144 Charles Davidso7i — English Mystery Plays. 



V. 



THE DRAMA OF HOLY WEEK IN EARLY CONTINENTAL 



LITURGIES. 



The traces left in the Alemannic liturgy will serve to illustrate the 

 dramatic features of the continental service. 



Ordo in Parasceve :^ 



& cruce sahitata, & in suo loco reposita. 



Ordo in Parasceve:^ 



Interim Sacerdos fumat viaticum, eatque ad sepnlchnim cum incenso & can- 

 delis cantando ]J . Agnus Dei Christus. Ecce quomodo moritur, cum Versibns & 

 repetitionibus, ponensque illud in sepulchrum incenset, & claudens illnd cantet 

 ]^. Sepulto Domino, cum Versu & repetitione, ponaturque cerens ardens ante 

 sepulchrum. 



These extracts will suffice to show that the German churches were 

 practically in accord with the English as regards the Burial Play. 



The act of crucifixion we might suppose too painful a scene for 

 realistic presentation in the service, and so it seems to have been in 

 England, but on the continent it received a peculiar dramatic treat- 

 ment. The lamentation on Good Friday for the death of Christ 

 was, in Germany, Jerem. chap, i, sung with a touching melody.' 

 This was superseded by a lamentation of Mary of which we have 

 examples in both Latin and German. There are many of these 

 * Marienklagen.' They were not all, however, designed for the Good 

 Friday service. Some are addressed to Christ upon the cross; others 

 show plainly by their content that they were sung by Mary in the 

 Easter service, sometimes just before the Maries began their walk 

 to the tomb, at other times on the way and leading up to the Resur- 

 rection proj^er. The dramatic development of the former was evi- 

 dently suggested by the Biblical narrative. Mary addresses her 

 Son and He replies. As to how the response was contrived we have 

 no information. 



Probably the first steps of this development have been lost, since 

 the earliest form that we have is in metre and in a somewhat com- 

 plicated stanza. From a Saint Blasien MS. of 1440 at Karlsruhe 

 Mone gives :* 



1 Gerbertus, vol. 2, p. 204. a Gerbertus, vol. 2, p. 235. 



3 Mone, p. 204. 4 Mone, p. 42. 



