“In the meantime,” the directions tell us, “some one in the likeness of Nicholas shall take up the boy holding in his hand the cup with fresh wine, and shall place him before his father’s city and, as if not seen, shall depart. Then one of the citizens shall say to the boy”: Boy, who art thou, and where goest thou? Who gave thee the cup with the fresh wine? The boy: I am here and am not going farther. I am the only son of Getro. Glory and praise to Nicholas whose grace brought me back here. Then that citizen shall run to Getro and say: Be glad, Getro. Weep no more. Outside stands thy son. Praise be to Nicholas whose grace restored him. “When Euphrosina hears this message, she shall run, and after kissing and embracing her son many times, shall say”: To our God be glory and praise. Whose great mercy, turning our grief to joy, has released our son. To our father Nicholas be enduring praise and thanks, whose prayer to God aided us in this affair. The play ends with the choral singing of the Latin hymn to St. Nicholas, beginning with the words “_Copiosæ Caritatis_.” * * * * * As already remarked, these Latin plays of St. Nicholas are the earliest plays handling subjects outside the scriptural narrative, also one of the St. Nicholas stories is the subject of one of the group of plays by the earliest medieval dramatist known by name. In another way the name of St. Nicholas is associated with the beginnings of the modern drama, in that one of the St. Nicholas stories provides the theme for one of the earliest of plays in a vernacular tongue and produced under secular control. The play in question is the famous one by Jean Bodel produced at Arras in the very first years of the thirteenth century. The time of production was probably the eve of St. Nicholas’ day, and the producing actors were the members of a secular fraternity of which St. Nicholas was the patron saint, possibly, Gaston Paris[74] suggests, the famous minstrel brotherhood at Arras that had for its palladium the famous candle, said to have set itself on the viol of one of the brotherhood while he played before the altar. The story told in this play is one already well known as a subject for dramatic rendering in Latin, one of three handled by Hilarius, the story of the image of St. Nicholas and the robbers. But in this vernacular play St. Nicholas himself is overshadowed by the new elements that have been joined to the story. The Jew, or pagan, of earlier versions of the story, here appears as a Saracen king at war with the Christians. The thieves are tavern revelers who steal in order to pay their tavern score. In condensed summary, following largely the summary by Creizenach,[75] the story runs as follows: