There seems to be little doubt that some of the scenes were sung, and there is no question that there were choruses.

The stage directions are not the least remarkable part of this play.

The baptism is set forth in this wise: "Here Jesus enters the waters of Jordan, all naked, and Saint John takes some of the water in his hand and throws it on the head of Jesus." Saint John says: "Sir, you now baptized are, As it suits my simple skill, Not the lofty rank you fill; Unmeet for such great service I; Yet my God, so debonair, All that's wanting will supply." "Here Jesus comes out of the river Jordan and throws himself upon his knees, all naked, before Paradise.

Then God, the Father, speaks, and the Holy Ghost descends, in the form of a white dove, upon the head of Jesus, and then returns into Paradise: and note that the words of God the Father be very audibly pronounced and well sounded in three voices, that is to say, a treble, a counter-treble and a counter-bass, all in tune; and in this way must the following lines be repeated: 'Hic est filius meus dilectus, In quo mihi bene complacui.
C'estui-ci est mon fils ame Jesus, Que bien me plaist, ma plaisance est en lui.'" Students are offered another choice of dates for the beginning of the performance of sacred plays in the open air in Italy, to wit, 1304.
Vasari says that in this year a play was enacted on the Arno, that a "machine representing hell was fixed upon the boats, and that the subject of the drama was the perennially popular tale of 'Dives and Lazarus'." But Vasari was not born till 1512, and he neglected to state where he got his information.

The latter years of the fourteenth century, at any rate, saw the open-air sacred drama in full action, and that suffices for our purpose..