Charles Davidson — English Mystery Plays. 191 



X. 

 THE STAGE AND THE PLAY IN FRANCE. 



In the Orleans and Freising plays we have seen one method of 

 combination by which single and ritual plays formed a continued 

 drama. A related development is connected with the evolution of 

 the stage. In the Mont St. Michel and Sens resurrection plays 

 we are informed that the angel had a station 'super altare,' 'in 

 pulpito.'^ In the ' Officium Peregrinorum ' of Rouen are these 

 words : " Et ita cantantes, ducant eum usque ad tabernaculum in 

 medio navis ecclesi^, similitudinem castelli Emau prseparatum." 

 In the Orleans play we read as a stage direction : " Parato Herode 

 et cseteris personis," and in the Freising play i"^ " Ascendat rex et 

 sedeat in solio." 



From these directions it is evident that all the actors took their 

 assigned positions upon the stage at the opening of the play, and 

 were conventionally absent when not performing their parts. Thus 

 we read in the Orleans play :^ " Tunc Magi abeuntes per aliam 

 viam, non vidente Herode;" so, in 'Interfectio Puerorum,'* 

 *' Joseph abiens, non vidente Herode." 



The greater number of the actors did not move about the stage, 

 but held fixed stations which were marked out upon the platform^ — 

 here a throne and palace hall, there the interior of a dwelling — while 

 one or two actors passed from group to group, connecting through 

 their action the different episodes, each of which embodied a single 

 ritual play. These platforms w^ere originally erected in the nave ; 

 at Rouen, ^ "in medio navis ecclesiffi." Upon the platform the sta- 

 tions,^ at first but slightly marked off, were afterwards defined by 

 upright posts and cross-beams, the platform extending farther down 

 the nave as the stations increased in number. The plays seem often 

 to require an unobstructed view across the stage, which would 

 necessitate stations without sides, and as nearly as possible free from 

 theatrical furniture and scenery.® 



How these primitive theatrical arrangements w^ere used we learn 

 from certain miracle and mystery plays. In the ' Secundum Mirac- 

 ulum Sancti Nicholai' of the Orleans'' MS., there is one station, the 

 house of Senex. The action is as follows : 



1 See p. 189. 2 Sec p. 174. s See p. \m. * Wrijiht. 



s Ebert, vol. 5, p. (58. " Da Cange, Percgrinoriira Ofliciuni. 



T Cp. Julleville, vol, 1, p. 388. « Mone, vol. 2, p. 158. " WiiKlit. 



