494 ' THE DRAMA. 



the subjects of which were taken from the traditions of chivalry, such as the 

 Mi/xtere cle Berte, the Mystere d'Amis ct d'Amile, and the Mystere cle Griselidis, 

 played in 1395 ; or to the pagan and mythological traditions, such as the 

 Mystere cle la Destruction cle Troie, played in 1459; or even to the events of 

 contemporary history, such as the Mystere du Siege d' Orleans, played either 

 during the lifetime of Joan of Arc, or soon after her death. 



With a few rare exceptions, the mysteries and the miracles were composed 

 by priests or by monks, which is to be attributed to the fact that the mem- 

 bers of the clergy, generally better educated than the laity, considered the 

 representation of sacred pieces as the most practical means of educating 

 their, flocks, who welcomed instruction in this attractive form all the more 

 heartily because, during these semi-barbarous periods, their towns were 

 continually laid waste or menaced by the triple scourge of battle, plague, 

 and famine. 



There is a rather long list of the authors of miracle-plays and mystery- 

 plays from the twelfth to the fifteenth century. The first of these authors is 

 Hilaire, disciple of Abelard, who composed, under the title of Ludi (plays), 

 pieces in dialogue, imitated from the Old and the New Testaments. The last 

 name in the list, at the close of the fifteenth century, is that of the " very 

 eloquent and very scientific " and still more prolific doctor, Jehan Michel, 

 Bishop of Angers, author of the celebrated Mystery of the Passion, which 

 another Jehan Michel, his brother or nephew, revised and had represented in 

 his native city. The oldest vestige of dramatic art in France is, beyond 

 doubt, a Mystery of Adam and Ere, written in French about the middle of the 

 twelfth century, which we discovered in 1845 in a manuscript at the Tours 

 Library, and which was published for the first time by Victor Luzarche in 

 1854. This mystery or drama is the most characteristic type of the dramatic 

 representations which were held at the church porticos. 



The piece entitled Representacio Ade (Representation of Adam) is divided 

 into three acts or parts, which are accompanied by a chorus, and terminate in 

 an epilogue. The first act comprises man's fall ; the second the murder of 

 Abel ; and the third the appearance of the prophets to announce the advent of 

 the Saviour. At intervals the chorus sings Latin verses, and the epilogue 

 consists of a sermon upon the necessity of penitence. The manuscript 

 containing this Bible mystery is all the more curious because it gives the 

 complete stage arrangements for playing it. The whole is preceded by a 



