THE SPIRIT OF THE PASSION-PLA Y 275 



to the corresponding Lyceum drama. Thus in a short 

 Ludus in cunabilis Christi the characters are Joseph 

 "who leads Mary seated upon an ass," the midwife 

 " carrying cradle, pap-bowl, and spoon," and a shepherd 

 "leading two big dogs." Joseph, after pointing out 

 the child to the shepherd as the one announced by the 

 angels, invites him to drink from his flask; this is 

 passed on to the Virgin and then to the midwife, who 

 thinks a drop of wine would make the child sleep. 

 She then rocks the cradle and sings Magnum nomen 

 Domini. The flask again being passed round, the 

 shepherd remarks that it must be cold for the child ; 

 Joseph agrees, and-- exeunt omnes! 1 This play is 

 by no means unique (compare the shepherds in the 

 Chester Plays, p. 119 1 ); indeed, a perhaps still more 

 ourlesque example of an Infancy Play has been 

 published by Weinhold (Q, p. 106) from oral tradition. 

 In this case Joseph is represented as rocking the 

 cradle and singing : 



Kindla wiega, Kindla wiega ! 



ich koan nich menne Finger biega 



Hunni sausi, 



der Kitsclie thut der Bauch wih ! 



Kitsche is Katzenjammer, and there is perhaps 

 something of naive folk-realism rather than of burlesque 

 in the baby Jesus troubled by the wind. 



1 See I, No. i., and compare Ein Weihnachtsspiel aus einer Hs. des XV. 

 Jahrhunderts, edited by K. W. Piderit, 1869. Flogel's Geschichte des Grotesk- 

 KomiscTien, 1861, p. 246, may also be consulted. It must be noted, however, 

 that the rocking of the Christ cradle actually occurred as a part of the Christmas 

 church ritual, and a fossil of it remained in a Protestant church in Tubingen 

 even as late as 1830. See E. Meier, Sitten u. Gebrduche aus Schwaben, p. 464. 



