Part 15 (1/2)

”Holy angels and blest, Through these palms as ye sweep, Hold their branches at rest, For my babe is asleep.

And ye Bethlehem palm-trees, As stormy winds rush

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In tempest and fury, Your angry noise hush; Move gently, move gently, Restrain your wild sweep; Hold your branches at rest, My babe is asleep.

My babe all divine, With earth's sorrows oppressed, Seeks in slumber an instant His grievings to rest; He slumbers, he slumbers, O, hush, then, and keep Your branches all still, My babe is asleep!”{43}

Apart from such modern revivals of the Christmas drama as Mr. Laurence Housman's ”Bethlehem,” Miss Buckton's ”Eager Heart,” Mrs. Percy Dearmer's ”The Soul of the World,” and similar experiments in Germany and France, a genuine tradition has lingered on in some parts of Europe into modern times. We have already noticed some French and German instances; to these may be added a few from other countries.

In Naples there is no Christmas without the ”Cantata dei pastori”; it is looked forward to no less than the Midnight Ma.s.s. Two or three theatres compete for the public favour in the performance of this play in rude verse. It begins with Adam and Eve and ends with the birth of Jesus and the adoration of the shepherds. Many devils are brought on the stage, their arms and legs laden with bra.s.s chains that rattle horribly. Awful are their names, Lucifero, Satana.s.so, Belfegor, Belzebu, &c. They not only tempt Adam and Eve, but annoy the Virgin and St. Joseph, until an angel comes and frightens them away. Two non-Biblical figures are introduced, Razzullo and Sarchiapone, who are tempted by devils and aided by angels.{44} In Sicily too the Christmas play still lingers under the name of _Pastorale_.{45}

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A nineteenth-century Spanish survival of the ”Stella” is described in Fernan Caballero's sketch, ”La Noche de Navidad.”{46} At the foot of the altar of the village church, according to this account, images of the Virgin and St. Joseph were placed, with the Holy Child between them, lying on straw. On either side knelt a small boy dressed as an angel. Solemnly there entered the church a number of men attired as shepherds, bearing their offerings to the Child; afterwards they danced with slow and dignified movements before the altar. The shepherds were followed by the richest men of the village dressed as the Magi Kings, mounted on horseback, and followed by their train. Before them went a s.h.i.+ning star. On reaching the church they dismounted; the first, representing a majestic old man with white hair, offered incense to the Babe; the others, Caspar and Melchior, myrrh and gold respectively. This was done on the feast of the Epiphany.

A remnant possibly of the ”Stella” is to be found in a Christmas custom extremely widespread in Europe and surviving even in some Protestant lands--the carrying about of a star in memory of the Star of Bethlehem.

It is generally borne by a company of boys, who sing some sort of carol, and expect a gift in return.

The practice is--or was--found as far north as Sweden. All through the Christmas season the ”star youths” go about from house to house. Three are dressed up as the Magi Kings, a fourth carries on a stick a paper lantern in the form of a six-pointed star, made to revolve and lighted by candles. There are also a Judas, who bears the purse for the collection, and, occasionally, a King Herod. A doggerel rhyme is sung, telling the story of the Nativity and offering good wishes.{47} In Norway and Denmark processions of a like character were formerly known.{48}

In Normandy at Christmas children used to go singing through the village streets, carrying a lantern of coloured paper on a long osier rod.{49} At Pleudihen in Brittany three young men representing the Magi sang carols in the cottages, dressed in their holiday clothes covered with ribbons.{50}

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In England there appears to be no trace of the custom, which is however found in Germany, Austria, Holland, Italy, Bohemia, Roumania, Poland, and Russia.{51}

In Thuringia a curious carol used to be sung, telling how Herod tried to tempt the Wise Men--

”'Oh, good Wise Men, come in and dine; I will give you both beer and wine, And hay and straw to make your bed, And nought of payment shall be said.'”

