I have attempted to arrange the dozen or so complete Epiphany plays known to scholars in at least the logical order of their development. There are also three fragments, which fit readily enough into the system. Two, from a Paris manuscript and from Einsiedeln, may be classed respectively with the Compiègne and Strassburg texts[187]. The third, from Vienne, is an independent version, in leonine hexameters, of the scene in which the _Magi_ first sight the star, a theme common to all the plays except that of Limoges[188]. I do not feel certain that this fragment is from a liturgical drama at all. The textual development of the _Stella_ is closely parallel to that of the _Quem quaeritis_. The more primitive versions consist of antiphons and prose sentences based upon or in the manner of the Scriptures. The later ones, doubtless under the influence of wandering scholars, become increasingly metrical. The classical tags, from Sallust and Virgil, are an obvious note of the scholarly pen. With the exception of that from Limoges, all the texts appear to be derived by successive accretions and modifications from an archetype fairly represented at Rouen. The Bilsen text and the Vienne fragment have been freely rewritten, and the process of rewriting is well illustrated by the alternative versions found side by side in the later Nevers manuscript. With regard to the place occupied by the _Stella_ in the Epiphany services, such manuscripts as give any indications at all seem to point to a considerable divergence of local use. At Limoges and Nevers, the play was of the nature of a trope to the Mass, inserted in the former case at the _Offertorium_, in the latter at the _Communio_[189]. At Rouen the _Officium_ followed Tierce, and preceded the ordinary procession before Mass. At Fleury the use of the _Te Deum_ suggests that it was at Matins; at Strassburg it followed the _Magnificat_ at Vespers, but on the octave of Epiphany, not Epiphany itself. Perhaps the second part of the Fleury play was also on the octave. At Bilsen the play followed the _Benedicamus_, but with this versicle nearly all the Hours end[190]. I do not, however, hesitate to say that the Limoges use must have been the most primitive one. The kernel of the whole performance is a dramatized _Offertorium_. It was a custom for Christian kings to offer gold and frankincense and myrrh at the altar on Epiphany day[191]; and I take the play to have served as a substitute for this ceremony, where no king actually regnant was present.