where, at Christmas time, in many churches, and especially in those of monasteries, the people were amused between mass and vespers, by the play of the _Szopka_ or stable. “In this kind of drama,” says M. Magnin, “_lalki_ (little dolls of wood or card-board) represented Mary, Jesus, Joseph, the angels, the shepherds, and the three Magi on their knees, with their offerings of gold, incense, and myrrh, not forgetting the ox, the ass, and St. John the Baptist’s lamb. Then came the massacre of the innocents, in the midst of which Herod’s own son perished by mistake. The wicked prince, in his despair, called upon death, who soon made his appearance, in the form of a skeleton, and cut off his head with his scythe. Then a black devil ascended, with a red tongue, pointed horns, and a long tail, picked up the king’s body on the end of his pitchfork, and carried it off to the infernal regions.” This strange performance was continued in the Polish churches until the middle of the 18th century, with numerous indecorous variations. Expelled from consecrated edifices, it is nevertheless preserved to the present day, as a popular diversion, in all the provinces of the defunct kingdom of Poland. From Christmas-tide to Shrove Tuesday it is welcomed by both the rural and the urban population, by the peasantry, the middle classes, and even in the dwellings of the nobility. In Germany, the last twenty years of the seventeenth century witnessed a violent struggle between the church and the stage, or it should rather be said a relentless persecution of the latter by the former, which could oppose only remonstrances to the intolerant rigour of the consistories. The quarrel had its origin at Hamburg. A clergyman refused to administer the sacrament to two stage-players. An ardent controversy ensued; the dispute became envenomed; the Protestant clergy made common cause; the anti-theatrical movement spread over all Germany. In vain did several universities, appealed to by the comedians, prove, from the most respectable authorities, the innocence of their profession, of which the actors themselves published sensible and judicious defences; in vain did several princes endeavour to counterbalance, by marks of esteem and consideration, the exaggerated severity of the theologians; the majority of the public sided with its pastors. Players were avoided as dissolute vagabonds; and although, whilst condemning the performers, people did not cease to frequent the performances, a great many comedians, feeling themselves humiliated, abandoned the stage to foreigners and to marionettes. The regular theatres rapidly decreased in number, and puppet-shows augmented in a like ratio. “At the end of the 17th century,” says Flögel, “the _Haupt-und-Staatsactionen_ usurped the place of the real drama. These pieces were played sometimes by mechanical dolls, sometimes by actors.” The meaning of the term _Haupt-und-Staatsaction_ is rather