But they answer:--

”'Oh, no! oh, no! we must away, We seek a little Child to-day, A little Child, a mighty King, Him who created everything.'”{52}

In Tyrol the ”star-singing” is very much alive at the present day. In the Upper Innthal three boys in white robes, with blackened faces and gold paper crowns, go to every house on Epiphany Eve, one of them carrying a golden star on a pole. They sing a carol, half religious, half comic--almost a little drama--and are given money, cake, and drink. In the Ilsethal the boys come on Christmas Eve, and presents are given them by well-to-do people. In some parts there is but one singer, an old man with a white beard and a turban, who twirls a revolving star. A remarkable point about the Tyrolese star-singers is that before anything is given them they are told to stamp on the snowy fields outside the houses, in order to promote the growth of the crops in summer.{53}

In Little Russia the ”star” is made of pasteboard and has a transparent centre with a picture of Christ through which the light of a candle s.h.i.+nes. One boy carries the star and another twirls the points.{54} In Roumania it is made of wood and adorned with frills and little bells. A representation of the ”manger,” illuminated from behind, forms the centre, and the star also shows pictures of Adam and Eve and angels.{55}

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A curious traditional drama, in which pagan elements seem to have mingled with the Herod story, is still performed by the Roumanians during the Christmas festival. It is called in Wallachia ”Vicleim” (from Bethlehem), in Moldavia and Transylvania ”Irozi” (plural from _Irod_ = Herod). At least ten persons figure in it: ”Emperor” Herod, an old grumbling monarch who speaks in harsh tones to his followers; an officer and two soldiers in Roman attire; the three Magi, in Oriental garb, a child, and ”two comical figures--the _paiata_ (the clown) and the _mosul_, or old man, the former in harlequin accoutrement, the latter with a mask on his face, a long beard, a hunch on his back, and dressed in a sheepskin with the wool on the outside. The plot of the play is quite simple. The officer brings the news that three strange men have been caught, going to Bethlehem to adore the new-born Messiah; Herod orders them to be shown in: they enter singing in a choir. Long dialogues ensue between them and Herod, who at last orders them to be taken to prison. But then they address the Heavenly Father, and shout imprecations on Herod, invoking celestial punishment on him, at which unaccountable noises are heard, seeming to announce the fulfilment of the curse. Herod falters, begs the Wise Men's forgiveness, putting off his anger till more opportune times. The Wise Men retire.... Then a child is introduced, who goes on his knees before Herod, with his hands on his breast, asking pity. He gives clever answers to various questions and foretells the Christ's future career, at which Herod stabs him. The whole troupe now strikes up a tune of reproach to Herod, who falls on his knees in deep repentance.” The play is sometimes performed by puppets instead of living actors.{56}

Christmas plays performed by puppets are found in other countries too. In Poland ”during the week between Christmas and New Year is shown the _Jaselki_ or manger, a travelling series of scenes from the life of Christ or even of modern peasants, a small travelling puppet-theatre, gorgeous with tinsel and candles, and something like our 'Punch and Judy'

show. The market-place of Cracow, especially at night, is a very pretty spectacle, its sidewalks all lined with these glittering Jaselki.”{57} In Madrid

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at the Epiphany a puppet-play was common, in which the events of the Nativity and the Infancy were mimed by wooden figures,{58} and in Provence, in the mid-nineteenth century, the Christmas scenes were represented in the same way.{59}

Last may be mentioned a curious Mexican mixture of religion and amus.e.m.e.nt, a sort of drama called the ”Posadas,” described by Madame Calderon de la Barca in her ”Life in Mexico” (1843).{60} The custom was based upon the wanderings of the Virgin and St. Joseph in Bethlehem in search of repose. For eight days these wanderings of the holy pair to the different _posadas_ were represented. On Christmas Eve, says the narrator, ”a lighted candle was put into the hand of each lady [this was at a sort of party], and a procession was formed, two by two, which marched all through the house ... the whole party singing the Litanies.... A group of little children, dressed as angels, joined the procession.... At last the procession drew up before a door, and a shower of fireworks was sent flying over our heads, I suppose to represent the descent of the angels; for a group of ladies appeared, dressed to represent the shepherds.... Then voices, supposed to be those of Mary and Joseph, struck up a hymn, in which they begged for admittance, saying that the night was cold and dark, that the wind blew hard, and that they prayed for a night's shelter. A chorus of voices from within refused admittance. Again those without entreated shelter, and at length declared that she at the door, who thus wandered in the night, and had not where to lay her head, was the Queen of Heaven! At this name the doors were thrown wide open, and the Holy Family entered singing. The scene within was very pretty: a _nacimiento_.... One of the angels held a waxen baby in her arms.... A padre took the baby from the angel and placed it in the cradle, and the _posada_ was completed. We then returned to the drawing-room--angels, shepherds, and all, and danced till supper-time.”{60} Here the religious drama has sunk to little more than a ”Society” game.

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