344 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
plays became, during the Renaissance and later, a mere curios¬ 
ity of plastic ingenuity. 1 
IV. 
Although the Officiwm Pastorum , developed from the trope 
Quem quceritis in prwsepe and associated with the structural 
Proesepe , is the most important dramatic development to he 
found within the liturgy of Christmas, an account must be 
rendered also of other dramatic elements closely associated, 
both in content and in liturgical usage, with the genuine play 
of the Shepherds. Let us turn first, then, to the well known 
responsory Quem uidistis, of which the following is a repre¬ 
sentative form: 
responsorium : Quem vidistis, Pastures, dicite. An- 
nuntiate nobis in terris quis apparuit? ISfatum vidimus in 
choro angelorum Salvatorem Dominum. versus: hTatus 
est nobis hodie Salvator, qui est Christus Dominus in civitate 
David. ISTatum. 2 
Of the several ways 3 of distributing the parts in the rendition 
of a musical piece such as this, only two need concern us here. 
In the first place let us observe what we may call the normal 
Roman practice of the eighth century and before. 4 
(1). cantor : Quem vidistis, Pastores, dicite ? Annuntiate no¬ 
bis in terris quis apparuit? ITatum vidimus in 
choro angelorum Salvatoremi Dominum. 
chorus: Quem vidistis, Pastores, dicite? Annuntiate 
nobis in terris quis apparuit? Hatum vidimus 
in choro angelorum Salvatorem Dominium. 
cantor: Natus est nobis hodie Salvator, qui est Christus 
Dominus in civitate David. 
1 Concerning the Prwsepe during the Renaissance and in modern 
times see Hager, pp. 18-145; Lafond, pp. 569-572. Examples of the 
modern Crib may be seen in the Musee de Cluny (Paris), in the 
Museo Civico (Naples), in the Bayerisches National-museum (Mun¬ 
ich , and in many pious households in Europe. 
* Migne, Pat. lat., Vol. LXXVIII, col. 734, Liber Responsalis sadc. ix. 
8 See P. Wagner, Origine et Developpement du Chant Liturgique, 
Tournai, 1904, pp. 135-143. 
4 Cf. Wagner, pp. 136-137. 
