388 THE GERMAN PASSION-PLA Y 



for his torturers, salvation for the penitent thief, pro- 

 vision for his mother, the Eli lama sabaclitliani, the 

 statement of thirst, the accomplishment, and the com- 

 mendation of his spirit. Each word is followed by the 

 scoffing of the bystanders ("Die 7 Spottreder"), and 

 thus the brutality of the Jews is preserved to the last. 

 With the Seventh Word a white dove is to be set free, 

 and Satan, sent by Lucifer, comes to fetch Christ's soul. 

 An angel meets him with a drawn sword, and Satan flies 

 back to hell in consternation. In one play Satan goes 

 with a net to fish for the soul, and Gabriel and he 

 " ascend the ladder together," where, however, the Devil 

 is discomfited. Here again we see the same con- 

 fusion of motive in the conduct of the devils as I have 

 previously drawn attention to (see pp. 358, 377, 383). 

 Then the veil of the Temple a curtain hanging from 

 two columns is rent, four dead men arise from their 

 graves, 1 the moon and stars speak to Christ, 2 and guns 

 are fired for thunder. " Verily," exclaims the cen- 

 turion, "this was the Christ." 3 The fine incident 

 with the blind Longinus is now generally introduced. 

 Longinus had ridiculed the notion that Jesus could cure 

 the blind, and challenged him to attempt the cure in his 

 case. The old man comes, and some plays say from 

 hate, others from pity and a desire to shorten Christ's 



1 For the talk of the four dead men see T, p. 433. 



2 Probably the sun, moon, and stars were represented in the plays exactly 

 as in pictorial art. A Paris MS., in a miniature of the crucifixion, has a tall 

 white female figure with a crescent on her head for the moon, and a youth in 

 red with a radiated crown for the sun. Sometimes we find two angels carrying 

 stars, sometimes the stars are personified (see Didron, Christian Iconography, 

 pp. 86, 87, and Fig. 68). 



3 See B, vol. ii. p. 324 ; C, pp. 197-199 ; F, p. 253 ; E, p. 247 ; K, p. 166 ; 

 D, p. 68. 



