PASSION PLAY (Reprinted, by permission, from the "TIMES”) WITH SOME INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON THE ORIGIN AND HINTS FOR THE USE OF INTENDING VISITORS 1870. I2 25. 31. September 8 II 18 25 29. If on any of these days there are more visitors than the theatre will hold, the play is repeated on the following day. NAMES AND AGES OF THE PRINCIPAL DRAMATIS PERSONÆ. Age. 26 60 19 24 . Character. Name. 26 55 54 50 35 50 63 49 31 64 * Those with asterisks against their names act this year for the first time. INTRODUCTION. IT is a trite observation that the drama, both , ancient and modern, had a religious origin. The Grecian mythology was the source, and furnished most of the materials, of the tragedy of Greece. In addition to that public worship of the gods in which there was nothing of mystery or concealment, there were, as every body knows, a variety of Mysteries in which only the initiated could share. In these Mysteries there does not appear to have been any exposition of doctrine or any course of oral instruction. It was not the intellect that was addressed, at least primarily and directly, but the bodily senses and the imagination. After the initiatory rites of lustration and sacrifices, all the rest was an elaborate drama in which were represented the diversified adventures and |