synagogae dialogus in P. L. xlii. 1131. On this theme and the débats based thereon cf. Hist. Litt. xxiii. 216; G. Paris, § 155; Pearson, ii. 376. P. Weber, Geistliches Schauspiel und kirchliche Kunst (1894), is mainly occupied with this motive and its place in the religious drama and religious art. It is a most valuable study, but I find no ground for the conjecture (Weber, 31, 36) that the Altercatio, like the Prophetae, had already, before the Antichrist, been semi-dramatically rendered in the liturgy.
[236] At Rouen, e.g., a confraternity played a misterium on the feast of the Assumption in a waxen ‘hortus’ set up in their chapel; and this between 1446 and 1521 required reformation from various ‘derisiones,’ especially a ‘ludus de marmousetis’ (Gasté, 76). But I know of no evidence for a Latin Assumption play, although such may quite well have existed. The Lincoln Assumption play was given in the cathedral, as a wind-up to a cycle (Representations, s.v. Lincoln).
[238] Ducange, s.v. Festum Ascensionis, ‘qui ... officio hac die praeerat, cum modicum panis et vini degustasset, cantato responsorio Non vos relinquam, ambonem ascendebat, ubi ex monte efficto coelum petere videbatur; tunc pueri symphoniaci veste angelica induti decantabant Viri Galilaei, etc.’
[239] Julleville, Les Myst. ii. 9; Annales archéologiques, xviii. 173 ‘pro pingendo cicatrices in manibus D. Iohannis Rosnel, facientis mysterium in die Ascensionis’ (1416), ‘pro potandum cum discipulis,’ ‘vicariis representantibus Crucifixum cum suis discipulis et ibidem simul manducantibus et bibentibus vinum,’ ‘pro pingendo vulnera,’ ‘pro faciendo novas nubes,’ ‘pro pictura dictarum nubium,’ ‘pro cantando non vos.’ In Germany (Naogeorgos in Stubbes, i. 337) the crucifix was drawn up by cords and an image of Satan thrown down. For England, see the end of Lambarde’s account, below.
[240] Grenier, 388 (Amiens, 1291, and elsewhere in Picardy); Hautcœur, Documents liturgiques de Lille, 65 (thirteenth century), and Histoire de l’Église de Lille, i. 427; Gasté, 75 (Bayeux, thirteenth century, Caen, Coutances); D’Ancona, i. 31 (Parma), i. 88 (Vicenza, 1379, a more elaborate out-of-door performance); Naogeorgos in Stubbes, i. 337 (Germany); Ducange, s.v. nebulae. I have three English examples: Hone, E. D. Book, i. 685 (Computus of St. Patrick’s, Dublin, for 1509), ‘we have ivˢ viiᵈ paid to those playing with the great and little angel and the dragon; iiiˢ paid for little cords employed about the Holy Ghost; ivˢ viᵈ for making the angel censing (thurificantis), and iiˢ iiᵈ for cords of it—all on the feast of Pentecost’; Lincoln Statutes, i. 335; ii. cxviii. 165 (1330) ‘in distributione autem Pentecostali percipiet ... clericus ducens columbam vj denarios’; W. Lambarde, Alphabetical Description of the Chief Places in England and Wales (1730, written in sixteenth century), 459, s.v. Wytney, ‘The like Toye I myselfe (beinge then a Chyld) once saw in Poules Church at London, at a Feast of Whitsontyde, wheare the comynge downe of the Holy Gost was set forthe by a white Pigion, that was let to fly out of a Hole, that yet is to be sene in the mydst of the Roofe of the great Ile, and by a longe Censer, which descendinge out of the same Place almost to the verie Grounde, was swinged up and downe at suche a Lengthe, that it reached with thone Swepe almost to the West Gate of the Churche, and with the other to the Quyre Staires of the same, breathynge out over the whole Churche and Companie a most pleasant Perfume of suche swete Thinges as burned thearin; with the like doome Shewes also, they used every whear to furnishe sondrye Partes of their Churche Service, as by their Spectacles of the Nativitie, Passion, and Ascension of Christe.’ From further notices in W. S. Simpson, St. Paul’s and Old City Life, 62, 83, it appears that the censing was on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in Whit-week, that the Lord Mayor attended, and that the ceremony was replaced by sermons in 1548.
