Transcriber’s Notes: Underscores “_” before and after a word or phrase indicate _italics_ in the original text. Small capitals have been converted to SOLID capitals. Typographical errors have been silently corrected. Footnotes have all been moved to the end of the text. A MYSTERY PLAY [Illustration] Lo! Gentiles in Thy Light shall walk;— and Kings, all in the splendour bright Of this Thy rising. Lift Thine eyes and see. A MYSTERY PLAY IN HONOUR OF THE NATIVITY OF OUR LORD BY ROBERT HUGH BENSON WITH ILLUSTRATIONS LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA 1908 All rights reserved FILIABVS · AMICIS CONVENTVS · S · MARIAE · CANTABRIGIENSIS · ALVMNIS QVARVM ARDOR · PIETAS · REVERENTIA INGENERAVIT · FOVIT · ILLVMINAVIT LIBELLVM VOTA · IMPLORANS D · D SCRIPTOR · INDIGNVS PREFACE The following play was produced at Cambridge in December 1907 and January 1908. It was acted six times altogether, to full houses, upon a temporary stage in the schoolroom of St. Mary’s Convent, by the girls of the school, whose ages ran from six to eighteen. The scenery, the properties, and the costumes were constructed—with the exception of two simple Eastern dresses and a few weapons—out of materials lent to the convent or possessed by it. The cost, therefore, was extremely small; the trouble only was great, and this lay almost entirely in the learning of the parts and the rehearsals. It is alleged sometimes, as one reason for fearing such performances, that the spirit of the age is very different from that in which this method of bringing the Christian mysteries before the eye was almost universally practised. This fear, of course, was not absent from the minds of those responsible for this production, but it proved wholly illusory. The audience, consisting of Catholics and non-Catholics drawn from all classes, was begged, by a sentence on the printed programme, to refrain from all applause and conversation, and loyally responded to the request. There was practically a dead silence from the first notes of the first carol to the departure of the audience at the end.