Charles Davidson — Miglish Mystery Plays. 



•199 



XIII. 



THE OUT-DOOR STAGE. 



If we compare the above abstracts of action with the following 

 sketch of the open-air stage of the sixteenth century, as found 

 attached to a MS. of the fifteenth century Easter Play/ we shall 

 obtain an idea of the use of fixed stations in the developed cycle, 

 sufiiciently clear for our purpose. 



li=^ § 



A, B, C. The three divisions of the the stage. 2 



10. 



The first door. 



Hell. 



The Garden of Gethsemane. 



Mount Olivet. 



The second door. 



Herod's palace. 



Pilate's palace. 



The pillar of scourging. 



The pillar upon which stands the cock. 



The house of Caiaphas. 



11. The house of Annas. 



13. The house of the Last Supper. 



13. The third door. 



14, 15, 16, 17. Graves from which the dead 



arise. 

 18, 19. Crosses of the two thieves. 



20. Cross of Christ. 



21. The Holy Sepulcher. 



22. Heaven. 



The three divisions of the stage correspond to the three divisions 

 of the church : the nave, choir, and sanctuary.^ The action begins 

 in the nave, and passes, station by station, through the choir into 

 the sanctuary. The distribution of stations bears some relation to 

 the sanctity of the division. The cross and Heaven are in the 

 sanctuary. Hell is in the nave. This remoteness of position was not 

 objectionable for the Inferno, as it was customary for the devils to 

 make excursions about the stage and even among the audience. 

 This we see in the Norman play of Adam, York Plays, etc. They 

 even acted as police within boundaries,* and the unlucky wight who 

 crossed the line became the prey of the devils, to the amusement of 

 the audience. 



In regard to the genesis of the out-door stage for the mystery 

 plays, I cannot agree with Mone,^ who derives the scaffold from the 



1 Mone, vol. 2, p. 156. 2 Cp. JuUeville, vol. 1, p. 392. 



» Cp. JuUeville, vol. 1, p. 393. At Rouen in 1474, paradise was in the east or sanctuary 

 end of the church. * Mone, vol. 2, p. 129. 5 Mone, vol. 3, p. 159. 



