THE UNITY OF THE PASSION-PLA Y 261 



can be little doubt that it was from the religious plays 

 of their native towns. The importance of these plays 

 for Christian iconography has already been noted by 

 Didron : 



The representation of miracles and mysteries served to put in 

 action the persons painted on glass windows, sculptured on the 

 capitals, and encrusted in the vaultings of cathedrals. . . . Words 

 and gestures interpreted what outline and colouring had expressed, 

 and the intention which actuated both was the same ; in short, the 

 graphic and dramatic arts became a book to those who could read 

 no other. It is in this light that they must be regarded ; in this 

 character we must seek a clue to the interpretation of the figures 

 true hieroglyphics of the Middle Ages which Christian Archae- 

 ology, although at present only in its infancy, already begins to 

 decipher and comprehend (Christian Iconography, p. 6). 



Schroer has shown how, in the Oberufer Spiel 

 still performed in 1853 the traditional scenic group- 

 ings were actual copies of old woodcuts. 1 Such works 

 as Durer's Grosse Passion, or Holbein the Elder's passion 

 picture at Augsburg (No. 87), are invaluable to the 

 student of the mediaeval religious play, while Wolge- 

 mut's woodcuts in the Schatzbehalter of 1491 especially 

 in the old coloured copies provide the best graphic 

 conception possible of a mediaeval passion-play. 



It is worth while illustrating this correspondence 

 between the mediaeval artist and playwright in one or 

 two typical cases. The student of the pictures and 

 woodcuts of the Middle Ages must often have noticed in 

 representations of the agony in the garden of Geth- 

 semane an angel bearing a cross or cup. It occurs, for 

 example, in famous pictures by Holbein the Elder and 



1 Deutsche Weihnachtspicle aus Ungam, 1858 : see also R, p. 24. 



