Originally written as an Alleluia trope or sequence proper, a place which it still occupies in the reformed Tridentine liturgy⁠[105], the Victimae paschali cannot be shown to have made its way into the Quem quaeritis until the thirteenth century⁠[106]. But it occurs in about a third of the extant versions, sometimes as a whole, sometimes with the omission of the first three sentences, which obviously do not lend themselves as well as the rest to dramatic treatment. When introduced, these three sentences are sung either by the choir or by the Maries: the other six fall naturally into dialogue.

The Victimae paschali is an expansion of the text of the Quem quaeritis, but it does not necessarily introduce any new dramatic motive. Of such there were, from the beginning, at least two. There was the visit of the Maries to the sepulchre and their colloquy with the angel; and there was the subsequent announcement of the Resurrection made by them in pursuance of the divine direction. Each has its appropriate action: in the one case the lifting of the pall and discovery of the empty sepulchre, in the other the display by the Maries of the cast-off grave-clothes, represented by a linteum, in token of the joyful event. It is to this second scene, if the term may be used of anything so rudimentary, that the Victimae paschali attaches itself. The dialogue of it is between the Maries and the choir, who stand for the whole body of disciples, or sometimes two singers, who are their spokesmen⁠[107]. A new scene is, however, clearly added to the play, when these two singers not only address the Maries, but themselves pay a visit to the sepulchre. Now they represent the apostles Peter and John. In accordance with the gospel narrative John outstrips Peter in going to the sepulchre, but Peter enters first: and the business of taking up the linteum and displaying it to the other disciples is naturally transferred to them from the Maries. The apostle scene first makes its appearance in an Augsburg text of the end of the eleventh century, or the beginning of the twelfth⁠[108]. It occurs in rather more than half the total number of versions. These are mainly German, but the evidence of Belethus is sufficient to show that it was not unknown in twelfth-century France⁠[109]. The addition of the apostle scene completed the evolution of the Easter play for the majority of churches. There were, however, a few in which the very important step was taken of introducing the person of the risen Christ himself; and this naturally entailed yet another new scene. Of this type there are fifteen extant versions, coming from one Italian, four French, and four German churches⁠[110]. The earliest is of the twelfth century, from a Prague convent. The new scene closely follows the Scripture narrative. Mary Magdalen remains behind the other Maries at the sepulchre. The Christ appears; she takes him for the gardener, and he reveals himself with the Noli me tangere. Mary returns with the new wonder to the choir. This is the simplest version of the new episode. It occurs in a play of which the text is purely liturgical, and does not even include the Victimae paschali. A somewhat longer one is found in a Fleury play, which is in other respects highly elaborate and metrical. Here the Christ appears twice, first disguised in similitudinem hortolani, afterwards in similitudinem domini with the labarum or resurrection banner. The remaining versions do not depart widely from these two types, except that at Rouen and Mont St.-Michel, the Christ scene takes place, not at the sepulchre but at the altar, and at Cividale in a spot described as the ortus Christi⁠[111].

The formal classification, then, of the versions of the Quem quaeritis, gives three types. In the first, the scenes between the Maries and the angel, and between the Maries and the choir, are alone present; in the second the apostle scene is added to these; the third, of which there are only fifteen known examples, is distinguished by the presence of the Christ scene. In any one of these types, the Victimae paschali and other proses and hymns may or may not be found⁠[112]. And it must now be added that it is on the presence of these that the greater or less development of lyric feeling, as distinct from dramatic action, in the play depends. The metrical hymns in particular, when they are not merely choral overtures, are often of the nature of planctus or laments put in the mouths of the Maries as they approach the sepulchre or at some other appropriate moment. These planctus add greatly to the vividness and humanity of the play, and are thus an important step in the dramatic evolution. The use of them may be illustrated by that of the hymn Heu! pius pastor occiditur in the Dublin version found by Mr. Frere and printed, after a different text from his, in an appendix⁠[113]. This play has not the Christ scene, and belongs, therefore, to the second type of Quem quaeritis, but, in other respects, including the planctus, it closely resembles the Fleury version described above. Another planctus, found in plays of the third type from Engelberg, Nuremberg, Einsiedeln, and Cividale, is the Heu nobis! internas mentes⁠[114]; a third, the Heu! miserae cur contigit, seems to have been interpolated in the Heu! pius pastor at Dublin; a fourth, the Omnipotens pater altissime, with a refrain Heu quantus est dolor noster! is found at places so far apart as Narbonne and Prague⁠[115]: and a fifth, Heu dolor, heu quam dira doloris angustia! is also in the Fleury text⁠[116].

