UC-NRLF ' 'III REVIEW of REVIEWS » Mowsaav House* London / % > ^ THE PASSION PLAY ECCE HOMO! Outdo. -*<*< — ft* UZ^r. THE STORY THAT TRANSFORMED THE WORLD OR Cf?e Passion ptag at (Dkr ^mmergau in 1890 BY // ■y WILLIAM 17 STEAD Sr II THK I hiKA'lkK. CHORUS A.ND AUL-IKNCE, WITH HILLS IN THB BACKGROUND. THE COMPLETB OERMAB AND ENGLISH text or THE PASSION PLAY IW PARALLEL COLUMNS COPIOUSLY ILLUSTRATED ' FROM ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS BY SVHCIAL PERMISSION ANT. FROM PICTURES BY THE OLD MASTERS LONDON: OFFICE OF THE "REVIEW OF REVIEWS,' MOWBRAY HOUSE, NORFOLK STREET, STRAND, W.C. NEW YORK: "REVIEW OF REVIEWS," ASTOR PLACE. SYDNEY AND MELBOURNE: R. A. THOMPSON & CO. '& v> oUQ • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • • • • • • • • • • • • •■• •••••• • PREFACE. ■WAYSIDE SCENE, OBEE AltMEEGATJ. "TTTHEN I published " The Passion Play as Played To-Day," a local preacher in the North wrote me, saying, " I never realised before that the people who crucified Jesus were animated by the same feelings as ourselves." Another correspondent said, "I never before realised the Passion as a whole." I need no other justification than these two remarks for the appearance of the present volume. " The Story that Transformed the "World " is a new and revised edition of " The Passion Play as Played To-Day at Ober Ammergau," which was published in July, 1890, of which some 24,000 copies have been sold, and which is now out of print. It is republished to-day in response to numerous demands for an authentic text of the last surviving miracle play of Christendom. The quarto pictures which appeared in the earlier edition have been withdrawn, and their place is taken by quartos of 1880 and reproductions of some of the more famous pictures of the Passion by the old masters and of modern painters. In addition to these, the new edition contains several views of Ober Ammergau and the neighbourhood, taken especially for this work, and the reproduction of several instantaneous Kodak photographs of the Play, which give a very faithful idea of the incidents depicted in the sacred drama. This is especially the case with the picture of " Christ before Pilate," on p. 106. The figure of Maier as " Christus " comes out more faithfully there than in any of the other pictures. In order to secure a version of the Passion Play so complete and accurate as to entitle this edition to rank as the classical edition of the text, I sent Miss Werner to Ober Ammergau with instructions to obtain a faithful stenographic report of every syllable uttered on the stage. A competent German stenographer was engaged, but at the last moment everything was stopped by the intimation that any one who was caught attempting to take a shorthand note of the Play would be instantly arrested. Miss Werner was therefore compelled to revise the text by the collation from the manu- script parts of the leading performers, and by following word by word their utterances on the stage with the book in hand. By this means, I think I may fully claim that the present edition contains a text as nearly authentic as the circumstances permit. Even the unrevised text of the earlier edition was very close to the original. Slight variations are inevitable when there is no authentic complete text in existence even in manuscript, and where the performers, with the exception of the " Christus," do not hesitate to vary from time to time the precise form of the words of their parts. The photographs of the Play of 1890 are from the officially stamped cabinet photographs published by Messrs. Fuller, Buchmuller, and Stockmann, who contracted to pay 37,500 marks to the Gemunde for the exclusive privilege. Their superiority to the photographs of 1880 is considerable, although some of the quartos of ten years ago which I have selected for reproduction are very fair representations of the Play as it was played in 1880. The following extract from the preface to the earlier edition explains itself. Vlll PREFACE. When I went to Ober Ammergau to obtain a little rest and to witness a performance which was being somewhat warni'y discussed throughout Christendom, nothing was further from my thoughts than to write a book about it. An article for my Review — yes. A book, certainly not. But here is my book after all, and the best preface is a brief explanation of how it came to be written. On arriving at Ober Ammergau on June 7th, I asked, as probably every one else does, for the text of the play in German and in English. In a short time I was furnished with a small library in both languages. Official guides, authorized texts, the only authentic version, complete descriptive accounts, illustrated editions, and so forth. Armed with specimens of the best, I made my way to the Passion Play, on Sunday, June 8th. Imagine then my astonishment on discovering that not one of all the versions sold has the faintest claim to give an account of the Passion Play as it is played to-day ; that all of them describe the play as it was presented ten years ago ; that in all the mass of Ober Ammergau literature there is not a single German-English edition with the German text printed in parallel columns to the English translation, and that none of the published books about the Passion Play contain any illustrations either of the play as it is played or of the performers as they appear. I went to see the Passion Play a second time on Monday, and decided there and then that as there was no one else who seemed to be preparing to supply the need I would do it myself. Not being a stenographer, and not being able to command on the spot a German shorthand writer who would take down the ipsissima verba of the performers, I cannot profess to present in the following pages in all cases a full verbatim report of the whole play. But by taking all the existing versions to the Theatre and collating them as the play progressed, I am able to produce a version which, although here and there imperfect by reason of my being unable to take down passages omitted in the hitherto published editions, nevertheless does give a fairly complete and faithful account of what is actually to be seen to-day on the stage at Ober Ammergau. The only original printed basis for the text of the Passion Play is the prose version taken down in shorthand ten years ago bj Mr. W. Wyl and published by him in " Maitage in Ober Ammergau," a work which has been through three editions, and which still remains the only German text that is of the slightest use to those who wish to follow the Play book in hand. The two English versions which are useful are both tranlations from the " Maitage" : onebythe author of " Charles Lowder," published by Messrs. W. H. Allen & Co., the other by Mary Frances Drew, published by Messrs. Bums & Oates. The book which if usually sold at Ober Ammergau as the text of the Play is a poetical version written by the Geistlicher Bath Daisenberger, th< parish priest of the village. He endeavoured in vain to secure the adoption of his poetic version. The villagers refused to abandon their traditional prose. Here and there, however, the omissions in Mr. Wyl's " Maitage," due chiefly to the difficulty of following in shorthand the exceedingly rapid speeches of some of the performers, can be supplied not textually but with sufficient accuracy as to meaning from Father Daisenberger' s drama. In one scene which I could not restore by the combination of the "Maitage" and Daisenberger, I was kindly furnished with the manuscript of his "Bolle" by the principal performer. Add to this the additions which I was able to make as I followed every sentence spoken by the performers, pencil in hand, on the second and third occasions on which I witnessed the performance, and you have the materials on which the present edition is based. I think I may say that its only faults are those of omission. Nothing is printed that is not actually spoken on the stage, and where omissions occur I have indicated the hiatus in the usuil manner. It will be seen that the hiatus seldom or never occurs in the part of the Christ, and very seldom in those of any of the leading performers, except occasionally in the case of Caiaphas. Those who witness that extraordinary personation will not, however, marvel at the impossibility of catching every word