ABSTRACT
The quacks of early modern music, art and literature are so numerous not least because their precedents are so venerable. Their dramatic origins go back many centuries and quacks, themselves significant promoters of stage spectacle, are the earliest non-biblical characters in religious drama, where they make an increasing contribution from the twelfth century onwards. Most often, they feature on the religious stage during the Visitatio sepulchri, or visit of the three Marys to the tomb of Christ. Here an itinerant pedlar, variously characterized as a mastickár, medicus, mercator or unguentarius, with or without a wife and troupe, sometimes sells the Marys herbs and spices before they go to embalm Christ’s body and discover the empty tomb. The pivotal scene of medieval Easter observances and Passion performances, widely regarded as crucial to the emergence of religious theatre from church ceremony, the Visitatio sepulchri and its so-called merchant scene have attracted considerable scholarly attention.
