Q2 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 
in the case of the Complaints of an Old Man, we have an instance of a 
lyrical form which is in itself essentially of the nature of a dramatic 
monologue; and the treatment of this theme in the drama and in the 
independent poems differs scarcely at all, the independent poems some- 
times it is true growing to far larger proportions than they ever do in 
the drama. It seems highly probable that in many cases the independent 
lyric has been inserted into the drama with little or no change. In 
Towneley* this, it would seem, has certainly happened. Skelton’s 
lyric on the same theme,? if Skelton’s it may be called, is almost word for 
word and rhyme for rhyme similar to Towneley. It is difficult to say 
how much this form had to do with the growth and development of the 
passion-plays. Historians of the drama have had so much to say about 
the Planctus Mariae in its relation to the passion-plays that they have 
failed to take special notice of this lyrical form, about as widespread and 
popular in the Middle Ages as the planctus, if not moreso. The form, 
however, may have had more to do with the initial stages of develop- 
ment of the passion-play than it is given credit for. It is barely possible 
that it is to some form of this Lament that de Douhet refers when seeking 
to explain the origin of the passion-play.3 In the English passion-play 
there is no more evidence that the planctus was the germ or starting- 
point of the passion-plays than there is for the Christ’s Testament. 
In the German Tyrols and Alsfelder® passion-plays this passage follows 
very closely the Latin hymn form, in which is found the First Lesson 
of Lydgate (Percy Soc., Vol. II), pp. 250 ff.; Songs and Carols (P. Soc., Vol. XXIII), pp. 10 ff., 46; Wt and 
Science and Early Poetical Miscellanies (Shaks. Soc., Vol. II), pp. 68 ff.; Bann. MS, Vol. I, pp. 82 ff., 96, 
103, 112 ff.; Lydgate’s Two Nightingale Poems (EETS), pp. 21 ff.; Poetical Works of Skelton, Vol. I, pp. 
141, 144; The Assumption of Our Lady (re-ed. by G. H. McKnight, EETS), pp. 123 ff.; Eng. Stud., Vol. 
XXI, pp. 207 ff.; Rel. Ant., Vol. II, pp. 119, 225; Anglia, Vol. III, pp. 550 ff.; Vol. XXVI, pp. 246, 248 ff., 
255;Alteng. Dicht. (Boddeker), pp. 271 ff.; The New Nut Brown Maid (‘‘Early Popular Poetry,” ed. Hazlitt, 
Vol. ITI), pp. 2 ff.; Rich. R. of Hampole, Vol. I, p. 88; Vol. II, pp. 16 ff., 457 ff. See also Thien, Ueber die 
englischen Marienklagen (Kiel, 1906), p. 82. Compare H-ymni Latini (Mone), Vol. I, pp. 396 f., and also 
Carmina Burana (Schmeller, 1904), p. 209. 
t The Resurrection of the Lord, ll. 262 ff. 
2 The Poetical Works of Skelton (ed. Dyce), Vol. I, pp. 144 ff. See Appendix, pp. 26 ff., for parallel 
passages. 
3 Dictionnaire des mystéres, pp. 633 ff. 
4 See “The English Planctus Mariae,’’ Modern Philology, Vol. IV, pp. 632 ff. 
s WACKERNELL, Altdeutsche Passionsspiele aus Tirol, pp. 127 ff. 
6 ‘Das Drama des Mittelalters,” Deutsche Nat.-Liiteratur,Vol. III, pp. 764 ff. 
