THE STAGE OF THE PASSION-PLAY 315 



Y. On the Stage, Stage Furniture, Costumes, and 

 Symbols of the Passion-Play 



The Stage. Nothing appears more suggestive of the 

 ecclesiastical origin of the passion-play than the arrange- 

 ment of the stage. The two forms of stage with which 

 we are acquainted may be described not unfitly as the 

 flat stage and the elevated stage ; the former was more 

 common in Germany, the latter in France, but there 

 were no rigid geographical or national limitations. In 

 both cases the stage consisted, as a rule, of three divi- 

 sions, but the origin as well as purport of these divisions 

 in the two stages were quite different. There has been 

 considerable discussion as to the reason for these two 

 forms of stage having been adopted, but it appears to 

 me that, if due weight be given to scenic church ritual 

 as a primitive source of the religious drama, then con- 

 siderable light will fall on the stage arrangements from 

 a consideration of the internal divisions of a mediaeval 

 cathedral or church. In such a building it will be found 

 that the choir is usually raised several feet above the 

 nave. Underneath the choir is frequently a crypt, the 

 entrance to which is either in the middle or at the 

 side of the steps leading up from the nave. 1 Within 

 the choir there is usually a gallery of some sort, 2 the 



1 Compare Keller's Bauriss des Klosters St. Gallen vom Jahr 820. The cases 

 of many cathedrals will occur to the reader. There is a church at Lastingham, 

 in Yorkshire, with such a crypt, but the rood-loft has disappeared. The St. 

 Gallen Church had a gallery behind the altar. 



2 The rood-loft, or at least its staircase, can be found in many English parish 

 churches. There is a gallery round the choir in Gloucester Cathedral ; one 

 behind the altar in Compton Church, Surrey. The sepulchre at Bampton 

 Church, Oxfordshire, is built in two stories, the upper was probably used for the 



