ging hymns. There was no scenery and
no theatrical apparatus beyond a straw-seated chair and a wooden stool.
When the first was used, the scene was understood to be Jerusalem, when
the second, Bethlehem. The Christmas drama, immediately preceded by an
Adam and Eve play, and succeeded by a Shrove Tuesday one, followed
mediaeval lines, and included the wanderings of Joseph and Mary round the
inns of Bethlehem, the angelic tidings to the shepherds, their visit to
the manger, the adoration of the Three Kings, and various Herod scenes.
Protestant influence was shown by the introduction of Luther's "Vom
Himmel hoch," but the general character was very much that of the old
mysteries, and the dialogue was full of quaint naivete.{27}

At Brixlegg, in Tyrol, as late as 1872 a long Christmas play was acted
under Catholic auspices; some of its dialogue was in |144| the Tyrolese
_patois_ and racy and humorous, other parts, and particularly the
speeches of Mary and Joseph--out of respect for these holy
personages--had been rewritten in the eighteenth century in a very
stilted and undramatic style. Some simple shepherd plays are said to be
still presented in the churches of the Saxon Erzgebirge.{28}

The German language is perhaps richer in real Christmas plays, as
distinguished from Nativity and Epiphany episodes in great cosmic cycles,
than any other. There are some examples in mediaeval manuscripts, but the
most interesting are shorter pieces performed in country places in
comparatively recent times, and probably largely traditional in
substance. Christianity by the fourteenth century had at last gained a
real hold upon the German people, or perhaps one should rather say the
German people had laid a strong hold upon Christianity, moulding it into
something very human and concrete, materialistic often, yet not without
spiritual significance. In cradle-rocking and religious dancing at
Christmas the instincts of a lusty, kindly race expressed themselves, and
the same character is shown in the short popular Christmas dramas
collected by Weinhold and others.{29} Many of the little pieces--some
are rather duets than plays--were sung or acted in church or by the
fireside in the nineteenth century, and perhaps even now may linger in
remote places. They are in dialect, and the rusticity of their language
harmonizes well with their naive, homely sentiment. In them we behold the
scenes of Bethlehem as realized by peasants, and their mixture o