of his rapid and vehement discourse. Altogether, I do not think the omitted passages if printed consecutively wouid more than fill half a page of the present volume. As to the English version which I have printed in parallel columns to the German text, it will be observed that I have departed from the usual method of giving a merely textual translation. While translating as closely as possible the actual text I have thrown the speeches of the performers into a narrative, so that while following the movement of the play the accompanying description will enable the spectator at any moment to find his place. Where so much depends upon the action that takes place on the stage, the mere words contain little or no idea of what actually takes place, and the only alternatives were cither to per- petually interrupt the text of the drama by numerous stage directions, or to throw the whole of the dialogue into the form of a narrative. I have adopted the latter course, not only because it is most simple but because it will enable thousands who will never visit Ober Ammergau to read the whole story without the difficulty that invariably attends the reading of a drama. I have in all cases collated my translations with those made by the author of "Charles Lowder" and by Mary Frances Drew, and have submitted the result to the revision of one whose knowledge of German is much more profound than mine can pretend to be. The metrical translations of the prologues and the songs have been kindly undi Ttaken for me by Miss Werner. In presenting the complete and revised edition to the public I have only to add that I hope those who gave the earlier book so cordial a welcome will find " The Story that Transformed the World " a permanent memorial of a performance the inspiring influence of which has been felt throughout the whole Christian world. WILLIAM T. STEAD. Lucerne, November 2nd, 1890. THE REPENTANCE OF PETER. CONTENTS. PAGE Preface. Why this Book was Written . ■ 7 Chap. 1. The Story that Transformed the World 13 Chap. II. Ober Ammergau and its Vow , 17 Chap. III. The Theatre of the Passion Play 23 Chap. IV. The Passion Play — Text in German and English . . . . . . . .31 Act 1. The Entry of Cheist into Jerusalem: . . . . . . . . .31 Act 2. The Sanhedein ............ 40 Act 3. The Leave-Taking at Bethany .......... 47 Act 4. The Last Joueney to Jerusalem ......... 55 Act 5. The Last Supper ............ 64 Act 6. Judas, the Traitor . . . . . . . . . . . .71 Act 7. In Gethsemane ............ 77 Act 8. Jesus before Annas ............ 86 Act 9. Jesus before Caiaphas ........... 90 Act 10. The Despair of Judas ........... 97 Act 11. Christ before Pilate ........... 103 Act 12. Cheist befoee Heeod . . . . . . . . . . .111 Act 13. Cheist Scourged and Crowned with Thorns. ....... 118 Act 14. Cheist Condemned to Death . . . . . . . . . .122 Act 15. The Way of the Ceoss ........... 132 Act 16. The Ceucifixion ............ 140 Act 17. The Resuerection ............ 150 Act 18. The Ascension ............ 152 Chap. V. The Gospel according to St. Daisenberger 15G Chap. VI. Some General Eeflections 153 M134018 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Tub Theatre, Choeus and Audience, with Hills f the Background Vignette Ecce Homo ! Guido iv Wayside Scene, Obee Ammebgau . . . . vii The Repentance op Peteb .... . ix The Crucifixion (1880) 12 Maby, the Mothee op Jesus . . . . .14 Cheistus 15 View op Obee Ammergau ...... 17 Ettal Monasteby ........ 18 The Kofel 18 Dome op Chuech, Obee Ammebgau . . . .19 Inteeioe of Chuech, Obee Ammebgau . . .19 The Rtveb Ammeb, with the Hills Beyond . . 21 Main Steeet, Obee Ammeeoau 21 The Stage Ebont 23 Choragus , . 24 The Entey into Jerusalem. Shokoreff ... 30 Expulsion feom Paeadise 32 The Adoration of the Ceoss . . . . . 32 Adoration of the Ceoss (1880) 33 " Sitting upon an Ass and a Colt the Eoal of an Ass" 35 Jesus driving the Teadees out of the Temple (1880) 37 Members of the Sanhedrln. — Ezechlel, Nathanael, and Sadok 39 James, Peter, and John 41 James the Less, Thomas, Simon, and Matthew . . 43 Andrew, Phtt.tp, Bartholomew, and Thaddeus . . 45 The Departure of Tobias 19 The Lament of the Beidk 49 Jesus and Maby Magdalene 51 Jesus takes leave op His Mothee . . .51 Martha, Maby, and Maby Magdalene ... 53 The Rejection op Vashti 57 Ordering the Passover . . 69 Judas GO Member s of the Sanhedbin. — Nathan, Meeerle, and Dabiabas Gl The Manna is the Wilderness 65 The Last Supper (1880) .... .67 The Last Supper. Bt Leonabdo da Vinci . . G9 Joseph w>ld by his Brethren 73 _ PAQB The Sanhedrin 75 Adam under the Curse 79 In Gethsemane (1880) 81 Jesus in the Garden 83 The Betrayal 85 Caiaphas and Annas 89 Members of the Sanhedbin. — Rabinth, Samuel, and Rabbi Aechelaus 96 The Despaie of Cain 99 The Despaie op Judas 101 NlCODEMUS AND JOSEPH OF AeIMATHEA .... 105 Cueist before Pilate 106 CnEisT befoee Pilate (Gay) 107 Caiaphas and Annas waiting fob Pilate . . .109 Daniel befoee Daeius 109 Pilate and Heeod 113 Samson Avenging himself on the Philistines . .115 Petes and John seeking Jesus 117 On theie way to Pilate's House .... 117 Jesus behoved undee Guaed 117 The Mocking 121 The Scourging 121 The Crowning with Thoens 121 Joseph proclaimed Grand Vizier . . . .123 Ecce Homo! 125 Ecce Homo ! Correggio 127 Ecce Homo ! 129 Barabbas 129 Christ or Barabbas? 131 The Sacrificed Isaac : 133 The Brazen Seepent 133 The Way op the Cross 135 Veronica, The Ceniurion, Slmon op Cyrene . .137 On Calvary 139 The Elevation op the Cross. Rubetu . . . 144 The Descent from the Cross. Rubens . . . 145 Mary, the Mother op Jesus 147 The Descent from the Cross 149 Chbist in the Bosom of Mart 149 The Burial op Jesus 151 Jesus Rising from the Tomb 151 The Resurrection. Neff 153 The Ascension 165 ■ . THE PASSION PLAY AS IT IS PLAYED TO-DAY. I.— THE STOEY THAT TBANSFOEMED THE WOELD. Ober Ammergau, June 9th, 1890. This is the story that transformed the world ! This is the story that transformed the world ! Yes, and will yet transform it ! Yes, thank God, so the answer comes ; and will yet transform it, until Thy Kingdom comes ! This is the story that transformed the world. I awoke shortly after midnight, after seeing the Passion Play at Ober Ammergau, with these words floating backwards and forwards in my head like a peal of bells from some distant spire. Backwards and forwards they went and came, and came and went ! This is the story that transformed the world ! This is the story that transformed the world. And then in the midst of the reiterated monotone of this insistent message came this glad response from I know not where. — Yes, and will yet transform it ! And then the two met and mingled, strophe and antistrophe, one answering the other, " This is the story that has transformed the world. Yes, and will yet transform the world ! " I tried to sleep, but could not. It was as if church bells were pealing their sweet but imperious music within my brain. So I got up and wrote. All is silent save the ticking of the watch by my bedside ; silent as the stars which gleam down from the blue sky above the cross-crowned crag, which stands like some gaunt sentinel keeping watch over the village at its foot. Herod, our host, sleeps soundly, and Johannes, wearied by his double service of waiter at the hotel and his r6le in the sacred play, is oblivious of all. The crowded thousands who watched for hours yesterday the unfolding of the Passion of Christ Jesus of Galilee have disappeared, and I am alone. But not alone. For as real and as vivid as that same crowd of yesterday seem to me the thronging memories of other days, of the centuries that rise between the time when Jesus really lived on earth and to-day. Nearly nineteen hundred years have gone since all that we saw represented yesterday was no mere mimic show but deadly tragic fact ; nineteen hundred years during which the shaping power of the world has been that story. The old, old story, never before so vividly realised in all its human significance and its Divine import. Its human significance, for, thank God, we have at last seen Jesus as a man among men, a hnman being with no halo round his brow, no radiance not of this world marking him off apart from the rest of us his fellow-men, but simply Jesus the Galilean, gibbeted on the gallows of his time, side by side with the