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PEREGR1NUS PLAYS 193
incredulity and confession having a scene to itself. There is much
new textual material, but only two versified sections, both original.
Some of the prose contributions, verses from the Vulgate, are already
in the
liturgical antiphons, but Fleury displays its independent spirit
musical settings, which, after the first few sentences, either go their
own way or have their own individual twist.
Details of the mise-en-scene are copious and picturesque. The two
disciples and Thomas have cloak-like garments, hats, and staves.
The Emmaus setting is elaborate. Seats and a table are provided,
with an uncut loaf, three wafers, and cup of wine. Water is brought
for the washing of hands. Dominus has three changes of costume.
He is at first barefooted, with palm and script. At Jerusalem, appear
ing to the eleven, he carries a golden cross and wears a white vestment
with a red cope. His feet and hands are marked with red. In the final
meeting, after eight days, he has in addition a crown of gold, and holds
a gospel book in his left hand. We have already noted that the famous
fifteenth-century manuscript, the 'Shrewsbury Fragments*, contains
some lines of a lost English Peregrinus (see p. 189). A few verses in
the disordered twelfth-century manuscript Vich 111 seem also to refer
to a Peregrinus section. That the drama was also played in Italy seems
apparent from the description of it in a thirteenth-century ordinarium
from Padua.
PASSION PLAYS
One part of the Easter season has so far remained untouched, that
containing the Passion, the greatest dramatic subject of all. Yet within
the medieval Church, comparatively infrequent use was made of the
theme by clerical playwrights, and nothing has survived which dates
before the beginning of the thirteenth century. In spite of semi-
dramatic incidents in the ceremonies of Holy Week, such as the
deposition and raising of the Cross or the mandatum (the footwashing),
the core of the Passion play would seem to be the various
plancius or laments extra-liturgical compositions represented as
being sung by one or another of the mourners at the foot ofthe Cross.
We have already seen the employment of such metrical laments in
the Easter dramas. The earliest of both types date from the twelfth
century. Although some of the most famous of the planctus of the
Passion are solo stanzas, spoken by the Virgin Mary, yet there are a
number in dialogue form, the speakers being most frequently Mary
and St John. With impersonation, dramatic dialogue, and setting,
these compositions became true music-dramas, and were sung most
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