THE STAGE OF THE PASSION-PLAY 321 



Entering at the 'second gate' (5) into what would 

 correspond to the choir proper, we notice immediately 

 in front of us ( the scourging pillar' (8), and behind it 

 ' the pillar with the cock ' (9). 1 On our left hand appears 

 Herod's 'house '(6) and the 'house of the last supper' (12); 

 on our right the 'houses' of Pilate (7), Caiaphas (10), 

 and Annas (11) are arranged in order. Passing through 

 the ' third gate ' (13) into what would correspond to the 

 presbyterium, we find the Calvary with the three crosses 

 (18, 19, 20) and the four graves out of which the dead 

 arise on Christ's death (14-17) ; to the right lies the 

 sepulchre (21), and in the position corresponding to the 

 high altar, the 'heaven (22).' Considered as arising from 

 the internal divisions of a church choir, it will be seen that 

 the flat passion-play stage is in part explicable. I have 

 not come across another hypothesis which throws any 

 light on the threefold division and the remarkable barriers. 

 Mone supposes that as the play proceeded and 

 its action passed from heaven across the world to hell, 

 the spectators would walk along by the side of the 

 stage and halt at the point where the action was about 

 to take place. He thus accounts for the Silete, which 

 precedes all new incidents. Although, in the absence of 

 overtures or entr'acte music, the Silete on a crowded 

 market-place hardly needs accounting for, it is still 

 possible that the spectators moved about. We have, 

 however, no very definite notion of the size of the 



1 This is the bird which warns Peter of his denial. The ' pillar with the 

 cock ' has a heathen ring about it. The mediseval peasant-dances round a cock 

 on a post the so-called Hahnentanzen at the times of the fire-festivals may be 

 cited (see Grimm, Mythologie, p. 558 ; Simrock, Mythologie, p. 284 ; Mannhardt, 

 Der Baumkultus, p. 174 ; and for a pictorial representation, Albrecht Diirer's 

 Randzeichnungen zum Gebetbuche). 



VOL. II Y 



