The Sun.
London, England, 1860-09-05 00:00:00

actually come to pass, and his violent self-murder is •
the sudden result of his discovery of the certainty
of the dreadful catastrophe in which he has been a
chief actor. Whether this is the right view of his
character I do not pretend to say ; but if I remem-
ber rightly, it has the authority of no less a person
than the Archbishop of Dublin; that it was also
adopted some years ago in a dramatic poem on the
subject by Mr. Horne, the author of " Orion." I
should say that this character was the only instance
in the whole play of any approachto exaggeration;
but it interested the audience exceedingly, and the
indication of the death—for it was most judiciously
kept out of view—was received with the only mur-
murs of applause that I recollect to have occurred
throughout. This was, no doubt, partly due to
satisfaction at the traitor having met his reward.
The minor details of the play were no less excel-
lent than the more important matters. The music
was truly admirable. It was composed or compiled
by the village schoolmaster, Dadler Rochus by
name, for the performance in 1810, and was
throughout melodious and grave, and in perfect
keeping with the piece. Much of it reminded me
of Mozart, though I failed to detect any appropria-
tions of importance. The long accompanied reci-
tatives in which the chorus explained the tableaux
were quite in the manner of Sebastian Bach. No
use, however, was made of the chorales of the
German school, of which the latter great master
has made frequent use in his oratorios of the
Passion.

In the forMs and colours of the dresses the paint-
ings of the German school seem to have been
mainly followed. The priests and their adherents
appear in caps, turbans, and robes of the most
curious forms, which have a wild Eastern kind of
look, but do not appear to me to be accurate. At
any rate, they were not the dresses of modern
Orientals. The Roman soldiers, though exceed-
ingly picturesque, were more like mediaeval than
classical figures.
I have now given a most meagre sketch of what
was to me one of the most interesting days of my
life. I could not have believed, and I am quite
sure that no one who has not seen it can conceive,
how thoroughly real and impressive it all was—
how unconscious one became of its being acting at
all. It is the nature of things that, with advanc-
ing civilisation and additional publicity, this sim-
plicity and reality will wear off; it can hardly fail
to do so, to a certain extent, before the next repre-
sentation arrives. I therefore strongly advise all
those who can do so to be present at one of the two
remaining performances, which are fixed for the
9th and 16th of September. If, however, the num-
bers are too great for the accommodation, the play
is repeated on the following day.. Those who in-
tend to come should write beforehand—and the
sooner the better—to Mrs. Lang, Posthaus, Obe-
rammergau, asking her to secure beds in her own
house, and tickets for the re6erved seats. The
latter are 2 gulden, and 1 gulden 48 kreutzers, ac-
cording to situation ; the first is the best, but
there is little difference. The traveller should at
the same time write to the postmaster at Sees-
haupt, the lower end of the Lake of Starnberg,
to provide a carriage and two horses to meet
the first boat which arrives there from Starn-
berg, in correspondence with the train leaving
Munich at 6.30 a.m. With these precautions
ladies may easily contrive to see the performance.
But if rooms and places are not secured beforehand,
the traveller should leave Munich not later than
5.30 on Friday morning, as he will find numbers
going, and the delays which will occur on the road
between Seeshaupt and Oberammergau may pre-
vent his reaching the latter before Saturday morn-
ing. In the latter case, some portable food, tea, and
soup should be taken.