THE DRAMA. 



to walk about the garden, playing innocently (honente delectantcs). The 

 demons approach them, and show Eve the fruits of the tree of good and evil. 

 The Devil then appears, and counsels Adam to pluck the forbidden fruit. 

 Adam angrily repels him, and the Devil then addresses himself to Eve, who 

 makes but a feeble resistance to his tempting. Adam compels the Devil to go 

 away, but the latter is seen assuming the form of a serpent (a mechanical 

 serpent, arfijiciose OOHipOttttU as it was called, appeared upon the stage), which 

 crawls close to the tree of good and evil. Eve yields to the crafty advice of 

 Satan, plucks the apple, and offers it to Adam, who, after refusing to take it, 

 eventually eats part of it. He at once sees his fault, and hides in a bush, in 

 order to take off his festal garments (solemnes vestcs) and assume a costume of 

 leaves. Eve and himself, concealed in a corner of Paradise, are afraid to 

 appear before God, who is seen walking arrayed in pontifical robes. He 

 calls to Adam in Latin, "Adam, ubi es?" At length the two culprits 

 appear, ashamed and repentant, mutually accusing one another. God drives 

 them from Paradise, informing them of all the sorrows which await them cm 

 earth. An angel, robed in white and waving a flaming sword, stations 

 himself at the gate of Paradise. In the last scene Adam and Eve are 

 laboriously tilling the ground and sowing corn, but during their sleep the 

 Devil plants thorns and thistles among the wheat. When they awake and 

 behold the Devil's work, they prostrate themselves in the dust, beat their 

 breasts, and abandon themselves to despair. The Devil calls together the 

 demons, who load Adam and Eve with chains, and drive them to the brink of 

 hell, into which the two sinners are precipitated, amidst the laughter and 

 yells which issue from the flaming abyss. This is the analysis of the first act, 

 which forms a complete play of itself, and which embodies the three elements 

 of tragedy, pantomime, and opera. 



The dramatic movement which took place in France in the twelfth century 

 was not peculiar to that country. In the year 1110 the Norman poet 

 Geoffrey had played at Dunstable, in Bedfordshire, the Miracle de St. 

 Catherine, which was very much admired by the Anglo-Normans. Mention 

 is made in a Chronicle of Frioul of the representation of a Latin mystery in 

 1218. In Germany the Passion Play was given in the Cathedral of Vienna, 

 and the Sepulchre of Our Lord in the heart of Bohemia about 1437. Long 

 before this, Armorican Brittany had provided the faithful with a mystery 

 written in the national dialect upon the Life of St. Nouns, which certain 



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