Verses pascales de tres Maries

The Verses pascales de tres Maries (Easter Verses of the Three Maries) are twelfth-century Latin lyric verses from Vic that form a liturgical drama for performance at Easter. The play, by an anonymous cleric, is highly original in content and form, though it only runs ninety-four lines.

The three Maries of the title are Mary Magdalene, Mary, mother of James and John, and Mary Salome. The play is based on Mark 16, wherein the three women visit the tomb of Jesus with spices to anoint his body. The play is not merely a reproduction of the biblical account but includes an apocryphal scene with a merchant. The three women approach the merchant in order to buy a spice so powerful it will preserve Christ's physical beauty forever. When they find the potion among the merchant's wares, however, he asks for a very high price, which Mary Magdalene promptly pays. According to Peter Dronke, the rubric ".a.", which appears in the original manuscripts at certain points, indicates that the following lines, usually explanatory, prophetic, or comforting, are sung by an angel. In the angel's scene in lines 53–69, he is seen by the three women after the stone that covered the tomb has obviously been removed. The women rejoice and the angel sends them on their way to tell the still-lamenting apostles. The scenes which follow are a contradiction which modern scholarship has not yet resolved. The women are again lamenting and have apparently not visited the tomb. The dramatist may not have even attempted to create an orderly narrative, or perhaps the joyful scenes with the angel are to be interpreted as a sort of prophetic dream.

The three Maries visit the tomb for a second time, where the angel confronts them and asks Quem queritis?: Whom are you looking for? The Magdalene alone answers and the three women are told that he has risen and to go proclaim it. The play ends in a singing of the Te deum.

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