The Source in Art of the So-Called Prophets Play in the Hegge Collection

Abstract

The seventh play in the Hegge collection of English mystery plays is unique: in it is to be found a striking, and I believe hitherto unnoted, influence of art. James Orchard Halliwell, in his edition of the Hegge plays, calls this play “The Prophets.” But whatever its superficial likeness to the liturgical Processus Prophetarum, and other prophet plays, it is my conviction that this single English play is directly influenced by — indeed, largely derived from—that pictorial representation of the genealogy of Christ which is known in art as the Tree of Jesse, Stirps Jesse, or Radix Jesse.