and the Temptation of Christ; Days 2 and 3, Christ’s public life; Days 4 and 5, the
Passion proper; Day 6, the Resurrection; Day 7, the Ascension. The play is distinctive in
that it has several violent and vulgar scenes, especially during the Crucifixion; a comic
episode written in the lower Auvergne dialect; and, most important, an unusual treatment
of the Virgin Mary. Each surviving day ends with a meeting between Jesus and his
mother, regardless of whether the traditional sources allow for such a scene. Thus, at the
end of Day 5, after the Harrowing of Hell but before the Resurrection, the Virgin Mary is
miraculously raised to Heaven to see Jesus. Local archival material suggests that a
version of this play was performed not only in 1477 but in 1452 and at the very beginning
of the 16th century, perhaps reflecting a custom, attested elsewhere, of performances
every twenty-five years.
No original Passion plays have survived from the 16th century. Frequent performances
are recorded well after the middle of the century, but the texts, to judge by those that have
come down to us, were heavily derivative. The so-called Passion cyclique (Paris; 55,000
lines; six days), printed by Geoffroy Marnef in 1507, is a compilation based on Jean
Michel’s four days, preceded by a Conception partly attributed to Greban and followed
by Greban’s Resurrection, a similar type of text to the one used at Mons in 1501. Of the
two texts usually called the Passion de Valenciennes, the earlier (Valenciennes, 1547;
45,000 lines; twenty-five days) and the later (Douai, 1549; 40,000 lines; twenty days),
though more carefully reworked than the Marnef edition, are both freely based on
Marcadé, Greban, Michel, the Actes des Apôtres, and other sources.
Passion plays were organized and staged no differently from other mystery plays. If
the earliest dramas were put on by confréries, later plays required the cooperation of a
whole village or town. The expense and the planning were such that a performance of a
Passion play was an exceptional event for a town to undertake. A remarkable spectacle
designed for public entertainment, it confirmed, illustrated, and explained the Christian
faith better than any church service or sermon. The organization involved such a wide
range of participants—intellectuals to compose and copy the text, bourgeois and priests
to act the main roles, artisans to build and paint the theater and props, and almost
everyone to watch it—that the performance emphasized the social cohesion of the
community. Moreover, it was often inspired in part by commercial aims, attracting
merchants and paying spectators from nearby towns. Passion plays in late-medieval
France were neither simply religious plays nor a literary genre; they were major public
events, with far-reaching social implications.
Graham A.Runnalls
[See also: APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE; GREBAN, ARNOUL; MICHEL, JEAN;
MYSTERY PLAYS; PASSION DES JONGLEURS; POPULAR DEVOTION;
STAGING OF PLAYS; THEATER]
Durbin, Peter T., and Lynette Muir, eds. The Passion de Semur. Leeds: University of Leeds, 1981.
Elliott, John R., and Graham A.Runnalls, eds. The Baptism and Temptation of Christ. New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1978.
Frank, Grace, ed. La Passion du Palatinus. Paris: Champion, 1922.
Greban, Arnoul. Le mystère de la Passion, ed. Omer Jodogne. 2 vols. Brussels: Palais des
Académies, 1965, 1983.
Marcadé, Eustache. Le mystère de la Passion, texte du manuscrit 697 de la Bibliothèque d’Arras,
ed. J.M.Richard. Arras: Imprimerie de la Société du Pas-de-Calais, 1893.
Michel, Jean. Le mystère de la Passion, ed. Omer Jodogne. Gembloux: Duculot, 1959.
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