scum of mankind. And it was this story that transformed the world ! "Thou hast conquered, O pale Galilean ! " Over how many tribes and nations and kindreds of men '? On this very spot, by the side of the swift-flowing Ammer, what strange rites were being celebrated long centuries after the cry of victory over death burst from the lips of the Crucified, and yet here we stand to-day. Oh, the wonder of it all, the miracle of miracles surely is this ! That this story should have transformed the world. For after all, what was the Passion 1 Looked at as we looked at it yesterday, not from the standpoint of those who see the sacred story through the vista of centuries that have risen in splendour and set in the glory of the Cross, but from the standpoint which the actors on the stage assumed yesterday, what was the Passion 1 It was merely a passing episode in the unceasing martyrdom of man. Think you that of the thirty thousand Jews whom the humane Titus by a mere stroke of his stylus condemned to be crucified round the walls of Jerusalem forty years after that scene on Calvary, none suffered like this ? For them also was reared the horrid cross, nor were they spared the mockings and the scourgings, '"D 14 THE PASSION PLAY AS IX IS PLAYED TO-DAY. the cruel thirst, and the slow-drawn agony of days of death. And among all that unnamed multitude how few were there but had some distracted mother to mourn for him, some agonised Mary to swoon at the news of his death 1 Jews they were ; as was he. Hero souls, no doubt faithful unto death, and now, let us hope, wearing a crown of life ; patriots who knew how to die in the service of the land which their fathers had received from God, and of the Temple in which was preserved His Holy Law,^ But their self-sacrifice availed not even to save their names from oblivion. Their martyrdom was as powerless to avert the doom of the chosen people as the bursting of the foam-flakes on the sand is to arrest the rush of the return- ing tide. /"" Why, then, should the death of one Jew have trans- formed the world, while the death of these uncounted thousands failed even to save the synagogue 1 Why? That is the question that the Passion Play forces home — a question which never even comes to the mind of those who are accustomed from childhood to regard this Jew as mysteriously Di- vine, not so much man as God, cut off from us and our daily littleness by the outcast, and the vagabond. immeasurable abyss that yawns between the finite and the Infinite. This greatest of all the miracles, the coming of Christendom into being, has become so much a matter of course that we marvel as little at it as we do at the sunrise — which, also, in its way, is wonder-worthy enough. Think, for a moment, of how many myriads of fierce Kunit mid VerlagB Anstalt. Oberammergau.) KAET, THE MOTUEE Or JBStTS. heathen, worshipping all manner of proud ancestral gods, have gone down before the might of that pale form. Civilisations and empires have gone down into the void ; darkness covers them and oblivion is fast erasing the very inscriptions which History has traced on their tombs. But the kingdom which this man founded knoweth no end. The voice that echoed from the hills of Galilee is echoing to-day from hills the Romans never trod, and the story of that life is rendered in tongues unknown at Pentecost. The more you look at it from the standpoint of the contempo- raries of the Car- penter of Nazareth, the more incredibly marvellous it ap- pears. And that is the great gain of the Passion Play. It takes us clear back across the ages to the standpoint of those who saw Jesus the Galilean was but a man among men. It compels us to see him without the aureole of Divinity, as he appeared to those who knew him from his boy- hood and who said —Are not his breth- ren still with us ? It is true that it is still not real enough. The dresses are too beautiful ; every- thing is conven- tional. We have here not the real Christ, the Jew, the For him we must wait till Vereschagin or some other realist painter may bring us reality. But even behind all the disguises of conven- tional Christian art, we have at least a sufficiently human figure to elicit sympathy, compassion, and love. We get near enough to Christ to hear the blows that fall upon his face, to appreciate the superior respectability of the [Carl Stockrannn, Photo. THE STORY THAT TRANSFORMED THE WORLD. 15 high priests, and to understand the contempt of Herod for " the king of fools." Not until we start low enough do we understand the heights to which the Crucified has risen. It is only after realising the depth of his humilia- tion we can even begin to understand the miracle of the transformation which he has wrought. Nor is that all. It is the greatest thing, but it does not stand alone. For besides enabling us to realise the story which trans- formed the world, it enables us to under- stand the agency by which that story effected its benefi- cent revolution. I learned more of the inner secret of the Catholic Church in Ober-Ammergau than ever I learnt in Rome. Yet there is nothing distinc- tively Roman about the Passion Play. With the exception of the legend of St. Veronica, with which Gabriel Max's picture has famili- arised every Protes- tant who looks into a photograph-shop, and sees the strange face on the handker- chief, whose eyes reveal themselves beneath your gaze ; there is nothing from first to last to which the Protes- tant Alliance could take exception. And yet it is all there. There, condensed „ , ~« v**, »>,v* ji.uu Sl una verlags Anstait, Oberammergau.) into eight hours and cheistus. less, is the whole stock-in-trade of the Christian Church. It was in its effort to impress that story upon the heart of man that there came into being all that is distinctively Roman. To teach truth by symbols, to speak through the eye as much as the ear, to leave no gate of approach un- summoned by the bearer of the glad tidings of great joy, and, above all, in so doing to use every human element of pathos, of tragedy, and of awe that can touch the heart or im- press the imagination — that was the mission of the Church ; and as it got further and further afield, and had to deal with rude and ruder barbarians, the tendency grew to print in still larger capitals. The Catholic Church, in short, did for reli- gion what the new journalism has done for the press. It has sensationalised in order to get a hearing among the masses. Protestantism that confines its gaze solely to the sublime central figure of the Gospel story walks with averted face past the beautiful group of the Holy Women. Because others have ignorantly wor- shipped, therefore we must not even contemplate. But plant Mr. Kensit or Messrs. Morgan and Scott in the theatre of Ober-Ammergau, let them look with dry eyes — if they can — upon the leave-taking at Be- thany, and then as the universal sob rises from thousands of gazers, they will realise, perhaps for the first time, how intense is the passion of sympathy which they have sealed up, how powerful the emotion to which they are forbidden to appeal. The most pathetic figure in the Passion Play is not Christ, but His mother. There is in Him also sublimity. She is purely pathetic. And after Mary the Mother comes Mary the Magdalen. Protestantism will have much leeway to make up before it can find any influence so potent for softening the hearts and inspiring the imagi- nations of men. Even in spite of all the obloquy of centuries of superstition, and of the consequent centuries of angry reaction against this abuse, these two women [Carl Stockman i]. Photo. 