Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 5, 1894.djvu/13

Rh squares, while the scenes came past one by one, and all the great events of Biblical history were presented, crudely, no doubt, but with intense vividness.

Of all this picture and drama, what remains? We have still a few "Books of the Words"; some means of finding out the nature of the stage properties; old missals and illuminated MSS. contain paintings of many scenes, notably that of Hellmouth, which must have been suggested by what was visible on all sides to the sightseer. But, besides these fossil remains, we can still see in Roman Catholic countries a few scant revivals. The religious drama is almost gone; a little is still left of religious tableaux.

The germ of all this mass of custom is to be looked for in the Church itself There, at solemn festivals of the Church, such as Easter, a small performance was gone through. On Maundy-Thursday, for instance, two hosts were consecrated, one of which was consumed on Good Friday, and the other, with a crucifix, placed in a box or cupboard called the Easter Sepulchre. This was generally a temporary wooden erection, but some churches had them made of stone. A few still remain in England, always on the north side, while we have record of the erection of one in the chapel of Christ's College in Cambridge, in its building accounts under the heading of June 1st, 1510:

"Item to John Grandon of Euersdon for iij tonne of the said ston at iiijs viijd the tonne for thymages of cristes resurreccion and of our ladie xivs."

Under 30th August the sepulchre is mentioned. In this, then, the host was placed, and from Friday to Sunday it was guarded by living watchers. On Easter Sunday the host and the crucifix were taken out, and a solemn service was performed. Something of the nature of this may be inferred from a curious list of properties, apparently belonging to the Easter celebration, preserved in Sir John Harington's Nugæ Antiquæ.