CHARACTERISATION IN THE PASSION-PLA Y 355 



glorious with my wisdom, heaven, earth, and the be- 

 ginnings of life." " Ere God created hill, dale, or sea, 

 I was conceived of him." The Virgin can help all men 

 and save them from eternal pain ; she is the Noah's ark 

 which carries them over hell-flood. She is one with the 

 Trinity ; for since God is indivisible, the whole triune 

 deity has dwelt within her, and she has partaken of its 

 nature. 1 It is she who breaks the bolts and bonds of 

 hell, who binds the enemy with all his powers, who 

 blunts the sharpness of death. 2 The Apostles are the 

 stars in her crown, and all things that God has created 

 sun, moon, and stars fall down and worship her. 3 



The notion of the Virgin we have thus endeavoured 

 to give the reader is to a great extent embodied in the 

 mediaeval religious drama. In the Egerer play it is the 

 Virgin who dispenses salvation to the three Magi. 4 In 

 Gundelfinger's Entombment John comforts Mary by 

 telling her that she will soon sit on the highest throne 



1 We even find the whole Trinity represented in the womb of the Virgin 

 (Didron, Iconographie chr&ienne, p. 558). Compare also the following expressions 

 drawn from Latin Church hymns : totius trinitatis nobile triclinium, cella trinitatis, 

 mater tui patris, genetrix genitoris, patris mater, templum sanctae trinitatis (see 

 Mone, Hymni, Nos. 389, 472, 522, 10, 507). Again Heil tabernacle of pe trynyte 

 occurs in an English Ave Maria (Hymns to the Virgin, E.E.T.S., 1. 49, p. 5). In 

 the Coventry Mysteries (p. 115) the whole Trinity enters Mary's bosom. Gabriel 

 addresses her as 'Goddys dowtere,' 'Goddys modyr,' 'Goddys sustyr,' 'Goddys 

 chawmere and his bowre,' 'Throne of the TrinyteV 'Quen of hefne, Lady of 

 erthe, and Empress of helle.' "All hefne and herthe wurchepp sou now," says 

 St. Elisabeth to the Virgin (p. 128). 



2 We find similar ideas in many Latin hymns and sequences, e.g. Aveprae- 

 clara marts Stella (v. 7) : "Tuque furentem Leviathan, serpentem tortuosumque 

 et vectem collidens, damnoso crimine mundum exemisti" (Daniel, Thesaurus, 

 Sequence xxxvi.) In a Tyrolese Ludus de ascensione Domini, Christ formally 

 hands over the kingdom of mercy to the Virgin (ed. Pichler, p. 11). 



3 See Mcisterlieder aus der Kolmarer Handschrift. Stutg. Lit. Terein, Bd. 

 Ixviii. pp. 206 et seq. The song is probably due to an immediate follower of 

 Frauenlob. Woodcuts with similar conceptions are innumerable. 



* F, pp. 76, 78. 



