Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/19

Rh performed on the Monday. It developed, as a second scene, the Incredulity of Thomas.

The next step was the coalescing of the 'Quem quaeritis' and the 'Peregrini' into a single drama. A long text of the twelfth or thirteenth century presents a play still strictly attached to the liturgy, which includes the following incidents. Pilate sets a watch before the tomb. An angel sends lightning and the soldiers fall as if dead. Then come the Maries with 'planctus.' They buy ointment from an 'unguentarius.' There follows the 'Quem quaeritis,' after which the soldiers announce the Resurrection to Pilate. A 'plandtus' by the Magdalen leads up to Christ's appearance to her. The Maries return to the disciples. Christ appears to the two pilgrims, and afterwards to Thomas. This was probably acted at Easter matins.

The most vital of the accretions which the 'Quem quaeritis' had so far gathered was the lament technically known as the 'planftus.' This originally expressed the sorrow of the Virgin and her companions round the cross. It included reminiscences of the sufferings of Christ, and, once introduced into the Easter drama, inevitably suggested the representation of such incidents. True, the liturgical drama of Easter remained essentially a Resurrection drama, and cannot be shown to have advanced beyond a very rudimentary representation of the Passion. Nevertheless, such development as took place appears to have started from the germ of the 'planctus.' One 'ludus breuiter