[241] Creizenach, i. 76; D’Ancona, i. 90, 92, 114 (Padua, Venice, Trevigi), and i. 29 (Parma Ordinarium of fifteenth century) ‘ad inducendum populum ad contritionem, ... ad confirmandum ipsum in devotione Virginis Mariae ... fit reverenter et decenter Repraesentatio Virginis Mariae ... cum prophetis et aliis solemnitatibus opportunis’; Coussemaker, 280 (Cividale Processionalia of fourteenth and fifteenth centuries). In the fourteenth century there was a procession to the market-place, where ‘diaconus legat evangelium in tono, et fit repraesentatio Angeli ad Mariam.’ In the fifteenth century ‘In Annuntiatione B. M. Virginis Repraesentatio’ was a similar procession and ‘cantatur evangelium cum ludo, quo finito, revertendo ad ecclesiam, cantatur Te Deum.’ The text goes slightly beyond the words of the Gospel (Luke i. 26-38) having a part for ‘Helisabeth.’ Gasté, 79, describes the foundation of a mystère of the Annunciation during vespers on the eve of the feast at Saint-Lo, in 1521.
[242] I gather this from the consuetudo of giving gloves to Mary, the Angel, and the Prophets at Christmas (Representations, s.v. Lincoln). Here, as at Parma, the Prophetae appear in connexion with the Annunciation ceremony.
[243] See the curious and detailed document in Appendix S as to the Tournai ceremony founded by Peter Cotrel in the sixteenth century. A precisely similar foundation was that of Robert Fabri at Saint Omer in 1543 (Bull. arch. du Comité des travaux historiques (1886), 80; Mém. de la Soc. des Antiquaires de la Morinie, xx. 207). The inventory of the ‘ornementz et parementz’ in a ‘coffre de cuir boully’ includes ‘ung colomb de bois revestu de damas blancq.’ Alike at Tournai, St. Omer, and Besançon (Martene, iii. 30) the ceremony was on the Wednesday in the Quatuor Tempora of Advent. For the ‘golden Mass’ of this day the Gospel is the same as that of the Annunciation; cf. York Missal, i. 6; Pfannenschmidt, 438.
[244] Creizenach, i. 154, 317, 346. A slight addition to the Stella is made by two Provençal plays of †1300 (ed. P. Meyer in Romania, xiv. 496) and 1333 (dramatis personae only in Revue des Sociétés savantes, viii. 259) which introduce episodes from the life of the Virgin previous to the Nativity.
[245] Creizenach, i. 70, quoting Gesta Alberti Livoniensis episcopi (†1226) in Gruber, Origines Livoniae (1740), 34 ‘Eadem hyeme factus est ludus prophetarum ordinatissimus, quam Latini Comoediam vocant, in media Riga, ut fidei Christianae rudimenta gentilitas fide etiam disceret oculata. Cuius ludi et comoediae materia tam neophytis, quam paganis, qui aderant, per interpretem diligentissime exponebatur. Ubi autem armati Gedeonis cum Philistaeis pugnabant; pagani, timentes occidi, fugere coeperunt, sed caute sunt revocati.... In eodem ludo erant bella, vtpote Dauid, Gedeonis, Herodis. Erat et doctrina Veteris et Novi Testamenti.’
[246] Text edited by V. Luzarche (Tours, 1854); L. Palustre (Paris, 1877); K. Bartsch, Chrestomathie, (ed. 1880, 91); K. Grass (Halle, 1891); cf. the elaborate study by Sepet, xxix, 105, 261, and Julleville, Les Myst. i. 81; ii. 217; Creizenach, i. 130; Clédat, 15. The manuscript is Tours MS. 927, formerly belonging to the Benedictines of Marmoutier. Grass, vi, summarizes the opinions as to its date. In any case the text is probably of the twelfth century, and Grass, 171, after an elaborate grammatical investigation, confirms the opinion of Luzarche, doubted by Littré and others, that it is of Anglo-Norman rather than Norman origin. But, even if the writer was an Anglo-Norman clerk, the play must have been written for performance in France. I doubt if it was ever actually played or finished. It is followed in the MS. by a Norman (not Anglo-Norman) poem on the Fifteen Signs of Judgement (text in Grass, 57), which looks like material collected for an unwritten Sibyl prophecy. The remaining contents of the first part of the MS., which may be of the twelfth century, are some hymns and the Latin Tours Quem quaeritis (p. 38).
