els. Adam appeared on the scene in a big curled wig and
brocaded morning-gown. Among the animals that passed before him to
receive their names were a well-shod horse, pigs with rings in their
noses, and a mastiff with a brass collar. A cow's rib-bone had been
provided for the formation of Eve; but the mastiff spied it out,
grabbed it, and carried it off. The angels tried to whistle him back;
but not succeeding, they chased him, gave him a kicking, and recovered
the bone, which they placed under a trap-door by the side of the
sleeping Adam, whence there soon emerged a lanky priest in a loose
robe, to personate Eve."

The buffoonery and profanity of the early exhibitions, however, gradually
wore away when the Church assumed the monopoly of them and forbade
secular performances. Among the earlier works Burney cites the
following:--

"The 'Conversion of St. Paul,' performed at Rome, 1440, as described by
Sulpicius, has been erroneously called the first opera, or musical
drama. 'Abram et Isaac suo Figliuolo,' a sacred drama (_azione sacra_),
'showing how Abraham was commanded by God to sacrifice his son Isaac on
the mountain,' was performed in the Church of St. Mary Magdalen in
Florence, 1449. Another on the same subject, called 'Abraham and
Sarah,' 'containing the good life of their son Isaac, and the bad
conduct of Ishmael, the son of his handmaid, and how they were turned
out of the house,' was printed in 1556; 'Abel e Caino,' and 'Samson,'
1554; 'The Prodigal Son,' 1565; and 'La Commedia Spirituale dell'
Anima' ('The Spiritual Comedy of the Soul'), printed at Siena, without
date, in which there are near thirty personifications, besides Saint
Paul, Saint John Chrysostom, two little boys who repeat a kind of
prelude, and the announcing angel, who always speaks the prologue in
these old mysteries. He is called _l'angelo che nunzia_, and his figure
is almost always given in a wooden cut on the title-page of printed
copies. Here, among the interlocutors, we have God the Father, Michael
the archangel, a chorus of angels, the Human Soul with her guardian
angel, memory, intellect, free-will, faith, hope, charity, reason,
prudence, temperance, fortitude, justice, mercy, poverty, patience, and
humility; with hatred, infidelity, despair, sensuality, a chorus of
demons, and the devil. None of these mysteries are totally without
music, as there are choruses and _laudi_,