During these changes in the method of performance, the plays themselves had also been considerably modified. The simple Latin phrases, even when in rhyme, which formed the dialogue of the earlier _ludi_--as in the four miracles of St. Nicholas, and the six Latin mysteries taken from the New Testament, printed in my volume of "Early Mysteries and other Latin Poems"--must have been very uninteresting to the mass of the spectators, and an attempt was made to enliven them by introducing among the Latin phrases popular proverbs, or even sometimes a song in the vulgar tongue. Thus in the play of "Lazarus" by Hilarius, the Latin of the lamentations of his two sisters is intermixed with French verses. Such is the case also with the play of "St. Nicholas" by the same writer, as well as with the curious mystery of the Foolish Virgins, printed in my "Early Mysteries" just alluded to, in which latter the Latin is intermingled with Provençal verse. A much greater advance was made when these performances were transferred to the guilds. The Latin was then discarded altogether, and the whole play was written in French, or English, or German, as the case might be, the plot was made more elaborate, and the dialogue greatly extended. But now that the whole institution had become secularised, the want of something to amuse people--to make them laugh, as people liked to laugh in the middle ages--was felt more than ever, and this want was supplied by the introduction of droll and ludicrous scenes, which are often very slightly, if at all, connected with the subject of the play. In one of the earliest of the French plays, that of "St. Nicholas," by Jean Bodel, the characters who form the burlesque scene are a party of gamblers in a tavern. In others, robbers, or peasants, or beggars form the comic scene, or vulgar women, or any personages who could be introduced acting vulgarly and using coarse language, for these were great incitements to mirth among the populace.