[247] Sepet, xxix, 112, 128, points out that certain lectiones and responsoria which accompany the Adam and Cain and Abel are taken from the office for Septuagesima. Possibly an independent liturgical drama of the Fall arose at Septuagesima and was absorbed by the Prophetae. But mention of the ‘primus Adam’ is not uncommon in the Nativity liturgy; cf. Sepet, xxix, 107, and the Sponsus (p. 61).
[248] Annales Ratisponenses (M. G. H. Scriptores, xvii. 590) ‘Anno Domini 1194. Celebratus est in Ratispona ordo creacionis angelorum et ruina[e] Luciferi et suorum, et creacionis hominis et casus et prophetarum ... septima Idus Februarii.’
[249] Köppen, 35, discusses the textual relation between the St. Gall and Benedictbeuern plays and their common source, the Freising Stella.
[250] Text in Mone, Schauspiele des Mittelalters, i. 143; cf. Creizenach, i. 123.
[251] Text in Schmeller, Carmina Burana, 80; Du Méril, 187; Froning, 877, from a Munich MS. of thirteenth to fourteenth century formerly in the abbey of Benedictbeuern in Bavaria; cf. Creizenach, i. 96; Sepet, xxxviii, 398. The title ‘Ludus scenicus de nativitate Domini’ given by Schmeller is not in the MS.
[252] Cf. p. 56. The Balaam in Adam is ‘sedens super asinam,’ but no further notice is taken of the animal.
[253] Text ed. Le Verdier (Soc. des Bibliophiles normands); cf. Julleville, Les Myst. ii. 36, 430.
[255] Tischendorf, Evangelia Apocrypha (1876), 389.
[256] Cf. pp. 4, 5, 20. One of the anthems for Easter Saturday in the Sarum Breviary is Elevamini, portae.
[257] Text in Pollard, 166; K. Böddeker, Altenglische Dichtungen des MS. Harl. 2253 (1878), 264; E. Mall, The Harrowing of Hell (1871); cf. Ten Brink, ii. 242; Ward, i. 90; Creizenach, i. 158. There are three MSS.: (a) Bodl. Digby MS. 86 (late thirteenth century); (b) Harl. MS. 2253 (†1310); (c) Edin. Advoc. Libr. (Auchinleck) MS. W. 41 (early fourteenth century). The Digby version has a prologue beginning:
The Harleian has:
The Auchinleck prologue lacks the beginning, but the end agrees with the Harleian. Böddeker, who accepts the dramatic character of the piece, thinks that the prologues were prefixed later for recitation. In any case this poem became a source for a play in the Ludus Coventriae cycle (Pollard, xxxviii).
[258] Text of Muri fragments in Froning, 228; cf. Creizenach, i. 114; Wirth, 133, 281. A French fragment (†1300-50) also introducing this theme is printed by J. Bédier, in Romania, xxiv. (1895), 86. Pez, Script. rerum austriacarum, ii. 268, describes a vision of the thirteenth-century recluse Wilbirgis: ‘Item quadam nocte Dominicae Resurrectionis, cum in Monasterio ludus Paschalis tam a Clero quam a populo ageretur, quia eidem non potuit corporaliter interesse, coepit desiderare, ut ei Dominus aliquam specialis consolationis gratiam per Resurrectionis suae gaudia largiretur. Et vidit quasi Dominum ad Inferos descendentem et inde animas eruentem, quae quasi columbae candidissimae circumvolantes ipsum comitabantur, et sequebantur ab inferis redeuntem.’ Meyer, 61, 98, deals fully with the development of the Resurrection and Harrowing of Hell themes in the early vernacular plays.
[259] Text in Monmerqué et Michel, Théâtre fr. au moyen âge, 10, from Bibl. Nat. fr. 902; cf. Creizenach, i. 135; Julleville, Les Myst. i. 91; ii. 220; Clédat, 59. The MS. is of the fourteenth century, but the Norman-French, which some writers, as with the Adam, think Anglo-Norman, is assigned to the end of the twelfth century.
[260] D’Ancona, i. 90. The original authority for the statement, taken from a MS. treatise on the Commedia italiana by Uberto Benvoglienti, is not given.
[261] D’Ancona, i. 87, quoting several chronicles: ‘hoc anno in festo Pascae facta fuit Reppraesentatio Passionis et Resurrectionis Christi solemniter et ordinate in Prato Vallis.’
[262] Text in Schmeller, Carmina Burana, 95; Du Méril, 126; Froning, 284; cf. Creizenach, i. 92; Wirth, 131, 278. The only heading to the play in the MS. is ‘Sancta Maria assit nostro principio! amen.’