ge rose heaven, where God sat throned; at the other,
hell-mouth gaped, and the demons entered or emerged. Music aided the
action; the drama was tragedy, comedy, opera, pantomime in one. The
actors were amateurs from every class of society--clergy, scholars,
tradesmen, mechanics, occasionally members of the _noblesse_. In
Paris the Confraternity of the Passion had almost an exclusive right
to present these sacred plays; in the provinces associations were
formed to carry out the costly and elaborate performance. To the
_Confreres de la Passion_--bourgeois folk and artisans--belonged the
first theatre, and it was they who first presented plays at regular
intervals. From the Hospital of the Trinity, originally a shelter
for pilgrims, they migrated in 1539 to the Hotel de Flandres, and
thence in 1548 to the Hotel de Bourgogne. Their famous place of
performance passed in time into the hands of professional actors;
but it was not until 1676 that the Confrerie ceased to exist.

Comedy, unlike the serious drama, suffered no breach of continuity
during its long history. The jongleurs of the Middle Ages were the
immediate descendants of the Roman mimes and histrions; their
declamations, accompanied by gestures, at least tended towards the
dramatic form. Classical comedy was never wholly forgotten in the
schools; the liturgical drama and the sacred pieces developed from
it had an indirect influence as encouraging dramatic feeling, and
providing models which could be applied to other uses. The earliest
surviving _jeux_ are of Arras, the work of ADAM DE LA HALLE. In the
_Jeu d'Adam_ or _de la Feuillee_ (_c_. 1262) satirical studies of
real life mingle strangely with fairy fantasy; the poet himself,
lamenting his griefs of wedlock, his father, his friends are
humorously introduced; the fool and the physician play their
laughable parts; and the three fay ladies, for whom the citizens have
prepared a banquet under _la feuillee_, grant or refuse the wishes
of the mortal folk in the traditional manner of enchantresses amiable
or perverse. The _Jeu de Robin et Marlon_--first performed at Naples
in 1283--is a pastoral comic opera, with music, song, and dance; the
good Marion is loyal to her rustic lover, and puts his rival, her
cavalier admirer, to shame. These were happy inventions happily
executed; but they stand alone. It is not until we reach the fifteenth
century that mediaeval comedy, in various forms, attained its true
evolution.