Young—Officium Pastorum. 
367 
Hie eniin est que <m> presagus et eleotus simixta Dei 
ad terrain uenturum preuidens longe ante prenotauit, sicque 
pre dixit: 
Puer natus est . 1 
As a final example one may well add the text from the 
famous Winchester troper : 2 j 
veesus 3 ante oFFicium canend i in die NAtai^e jyofmiN i. 
peimo dicant cANTores: 
Hodie cantandus est nobis puer quem gignebat ineffabiliter 
ante tempora Pater, et eundem sub tempore generauit inclita 
Mater. 
item dicant alii nesponsionem: 
Quis est iste puer quem tarn magnis preconis dignum 
uocife<fol. ll r >ratis? dicite nobis ut conlaudatores esse 
possimus. 
it em peetituiJ: 
Hie enirn est quem presagus et electus simmista Dei ad 
terras uenturum preuidens, longe ante prenotauit, sicqwe 
predixit : 4 
<Puer natus est>. 
From this survey of the texts and uses of Hodie cantandus 
est it appears that the dramatic nature of this trope was fully 
appreciated, and that in some cases,—as shown by a document 5 6 
associated with Eouen,—it was provided with a suggestion of 
mise en scene. Most frequently, however, the dialogue seems to 
have been used either as a mere introduction to the Introit, or 
as a processional. In any case, there is, as yet, no evidence to 
show that it established an independent dramatic tradition or 
influenced palpably the dramatic developments from other 
sources. Although it was among the first of those tropes that 
1 Followed by a fresh Introit-trope beginning: Ecce adest de quo 
prophete. 
2 Oxford, Bibl. Bodl., MS. 775, Troparium Wintoniense saec. x, fol. 
10v-llr. 
8 Concerning the term versus in this connection, see Gautier, pp. 
23-31. 
4 Followed immediately by: Tropi in Die Natale Domini Nosfri Ihesu 
Xpisti: Ecce adest de quo prophete cecinerunt . . . , a second trope of 
the Introit. 
6 Montpellier, MS. H. 304, fol. 31v-32r. 
