Note 172 — Chapter XIX · LITURGICAL PLAYS (continued)

Gasté, 50 ‘Corona ante crucem pendens in modum stellae accendatur’ (Rouen); Du Méril, 153 ‘stellam pendentem in filo, quae antecedit eos’ (Limoges). The churchwardens’ accounts of St. Nicholas, Yarmouth, from 1462-1512 (Norfolk Archaeology, xi. 334), contain payments for ‘making a new star,’ ‘leading the star,’ ‘a new balk line to the star and ryving the same star.’ Pearson, ii. 325, lays stress on the prominence of the star in the German vernacular mysteries. J. T. Micklethwaite, Ornaments of the Rubric, 44, says that the ‘star’ was called a ‘trendle’ or ‘rowell.’ Its use does not necessarily imply the presence of a drama.