Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/288

 276 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE sented ; on the second, the redemption of the world,, and on the third, the Last Judgment. These plays were conducted on a magnificent scale and participated in by all classes. The chronicles of the time give evidence of the impression made by such ' elevating scenes.' Taken as a whole, these Passion Plays were very instructive to the people. They were looked forward to with eager pleasure by old and young, and they exercised a highly moral influence. They had the advantage, like the Greek tragedies of old, that their subject-matter was well known to the people, and one or two characteristic traits sufficed to introduce each as an old acquaintance. The performers were hailed with joy as the impersonations of characters that had been long familiar in pictures and prayer-books, and which the audience were deeply interested to see brought to life, as it were, by their own relatives. It is easy to realise the strength of the impression that would be produced by these plays on large masses of people animated with the same spirit and looking on them in the light of religious observances. The scenic effects can mostly be compared to magnificent living pictures, raised so far above the common occurrences of daily life that they forcibly arrested and impressed the at- tention. What, indeed, could surpass the importance of the subject treated, which was nothing less than the unfolding of the grand designs of God for humanity ? In their stately epic harmony and rich and varied symbolism these representations have much in common with architectural and pictorial art. The grouping of the actors was but a living reproduction of the countless church statues, and while their costumes were copied