16 THE PASSION PLAY AS PLAYED TO-DAY. stand out against the gloom of the past radiant as the angels of God, and yet the true ideals of the womanhood of the world. Yes, this was the story that transformed the world ! This and no other. This it was which, to make visible, men carved it in stone and built it in the cathedral, and then, lest even the light of Heaven should come to the eye of man without bearing with it the Story of the Cross, they filled their church windows with stained glass, so that the sun should not shine without throwing into brighter relief the leading features of the wonder-working epic of His life and death. Wherever you go in Christendom you come upon endless reproductions of the scenes which yesterday we saw presented with all the vividness of the drama. The cross, the nails, the lance have been built into the architecture of the world, often by the descendants of the men who crucified their Redeemer — not knowing what they did. For centuries Art was but an endless repetition in colour or in stone of the scenes we witnessed yesterday, or of incidents in lives which had been transformed by these scenes. The more utterly we strip the story of the Passion of all supernatural significance, the more irresistibly comes back upon the mind the overwhelming significance of the transformation which it has effected in the world. Why 1 — I keep asking why ? If there were no divine and therefore natural law behind all that, why should that trivial incident, the crucifixion of one among the unnumbered host of vagabonds executed every year in the reign of Tiberius and the Caesars that followed him, how comes it that we are here to-day ? Why are railways built and special trains organized and six thousand people gathered in curiosity or in awe to see the representation of this simple tale 1 How comes it, if there were no dynamo at the other end of that long coil of centuries, that the light should still be shin- ing at our end to-day? Shining, alas ! not so brightly as could be wished, but to shine at all, is that not in itself miraculous ? Through all the ages it has shone with varying lustre. And still it shines. The dawn of a new day as I write is breaking upon this mountain valley. The cocks are crowing in the village, recalling the Apostle who, in the midst of the threatening soldiery, denied his Lord. And even as Peter went out and wept bitterly, and ever after became the stoutest and bravest disciple of his Master, may it not yet be with those of this generation who also have denied their Redeemer 1 Who knows 1 The transformation would be far less startling than that which converted the Colosseum from the shambles of Imperial Rome into the gigantic monument of triumphant martyrdom, far less violent than that which made the German forbears of these good Ammergauers into Christian folk. But if the transformation is to be effected, and the light and warmth of a new day of faith, and hope, and love are to irradiate our world, then may it not be confidently asserted that in the old, old story of the Cross lies the secret of the only power which can save mankind ? II.— OBEE AMMEKGATT AND ITS YOW. Obek Ammergau lies in the heart of the Bavarian highlands distant from London about 48 hours, if you travel without breaking your journey, post-haste across the Continent. I went by the Rhine in leisurely fashion, as befits one who has to travel for rest and health. The following notes of the journey to the Passion Play may be of service to those, and there will be many, who will pay a visit to Ober Ammergau in the coming year. "When I went to Ober Ammergau I travelled by the Rhine and came back by Lucerne. I would strongly advise all who can afford the time to do the same. In any case do not go by Lucerne and come back by the Rhine. To go up the Bhine after leaving England and journeying across Holland is to take the great German river in the best way. To take it after Switzerland Kunst- und Verlags-Austalt. Oberan VIEW OF OBEB AMMEKOATT. is to take it in the worst possible mood. Going, the Rhine is a romantic and noble stream winding round the base of precipitous and vine-clad cliffs ; returning, after the eye has been accustomed to Alpine heights and Swiss loveliness, the Rhine is but a great arterial drain passing through a plain studded here and there with dwarfish hills. If you leave London via Harwich at night, Rotterdam is reached at nearly two hours before the train leaves for Cologne. Go down by the tender to the station, leave your bag with the portmanteau, and then take either a drive in an open cab or landau (cost 2s., and 6d. tip) through the city, or if it is not too hot, prowl round the old city and the canals until it is time for the train to start. The train leaves at 10.20 a.m. You cross the Rhine by a floating bridge, an incident which agreeably diversifies a ride that is not particularly interesting. You pass Cleves, with its reminiscences of Anne of Cleves who married Henry VIII. and survived, traverse the flat but prosperous manufacturing district of Elberfeld, and reach Cologne at 4.40 p.m. We stayed at the Victoria Hotel, and after table d'hote, served within half an hour of our arrival, went to the Cathedral. The great Dom, the more romantic St. Peter's of northern Europe, is open till eight. But although the setting sun irradiates the western windows 18 THE PASSION PLAY AS PLAYED TO-DAY. with the glories of a celestial vision, you have not time to visit the Cathedral at night. You had better go and see the western windows and the sunset, and then revisit the Dom early next morning before breakfast. We arrived on the eve of Corpus Christi Day. Everything was beflagged as if for a great festival. Next morning crowds filled tho Cathedral, and an immense pro- cession after Mass obstructed traffic in a way that would have made Mr. Monro wild. The Cathedral is open in the morning at seven, so that there is time to visit it be- fore the Rhine boat leaves at nine. On Corpus Christi Day, however, solemn ser- vice was going on, and the Dom, closed to sightseers, was only accessible to wor- shippers. There was thus a curious and not unwelcome association that linked to- gether the celebration of Corpus Christi in the Cathedral and the Passion Play at Ober Aaimergan. In my native district, nearly every guild in Newcastle-on-Tyne used to perform a mystery or miracle play at Corpus Christi. Now the very festival has so utterly disappeared from our midst, that probably not nine Englishmen in ten know when Corpus Christi Day is, or why it is celebrated ? It has gone under like the miracleplays. But now we were in a land where strange survivals lingered, and it seemed not inappropriate that on the threshold of Ca- tholic Germany, whi- ther wo were hasten- ing to witness the Passion Play, we should hare been reminded of the ancient splendour of Corpus Christi. Tho bells in the Cathedral spire were ringing merrily out over tho festive town when we steamed off up tho Rhino. The bells that gavo forth such sweet music roused strange ETTAL MONASTERY. echoes. For, according to Baedeker, they were cast from the cannon captured from the French in the last war. Even in the melody that peals from heaven-piercing belfry there seems to linger some remi- niscence of the cannon thunder. Yet as we steamed slowly up the wide and winding Rhine and noted castle after castle crumbling into ruin, whose destruction dated with almost wearisome monotony to the devastating presence of the French invaders, it seemed very natural that the Germans should sling up the French cannon in their church towers. If French cannon never found them- selves in worse places it would be well for the world. Nor could we wish them better employment than in summoning the Ger- mans to praise and prayer. At Mayence, where we arrived in the midst of a magnificent thunderstorm after sunset, we found good quarters at the Englisher Hof . Here also the festival had been well observed. How many hundreds of years have passed sinco our good St. Boniface con- verted the heathen Teuton to the Chris- tian faith, and in the flags overhead and the crowded streets we have living con- temporary evidence of the deepness of the dint which that pro- pagandist English- man made on the character of Europe. As you arrive in Mainz at about nine o'clock there is not much opportunity of ■Ming the town till next morning. If you can get a back room in the hotel, for tho streets are very noisy, you had better go to bed, and bo up the kofel. betimes next day. Mainz is one of the most ancient and famous towns in the r'atliorluud, an.' erlo- brated, moreover, as having been the birth-place of tho inven- tion of printing. The Cathedral, which is now being repairs! OBER AMMEHGAU AND ITS VOW. 1\) 1IOMK OV CHUEOH, OBEE AMMEEGAT/. and redecorated internally, although not for a moment to bo compared to the Dom of Cologne, has a great deal of interest of its own. The frescoes on the wall and the monumental tombs are well worth closer examination than you