THE SPIRIT OF THE PASSION-PLA Y 273 



To the mediaeval student it is peculiarly striking owing 

 to its free treatment of the gospel narrative, its absence 

 of additional traditional incident, and to the strong 

 influence of the classical models which it exhibits. The 

 loss the passion-play suffers when the Marienklage is 

 omitted is well illustrated by Kriiger's play, who in his 

 narrow theological prejudice considered it necessary to 

 entirely cut out the character of the Virgin. He shows 

 us at once his ignorance of what forms the chief emotional 

 factor in the drama, and demonstrates how impossible the 

 passion-play becomes when it is adapted to theological 

 controversies. 1 



It must not, however, be supposed that true poetic 

 spirit is confined in the greater passion-plays to the 

 lamentations of the Virgin, and that much even of the 

 tone of these is due to a Greek source. This is far from 

 being the case. As a striking instance of the contrary, 

 we may cite Lucifer's appeal to the elements in the 

 Egerer Spiel, and his offer to perform the most terrible 

 penance if he can but obtain forgiveness. Here, for an 

 instant, we have an approach to a higher dramatic concep- 

 tion, that of a glorious, large-hearted rebel Satan. The 

 refusal of mercy to this heartrending appeal of Lucifer's 

 contrasts curiously with the assertion in a thirteenth- 

 century poem, A Moral Ode (Old English Miscellany, 

 E.E.T.S., 1. 214), that the Devil himself might have 

 had mercy had he sought for it. The same intellectual 

 difficulty as to why the Devil could not do penance and 



1 See H, Bd. ii. Kriiger introduces instead of the Virgin, a monk Franciscus, 

 and a Lutheran Christophorus, who holds 'das recht evangelium. ' It is, per- 

 haps, needless to add that he consigns these to their fitting places, hell and 

 heaven, on the day of judgment. 



VOL. II T 



