ts first appearance in the services of the Church. From a
very early period, the worship of the Church had possessed a certain
dramatic character. The service of the Mass recalled and represented
by symbols, which became more and more definite and elaborate, the
great sacrifice of Christ. And this tendency manifested itself in
other ways, such as the letting fall, on Good Friday, of the veil which
had concealed the sanctuary since the first Sunday in Lent, thus
recalling the veil of the Jewish temple rent in twain at the death of
Christ. But all this was rather the soil in which the drama could grow
than the beginning itself. The latter came in the ninth century, when
an addition was made to the Mass which was slight in itself, but which
was to have momentous consequences. Among the words fitted to certain
newly introduced melodies were those of which the following is a
translation:--

"Whom seek ye, O Christians, in the sepulcher?
Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified, O ye dwellers in Heaven.
He is not here; he is risen as he foretold.
Go and carry the tidings that he is risen from the sepulcher."

{22}

At first these words were sung responsively by the choir, but before
the end of the tenth century they were put into the mouths of monks or
clergy representing the Maries and the angel. By this time the
dialogue had been removed to the first services of Easter morning, and
had been connected with the ceremonies of the Easter sepulcher. In
many churches it was then customary on Good Friday to carry a crucifix
to a representation of a sepulcher which had previously been prepared
somewhere in the church, whence the crucifix was secretly removed
before Easter morning. Then, at the first Easter service, the empty
sepulcher was solemnly visited, and this dialogue was sung.[1] The
participants wore ecclesiastical vestments, and the acting was of the
simplest character, but the amount of dialogue increased as time went
on, and new bits of action were added; so that before the end of the
twelfth century some churches presented what may fairly be called a
short one-act play. Meanwhile, around the services of Good Friday and
the Christmas season, other dramatic ceremonies and short dialogues had
been growing up, which gave rise to tiny plays dealing with the birth
of Christ, the visits of the shepherds and the Wise Men, and the Old
Testament prophecies of {23} Christ's coming. Although the elaboration
o