OBER-AMMERGAIT : BEHIND THE SCENES..
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:1 SIE,—It is next to impossible for any one who has not been to the Passions-Spiel to imagine it : and in like manner it seems to the present writer utterly and absolutely impossible for any one to imagine what is the effect of the Spiel upon. the inhabitants of Ober-Ammergau, if they come on Saturday and rush off on Sunday night or Monday morning, with no opportunity of making the personal acquaintance of villagers not only educated for generations through religious art, but for forty years under the personal training and guidance of that most remarkable man, Aloys Daisenberger, to whom we owe the play in its present shape. Without taking this into account, how is it possible to form any opinion as to whether the Spiel will be desecrated by repetition, and whether it is or is not a mere remnant of medimvalism, out of touch with the modern world If any one wishes to see the effect of the Spiel in con- centrating the religion of Ober-Ammergau upon the central figure of Christianity, they need only notice that the symbol of faith, everywhere in the village, is the crucifix only : and let them compare with this fact Daisenberger's five sermons. preparatory to the Passion-Play* of 1871, which many English people will wish they had known of before they came to the Spiel,—short meditations addressed to the actors and spectators of the play, simple, reverent, loving, and plainspoken, which no one can read, especially at Ober-Ammergau, without being the better for them, and in which there is not a single word which betrays the Romanist as distinguished from the Catholic Christian. But what is still more instructive is to study the manners and demeanour of the people among themselves and to their visitors. Mayr expresses his view of the one thing needful, as to "try to do the will of God aufs inn ersten, and be helpful to one's neighbours ;" and one cannot live among them without feeling that there is a most wonderful sweetness and graciousness among the people of Ammergau, which is not in itself native to Bavarians as such, and which one can hardly help feeling must be due, under God, to Daisenberger and the Spiel. Every one greets you with a pleasant smile, and ripples out into genial laughter at anything that touches their sense of humour. Every one is ready to do you a service without thinking for a moment about the inconvenience to themselves. Nowhere but at Ammergau has the present writer ever met a landlady who at parting, unasked, deducted from her bill nearly a third of the agreed-upon payment, on the ground that her guest had not eaten as much as he or she might have done!' No one seems to grumble or quarrel,—at least, one never hears voices raised in any but friendly converse. And the most striking figure in the village, " Christus Mayr " as they cal/ him, with his six foot three of height and his long hair, is one-
of the kindest and most considerate of men, reminding one, with a difference, of some of the peasant-heroes in George Mac- Donald's earlier books, before they had developed into prigs_ It seems as if the village had really been trained to carry into. practice one of Daisenberger's admonitions:—" Look, 0 dis- ciple of Christ ! your Master is so gentle, so kindly, so mild in his intercourse with those about him, so full of hearty sym- pathy for their weal and woe. And you, in intercourse with those about you, would you be always showing yourself grumbling, rough and rude, blustering, repellent and unsym- pathetic P No! I am sure you would not wish to be so utterly unlike your Master." It is instructive to be taken over the theatre and shown the properties, which are very unlike most theatrical properties, inasmuch as everything which looks costly, is costly ; what looks heavy, is heavy ; and no one dreams of sparing his. strength by using a lighter duplicate, if the real thing can be
made use of. For instance, the three crosses carried in the- Via Dolorosa scene are so heavy that no one but a very
• Die Frachte der Paasionsbetrachtung. Von Joseph Aloys Daisenberger. Ran; Regensburg.
strong man could carry them ; but it seems natural to the players that the same cross that is to be used in the Crucifixion scene should be carried, if carried it can be. So also there is no attempt made to make the crown of thorns easy to the wearer. "Are you not very tired after the play?" one of us said to Mayr. "Pretty well, but one doesn't think about that," was the answer. It is without the slightest sense of incongruity that the players put themselves back, the men into their not very well fitting coats and trousers, and the girls into their cotton bodices and stuff skirts. The Madonna goes to her father's office, and there adjudges lodgings and tickets ; St. Peter sits at his window carving Schnitzen ; Pilate's attendant, who is also Tobias's angel, and has four other parts besides, goes to his carpenter's bench ; the Apostle Simon opens the cowhouse door to the gentle little cream- coloured cows, who have brought themselves home for milking, and caresses them before they follow him in to be milked; while Mayr appears to be at the beck and call of any one who needs him, and to feel it impossible ever to refuse a possible service. The present writer leaves the Spiel itself alone, as something too sacred for the columns of a newspaper ; but it appears to him quite as likely, if not more so, that the Spiel will do its part in reconverting Europe to its long-lost Christianity, as that Europe will end by desecrating the Spiel, if the villagers of Ober-Ammergau remain true to their own ideal—I am, Sir, &c.,
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