Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/295

 9~»s.v1.sm.29.1900.J NOTES AND QUERIES. 241 LONDON, SATURDA Y, SEPTEMBER 29. 1900. i. _ CONTENTS. -No. 144. NOTES :-The Passion Play at Ober Ammergau. 241 -Talbot Sumame and Family, 242-Poem attributed to Bonefons -The Seven Stars, 244-A New Sense of “ Garland "- Long Administration- “ Rue,” 245-Wire Pond-High- gate Archway-“ Sub": “ Subslst Money " -Corpse on Shipboard, 246 -Benwell Burial Register-Chinese Calen- dar-The Stars and Stripes-Scott and Waverley Abbey, 247-Verbs formed from Proper N ames-Hanover Square Concert Rooms, 248. QUERIES = - “ Labouring oar ” - “ Lamboys ” - “ Mau- gnms," 248-Arbuthnot-Sign of the Cross - Hames- ewit or Hewitt-Proverb ln ‘The Complete Angler’- "Twopenny-halfpenny dime”-‘ Gay Goshawk ’- ’in&s Colle e, Cambridge, 249-Rlme on the Days in the Mon s -“ Piilekoc ” - Serjeant Hawkins - Author of Poem - St. Amelia's Leaf. 250-Deaths from Smallpox recorded on Brasses-Broken on the Wheel-Phrase in Scott-Antl- quities at Braughing, 251. REPLIES :- “ Inundate,” 251 - “ Intentions ” - “ Lazy Laurence,” 252-“ Chori-egiscopus "-" Quarter ” of Corn -Moated Mounds, 253-“ ous ’-Dedication to Oneself- “ Brldewaln ”-“ Ivers," 254-‘ John Bull,’ a Newspaper- Silhouettes of Children-Sullolk Name for Ladybird, 255- Royal Fusiliers-Bibury-The Mouse in Isaiah-Palati nate -°‘ Peace, retrenchment, and reform "-Iron and Great Inventions, 256-‘° Half Moon" Tavem and “ Maypole,” 257-Locard and the Heart of Bruce-Origin of Maryland -The Taafe Family-l»{eraldic-Paginatlon-“ Alamains, " 258-“ Mazame "-Sahara-Authors Wanted, 259. NOTES ON BOOKS =-Piper’s ‘ Church Towers of Somer- set '-‘ Monthly Review -‘ The Book of Common Prayer ' -Mason's ‘ Principles of Chess ’-‘ The Isiac Tablet ’- Dawson's ‘ First Steps in Painting! Notices to Correspondents. gum. THE PASSION PLAY AT OBER AMMERGAU. IT is four o’clock and a keen September morning. The darkness is reeling, “like a drunken man, from off the path of Day.” From a church tower bells are clanging, and the ood peasants, whose lives are devoted to alifelike presentment of the greatest of all tragedies, are thronging to church in preparation for a sacrament which shall fit them to portray scenes from the life of our Redeemer. The weather is fine, but sunless. By eight o’clock we are in our seats at the theatre, and as the clock strikes the chorus moves with stately march upon the stage. Josef Mayr-the Christus of 1871, of 1880, and 1890-is the central fi re. His majestic form towers above the cgiibrus as Prologus. The whole scene, with its sweet effusion of majestic sound, forms a grand overture to this matchless, this indescribable presentment of human strength and frailty. The first tableau represents Adam and Eve driven from Paradise. Then comes the crowning interest of all eyes and hearts-the entry of Christ into Jerusalem. From this moment, in my opinion, criticism is utterly impossible. Two hundred and seventy years of prayer, of thought, and devotion-two hundred and seventy years of moral evolution, of good and just living-have raised these simple peasants to the highest *perfection of histrionic pathos, passion, and e ect. In this stupendous per- ormance, which has become the wonder of the world, there is no actin. It is reality. The best player on the worTd’s stage could, without shame, learn from these people how to triumph in his art. At Ober Ammergau he will find nothing that is not perfection of voice, gesture, or motion. The palpable defects of the profane stage are absent here, where the whole passion and power of human nature are concentrated into that which seems more than a semblance of reality. I have seen nothing which has approached, even faintly, this almost superhuman capacity for giving life to the faith of a es. For eight hours we are, so to speak, spellbound and saturated by the Old and the New Testaments, until we forget that we are merely s ectators. We seem to be in another worlid, living with those who move before our astonished gaze. Christ appears to us, as we have been taught to see Him, the symbol of love and patience. But to His discip es He seems to be a teacher rather than a God. We are impressed b the fact, which I had not previously realized, that in spite of His majesty and beauty Christ’s human nature was transcendent Had it been otherwise the treason of Judas would have been impossible. The perform~ ance of Johann Zwink, who, for the second time, personated Judas, is a marvellous piece o realism depicting the mainsprin s of average human nature. We cannot hefp feelin sorry for him, in spite of his base- ness, gliecause we perceive his blindness. When Judas flings his money at the feet of Caiaphas, and ends his existence in a wail of remorse, he seems to have atoned for a fault into which human blindness and human weakness led him. Yes, we are sorry for Judas, and trust that he may have been forgiven by the all-merciful God, who alone can judge the actions of erring humanity. At 11.30 the audience, which had reserved silence throughout-a silence onlljf broken by sobs here and there-left the building for rest and refreshment. At one o’clock we were back in our seats, and the play pro- ceeded. It is impossible to describe the scenes that passed before our eyes on that September day. The washing of the feet of the disciples, the Last Supper, the scene in the garden of Gethsemane, struck me as sub- lime beyond imagination. The scene of the crucifixion is a marvellous ortraiture of historic truth. Nothing that Ipcan say would