THE COSTUME OF THE PASSION-PLAY 331 



nackent"). 1 We may note that the artists of the Middle 

 Ages seem to have been somewhat puzzled to know how to 

 represent spirits and souls. Yet such a representation was 

 very necessary for the passion-plays, where not only many 

 souls had to be fetched away by angel or devil as the 

 pointed moral of a good or bad life, but the Day of Judg- 

 ment itself had to be put plastically before the audience. 

 When the souls had to walk and talk they were repre- 

 sented by persons dressed in white shirts, 2 but when this 

 was not necessary a more symbolic method was adopted. 

 A common device was a suitable bird let fly at the right 

 moment ; a white dove would symbolise the soul of 

 Christ, 3 and a raven that of Judas. 4 Still another very 

 customary method was to take a little naked figure 

 away from the dying man ; this figure was generally 

 held by a thread from his mouth, by which organ the 

 soul was always supposed to leave the body. It was 

 thus that the souls of the two thieves were represented 

 in the Donaueschingen play, 5 and it found great favour 

 with the artists, for example, in the last cut of the 



1 B, vol. ii. p. 342 ; H, vol. ii. p. 72 ; and compare the Schatzbehalter, Cut 79. 

 Adam and Eve were naked in the Chester Plays (p. 25) and in the Coventry 

 Mysteries (p. 27). The stage-directions include stdbunt niidi and the covering 

 gcnitalia sua cum foliis. Marriott cites the following from The Travail es of the 

 three English Brotliers, published in 1607 : 



Sir Anthony Shirley. And what new plays have you ? 



Kempe. Many idle toyes, but the old play that Adam and Eve acted in bare 

 action vnder the figge tree drawes most of the gentlemen. 



2 The soul in the "Morality of Wisdom who is Christ " (Digby Plays, p. 140) 

 is dressed " as a mayde in a whight cloth of gold, gyntely purfyled with menyver, 

 a mantyll of blak, therupon a cheveler lyke to wysdam, with a riche chapetelet 

 lasyed behynde, hangying down with ii knottes of gold and syde tasselys." 



3 D, p. 68 ; and F, p. 253. 



4 B, vol. ii. p. 284. The souls of criminals appear as crows in Die beiden 

 Wanderer (Grimm, Kindermdrchen, No. 107). 5 B, vol. ii. p. 324. 



6 Compare also, in the Luther-Cranach Abbildung des Bapstums, the devils re- 

 moving the souls of pope and cardinals who hang on the gallows ; or again the 



