Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/287

 POPULAR POETRY 275 actors, especially at the close of the fifteenth century, when all branches of art had arrived at such perfection. In 1498 a Passion Play was acted at Frankfort-on- the-Main which lasted four days, and gave such uni- versal satisfaction that it had to be repeated that same year. We read in some of the documents of the Archives : ' Those who took part in the Passion Play in front of the Eoemer played each afternoon until the Angelus for four consecutive days, and appeared in fine and appropriate costumes.' A four days' representation of the Passion and Easter Play, ending with the ascension into heaven, which was given at Frankfort in 1506, required as many as 276 actors. This was followed by a kind of Church epic, in which two actors, surrounded by Christians and Jews, representing the Church and the Synagogue, held a discussion, at the close of which eight or ten of the Jews were baptised by the actor representing St. Augustine, the Synagogue sending up a wail of lamentation, while the Church sang an ' Alleluia,' in which the audience joined. Besides being treated on the stage, these sacred subjects were illustrated by pictures in processions at the Corpus Christi Festival and by tableaux vivants. In this manner, for instance, at Kunzelsau, in the year 1479, the whole of Scripture history, from the Creation to the Day of Judgment, was represented in groups. In 1507 the city councillors, the different corporations and religious societies, undertook such a play in Zerbst. In Freiberg, Saxony, 'Mysteries' were acted every seven years at Whitsuntide. On the First Sunday after Pentecost the Bible period extending from the fall of the angels to the expulsion from Paradise was repre- t 2