Nevertheless the era of the origin of the plays as a rule will be found to antedate that of the manuscripts.

For example, in the royal library of Berlin there is a fifteenth century manuscript of a liturgical drama entitled, "Die Marienklage." Dr.Frommann, of Nuremberg, after careful study, has decided that the play was of middle German (perhaps Thuringian) origin in the fourteenth century.

This play is in part sung and in part spoken.[3] It begins with this bit of Latin chant by Mary: [Musical Notation] [Footnote 3: See Robert Eitner's introduction to the First Part of "Die Oper von ihren ersten Anfaengen bis zur Mitte des 18.
Jahrhunderts." Leipsic, 1881.] The rest of the text is in old German.

Here is a specimen of the recitative or chant with the German text: [Musical Notation] These recitatives are in a style exactly like that of the early French church plays.
As Coussemaker notes, one does not find in these plays the passions, the intrigues nor the scenic movement found in the secular drama.

What we do find is calm simplicity of statement, elevation and nobility of thought, purity of moral principles.