"Gloria laus et Honor": Worshipping in the N-Town Plays

Hello, All,

I hope you are well and that most of you are weathering the aftermath of the storm with power and heat rather than without. Hopefully, when you have access to Wi-Fi, this post may be helpful for anyone whose interested in the "Passion Plays" section of N-Town.

I imagine that some of you, like myself, were curious as to what "Gloria laus et Honor" is--the song sung as Jesus is entering into the city of Jerusalem (218). I thought, to make it easy for us, I'd post the English and Latin lyrics together:

All glory, laud, and honor
to you, Redeemer, King,
to whom the lips of children
made sweet hosannas ring.
You are the King of Israel
and David's royal Son,
now in the Lord's name coming,
the King and Blessed One.


The company of angels
is praising you on high;
and we with all creation
in chorus make reply.
The people of the Hebrews
with palms before you went;
our praise and prayer and anthems
before you we present.


To you before your passion
they sang their hymns of praise;
to you, now high exalted,
our melody we raise.
As you received their praises,
accept the prayers we bring,
for you delight in goodness,
O good and gracious King!

(cf. hymnary.org; All Glory, Laud and Honor; http://www.hymnary.org/text/all_glory_laud_and_honor)

In Latin, as it would have been sung for the play:



(et. al, http://www.hymnary.org/text/gloria_laus_et_honor_tibi_sit)

And, lastly, if you'd like to listen to the hymn, originally written by Theodulf, Bishop of Orleans:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmyCH4sPm6U

Interestingly, reference to the Hebrews, who "with palms before you went" (v. 4 in the Latin version; v. 2 in the shortened English version), is actually in the past tense. Thus, like much of the N-Town text, the song was sung as though those singing were already Christians. To some extent, of course, this was true because those who would have been singing the hymn would have been either Christians in the audience or the Christian actors. Significantly, then, the entrance into Jerusalem was being played in such a way that it was at once an act and an opportunity to worship God for the audience members. As is evident when audience members are invited on stage, too, N-Town was not meant to be a mere performance; it was, in fact, to encourage proper participation in the drama and in the Christian life.