The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-06-11
THE MIRACLEPLAY.

ReItgiOuR Dramas In Modern DAYS - The
Passion Play Mt Oberammergau.
correspondent of the New York Iri6un,
writes as follows
OBERAMMERaAN, May 2O.-This long Ger.
man name looks rather formidable, but only
means, in plain English, the upper district on
the river Ammer. The place lies in a remote
valley of the Bavarian Alps, little removed
from the post road that runs from Munich to
Innsbruck, and half way between them. The
twelve hundred inhabitants busy themselves
chiefly with the conventional Yankee occupa-
ton of whiting, but to some purpose, for
they produce wood-carvings little inferior to
the best Swiss work. The character of the
peasantry is quite Tyrolean. The people are
honest, obligng, temperate, simple, unbur-
dened with brains, brave, persevering, and
plous. Their Language is German, somewhat
corrupted from that of the Prussan Court,
and the religion of the country is universally
Roman Catholic Certainly DO peasantry
could be better fitted than they to render the
solemn scenes of the New Testament.
1t is no novelty TO find this sacred drama
given by peasants; it is merely relic of the
earlier ages. 1t is a combination, as it were,
of the theatre and the church-an artistic
performance, actuated by the purest religious
motives. The origin of religious drama in
the Christian Church is certainly as early as
the second century. During that and the fol-
dramatized. Among these was, for example,
the passion-play (Christos Paschon), ascribed
to Gregory of Nazianzum.
We have many proofs of the rapid and
wide-spreading taste that existed for these
dramas even before the fifth century, and in
the tenth century we find the very popular
religious dramas of Hroswitha. The exact
date, however, at which these plays were put
upon the stage is lost in the impenetrable
rrlonpo Of ba h,,t4
proof that they were given in Bohemia and
Thuringia in the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries.
The subjects of these mysteries, or mira
cle-plays, we're taken from both the Old and
New Testament, and from the lives of the
saints, the New Testament being generally
preferred. The actors were for q long time
priests only, and when it became necessary,
from the greater number of parts, to intro
duce the laity, it was only TO fill the minor
positions, and the clergy still continued to
act the principal roles, such as those of Christ
and the Apostles.
Little by little abuses crept in, and some
plays written by the laity were contrary to
the dogmas of the Church, so that the pure
faith of many listeners was shaken. CORES
relates that during a representation of the
Mysteries at Eisenach, "the five foolish vir-
gins asked their companions in vain for some
Oil' Lucy WcIS bu6u Suub OuU ny Ju5 DTlu6-
groom, and began weeping and begging the
aid of the saints; but neither the saints nor
the Virgin Mary were able to bring about the
reprieve of their condemnation. The Land
grave of Thuringia seeing this, was filed with
doubts and rage, crying aloud, what does
this Christian faith amount to if God cannot
be moved by the intercession of Mary and
the saints? And it was only, says the grave
chronicer, after five days of fierce struggle
be-, AlNoA
brought to true understanding Of the Scrip
lures through the efforts of the learned doc
tors" So it took a day apiece to convince
him about the virgins.
Although the sub jects of these religious
dramas were always taken from Scripture, vet
the characters and their language are often
purely imaginative or alegorical.
1t happens frequently that the liveliest
scenes and most interesting dialogues are
wholly the invention of the author The
ZeitSch1itt tur DeUtScheS ALeTtbUm gives the
following song, which 1 translate from the
Old German. Mary Magdaene, who is still
sinner, comes upon the stage with Luci-
fer and several other devils, who all praise
her beauty in the highest terms. Maryis not
in the least disconnected by their praise but
is rather pleased with it, and sings to them in
RESPONSE
will deck out my FORM
I'm woman SO fair,
And will dance just turn
With layman or triar;
For love TO be springing,
And jolly song singing
spread my mantle in the field
Aud my lady begins to ask
Where have been so very long?
What business is 1t of hers
Shall not make free
With my body, I'll see.
Martha next appears and beseeches Mary to
repent, but Mary sings gaily:-
Take of
Will let thee, with all my heart
But will be happy and gay,
- anu therefore, earnestly pray
Inat thou wilt go thy heavenly way,
AND not beg me TO repent any more,
But leave me, for thou art becoming bore.
Shortly afterward the repentance of Mary
Magdalene is brought about, and she is repre-
sented very much as Correggio and Battoni
have given her to us on canvas. But none
of these episodes occur in the passion play as
1t is NOW given at Ammergau.
The present text is written strictly in ac-
cordance with the Bible. 1t was carefully
revised about 1915 by monk named Weiss.
The music for the chorus and orchestra was
composed by Dedler, the village schoolmaster,
and In many parts does credit to true master
of composition.
The origin of the Ammergau play is much
more peculiar than most of the others, for in
1888 pestilence resulting from the Thirty
Years War ragged through the Tyrol even to
the secluded village of Oberammergau, where
so persons died within month. The pious
and superstitious peasants then took VOW
To TenraSant the Passion Of Ihrist avo-x, A..