334 THE GERMAN PASSION-PLA Y 



we find that the Holy Ghost was a source of consider- 

 able expense. Thus we have : 



Itm payd to the sprytt of god .... 14d. 

 for the spret of god's cote . . .2s. 

 for the making of the same cote . 8d. 



for ii yardes and halfe of bockram to 



make the spyrit's cote . . . 2s. Id. 



VI. Characterisation in the Passion-Plays 



Having endeavoured to present the reader with a 

 general view of the stage and its accessories, I have next 

 to indicate how character was dealt with in the mediaeval 

 drama. A student of the passion-plays may at first feel 

 inclined to deny all characterisation in the roles, and 

 in a certain sense he will be right. Those who seek for 

 character as we paint it to-day the mixed motives, the 

 opposing emotions, the scarce distinguishable shades 

 of good and evil impulse to be found even in the most 

 commonplace mortals will discover no trace of it in 

 the passion-play. There is not the feeblest germ of a 

 Hamlet nor the suggestion of a Faust. The knowledge 

 that there is no wide gulf fixed between good and evil, 

 between strength and weakness, between morality and 

 immorality, could only be attained by an age of critical 

 introspection, which examined motives rather than 

 deeds ; it had not dawned on the mind of mediaeval man. 

 His morality was like his religion, one of works and 

 formal observance. 1 Thus, as in the modern melodrama, 



1 These terms are used in no bad sense ; much of the morality which is of 

 most social value must always be of this kind, only alternately we find the deed 

 and the motive, the law and the spirit, the Pharisee and the Nazarene, under or 

 overrated. 



