" at one point the choir sang an old
song, half Latin and half French, before the ass, clothed in a cope.

"Hez, sire Asnes, car chantez!
Belle bouche rechignez;
Vous aurez du foin assez
Et de l'avoine a plantez."

This refrain was changed after each stanza of the Latin. The people of
Limoges, in their yearly festival, sang:

"San Marceau, pregas per nous,
E nous epingarem per vous."

In the seventeenth century these good people of Limoges were still
holding a festival in honor of the patron saint of their parish, and
singing:

"Saint Martial, priez pour nous,
Et nous, nous danserons pour vous!"

This choral dance formed in the church, and continued to the middle of
the nave, and thence to the square before the edifice, or even into the
cemetery. At a period later than that first mentioned these dances had
instrumental accompaniment and became animated even to the verge of
hysteria. Thus unwittingly the people of the medieval church were
gathering into a loose, but by no means unformed, union the same
materials as the ancients used in the creation of their drama.

The earnest Lewis Riccoboni[5] holds that the Fraternity of the
Gonfalone, founded in 1264, was accustomed to enact the Passion in the
Coliseum, and that these performances lasted till Paul III abolished
them in 1549. Riccoboni argues that not the performance was interdicted,
but the use of the Coliseum. This matters not greatly, since it is
perfectly certain that out-door performances of the Passion took place
long before 1549. Those which were given in France were extremely
interesting and in regard to them we have important records. It is
established beyond doubt that near the end of the fourteenth century a
company of players called the Fraternity of the Passion assisted at the
festivities attendant upon the marriage of Charles VI and Isabella of
Bavaria. Thereafter they gave public performances of their version of
the Passion.

[Footnote 5: "An Historical and Critical Account of the Theaters
in Europe," by Lewis Riccoboni, translated from the Italian.
London, 1741.]

It was too long to be performed without rest, and it was therefore
divided into several days' work. It employed eighty-seven personages and
made use of elaborate machinery. There seems to be little doubt that
some of the scenes were sung, and there is no question that there were
choruses. The stage directions are not the least remarkable part of this