THE CONTENTS OF THE PASSION-PLAY 387 



soldiery, covers with her veil the nakedness of her son. 1 

 The inscription of Pilate is placed above Christ, and 

 the Jews dance round the cross. 2 The garments are 

 now rent and divided, but the Jews throw dice for the 

 coat of Jesus. The dice are taken from the pocket of 

 one of the thieves, and a doubt is expressed whether 

 they may not be loaded. 3 



Meanwhile, in the midst of Mary's lamentations, 

 John, in order to fulfil literally the prophecy of Simeon, 

 places the point of a drawn sword to her heart. 4 The 

 crucified Jesus speaks the " Seven Words " 5 i.e. pardon 



1 E, p. 232 ; S, p. 150. 2 C, p. 181. 3 t E, p. 240 ; F, p. 238, etc. 



4 Compare Luke chap. ii. 35 ; Gospel of Nicodemus, chap. xii. 5 ; Das alte 

 Passional, p. 75. See C, p. 203 ; I, p. 159 (John hands the Virgin a sword) ; 

 L, "vol. ii. p. 264 ('Simeonis grimmec swert ') ; F, p. 264 ; K, p. 60 ; B, vol. i. 

 pp. 175, 187, 199, 235, vol. ii. p. 313. This sword is a favourite bit of 

 mediaeval symbolism. Among Scheifelin's cuts to Schonsperger's Via Felicitatis 

 of 1513 we have one of the Mater dolorosa with five swords radiating halo-fashion 

 from her head. In the Konstanz Biblia Pauperum the Virgin stands at 

 the foot of the Cross with a sword in her breast. In one of the E.E.T.S. 

 Legends of the Holy Rood (p. 142) the sword springs from the cross. The 

 Virgin with a sword in her breast occurs in a woodcut (fol. 204 reverse) of the 

 Hortulus Animae (German version, Dillingen, 1560 ?). On the title-page of a rare 

 book Michaelis Francisci de Insulis Quodlibetica decisio . . . de septem dolo- 

 ribus . . . Virginis Mariae, Schratenthal, 1501 the Virgin is represented 

 with her heart pierced by seven swords the 'Seven Sorrows.' The same 

 seven swords occur also in a picture in the Augsburg Gallery of about 1600 

 (No. 83), and often elsewhere. They are part of the mediaeval custom of repre- 

 senting by symbolism what the untrained actor or early artist could not render 

 by the expression of facial emotion. In John Parfre's play of Candlemas-Day 

 we read (Marriott, p. 218) : 



Of blissid Mary how she shall suffre peyn, 

 Whan hir swete sone shall on a rood deye, 

 A sharpe swurde of sorrow shall cleve hir hert atweyn. 



"And so men ]>at marken ]>e gospel seien ]?at Crist spake sevene wordis, 

 ]>e while he hyng on ]>e cros, to greet witt and mannis profit " (Select English 

 Works of Wyclif, Arnold, vol. ii. p. 128). There are special prayers for the 

 Seven Last Words in the Hortulus Animae (attributed to Bede), the Hertzmaner 

 (Casper Hochfeder, Niirnberg, circa, 1480), and in a fifteenth - century manu- 

 script (Gebetsammlung) in the author's possession, which has prayers also for 

 'de vii bespottungen. ' For a full appreciation of these words and their mean- 

 ing for mediaeval thought see the Schatzbehalter, Niirnberg, 1491, fol. I. ii. 

 reverse et seq. 



