200 Charles Davidson — English Mystery Plays. 



remains of the Roman amphitheater, then existing in France. This 

 theory, as it seems to me, is founded upon two misconceptions : 

 first, that the German plays were later than the French and bor- 

 rowed from them ; but we have found them of about the same date, 

 and, while slower of development, not by any means servile imita- 

 tions of the French ; secondly, that the French plays were survivals 

 of the Roman, a favorite theory with the French, but now rejected 

 by their most careful writers, except so far as it applies to the early, 

 unformed comedy. On the contrary, the form of the stage, its 

 traditions and customs, point directly to the platform within the 

 church. When the plays were taken out of the church, whether 

 because of clerical prohibition, into which we will look shortly, or 

 because space was too limited for the crowds and the platform, or 

 for other reasons, the stage was simply transplanted, and suffered 

 change no more rapidly than the developing plays demanded. 



I am aware that we cannot fully solve the problem of seating 

 such vast audiences^ so that all could see and hear. It is very 

 possible that all the audience did not have favorable positions. 

 Such conditions have existed at anniversary meetings and foot-ball 

 games without seriously diminishing the audience. Yet a familiar 

 play, upon a platform erected in a public square surrounded by 

 houses whose roofs" and windows would furnish a favorable outlook 

 for many, could be seen satisfactorily by thousands.^ 



This stationary platform, often of great size and sometimes of 

 three stories,* with Hell beneath and Heaven above, and crowded 

 with persons^ and paraphernalia, was a distinctive feature of the 

 continental play. To this the English cycles presented a marked 

 contrast. The gild plays of England changed the station of the 

 continental stage into a movable pageant, or platform, and instead 

 of calling the population of a city to the stage, rolled the platform 

 through the streets in orderly succession from audience to audience. 



1 At Reims in 1490, it is said, there were 16,000 spectators.— JuUeville, vol. 1, p. 409. 



2 A portion of a house, upon whose roof many people sat as spectators, fell, kiUing- 33 

 men. — Hoffman, 2, p. 243, referring- to Flogel, Geschichte der komischen Literatur, vol. 

 4, Th. S. 250. 



3 At Lyons in 1540 one Jean Neyron erected a vast theatre with balconies and boxes, 

 where plaj^s of the Old and New Testaments were acted for two or three years on feast- 

 days and Sundays.— JuUeville, vol. 1, p. 357. The French, in the 15th and 16th centuries, 

 built boxes for the aristocratic spectators and placed benches for othei-s, at great 

 expense, which was partly met by entrance fees.— JuUeville, vol. 1, pp. 401, 405. 



4 Not immediately over each other necessarilj', but with Hell covered over at one end 

 of the platform, and Heaven rising at the other end.— JuUeville, vol. 1, p. 388. 



5 A Resurrection Play in the library of Lucerne, MS. date 1494, employed 40 persons ; 

 one of Frankfort, date 1498, 265 persons; one of Seurre on the Saone, date 1496, 163 

 persons.— Mone, vol. 2, p. 123. 



