Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/289

 POPULAR POETRY 277 from the paintings of the day, so striking is the con- nection that it has been aptly said that the works of Diirer remind one of the Passion Plays. There was nothing monotonous in these Passion Plays. The writers, as well as the artists of that period, showed a wonderful richness of imagination in treating supernatural subjects. They blended the truths of revelation and the events of everyday life with an insight into the depths of religious philosophy worthy of the Mystics. Their grouping of the various charac- ters shows striking dramatic talent. The way in which they used scenes from the Old Testament as intro- ductions to the Mystery Plays proper also showed their appreciation of the prophetic connection between the Old and New Testament. For instance, the selling of Joseph into bondage by his brethren is made to pre- figure the treachery of Judas. The rather rough comic element which crept in by degrees remained, in Germany at least, innocent and harmless ; entirely free as it was from anything like malice it had, indeed, rather the effect of elevating what was good by force of contrast. The most serious and pathetic scenes were frequently interlarded with coarse comedy in which swaggering soldiers, vendors of patent medicines, usurious merchants and Jews were ridiculed. A favourite comic character introduced in connection with the Easter Play was the bargaining merchant who sold spices to the two Marys on their way to the tomb. While he is quarrelling with his wife over the value of the merchandise his servant amuses the audience with a volley of the witticisms, slang, and invectives peculiar to his class, and of which there was a plentiful supply in the fifteenth century.