g of Kings.)" |126|

And the third:

"Quem venturum olim prophetiae signaverant. (To whose coming the
prophecies of old had pointed.)"

Then the Magi kiss one another and together sing:

"Eamus ergo et inquiramus eum, offerentes ei munera: aurum, thus, et
myrrham. (Let us therefore go and seek Him, offering unto Him gifts:
gold, frankincense, and myrrh.)"

Antiphons are sung, a procession is formed, and the Magi go to a certain
altar above which an image of the Virgin has been placed with a lighted
star before it. Two priests in dalmatics--apparently the
midwives--standing on either side of the altar, inquire who the Magi are,
and receiving their answer, draw aside a curtain and bid them approach to
worship the Child, "for He is the redemption of the world." The three
kings do adoration, and offer their gifts, each with a few pregnant
words:--

"Suscipe, rex, aurum. (Receive, O King, gold.)"
"Tolle thus, tu vere Deus. (Accept incense, Thou very God.)"
"Myrrham, signum sepulturae. (Myrrh, the sign of burial.)"

The clergy and people then make their offerings, while the Magi fall
asleep and are warned by an angel to return home another way. This they
do symbolically by proceeding back to the choir by a side aisle.{6}

In its later forms the Epiphany play includes the appearance of Herod,
who is destined to fill a very important place in the mediaeval drama.
Hamlet's saying "he out-Herods Herod" sufficiently suggests the raging
tyrant whom the playwrights of the Middle Ages loved. His appearance
marks perhaps the first introduction into the Christian religious play of
the evil principle so necessary to dramatic effect. At first Herod holds
merely a mild conversation with the Magi, begging them to tell him when
they have found the new-born King; in later versions of the play,
however, his wrath is shown on learning that the Wise Men have |127|
departed home by another way; he breaks out into bloodthirsty tirades,
orders the slaying of the Innocents, and in one form takes a sword and
brandishes it in the air. He becomes in fact the outstanding figure in
the drama, and one can understand why it was sometimes named after him.

In the Laon "Stella" the actual murder of the Innocents was represented,
the symbolical figure of Rachel weeping over her children being
introduced. The plaint and consolation of Rachel, it should be noted,
seem at first to have formed an independent little pi