will be able to spare, seeing that your train starts for Munich at 10.27. From Mainz to Munich is a run of about ten hours, and as the German arrange- ments for feeding the travellers en route are most barbarous, you had better pro- vide yourself with a lunch basket before leaving Mainz. We stopped at Darm- stadt, Aschaffen- burg, Wurtzburg, and then the lino runs right across Western Bavaria, crossing the Danube at Ingolstadt, and reaching Munich at about half-past eight, after a run of 280 miles. The only place between Darmstadt and Mu- nich at which any- thing can be got to eat is Anspach. The scenery is varied, and you pass many small fortified towns surrounded by crum- bling towers and ancient walls, bearing mute witness to the wars which, only two hundred years ago, were the normal condition of German life. On arriving at Munich, by the time you have washed and got something to eat you are about ready to go to bed. You will have a good long morning next day, during which you can see the Mu- seum, which is the glory of Southern Germany, the old and new art gal- leries, returning in time to have an early lunch — not at the table d'hote, for that is too late for the train — and then start from Munich Station by the spe- cial train to Oberau, leaving at 2 o'clock. It is usually a very long train, and it is just as well to be there in good time if you want to get a seat by the window. It is worth while doing this, as the country through which the line passes is very pretty. The journey takes three hours and a half, and the line rises up- wards into the mountains, passing on the way two beautiful lakes, the Wiirm See, usually known as the Starnburger See, IXTEEIOE OF CHTJECH, OBEE ASTMEEGAT/. and the Staffel See. As the train approaches Oberau you reach the higher mountain scenery of tho Bavarian High- lands. As soon as the train stops you have no time to think about scenery, as there is a general rush for vehicles. But if you have lost your train, and arrive at an hour at which no one expects you, you will have to take a carriage to Ober Ammergau or walk ten miles. The seat in the 'bus only costs 2 marks 40, but a one-horse carriage costs 10 marks, and a two - horse 16 marks, a shilling or one-and-six extra for the driver. The road from Oberau to Ober Ammergau is one long ascent, un- til you come close to Ettal. The road winds up the side of the hill, and en- ables you to have a beautiful view of the valley below. Ettal is the first place of interest. It contains a wonder-work- ing image and a large monastery, now turned into a brewery. But you press on to the village, and learn where you will be billeted for the night. And so we found ourselves one drizzling Saturday night in Ober Am- mergau. For bring- ing me to Ober Ammergau I felt grateful to Caspar Schuchler. Poor Caspar Schuchler ! He deserved well of posterity, al- though he played a scurvy trick to his contemporaries, for which the fates promptly exacted capital punish- ment. Caspar Schuchler was a humble day la- bourer of Ober reigns of our Queen the Ammergau, who lived in Elizabeth and King James. In old days, as far back, it is said, as the twelfth century, there had been a Passion Play performed in the little village, but towards the close of the sixteenth 20 THE PASSION PLAY AS PLAYED TO-DAY. century, the wars that wasted Germany left but little time even to the dwellers in these remote highlands for dramatic representation. Gustavus Adolphus and his Swedes, good fellows, no doubt, who were fightin" on the right side, nevertheless played dreadful havoc with the homes and fortunes of the German folk who were on the othe r side. Among these unfortunates were the Bavarians of the Tyrol, and as one of the remote after-consequences of that wide-wasting thirty years' war, a great pestilence broke out in the villages surrounding Ober Ammergau. Whole families were swept off. In one village only two married couples were left alive. It was a visitation somewhat similar to our Black Death. While village after village fell a prey to its ravages, the people of Ober Ammergau remained untouched, and enforced a vigorous quarantine against all the outside world. Their preventive measures were for a while successful. But then, as always, the blind instinctive promptings of the human heart broke through the most necessary sanitary regulations in the person of Caspar Schuchler. This good man, who was working in the plague-stricken village of Eschen- lohe, felt an uncontrollable desire to return to his wife and children, who were living in Ober Ammergau. Whether it was that he felt the finger of death upon him, and that he wished to see his loved ones before he died, or whether he merely wished as Housefather to see that they had bread to eat and a roof to cover them, history does not record. All that it says is that Caspar Schuchler evaded the quarantine and returned to his wife and little ones. A terrible retribution followed. In two days he was dead, and the plague which he had brought with him spread with such fatal haste from house to house that in thirty-three days eighty-four of the villagers had perished. At this moment the Ober Ammergauers in their despair assembled to discuss their desperate plight. Unless the plague were stayed there would soon not be enough living to bury the dead. Sanitary preventive measures had failed. Curative measures were utterly useless. Where the plague struck death followed. It was as men looking into the hollow eye-sockets of Death that the Ober Ammergauers cried aloud to God. They remembered their sins that day. They would repent, and in token of their penitence and as a sign of grati- tude for their deliverance — if they were delivered — they would every ten years perform the Passion Play. And then, says the local chronicler, from that hour the plague was stayed. Those who were already smitten of the plague recovered, nor did any others fall victims to the pestilence. Since Moses lifted up the brazen serpent in the wilderness, there had not been so signal a deliverance from mortal illness on such simple terms. Thus it was that the Passion Play became a fixed institution in Ober Ammergau, and has been performed, with a few variations due to wars — such as that which summoned the Christ of 1870 to come down from the cross to serve in the Bavarian artillery — ever since. The perform- ance of the Passion Play, like the angel with the drawn sword which stands on the summit of the Castle of San Angelo, is the pious recognition of a miraculous interposition for the stay of pestilence, a kind of dramatic rainbow set in the hills to commemorate the stay of the pestilential deluge. But for Caspar Schuchler it would have gone the way of all other Passion Plays, if, indeed, it had not already perished even before his time. His offence saved it from the general wreck. He sinned, no doubt, and he suffered. He died, and it is probable that his own family were the first to perish. But out of his sin and of their sorrow has come the Passion Play as we have it to-day, the one solitary survival of what was at one time a great instrument of religious teaching, almost universal throughout Europe. Hence I feel grateful to Caspar Schuchler. And after Caspar, who was the guilty cause of this unique survival, our gratitude is due chiefly to the good parish priest, Daisenberger, to whom more than to any other man is due the conversion of the rude mystery or miracle play of the Middle Ages into this touching and tragic unfolding of the greatest drama in history. For thirty-five years he lived and laboured in the village, presiding as a true father in Israel over the mental, moral, and spiritual development of his parishioners. A born dramatist and a pious Christian, he saw the opportunity which the performance offered, and lie made the most of it. Stripping the play of all that was ignoble or farcical — and nothing is more curious than the way in which all miracle plays ran to farce ; even at Ober Ammergau, before Daisenberger's time, the Devil excited uproarious hilarity, as he tore open the bowels of the unfortunate suicide, Judas, and produced therefrom strings of sausages — he produced a wonderfully faithful dramatic rendering of the Gospel story. Thus the Geistlicher Rath became the Evangelist of Ober Ammergau. The play which