Samuel Hayman, Clk.
South Abbey, Youghal.
The Passion of our Lord dramatised (Vol. ix., p. 373.).—A drama on the Passion of Christ (the first specimen of the kind that has descended to our days) is attributed to St. Gregory of Nazianzum, but is more probably the production of Gregory of Antioch (A.D. 572). It is described by most of the ecclesiastical writers: Tillemont, Baillet, Baronius, Bellarmin, Dupin, Vossius, Rivet, Labbæus, Ceillier, Fleury, &c.
In 1486, when La Mistère de la Passion, or the Passion of our Saviour, was exhibited at Antwerp, the beholders were astonished by five different scaffolds, each having several stages rising perpendicularly: paradise was the most elevated, and it had two stages. But even this display was eclipsed by another exhibition of The Passion, where no fewer than nine scaffolds were displayed to the wondering gaze of the people.
In 1556, according to Strype (Life of Sir Thos. Pope, Pref. p. vii.), the Passion of Christ was represented at the Grey Friers in London, on Corpus Christi Day, before the Lord Mayor, the Privy Council, and many great persons of the realm. Again, the same historian informs us (Ecclesiastical Memorials, iii. c. xlix.) under the date 1557:
"The Passion of Christ was acted at the Grey Friers on the day that war was proclaimed against France, and in honour of that occasion."
It is generally considered that the last miracle play represented in England was that of Christ's Passion, in the reign of James I., which Prynne informs us was—
"Performed at Elie House in Holborne, when Gondomar lay there, on Good Friday at night, at which there were thousands present."
Busby's idea, "that the manner of reciting and singing in the theatres formed the original model of the Church service," is as absurd as it is untenable.