The form of Christmas play, then, characteristic of the transition century, consists of a version of the _Prophetae_ extended at the beginning by a dramatic treatment of the Fall, or extended at the end by the absorption of the _Stella_. It so happens that we do not, during the period in question, find examples in which both extensions occur together. But this double amplification would only be the slightest step in advance, and may perhaps be taken for granted. The Rouen _Mystère de l’Incarnation et la Nativité_ of 1474 offers, at a much later date, precisely the missing type[253]. The Easter cycle, also, received memorable accretions during the period. The _Quem quaeritis_ of the Tours manuscript, it will be remembered, included a series of scenes beginning with the Setting of the Watch before the Sepulchre, and ending with the Incredulity of Thomas. Important additions had still to be made, even within the limits of this _cadre_. One was a more complete treatment of the Resurrection itself through the introduction of the figure of Christ stepping with the _labarum_ out of the sepulchre, in place of a mere symbolical indication of the mystery by the presence of angels with lighted candles and the dismay of the soldiers[254]. Another, closely related to the Resurrection, was the scene known as the Harrowing of Hell. This was based upon the account of the _Descensus Christi ad Inferos_, the victory over Satan, and the freeing from limbo of Adam and the other Old Testament Fathers, which forms part of the apocryphal _Gospel of Nichodemus_[255]. The narrative makes use of that _Tollite portas_ passage from the twenty-fourth Psalm, which we have already found adapted to the use of more than one semi-dramatic ceremonial[256], and naturally this found its way into the Harrowing of Hell, together with the so-called _canticum triumphale_, a song of welcome by the imprisoned souls: ‘Advenisti, desirabilis, quem exspectabamus in tenebris, ut educeres hac nocte vinculatos de claustris. te nostra vocabant suspiria. te larga requirebant lamenta. tu factus es spes desperatis, magna consolatio in tormentis.’ I cannot share the view of those who look upon the East Midland English _Harrowing of Hell_ as intended for dramatic representation. The prologues found in two of the three manuscripts leave it clear that it was for recitation. It is in fact of the nature of an ‘estrif’ or _débat_, and may be compared with an Anglo-Saxon poem of the eighth or tenth century on the same subject[257]. But there is evidence that the scene had found its way into the Easter cycle at least by the beginning of the thirteenth century, for it occurs amongst the fragments of a play of that date from Kloster Muri; and in later versions it assumed a considerable prominence[258].