we have been witnessing is the Gospel according to St. Daisenberger. His beatification has not been declared at Rome, and his version is not entitled to rank with the canonical Scriptures ; but none the less, generations yet to come may rise up and call him blessed, and his version, unauthorised though it be, enables all who see it to realise more vividly than ever before the human side of the Martyrdom of Jesus. Ober Ammergau is a beautiful little village standing in a level valley almost on the water-shed of the Bavarian Alpi A mile or two on one side the streams run east towards Munich, but here in the village itself the Aunuer runs Mrtward towards the Planer See. Looked at from above, it forms an ideal picture of an ideal village. The clean white walls of the bouses, with their green window-shutters, are irregularly grouped round the church, which, with its mosqlM-Hkf minaret, forms the living centre of the place. It is the rallying point of the villagers, who used to perform their play in ODER AMMERGAU AND ITS VOW. 21 the churchyard — architecturally as morally the keystone of the arch. Seen at sunset or at sunrise the red-tiled and grey- slated roofs which rise among the trees on the other side of the rapid and crystal Ammer seem to nestle together under THE EIVEE A5QIEE WITH THE TTTT.T.a BEYOND. the shade of the surrounding hills around the protecting spire of the church. Hign overhead gleams the white cross on the lofty Kofel crag which guards the entrance to the valley. In the irregular streets Tyrolese mountaineers are strolling and laughing in their picturesque costume, but at the solemn Angelas hour, when the music of the bells swings out in the upper air, every hat is raised, and bareheaded all MAIN STREET, OBEE AMMEEOAU. remain until the bells cease to peal. It is a homely, simple, unspoiled village, and that they have been unspoiled by the flood from the outer world which submerges them every week all summer through every ten years is in itself almost 22 THE PASSION TLAY AS PLAYED TO-DAY. as the miracle of the burning bush. The student of social economics might do worse than spend some days observing how life goes with the villagers of Ober Ammergau. They are more like Swiss than Germans. They inhabit the northern fringe of the great mass of mountains which divide the flat lands of Germany from the plains ol Italy, and have most of the characteristics of the mountaineers who, whether they be called Swiss or Tyrolese, is one of the most respect- worthy species of the human race. Isolation begets independence, and the little community, secure amidst its rocky ramparts against the intermeddling despotism of distant governments, develops the most simple and the most sound system of democratic government. There is a burgomaster, but he is elected, and the government is vested in the hands of the householders. Nearly every man is a landholder — the poorest have about three acres, the richest about sixty. But over and above that they have the inestimable privilege of pasturage on the Alp. Talk about three acres and a cow ! That ideal has been more than realised ever so long ago at Ober Ammergau. Never was there such a place for cows. Every night and morning a long procession of cows, each with her tinkling bell hanging from her neck, marches sedately through the principal street to and from the milking shed. They wander on the hills all day, but come home to be milked every evening, and the continuous tinkling of their bells fills the valley with delightful music. The whole popu- lation of Ober Ammergau is not more than thirteen hundred, but they own between them some five or six hundred cows. Few more pleasant sights will you meet in all your travels than the coming home of the cows at milking time. The goats also and the horses all have bells, but the cows so far outnumber all the rest that the others pass unnoticed. The various wayside shrines that pious souls have reared along the public road, wherever accident befell a drunken waggoner or careless woodman, are touching mementoes of the tragic incidents in the uneventful annals of the valleys. Ettal used to be a famous place of pilgrimage before its monastery was transformed into a brewery, and even now its miraculous Madonna is an object of reverence to all the country side. The story goes that the image is invisible to the very reprobate, is as heavy as lead to the impenitent sinner, but as light as a feather to all those who are of a contrite heart. It is natural that all the roads leading to such a pilgrim haunt should be studded with these little shrines. We should be none the worse for a few similar memorials in this country. It is often wet in Ober Ammergau when the sun is shining all around. Of this I had a curious experience the day I drove over to the Bad Anstalt at Kohlgrub. Kohlgrub is but one hour from Ober Ammergau, but it lies much higher. It stands on the other side of the hill, and commands an excellent prospect over the lakes and mountains of Bavaria. The season was just commencing, and there were therefore but a few of the hundreds of visitors who in a week or two would crowd the roomy and airy establishment which Messrs. Faller and Buchmuller have built on the famous iron spring of the Kohlgrub. The air was most invigorating. The blue waters of the lakes that lay in the valley at the foot of the hills, the quaint old church of St. Martin, the village that clambered up the hillside, the dark green woods that clothed the mountain, all stood out distinct and clear in the brilliant sunlight. But one hour after leaving Kohlgrub we drove right into a horrible pelting rain that had never ceased all the afternoon in the valley of the Ammer. Hence if it rains in Ober Ammergau the visitor never need despair. He may find perfect weather within an hour's drive. Very quaint and curious is the effect produced by the appearance of the actors in the Passion Play in their every-day costume. Maier, the Christ, an excellent family man, makes his living by carving crucifixes. Leclmer, the most famous Judas of our time, lives in this house. Over yonder 6tands the Burgomaster's, where if you ask for Caiaphas, you will be told by his daughter, the Virgin Mary, that he has just gone across to the inn to drink beer with the village doctor. That is King Herod driving the Zweispanner that just passed us, and that long-haired lad, who is lighting his cigar in the middle of the street, is the Apostle John. I was lodged in the house of Herod, and we were waited upon at table by St. John. " Johannes, Johannes ! " you could hear from the kitchen, and thither Johannes would hasten, bringing back the bottles of beer or plates of meat for which hungry guests were clamouring. All is so strange and simple. As I write it is now two days after the Passion Play. The crowd has departed, the village is once more quiet and still. The swallows are twittering in the eaves, and blue and cloudless sky overarches the amphitheatre of hills. All is peace, and the whole dramatic troupe pursue with equanimity the even tenor of their ordinary life. Most of the best players are woodcarvers ; the others are peasants or local tradesmen. Their royal robes or their rabbinical costumes laid aside, they go about their ordinary walk in the ordinary way as ordinary mortals. But what a revelation it is of the mine of latent capacity, musical, dramatic, intellectual, in the human race, that a single mountain village can furnish, under a capable guidance, and with adequate inspiration, such a host competent to set forth such a play from its tinkers, tailors, plough- men, bakers, and the like. It is not native capacity that is lacking to mankind. It is the guiding brain, the patient love, the careful education, and the stimulus and inspiration of a great idea. But, given these, every village of country vokels from Dorset to ( 'nithness might develop artists as noble and as devoted as those of Ober Ammergau. Kunst- und Verlags-Anstalt, Oberarnmergau.] THE STAGE FBONT. [Carl Stockmann, Photo, III.