THE STAGE OF THE PASSION-PLAY 327 



have seen as containing within it the figure of the 

 Virgin Mother with the child on her bosom. In the 

 Freiburger Spiel the guild of tailors not only acted 

 the Three Kings, but also ' Our Lady in the Sun ' 

 the star-crowned woman standing on the crescent of the 

 Apocalypse. 1 The tableau was probably drawn on a car, 

 as the earlier version of this play appears to have been 

 processional. The Star in the East thus gave an 

 opportunity for much symbolic spectacle, a phase of 

 the important adoration of the Virgin to which we shall 

 later return. 



Another useful stage -accessory was an ass, 2 which 

 could be used for the Flight into Egypt, the Triumphal 

 Entry, and several of the Old Testament prefigurations. 

 The ass also appears with a calf and a basket of doves 

 as part of the lumber Christ clears out of the Temple. 

 Sometimes there is a direction at the beginning of a 

 play referring to all the stage-accessories and costumes 

 that will be required. Thus in a Ludus trium Magorum 



the crescent. In the legend of the Three Kings which accompanies this work, 

 and which is only an abridged version of John of Hildesheim's Liber de gestis 

 trium regum (Coin, Guldenschaff, 1477), we have a section entitled, "Of the star, 

 in what shape and form it appeared on the hill Vaus," wherein the star is merely 

 described 'as clear and bright as the sun at noon.' On the other hand, in the 

 translation of John of Hildesheim's work, published by Johann Priess at Strasburg 

 soon after 1480, there is a wood-cut of the star on the hill Vaus, which shows the 

 star containing the Christ -child. The hill is frequently termed Mons Vic- 

 torialis. The Chester Plays (p. 115) introduce the Sibyl and Octavianus looking 

 at the star containing maid and child. Stars formerly used in the Magi-plays are 

 preserved in the church at Otterfmg in Upper Bavaria ; there is in each a Christ- 

 child under glass in the centre (R, p. 93). In the Oberufer Spiel we read : 

 ' ' Ein ungewonlich Gestirn ist erstanden, Darin eine Jungfrau ein Kind tut 

 tragn " (R, p. 96 footnote). x See K, p. 24. 



2 See B, ii. pp. 156, 184, 229. An ass was the principal stage - furniture 

 of a travelling passion-play company I saw in the Black Forest in 1879. It 

 was not only useful on the stage, but helped to transport the company. In this 

 case the Virgin Mary in costume took the money at the door. 



