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Appendix: Comparative Texts THE FOLLOWING FIVE SELECTIONS treat in some detail subject matter connected with the Holy Wednesday drama: the Christ-Mary farewell scene, the Passion, the harrowing of hell, and the Resurrection of Christ. All come from sixteenth-century Nahuatl texts that are earlier than or approximately contemporary with the drama. Texts I through IV are from unpublished manuscripts. Text V ismy translation of the Easter songs from Sahagiin's 1583 Psalmodia Christiana; these have also been published in English by Arthur J. O. Anderson (Sahagun 1993). Text I, from an anonymous Passion tract, is the lengthiest Nahuatl treatment of the farewell scene that I have located (other than the Holy Wednesday drama itself). Texts II and III, from sermons by the Franciscan Alonso de Escalona (prepared, no doubt, with native assistance),show how the Passion and Christ's descent to Limbo were treated in homiletic discourses directed at Nahua congregations. Text IV is an unusually detailed anonymous telling of the harrowing of hell, from a manuscript that appears to have been prepared by native writers. And Text V, from the Psalmodia, is a rich collection of Easter lore, including native-stylechants, narrative accounts of the harrowing and resurrection, and translations from the Latin liturgy. I. The Tulane Despedimiento. Fusion enLengua Mexicans, Latin American Library, Tulane University. Anonymous, sixteenth century. How our lord addressed his mother there in Bethany The Tulane manuscript begins its Passion narrative with three episodes that precede the Passionproper: theplot by theJews to kill Christ, Judas's betrayal, and "how our lord addressed his mother there in Bethany." The opening linesset their 256 Appendix dialogue on Holy Thursday rather than Holy Wednesday, but the text contradicts this at the end, where it states that thefollowing day is Thursday. [22r] Here is the third thing that I will causeyou to hear. It is how our lord addressed his mother Saint Mary when it was Thursday. Do listen. Our lord, Judas sold him on [22v] Wednesday.Then he went there to Bethany. And when it was Thursday in the morning, in this way he addressed his mother. He said: "Oh my preciousmother, now we havearrived at the time when I will die, so that because of my death the good, the righteous may be rescued.That iswhy I descended hither from heaven, I came to become a man within you. And that is why I came to be born from within you, so that I would die on behalf of those who are to be rescued. And now, this is how it is, it is now the time for me to die. Therefore, oh my precious mother, be consoled. May your heart, your body not be disturbed. Do not be sad. It is very necessary that I die. It has been greatly longed for, that it come true, that which my precious ones, the prophets, said about my death. And now, oh my precious mother, may you be joyful. My death, my torments, will become the joy of the good, the righteous." And [z3r] Saint Mary, when she heard this, then she wept very much. Then she said: "Oh my precious child, you are all-powerful. May it be like this, that you will not die. You could rescue us. May this be the price for which the errorsof the world will be destroyed: your fasting. May it be your blood, and your prayers. May it also be your blood that was spilled when you were still a child, when they cut your flesh. May this also be the price: that you went to fast there in the forest. May it also be the way your heart, your body ached, the way it hurt when you were going about teaching people in the city. May it also be allof the good and proper things you did on earth. May these also be the price for the errors of the world. Welldo I know that they are many, the errors of the world. [2jv] May these things become their price." And when she had said this, then she knelt before our lord. Then she fervently beseeched him: "My precious child, havecompassion for me. My heart, my body aches very much, hurts very much." And then our lord said: "Oh my precious mother, this cannot be. It is essential that I die. If I do not die the sacredwords will not come true, which saythat I will die on account of the errors of the world." And then his...

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