Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/24

12 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH century later. This, too, almost certainly belongs to Advent. With the completion of the Christmas and Easter cycles the stridtly liturgical stage in the evolution of the drama came to an end. So long as the two maintained their connexion with the offices of the different seasons, amalgamation was clearly im- possible. But the tie was weakening. Every fresh elaboration rendered the representation of the plays as part of the Church service more and more difficult, and at times unseemly ; every loosen- ing of the connexion offered fresh opportunity for dramatic growth. The Nativity and Resurrection plays subsisted awhile parallel and independent, but the ' Prophetae ' came to be prefixed as a pro- logue to either, and each was thus linked into its fitting place in the history of the world, or, what is more important, in the great drama of the Redemption. It remained to place the two cycles together behind their common prophetic prologue, and the vast scheme was complete. This step is known to have been taken before the year 1300. But both before and after that date considerable elaboration of material took place. As already said, the Passion proper never grew beyond an embryonic stage so long as drama was closely connected with ritual. But the line of development was obvious, and it was soon followed, when greater freedom and latitude were gained by the severance of the liturgical bond. The adtual Resurrection came to be enafted, Christ stepping out of the tomb with the c labarum ' or banner in his hand, and a new scene was introduced in the Harrowing of Hell.