There can be no doubt that we have here a play, or perhaps more ac-
curately, an opera. Certainly it is not a recitation, or an oratorio. Even the
word imitation, the crucial difference between mere recited dialogue and
drama, is used, and the author is obviously concerned with getting his
actors on stage and even with costuming and properties. The alb, a long
white garment, is the nearest thing to the proper garb of an angel which
the vestry could furnish. The thurible is a suitable container for the
"spices" which the women brought to anoint the Lord's body.

The dialogue which follows is a little fuller than the short quem quaeri-
tis of the last chapter. I have translated the rubrics into stage directions
of a modern sort, but I did not invent them or change their intent.

ANGEL. Whom seek ye in the sepulchre, followers of Christ?

WOMEN. Jesus of Nazareth, heavenly being.

ANGEL. He is not here. He has risen as he had foretold. Go announce that he
has risen from the dead.

WOMEN. [to choir] Alleluia. The Lord has risen. Today has risen the brave
lion, Christ, the son of God.

ANGEL. [recalling them to the tomb] Come and behold the place where the
Lord was laid, alleluia. [Lifts the veil and shows them the sepulchre, empty
except for the grave cloths]

WOMEN. [Laying down their thuribles, turning to the clergy, and holding
up the grave cloths] The Lord has risen from the sepulchre, who hung for
us on the tree, alleluia. [They lay the cloths on the altar]

[The Prior begins the hymn] Te deum laudamus.
[As the hymn begins, all the bells chime in unison] ^*

Certainly this little Easter play shows a considerable awareness of the
dramatic, though probably quite unconscious. The correlation of dialogue
and business is of a high order. Even the recalling of the women by the
angel which has been criticized as awkward, adds a certain subtlety. It
is as though the women at first think only of their own joy, forgetting
their duty of announcing, indeed of proving to the world, the marvelous
event of which they are witnesses. Shakespeare uses exactly the same
device in Antony's funeral oration. When the citizens prepare to avenge
themselves on Brutus and the other assassins of Caesar merely on the word
of Antony, he recalls them to hear Caesar's will. They must not only
act, but know why they are acting.

Shakespeare was a relatively free agent, at least he wrote his own dia-
logue. The author of the Easter play in Regularis Concordia did not. All
he could do was to write the stage directions. But with this limited
freedom, he contrived to break through into sound dramatic construction.

-11-