— THE THEATEE OF THE PASSION PLAT. The theatre in which the Passion Play is performed stands in a meadow at the far end of the village, and from all parts of the auditorium you see a background of blue sky and fir-crowned hills. Half of the seats are in the open air, half under cover. If it rains the performance goes on, and half the audience is drenched. If the sun blazes the spectators in the open are roasted. But there is no help for it — " rain or shine," the play goes on. Umbrellas are not allowed. The seats are all numbered. If the weather is at all chilly, rugs are almost indispensable. In wet weather you shiver on your seats, and, as you occupy them for four hours at a stretch, you have leisure for regretting your neglect to bring the necessary wrappings. Even with an ample fur rug I felt miserably cold on Sunday morning ; yet, on Monday after- noon, in the open I was nearly broiled in the blaze of afternoon sun. Opera-glasses are allowed, and are a necessita- te all near-sighted persons. Lunch baskets are not forbidden. But against photographic camera, kodaks and the like the regulations are very severe. Not knowing this, I took in a kodak. Caiaphas spied me from the stage, and despatched a messenger to forbid its use ; then another to insist upon the confiscation of the plates, and finally, I was at the close of the performance marched off under arrest to the burgomaster's office to render an account to his highness of my misdeeds. I found Caiaphas in quasi-private, or rather, in his local official capacity, very courteous and dignified. He explained that they had sold the monopoly of photographing the play and the performers to three enterprising gentlemen — Messrs. Faller, Buchmuller, and Stockmann, of the Kunst- und Verlags-Anstalt, Oberammergau — and it was, therefore, his duty to prevent any other photographs being taken. As I had already received permission to reproduce their photographs from the gentlemen in question, I was released. The experience of being brought up before Caiaphas was, however, a novel and unexpected pleasure— a pleasure enhanced by the opportunity which it afforded me of seeing Caiaphas and the Virgin off the stage in their every-day dress, and of expressing to them the admiration which every one feels who has enjoyed the opportunity of seeing their wonderful performance. What would have happened to me if I had not had permission I do not know. Other visitors who wish to take snap-shots from the auditorium had better trust to small detective cameras, otherwise they may get into serious trouble. As a rule, most people come early, and stay till the close of the performance. Some, however, behave abominably, arriving late, leaving in the middle of a scene, and generally disturbing all those who are unfortunate enough to be in their neighbourhood. 24 THE PASSION PLAY AS PLAYED TO-DAY. The play begins at eight, and the first part ends at quarter ' to twelve. After an hour and a half allowed for luncheon it is resumed at quarter-past one, and closes about half-past five. The good priest Daisenberger has left on record that he "undertook the production of the play for the love of my Divine Redeemer, and with only one object in view, the edification of the Christian world." In order to attain this end he deemed it necessary to follow the scriptural method. Instead of simply setting forth the Gospel story as it stands in the New Testament, he took as his fundamental idea the connec- tion of the Passion, incident by incident, with the types, figures and prophecies of the Old Testament. The whole of the Old Testament is thus made as it were the massive pedestal for the Cross, and the course of the narrative of the Passion is perpetually interrupted or illustrated by scenes from the older Bible, which are supposed to prefigure the next event to be represented on the stage. Thus in Daisenberger's words, "The representation of the Passion is arranged and performed on the basis of the entire Scriptures." In order to explain the meaning of the typical tableaux and to pre- pare the audience for the scene which they are about to witness, resource is had to an ingenious ar- rangement, whereby the interludes between each scene are filled up with singing in parts and in chorus by a choir of Schutzgeister, or Guardian Angels. The choragus or leader of the choir first recites some verses clearly and impressively, then the choir burst out into song, ac- companied by an orchestra concealed from view in front of the stage. The tinkle of a little bell is heard and the singers draw back so as to reveal the tableau. The curtain rises and the tableau is dis- played, during which they sing again. The curtain falls, they resume their old places, and the singing proceeds. Kims:, mill Vcrlngj-Anstnlt] [Carl Stockmaiui. Photo CHORAGUS. Then when they come to the end half file off to the right, half to the left, and the play proper begins. When the curtain falls they again take their places and resume their song. The music is very simple but impressive, and the more frequently it is heard the more you feel its force and pathos. The chorus occupies the stage for fully half the time devoted to the piece. Their dress is very effective. From the choragus in the centre in bright scarlet, all wear coronets, with the cross in the centre, and are habited in white under- tunics, with golden edging, in yellow leather sandals, and stock- ings of the same colour as the robe which falls from their shoulders. These robes, held in place by gold decorated cords and tassels round the breast and round the waist, are arranged very artistically and produce a brilliant effect, especially when the wearers are leaving the stage by the wings. Twice, however, these brilliant robes are exchanged for black — immediately before and immediately after the Crucifixion. The bright robes, however, are re- sumed at the close, when the play closes with a burst of hallelujahs and of jubilant triumph over the Ascension of our Lord. When Miss Werner called upon the Choragus to ascertain the exact wording of one of the songs, she found him studying his part from the earlier edition of this book — the text being more complete than that of any printed or manuscript version procurable. The music has never been published anywhere. All that can be printed are the following meagre specimens of part of the score. The orchestra is concealed from view by a screen immediately in front of the stage below the level of which they are Mated. Their music is quaint and simple, and the very reverse of noisy. SPECIMENS OF THE MUSIC. HOSANNA TO THE SON OF DAVID. Act I. Sc. 1.] Unisono. ± & P=t W 2 -& -& 3=^ "d" T? ~-&- 2 s IeS frr^ -G>- a*-< tri JTYTk rfc£±± -#-•- 1 — t i Heil Dir, Ileil Dir, o Da - vids Sohn ! Heil Dir ! 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Hosan-na, der dort o - ben thro -net er-hal-te uns Dich e - wig-licIi.HeiI,etc. i Act XV., Sc. 1.] ife THE JOURNEY TO CALVARY. ^ 1=ZL =fe =g: ±B= -G» — - ^_j wm— g }=j_ =%== ^ ^ -p= "CT «— hf j— F i -£*- -ts>- -P- £fcfc: ztjtrt 4= 4- I3e - tet an und ha - bet Dank I der den Kelch der Lei - den trank, 26 THE PASSION PLAY AS PLAYED TO-DAY. i ^i gE^EgE^EEg^ .2 tjto* 2 -rr 2 -» » l_xi =0= Sg -Pt d_ =& iW -P» p. *= =f^= ± ^ -P*= 5^*^11 -o- T [ Welt mit Gott ! geht nun in den Kreu - zes - tod, I und ver - sohnt die Act III., So. 1.] _^ Moderato. THE LAMENT OF THE BRIDE. | gpsp S ^r^—Ti gs ^= 3 i^ *-*-*- & :*r* ^zd Wo ist er hin, wo ist er hin, der scho - ne al - ler Scho-nen ? Wo ist er I *&S ;fcC &5^ 5^E -*— r -*-*- ££ e^ ^^ i=^i i £^£ ■#-+ ^=^=p S3* i "i r 1/ v v B L hin, wo ist er hin, der Scho-ne al - ler Scho-nen I ■ ... ^w £5^ fe^E - r -i r - hei - sse Thra nen, ?- - der Lie - be hei - sse Tlira - && *~~1 J: SPECIMENS OF THE MUSIC. 