by similar conditions; they were performed in similar
circumstances and under the same rules.

For these reasons it is proper to discuss the early French religious
drama and that of Italy as practically one and the same thing, and to
pass without discrimination from the first performances of such plays
outside the church to the establishment of that well-defined variety
known in Italy as the "Sacre Rappresentazioni." This form, as we shall
see, was the immediate outgrowth of the "laud," but one of its ancestors
was the open-air performances. The emergence of the churchly play into
the open was effected through the agency of ecclesiastic ceremonial.
Pagan traditions and festivities died a hard death in the early years of
Christianity, and some of them, instead of passing entirely out of the
world of worship, maintained their existence in a transformed shape.
Funerals, as Chouquet[4] pointedly notes, "provided the occasion for
scenic performances and certain religious fetes the pretext for profane
ceremonies."

[Footnote 4: "Histoire de la Musique Dramatique en France," par
Gustave Chouquet. Paris, 1873.]

The fete of the ass, celebrated on January 14 every year at Beauvais,
was an excellent example of this sort of ceremony. This was a
representation of the flight into Egypt. A beautiful young woman,
carrying in her arms an infant gorgeously dressed, was mounted on an
ass. Then she moved with a procession from the cathedral to the church
of St. Etienne. The procession marched into the choir, while the girl,
still riding the ass, took a position in front of the altar. Then the
mass was celebrated, and at the end of each part the words "Hin han"
were chanted in imitation of the braying of the beast. The officiating
priest, instead of chanting the "Ite missa est," invited the
congregation to join in imitating the bray.

This simple procession in time developed into a much more pretentious
liturgical drama called "The Prophets of Christ." But this appearance in
the open streets was doubtless the beginning of the custom of enacting
sacred plays in the public squares of cities and small towns. The fete
of the ass dates from the eleventh century, and we shall see that
open-air performances of religious dramas took place in the twelfth, if
no sooner.

Other significant elements of the fete of the ass and similar
ceremonials were the singing of choruses by the populace and dancing. In
the Beauvais "Flight into Egypt