Book V. Pro and Contra

honor of the birth of the dauphin. It was called Le bon jugement de la très sainte et gracieuse Vierge Marie , and she appears herself on the stage and pronounces her bon jugement . Similar plays, chiefly from the Old Testament, were occasionally performed in Moscow too, up to the times of Peter the Great. But besides plays there were all sorts of legends and ballads scattered about the world, in which the saints and angels and all the powers of Heaven took part when required. In our monasteries the monks busied themselves in translating, copying, and even composing such poems⁠—and even under the Tatars. There is, for instance, one such poem (of course, from the Greek), The Wanderings of Our Lady Through Hell , with descriptions as bold as Dante’s. Our Lady visits hell, and the Archangel Michael leads her through the torments. She sees the sinners and their punishment. There she sees among others one noteworthy set of sinners in a