27 ^=3S= A ^^=Bg£ &E5==5&& =q=F 'jC3t ^^ r V t nen. Ach komme doch ! ach komme doch ! sieh die - se Thra-nen flie ssen ! Ge-liebter Sfe 9I« 34-Jtabfe r* > 5* *9^=? ^*^5 =£= ::: s ^_p_ r F ^ p p_ ^ r ^ | ^ -p— e ffi^ i ^ =£ _fe& Si^S fc* — • a ~— * L» < * " - -**— 1- JEg-fc-M-^il du zogerst noch, Dich an mein Herz zu schlie-ssen ? ^P PS 36 £l £ 3 — ^ j, I a ^ > ^ fi^f-rr-w^^f , -. * LJ MM s=± ;### # -*2- Z S5 u 3=SsE l17~T m — -* '_ ^=S^3= ^ L£-M^ R te- -fe* r — » — •- ^— f^ > > > I s=a al-len We - gen ^ ^L^_ga a ^ ^ und mit der Son-ne ers-tem Strahl eilt Dir, eilt M i J -«- -*- -«- aw ^fr^rr prprrfy 2Jl_LZ ^ s ■*r-*r , N -*t- a 1- ll^lprBg wEi T * 3E^§ ^ :S£ s ;i/--l_ 1 i ^i ^ * BS~^-g = rit. • =s=* g^^5EBp^^^^£ £* ^^f#g^ Dir mein Herz ent - ge fit p ^-^ gen. Geliebter ach, was fiih-le ich -3 JS wie ist mein Herz be - klommen, &c. jfeE i ^Sp- — ^ — r- -»-*- * ^ 5T rit. w » s 2S THE PASSION PLAY AS PLAYED TO-DAY. NAMES OF THE PERFORMERS. Christits (wiedergewiihlt zum 3. Male) JonAXXES (neugewiihlt) Peteus (wiedergewiihlt zum 4. Male) Maria (neugewiihlt) Maodalexa (neugewiihlt) Martha (neugewiihlt) . Josef vox Aeimathaea (wiedergewiihlt) Nicodemus (wiedergewiihlt) . Kaiphas (wiedergewiihlt) Ajtxas (neugewiihlt) Nathaxael (wiedergewiihlt) Rabbi (wiedergewiihlt) Judas (neugewahlt) Pilatus (wiedergewiihlt) Herodes (neugewiihlt) . Jakobus (wiedergewiihlt) Rechter Schaecher (Dismas, neugewiihlt) Lixker Schaecher (neugewiihlt) Barabbas Philippus Thaddaeus SlMOX . Jakobus min Thomas Matthaeus baetholomaeu3 Moses . Ezechiel Sadok . Josue . Mererie Samuel RABi>-rn Hauptmaxx Veroxika Nathax Dariabbas Simox vox Ctrexe Proloo03 ode Josef Mayer . Peter Rendl . Jacob JUett . Rosa Lang Amalie Deschhr . Helena Zany . Martin Oppenriethr Franz Steinbachcr . Bib-germeister Lung Franz Itutz, sen. . Sebastian Lany. jha. Sebastian Bauer Johann Ztvink Thomas Rendl Johann Diemer Andreas Braun Peter Lang . Eduard Bicrl'nj . Joh. Oswald . Tobias Zwink Josef Ktirz M. Hohenleit ncr . Josef Klucker Andreas Lang Alois Gerold . Martin Albl . Tobias Zwink Itoehus Lang . Scb. Dcsehler Andr. Wolf . Anton Gastl . G. Schallhammer Eduard Albl . Anton Bartl . Elis. Zundtcrcr Frz. Paul Lang Joh. Lang,jun. Michael Bauer Schnitzwaarenverlegcr Schnitzer Schnitzer Biirgermeisterstochter Schnitzerstoehter Schnitzerstochter Schnitzer . Fiirbormeistor Biirgermeister Schneidenneister Messner . Schnitzer . Maler Haushofmeister ( Privatier . Schnitzer . Maurer Taglijhner der Prau von Hillem alt 47 19 67 22 23 20 32 38 54 1.) 49 30 52 44 Schnitzer . Chorfuehrer (iiengcuiihlt) Jacob Rutz, lluf- und Wagenschmied. Leiter der Spiele ist Herr Biirgermeister Lang. — Leitep. der lebenden Bilder, Herr Zeichenlehrer Lang. Das Oechester, desscn ausgezeichneter Diligent Joseph Gruber (Obcrlehrcr in Oberammcrgau) itt, wild : torziigliche Ancrkennung finden. Hauptsaexoer uxd Proloo-Deklamator ist Jakob Itutz, Wagenschmied. Jm Ganzen werden ca. 750 Personen (125 sprechende) mitwirken, darunter 50 Frmten und 230 Kinder. wcifellos Sopran. Josepha Breitaammtcr. Ludovica Gindhart. Anna Korntheuer. Luzie Lang. Aloima Mayr. Regina Wolf. Maria Samm. SCIIUTZGEISTER. Alt Antonia Albl. Creaeenz Bierling. Johanna Keller. Crewenz KIsiiiht. Magdalena Kopf. Alt. Maria Lute. Josepha Steidle. Tmor. Otto Anderl, Hilfslohror. Korbinian Christa. Alois Lang. Anton Lechner. Dominikus Schilcher. •mi. JoBeph Gabler. Anton Lutz. Otto Mangold. Korbinian Rutz. THK ENTBY INTO JKEVSALEH (8HOKOUEFF). IV.-THE PASSION PLAY. ERSTE ABTHEILUNG. Vom Einzuge Christi in Jerusalem bis zur Gefangen- nehmung im Olivengarten. FIRST DIVISION. From the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem until His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. I. VOKSTELLUNG. PROLOG. Chora gus. — Itecil. "VVirf zum heiligen Staunen dich nieder, Von Gottes Fluch gebeugtes Geschlecht ! Fnede dir ! aus Sion Gnade wieder ! Nicht ewig ziirnet Er, Der Beleidigte, ist sein Ziirnen gleich gcrecht Ich will," so spricht der Herr, "Den Tod des Sunders nicht, — vergeben Will ich ihm— er soil leben ! " Und opfert seinenSohn, die Welt von Sunde zubcfreien Breis und Dank dafiir wir weihen Ew'ger, Dir! Tableau.— Die Yertreibung aus dent Taradies. DIE VEETEELBUNG. [Dieses erste Bild dient als Einfiihrung in das eigentlichc Passionssp.el und ls t so allgemein bckannt, dass es eincr Ermnerung nicht bedarf.] Die Menschheit ist verbannt aus Edens Au'n, Von Sund' umnachtet und von Todesgrau'n Zum Lebensbauni ist ihr der Zugang, ach ! versperrt. Es drohet in des Cherubs Hand das Flammenschwert JJoch von feme, von Kalvaria's Hbhen Leuchtet durch die Nacht ein Morgengliih'n Von dem Baum des Kreuzes milde wchen -tnedensliifte durch die Welten hin. Chorus. Gott! Erbarmer! Sunder zn begnaden, Die verachtet frevelnd Dein Gebot, Gibst Du, sie vom Fluehe zu entladen, Deinen Eingebornen in den Tod. Tableau. —Die Anbetung des Kreuzes. DIE ANEETTJNO. [Das zweite Bild zeigt die Anbetung des Kreuzes durch als ingel gekleidete Kinder.] Choragus — Recit. Ew'ger ! hore Deiner Kinder Stammeln ' Weil ein Kind ja niehts als Stammeln kann • Die beim grossen Opfer sieh versammeln, Beten Dich voll heil'ger Ehrfurcht an. Chorus. Folget dem Versohner nun zur Seite, Bis er seinen rauhen Domenpf ad Durchgekampfet, und im heissen Streite Blutend fur uns ausgelitten hat. CHAPTER I. PROLOGUE.— Act I. Cast thyself down in adoring love, Race bowed down by the curse of God ! Peace and grace out of Zion above ! He is not wroth for ever, Though His wrath be just— though uplifted His rod. Thus saith, Who changeth never— " I will not the death of a sinner, I will for<*ive— Let him live ! " And He gave up His Son, the world from sin to free • Praise and thanks we give, Eternal ! to Thee ! [The first tableau is emblematic of the Fall. When the curtain is drawn up, Adam and Eve, a man and woman of the village, habited very decently in white sheepskin, are flvinir from the Garden of Eden, where stands the tree with the for- bidden fruit while from its branches hangs the Serpent, the tempter An angel with a sword painted to look like flame iorbids their return.] Mankind are banished from fair Eden's glades Darkened around with sin and Death's grim shades Unto the Tree of Life the way, alas ! is barred, Where the dread cherubim, with flaming sword keep guard. e Yet afar, from Calvary's height, Shines a ray of morning through the night From the Cross, the Tree of Love, there blow Winds of peace through all the world below. God ! All-Merciful ! Thou, Pardon-Giver— Though men held Thy law as idle breath— Irom the curse the guilty to deliver, Gavest up Thine only Son to death. [The second tableau represents the Adoration of the Cross A cross of wood planted on a rock occupies the centre of the It 8 ^ y.9?? glrl St '? ds With one hand round ^ Cross, the other holding a palm branch, while another kneels at its toot Around are grouped fourteen smaller cherubs All point to or gaze at the Cross.] H 2T' ,° Lord . Thy children's voices tremble, Children only stammering Thee can praise J- hey, who at the sacrifice assemble, ' Hands of reverent adoration raise Follow now the path that He, despising Thorns and steepness, trod unflinchingly And, in fiercest conflict agonisino- ' Won, at last, eternal victory. 32 THE PASSION PLAY AS PLAYED TO-DAY. Kunst-unil Verlags-Anstalt.Oberammergau.] (Curl Stockmann, Photo. TABLEAU — EXPULSION FROM PARADISE. Kunst- und Verlaffk-AiuUlt. Obemmmcrjinn ] IfnrlStockmiinn I'lmtu. TABLKAU — THE ADOUATIOX OF THE CK0S8. THE ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM. ACT 1. 33 34 THE 1'ASSIUX TLAY AS IT. AY ED TO-DAY. Haxdlung. dee eenzug in jerusalem. Chbisttts zieJit toiler dem Jubel des Volkes in Jerusalem ein und vertrtibt die Eiiufcr und Yerkaufer aus den Tempelhallen. ERSTE SZEXE. Manner, Frauen. Kinder, dann Cheistus, und die Apostel, nach ihren icieder Volk, — aus dem Hinlerrirunde dutch die ree/ite Seitenszene auf das Proscenium ziehend. Chor. Hcil Dir, Heil Dir, o Davids Sohn ! Heil Dir, Heil Dir, der Vater Thron Gebiihret Dir ! Der in des Hochsten Namen kommt, Dem Israel entgegenstriimt, Dich preisen wir ! Hosanna ! Der im Himmel wohnet, Der sende alle Huld auf Dich ! Hosanna ! Der dort oben thronet Erhalte uns Dich ewiglich ! Chor. Heil Dir, Heil Dir, &c., &c. Gesegnet sei, das neu auflebet, Des Vaters David Volk und R eich. Ihr Vcilker ! segnet, preiset, hebet Den Sohn empor, dem Yater gleieh ! Chor. Heil Dir, Heil Dir, &c, ic. Hosanna unserm KiJnigssohne Ertiine durch die Lufte weit ! Hosanna ! auf des Vaters Throne Regiere Er voll Herrlichkeit. Chor. HtU Dir, Heil Dir, &c, &c. ZWEITE SZEXE. CnBiSTus, die Apostel und Volk. Prlagter, Diarisiier, und Handler, in der Tempe'lialte. Christus. Was sehc ieh hier? So wird das Hans m. in h Vaters vcrunehrt ! 1st das Gottes Haus? Oder fat M eta M uktplatz? Die Fremdlinge, die aus denLiindem der Hi Idea komiuen, Gott anzubeten, in diomu (Jcwiihle des Wuehcrs hicr Bollen sie ihre Andacht verriehten? Und Ilir, I'ri. at) r. Wachter des Heiligthnmes ! Ihr sehct den Griinel an und duldetihn? Weh'Euch! Der dii' Ibrzen erfors 'lit, \v> warum Ihr aelbst solehen Unfng ffirdeft ! Handler. AVer ist iraU