place, the man adored by the crowd to whom he offers his songs
and his couplets. Questions of morals and politics, toothache, pious
legends, scandalous tales about priests, noble ladies, and cavaliers,
gossip of grog shops, and news from the Holy Land were all in his
domain."[2095] In the second third of the twelfth century the vulgar
language began to displace the Latin in church, especially in
dramas.[2096] Processions were in the taste and usage of the Middle Ages
and Renaissance for both civil and religious pomp and display. The
dresses, banners, arches, etc., contributed to the spectacle, and all
took on a dramatic character for, on a saint's day or other occasion,
the exhibition had a second sense of reference to the story of the
saint, or the success in war of the king or potentate. The latter sense
might be dramatically set forth, and generally was at least suggested.
Tableaux and dramatic pantomime in the streets were combined with the
processions. Mythological subjects as well as incidents of Christian
history were so represented. All classes cooperated in these functions.
Poets and artists of the first rank assisted. The contribution of these
functions to the development of the drama is obvious. In modern times
the taste for processions is lost, and the cultivated classes refuse to
participate, but when the whole population of a city took part in
setting forth something they all cared for, the social effect was great,
and the whole proceeding nourished dramatic taste and power. In Italy
the pantomime with song and dance, or ballet, had its origin in the
procession.[2097] In the churches arrangements were made, with elaborate
machinery, for exhibiting representations of Scripture incidents.
Godfrey, Abbot of St. Albans ([Symbol: cross] 1146) wrote a play on the
life of St. Catharine "such as was afterwards called a miracle." The
Annunciation was represented in St. Mark's, Venice, in 1267. In Germany
the mysteries were partly in German from the end of the thirteenth
century.[2098]

+653. Adam de la Halle.+ De Julleville[2099] puts Adam de la Halle as
the first comic writer in France, in point of time. He wrote the _Jeu de
la Feuillee_ about 1262. It is described as a "scenic satire rather than
a comedy." It is local, personal, and satirical, and includes miracles
and capricious inventions without much regard to probability. It stands
by itself and is not the first of a series. The notion of a connection
between