Another advance towards drama is made in four Prague versions of the third type by the introduction of an episode for which there is no Scriptural basis at all. On their way to the sepulchre, the Maries stop and buy the necessary spices of a spice-merchant or unguentarius. In three thirteenth-century texts the unguentarius is merely a persona muta; in one of the fourteenth he is given four lines⁠[117]. The unguentarius was destined to become a very popular character, and to afford much comic relief in the vernacular religious drama of Germany. Nor can it be quite confidently said that his appearance in these comparatively late liturgical plays is a natural development and not merely an instance of reaction by the vernacular stage.

The scenic effect of the Quem quaeritis can be to some extent gathered from the rubrics, although these are often absent and often not very explicit, being content with a general direction for the performers to be arrayed in similitudinem mulierum or angelorum or apostolorum, as the case may be. The setting was obviously simple, and few properties or costumes beyond what the vestments and ornaments of the church could supply were used. The Maries had their heads veiled⁠[118], and wore surplices, copes, chasubles, dalmatics, albs, or the like. These were either white or coloured. At Fécamp one, presumably the Magdalen, was in red, the other two in white⁠[119]. The thuribles which, as already pointed out, they carried, were sometimes replaced by boxes or vases representing the ointment and spices⁠[120]. Sometimes also they carried, or had carried before them, candles. Two or three rubrics direct them to go pedetemptim, as sad or searching⁠[121]. They were generally three in number, occasionally two, or one only. The angels, or angel, as the case might be, sat within the sepulchre or at its door. They, too, had vestments, generally white, and veiled or crowned heads. At Narbonne, and probably elsewhere, they had wings⁠[122]. They held lights, a palm, or an ear of corn, symbolizing the Resurrection⁠[123]. The apostles are rarely described; the ordinary priestly robes doubtless sufficed. At Dublin, St. John, in white, held a palm, and St. Peter, in red, the keys⁠[124]. In the earliest Prague version of the Christ scene, the Christ seems to be represented by one of the angels⁠[125]. At Nuremberg the dominica persona has a crown and bare feet⁠[126]. At Rouen he holds a cross, and though there is a double appearance, there is no hint of any change of costume⁠[127]. But at Coutances and Fleury the first appearance is as hortulanus, indicated perhaps by a spade, which is exchanged on the second for the cross⁠[128].

It must be borne in mind that the Quem quaeritis remained imperfectly detached from the liturgy, out of which it arose. The performers were priests, or nuns, and choir-boys. The play was always chanted, not spoken⁠[129]. It was not even completely resolved into dialogue. In many quite late versions narrative anthems giving the gist of each scene are retained, and are sung either by the principal actors or by the choir, which thus, as in the hymns or proses which occur as overtures⁠[130], holds a position distinct from the part which it takes as representing the disciples⁠[131]. Finally the whole performance ends in most cases with the Te Deum laudamus, and thus becomes a constituent part of Matins, which normally comes to a close with that hymn. The intervention of the congregation, with its Easter hymn Christ ist erstanden, seems to lie outside the main period of the evolution of the Quem quaeritis. I only find one example so early as the thirteenth century⁠[132]. It is in quite late texts also that certain other Easter motives have become attached to the play. The commonest of these are the whispered greeting of Surrexit Christus and the kiss of peace, which have been noted elsewhere as preceding Matins⁠[133]. At Eichstädt, in 1560, is an amusing direction, which Mr. Collins would have thought very proper, that the pax is to be given to the dominus terrae, si ibi fuerit, before the priest. The same manuscript shows a curious combination of the Quem quaeritis with the irrepressible Tollite portas ceremony⁠[134]. Another such is found at Venice⁠[135]. But this is as late as the eighteenth century, to which also belongs the practice at Angers described by De Moleon, according to which the Maries took up from the sepulchre with the linteum two large Easter eggs—deux œufs d’autruche⁠[136].

