322 THE GERMAN PASSION-PLA Y 



stage ; and, as it is probable that the so-called ' houses ' 

 were only spaces marked by posts at the corners, there 

 may, after all, have been no difficulty in a stationary 

 spectator hearing and seeing all that was going on. 

 The only definite measurement I have come across is 

 that which may be based on the stage-directions of the 

 Freiburg passion-play given in the manuscript of 1604. 

 The stage in this case was not divided, but the actors 

 made their exits and their entrances at what we may 

 term the ' wings.' Eeaders who have visited Freiburg 

 will remember the fine old fifteenth-century Kaufhaus 

 which immediately faces the south door of the cathedral. 

 The passion-play stage was built right across the cathe- 

 dral yard from the south porch to the portico of the 

 Kaufhaus. Thus we read in the stage-directions : l 

 " While the Jews surround Christ, the disciples are to 

 fly to the Kaufhaus " ; " The Council stand up and 

 retire to the Kaufhaus, the Jews lead Christ into the 

 Minster " ; and " Judas comes out of the Minster" etc. 

 At this point the cathedral yard must be from 110 to 

 120 feet broad, which will give some notion of the size 

 of the stage in the sixteenth century. As in the case 

 of the elevated stage, the spectators would take their 

 places on both sides, which was thus very suitably 

 termed a ' bridge.' 2 The flat stage, although chiefly 

 adopted in Germany, was still well known in France. 3 



1 K, pp. 124, 134, 159, 161, etc. 



2 Uriige, Britsche, Brucke. See K, pp. 69, 118 ; also Schmeller, Bayerisches 

 Wdrterbuch, i. 347 ; and compare with B, vol. i. p. 22, etc. ; vol. ii. p. 24. See 



further D, pp. 50, 53 ("liber die prugk "). 



3 A complete account of such a stage, with les mansions, is given in the opening 

 verses of the play, La Resurrection du Sauveur, Fragment d'un Myst&re intdit. 

 (ed. by Jubinal, Paris, 1834), p. 4. The date of the play is 1050-1150. " D'abord 



