The liturgical drama proper abstained in the main from any strictly dramatic representation of the Passion. The nearest approach to such a thing is in the dialogued versions of the _Planctus Mariae_ and in the Benedictbeuern _Ludus breviter de Passione_, which extends very slightly beyond these. The central event of the transition period is, therefore, the growth side by side with the _Quem quaeritis_ of a Passion play, which in the end rather absorbs than is absorbed by it. A marked advance in this direction is shown in an Anglo-Norman fragment, probably written in the twelfth century, which includes, not indeed the Crucifixion itself, but the Descent from the Cross, the Healing of Longinus, and the Burial of Christ[259]. The first recorded Passion play is in Italy. It took place at Siena about 1200[260]. In 1244 the Passion and Resurrection were played together at Padua[261]. The earliest text of a Passion play is contained in the Benedictbeuern manuscript[262]. It opens with the Calling of Andrew and Peter, the Healing of the Blind, Zacchaeus and the Entry into Jerusalem. Then follows a long episode of Mary Magdalen. She is represented with her lover, buying cosmetics of a _Mercator_—we have had the _Mercator_ in the _Quem quaeritis_ and in the _Sponsus_—and with a profane song upon her lips: ‘Mundi delectatio dulcis est et grata, cuius conversatio suavis et ornata.’ She is converted in a dream, puts on black, buys ointments from the same _Mercator_, and adores the Lord in the house of Simon. Then come, far more briefly treated, the Raising of Lazarus, the Betrayal by Judas, the Last Supper, the Mount of Olives, the Passion itself, from the Taking in Gethsemane to the Crucifixion. The introduction here of some _planctus Mariae_ points to the _genesis_ of the drama, which closes with the Begging of the Body of Christ by Joseph of Arimathaea. And so, at a blow, as it were, the content of the Easter play is doubled. Certain episodes, such as the Conversion of Mary Magdalen and the Raising of Lazarus had, as we know, received an independent dramatic treatment; but in the main the play before us, or its source, bears the character of a deliberate composition on the lines of the pre-existing _Quem quaeritis_. That it was to be followed in representation by a _Quem quaeritis_ may perhaps be taken for granted. Indeed there is one personage, the wife of the _Mercator_, who is named in a list at the beginning, but has no part in the text as it stands[263]. She may have come into the Benedictbeuern _Quem quaeritis_, of which a fragment only survives, and this may have been intended for use, as might be convenient, either with the _Ludus breviter de Passione_, or with the longer text now under consideration. At all events, Passion and Resurrection are treated together in two slightly later texts, one from the south of France[264], the other from St. Gall[265]. The St. Gall Passion play takes the action back to the