394 THE GERMAN PASSION-PLA Y 



the confusion of the ' knights ' at the sepulchre. They 

 awake to find the tomb open, and, accusing each other 

 of having fallen asleep, come to blows. Eunning to 

 announce the news to Caiaphas, they are mocked by his 

 wife, or cudgelled by the indignant Jews. Sometimes, 

 having been witnesses of the resurrection, they declare 

 themselves believers in Christ. Ultimately, however, 

 they are bribed to hold their tongues, or to swear that 

 the disciples stole the body. 1 



We have now reached the portion of the play which 

 corresponds to the Easter ritual of the three Maries 

 (p. 299), but the germs of the humorous, which we noted 

 even in the Church plays, have now developed into the 

 broadest farce. The medicine-man comes proclaiming 

 his own merits and his want of a servant. Rubin, a 

 scamp of the same stamp, obtains the post, but he hires 

 in his turn the devil ' Lasterbalk ' as an understrapper 

 to carry the quack's pack. The action proceeds with 

 the coarsest folk-humour, mingled with cudgelling and 

 love-making, for the medicine-man has a wife and she 

 has a maid. Rubin alternately cries the merits of his 

 master's goods and the knavery of his master. The 

 three Maries are attracted by his cries and come to buy 

 spices. The medicine-man determines to swindle them ; 

 his wife thinks he has not charged them enough (or has 

 charged them too much), and this leads to blows and a 

 drubbing for the lady. She declares she will be revenged, 

 and after the departure of the Maries, while the medicine- 

 man is dozing, she elopes with his knave Rubin. The 



1 See B, vol. ii. p. 346 ; A, p. 116 ; D, p. 156 ; L, vol. ii. p. 312, etc. ; 

 Jubinal, La, Resurrection du Sauveur, Paris, 1834, pp. 16-18 ; Xpurrbs ir&vxuv 11. 

 2270 et seq. 



