ioned, it was
not long before a Russian mystery play, "St. Alexei, the Man of God,"
founded on a Polish original, thoroughly imbued with Polish influence,
was written in honor of Tzar Alexei, and acted in public by students of
Peter Moghila's College in Kieff. A whole series of mystery plays
followed from the fruitful pen of Simeon Polotzky. Especially curious
was his "Comedy of King Nebuchadnezzar, the Golden Calf, and the Three
Youths Who Were Not Consumed in the Fiery Furnace." He wrote many other
"comedies," two huge volumes of them.

Theatrical representations won instant favor with the Tzar and his
court, and a theatrical school was promptly established in Moscow, even
before the famous and very necessary Slavonic-Greco-Latin Academy, for
"higher education," as it was then understood.

None of the school dramas--several of which Peter Moghila himself is
said to have written--have come down to us; neither are there any
specimens now in existence of the spiritual dramas and dramatic
dialogues from the early years of the seventeenth century. In addition
to the dramas of Simeon Polotzky, of the last part of that century, we
have the dramatic works of another ecclesiastical writer, St. Dmitry of
Rostoff (1651-1709), six in all, including "The Birth of Christ," "The
Penitent Sinner," "Esther and Ahashuerus," and so forth. They stand
half-way between mysteries and religio-allegorical pieces, and begin
with a prologue, in which one of the actors sketches the general outline
of the piece, and explains its connection with contemporary affairs; and
end with an epilogue, recited by another actor, which is a reinforcement
and inculcation of the moral set forth in the play. St. Dmitry's plays
were first acted in the "cross-chamber," or banquet-hall, of the
episcopal residence in Rostoff, where he was the Metropolitan, by the
pupils of the school he had founded. He cleverly introduced scenes from
real life into the middle of his spiritual dramas.

Collections of short stories and anecdotes current in western Europe
also made their way to Russia, via Poland; and freed from puritanical,
religious, and conventional bonds, light satirical treatment of topics
began to be met with in the seventeenth century, wherein, among other
things ridiculed, are the law-courts, the interminable length of
lawsuits, the covetousness and injustice of the judges, and so forth.
Among such productions are: "The Tale of Judge Shemyak" (Herring), "The