396 THE GERMAN PASSION-PLA Y 



meets John and Peter and we have, if not the whole, at 

 least the last strophe of the Easter sequence Victimae 

 paschali. 1 The two disciples are not to be convinced, 

 and wax derisive. They determine, however, to in- 

 vestigate the matter for themselves. John bets a pair 

 of new shoes, Peter a sword, that he will arrive first at 

 the sepulchre ; or it may be that the wager is a horse 

 against a cow. Peter trips up on the way, grows angry, 

 quarrels with John, and curses the manner in which he 

 has been created, which prevents him from running like 

 an ordinary mortal. If he has to limp after John, at 

 least he can drink better, and he takes a pull at the 

 flask, which John noticing cries out : 



Ach Petri das stet nit wol 



Du weist wol das ich auch trincken sol. 2 



Arrived at the tomb, they return exhibiting the burial 

 linen. Then follow the appearances of Christ to his 

 disciples, 3 the incident of the unbelieving Thomas, and 



1 The Die nobis Maria, quid vidisti in via (Kehrein, Lateinische Sequenzen, 

 No. 83). Compare Jubinal, Mysteres intdits, vol. ii. p. 364. 



2 F, pp. 317-319 ; I, p. 87 ; L, vol. ii. p. 334 ; S, p. 156. In Stubbes' Ana- 

 tomie, cited by Furnival (Digby Plays, p. x.), we read : 



In some place solemne sights and showes, and pageants fayre are played, 



As where the Maries three do meete the sepulchre to see, 

 And John with Peter swiftly runnes, before him there to bee. 



3 See C, p. 246, etc., and compare Xpurrbs Traffxw, 1. 2504. Sometimes the 

 apostles at this stage compose the Creed, each a sentence (see F, p. 149 ; 

 A, p. 25 ; and compare King's History of the Apostles' Creed, p. 26). As I 

 have before noted (p. 379), the subject was a favourite one. The twelve 

 apostles are sculptured, each with his portion of the Creed, in the Liebfrauen- 

 kirche at Trier (fourteenth century). There is a block-book representation, 

 the words in French at Paris, and another at Munich with the words in 

 German. In the latter each apostle is accompanied by a prophet, and both have 

 a scene representing the particular item of belief associated with the apostle 

 placed above them. The whole block-book bears considerable resemblance to a 

 Biblia Pauperum (see p. 265). A different mode of exhibiting the matter is 



