From this point of view Mary Magdalene is a figure of as rare distinction in the history of romantic comedy as the Virgin Mary,--perhaps even of greater importance. Interesting as the sensational elements of the play may have been, and novel--the vital novelty here is that of character growing from within. Wonderful as the career of the virgin mother was,--an essential propædeutic to that woman worship which characterizes a broad realm of Christian romance,--her career could never have awakened the peculiar interest, dramatic and humane, that was stirred by the legend so often dramatized of the wayward, tempted, falling, but finally redeemed and sainted Mary of Magdala. With regard to the transitional character of the Digby plays, it has been maintained that this particular play, combining materials of the biblical miracle and the saint's play or marvel, approaches more nearly than any other of the group to the morals and moral interludes, because of the prominence of the Sensual Sins in the dramatic career of the Magdalene. Professor Cushman, in his excellent thesis on _The Devil and the Vice_, even asserts that the downfall of the heroine, as the result of sensual temptation which is the office of seven personified deadly sins "arayyd lyke vij dylf," is a special 'development' of this play. I can hardly go so far: the church of the Middle Ages, Caxton's _Golden Legend_ of 1483, and Voragine's of 1270-90 had already amalgamated the biblical narratives of the Mary of seven devils, Mary of Bethany, and the woman who was a sinner. In fact, the suggestion of the 'device,' if such was necessary, is contained in seven consecutive lines of Caxton's _Life of the Magdalene_. This biblical and legendary play is, however, undoubtedly well on the way toward the drama of the conflict of good and evil for possession of the human soul. And this appears, as the author just cited has pointed out, when we consider a later work on the same subject, called a Moral Interlude, by Lewis Wager. Although the Seven Deadly Sins no longer figure as such, their place is here supplied by four characters,--Infidelitie the Vice, and his associates, Pride of Life, Cupiditie, and Carnal Concupiscence,--who, arrayed like gallants, instruct the Magdalene in their several follies, and are themselves all "children of Sathan." These later Vices are nothing other than selected Deadly Sins,--the Pride, the Covetyse, and the Lechery of the earlier miracle play. =3. The Dramatic Value of the English Miracle Plays=