Besides the Quem quaeritis, Easter week had another liturgical drama in the Peregrini or Peregrinus⁠[137]. This was established by the twelfth century. It was regularly played at Lichfield⁠[138], but no text is extant from England, except a late transitional one, written partly in the vernacular⁠[139]. France affords four texts, from Saintes⁠[140], Rouen⁠[141], Beauvais⁠[142], and Fleury⁠[143]. The play is also recorded at Lille⁠[144]. In Germany it is represented by a recently-discovered fragment of the famous early thirteenth-century repertory of the scholares vagantes from the Benedictbeuern monastery⁠[145]. The simplest version is that of Saintes, in which the action is confined to the journey to Emmaus and the supper there. The Rouen play is on the same lines, but at the close the disciples are joined by St. Mary Magdalen, and the Victimae paschali is sung. The Benedictbeuern play similarly ends with the introduction of the Virgin and two other Maries to greet the risen Christ. But here, and in the Beauvais and Fleury plays, a distinct scene is added, of which the subject is the incredulity of Thomas and the apparition to him. It is, I think, a reasonable conjecture that the Peregrini, in which the risen Christ is a character, was not devised until he had already been introduced into the later versions of the Quem quaeritis. Indeed the Fleury Peregrini, with its double appearance and change of costume for Christ, seems clearly modelled on the Fleury Quem quaeritis. But the lesser play has its own proper and natural place in the Easter week services. It is attached to the Processio ad fontes which is a regular portion, during that season, of Vespers⁠[146]. The Christ with the Resurrection cross is personated by the priest who normally accompanies the procession cum cruce. At Rouen the play was a kind of dramatization of the procession itself⁠[147]; at Lille it seems to have had the same position; at Saintes and Beauvais it preceded the Magnificat and Oratio or Collecta, after which the procession started. In the remaining cases there is no indication of the exact time for the Peregrini. The regular day for it appears to have been the Monday in Easter week, of the Gospel for which the journey to Emmaus is the subject; but at Fleury it was on the Tuesday, when the Gospel subject is the incredulity of Thomas. At Saintes, a curious rubric directs the Christ during the supper at Emmaus to divide the ‘host’ among the Peregrini. It seems possible that in this way a final disposal was found for the host which had previously figured in the Depositio and Elevatio of the sepulchre ceremony.

A long play, probably of Norman origin and now preserved in a manuscript at Tours, represents a merging of the Elevatio, the Quem quaeritis, and the Peregrini⁠[148]. The beginning is imperfect, but it may be conjectured from a fragment belonging to Klosterneuburg in Germany, that only a few lines are lost⁠[149]. Pilate sets a watch before the sepulchre. An angel sends lightning, and the soldiers fall as if dead⁠[150]. Then come the Maries, with planctus. There is a scene with the unguentarius or mercator, much longer than that at Prague, followed by more planctus. After the Quem quaeritis, the soldiers announce the event to Pilate. A planctus by the Magdalen leads up to the apparition to her. The Maries return to the disciples. Christ appears to the disciples, then to Thomas, and the Victimae paschali and Te Deum conclude the performance. A fragment of a very similar play, breaking off before the Quem quaeritis, belongs to the Benedictbeuern manuscript already mentioned⁠[151].

It is clear from the rubrics that the Tours play, long as it is, was still acted in church, and probably, as the Te Deum suggests, at the Easter Matins⁠[152]. Certainly this was the case with the Benedictbeuern play. In a sense, these plays only mark a further stage in the process of elaboration by which the fuller versions of the Quem quaeritis proper came into being. But the introduction at the beginning and end of motives outside the events of the Easter morning itself points to possibilities of expansion which were presently realized, and which ultimately transformed the whole character of the liturgical drama. All the plays, however, which have so far been mentioned, are strictly plays of the Resurrection. Their action begins after the Burial of Christ, and does not stretch back into the events of the Passion. Nor indeed can the liturgical drama proper be shown to have advanced beyond a very rudimentary representation of the Passion. This began with the planctus, akin to those of the Quem quaeritis, which express the sorrows of the Virgin and the Maries and St. John around the cross⁠[153]. Such planctus exist both in Latin and the vernacular. The earliest are of the twelfth century. Several of them are in dialogue, in which Christ himself occasionally takes part, and they appear to have been sung in church after Matins on Good Friday⁠[154]. The planctus must be regarded as the starting-point of a drama of the Passion, which presently established itself beside the drama of the Resurrection. This process was mainly outside the churches, but an early and perhaps still liturgical stage of it is to be seen in the ludus breviter de passione which precedes the elaborated Quem quaeritis of the Benedictbeuern manuscript, and was probably treated as a sort of prologue to it. The action extends from the preparation for the Last Supper to the Burial. It is mainly in dumb-show, and the slight dialogue introduced is wholly out of the Vulgate. But at one point occurs the rubric Maria planctum faciat quantum melius potest, and a later hand has inserted out of its place in the text the most famous of all the laments of the Virgin, the Planctus ante nescia⁠[155].