Untitled

Ex. 77 &0 ^
^3F
SUNDRY RELIGIOUS PLAYS 213
Gai-renoidor-met! Ai-sel e -
spos quevoshora ten en-def
(Beware lest you sleep! The bridegroom awaits you outside!)
The form of the new melody used here is, in the first verse, A BAB
C D A B, but this is a good deal modified in the other stanzas. The
alternating sets of verses forfatuae and prudentes are in Latin, with
a French refrain, used by both:
Ex.78 &0
Ex. 78(0
Do-len-tas chai-ti-vas, tropi a-vem dor-mit!
Da - len-tas chai-ti -
vas,tropi a-vm dor
(Unfortunate wretches are we, we have slept there too long!)
The music of the fatuae is consistent throughout, the form being
simply A A A B C (C = refrain). Hie prudentes, however, use two
different melodies for their two sets of verses. When the mercatores
refuse the request for oil they do so to the tune of tins fatuae. The last
verse of the composition is the pronouncement of Christus, striking
a harsher note than in the parable, and consigning th^ fatuae to hdL
Then follows an unusual rubric: *Modo accipiant eas Daemones, et
praecipitentur in infernum' (now let the devils receive them, and let
them be thrown into hell). This is probably the first appearance in
Qhurch drama of the devils who were so popular on the later medieval
stage.
THE DANIEL PLAYS
There are only a few surviving examples of the liturgical drama
which deal with Old Testament subjects. Two of them, *Esau and
JacobV and *
Joseph and his Brethren 5 2
, are found incomplete in form
and scantily supplied with neums. The rubrics, however, give interest
ing stage details. The other two are more satisfactory. Each of them
1 Vorau, Qiorherreostift 223. The volume itself is a fifteeatli-cmtary book of ser
mons. The text mentioned above was foond on an older sheet of vellum pasted to the
cover.
a Laon, BIbL de la Vile 263, fo. 151-153- (thirteenth century).
mitl