the Rathhaus, or the
church was prepared, and it was the professor's or the schoolmaster's
duty to direct the boys in their performance of a play. We get
glimpses, in the chronicles, of the circumstances under which the
representations took place. The magistrates, even the courts, lent
brilliant dresses. One old writer laments that the ignorant people
have so little sense for arts of this kind. "Often tumult and mocking
are heard, for it is the greatest joy to the rabble if the spectators
fall down through broken benches." The old three-storied stage of the
mysteries was often retained, with heaven above, earth in the middle
space, and hell below; where, according to the stage direction of
the _Golden Legend_, "the devils walked about and made a great
noise." Lazarus is described as represented in the sixteenth century
before a hotel, before which sat the rich man carousing, while
Abraham, in a parson's coat, looked out of an upper window. This
rudeness, however, belongs rather to the _Volks-comoedie_ than the
_Schul-comoedie_, whose adjuncts were generally far more rational,
and sometimes even brilliant, as in the Strassburg representations.
It was only in the seminaries that art was preserved from utter
decay. One may trace the _Schul-comoedie_ until far down in the
eighteenth century, and in the last mention of it I find appears an
interesting figure. In 1780, at the military school in Stuttgart the
birthday of the Duke of Wuertemberg was celebrated by a performance
of Goethe's _Clavigo_. The leading part was taken by a youth
of twenty-one, with high cheek-bones, a broad, low, Greek brow
above straight eyebrows, a prominent nose, and lips nervous with an
extraordinary energy. The German narrator says he played the part
"abominably, shrieking, roaring, unmannerly to a laughable degree." It
was the young Schiller, wild as a pythoness upon her tripod, with the
_Robbers_, which became famous in the following year.

But I do not mean, Fastidiosus, to cite only German precedents, nor to
uphold the college drama with the names of Reuchlin, Melancthon, and
Luther alone, majestic though they are. In the University of Paris
the custom of acting plays was one of high antiquity. In 1392 the
schoolboys of Angiers performed _Robin and Marian_, "as was their
annual custom"; and in 1477 the scholars of Pontoise represented "a
certain moralitie or farce, as is their custom." In 1558 the comedies
of Jacques Grevin were acted at the C