Young—Officium Pastorum. 
323 
suggests impersonation, especially to one who notes the use of it 
in the succeeding office of Lauds according to the same manu¬ 
script, 1 and in the play of the shepherds from the Eouen manu¬ 
scripts. 2 It would probably be unjustifiably audacious, how¬ 
ever, to see in the duo pueri iuxta altare an intended imperson¬ 
ation of the mid-wives (Obstetrices) at the crib. 
When we pass on to the Officium Pastorum< as it comes to us 
from Eouen, all our demands of impersonation and mise en 
scene are finally satisfied. Genuine drama is unmistakable in 
the following: 
<OFFICITJM PA'STOEUM SECUNDUM USUM EOTH¬ 
OM AGEN SEM > 3 
<fol. 41 r > IN NATIUITATE DOWWNI, FINITO TE T>eUM L(2U- 
damus, pueri in uno loco ECCLesiE baculis se sustentantes 
IN SIMILITUDINE PASTOEUm COUSISTANT,, U NUS AUT em PUER IN 
EXCELSO, AMICTU et ALBA INDUTUS, IN SIMILITUDINE AN06LI 
NATiuiTu/em DomiNi annuntiantis, nunc u ersum dicens: 
Nolite timere, ecce enim evangelizo nobis gaudium mag¬ 
num, quod erit omui populo, quia natus est uobis hodi© Sal- 
uator mundi in ciuitate Dauid, et hoc uobis signum: Inu- 
enietis infantem pannis inuolutum et positum in presepio. 
SINT ITEW PLURES PUERI DEXTRA et SINISTRA PARTE SIMILITOr 
INDUTI, Q ui, FINITA PfOFATA A ntipkona, INCIPIANT CANTANDO : 
Gloria in excel sis Deo, et in terra pax hominibus bone 
uoluntatis, alleluia, alleluia. 
hoc rrerum fin ito, pastores suBSEQueNTEm a ntiphonam can- 
TANTES^ AD LOCUM IN QUO ParATUm FUIT 4 PreSEPE ACCEDAUT I 
Transeamus usque Eethleem et uideamus hoc uerbum quod 
factum est, quod fecit Dominus et ostendit nobis. 
1 See below, Appendix A. 
2 See the next three texts printed below. 
3 Montpelier, Bibl. de la Faculte de Medecine, MS. H. 304, Miscdl- 
lanea saec. xii, fol. 41r-41v. Previously published by the present 
writer in Modern Philology Vol. vi (1908), pp. 207-208. 
4 MS. fuit corrected from fuet. 
