328 THE GERMAN PASSION-PLA Y 



we are told that for this play four crowns will be re- 

 quired for Herod and the three Magi, with ornaments 

 for their robes ; there must also be cups for the feast, 

 and a sceptre and royal robe for Herod. Mary, Joseph, 

 and the angels may be provided with such dresses as 

 seem fitting to the ' manager ' ; there is to be a gold- 

 bedecked star, and lastly, the manager is to provide a 

 meal and other necessaries, if he wishes to meet with 

 general approval. 1 



The above remarks will show that the stage-acces- 

 sories, although generally of a primitive descrip- 

 tion, varied very much with the play, the locality, 

 and the period. Sometimes, indeed, the expenses were 

 sufficiently great to warrant either a collection or 

 a fee from the spectators. Thus the Precursor in 

 the Vienna Easter-play states that the play about 

 to be acted is both cheerful and cheap. 2 On the 

 other hand, in 1557 the journeymen barbers of 

 Freiburg refused any longer to act " St. Ursula and 

 the 11,000 Virgins on the Ship" one of the sections 

 of the great processional play of that city owing to its 

 great cost. 3 



Costume. There are but few printed records which 

 cast much light on the costumes used in the German 

 religious drama. In 1821 a chest was found in the 

 parish church of Friedberg containing stage -directions 

 and costumes for the passion-play of that place. I have 



1 See I, note p. 30. We find a demand for money in the Trial of Joseph and 

 Mary which forms one of the Coventry Mysteries, p. 131. Nor is this to be 

 wondered at, for we find in the expenses for 1490 wine, ale, bread, beef, geese, etc., 



or the refreshment of the actors at both rehearsals and performance. 



2 L, vol. ii. p. 298 ; and B, vol. ii. p. 163. 3 K, p. 201. 



