Chapter 25

mystery of our spring, may think the flowers they saw sinking into the earth last autumn return again with the marks of decay removed, they cannot come behind our scenes and make sure; but we know that a new generation is born. The marionettes are not didactic; if the people choose to see in the Resurrection of Christ any one of Nature's ageless mysteries they may do so; they may see the birth of the younger generation, the blossoming of fresh flowers after winter, the awakening to a new day after sleep; or, if they prefer it, they may see the resurrection of their own dead bodies at the sound of the Last Trump--one of those mysteries in which, as my priest at Tindaro told me, Nature does not believe, and with which I need not concern myself.

I do not think they saw in it any of these meanings. At Ober-Ammergau the play is presented so that Mendelssohn need not have hesitated to advise the late Prince Consort to honour a performance with his presence. In the Teatro Sicilia other tastes have to be consulted. I think the audience looked on at the Passion of Christ as they are accustomed to look on at _I Delitti del Caporale_ or _Feudalismo_ or at the _Story of the Paladins_ or _Erminio della Stella d'Oro_; if they suspected any symbolism or mystery, the melodrama with which they were saturated provided a context that determined the direction of the resolution. They saw wicked priests conspiring with a cowardly traitor and an overbearing bully to bring about the destruction of an innocent man. They saw the innocent man passing through misfortune and in the end triumphing over his enemies by means of a happy ending, which reminded them of the happy ending of a Machiavelli play, when the hero returns from prison and the bad people are punished. They saw a mother weeping for her son, but they saw no allusion to Ceres weeping for loss of Proserpine, although their Castrogiovanni was her Enna--just as Angiolino saw no reference to Judas having been born to be hanged, although they have the saying in Sicily, and he is the son of the house. I do not think they saw any significance in the fact that this mystery of the Death and Resurrection of the God is repeated every spring. I imagine that the point made by Joseph of Arimathaea in his speech for the defence, that the wonders done by Christ on earth were miracles and were not occasioned by magic, was lost upon them. It would take a long time to make one of them understand that la Durlindana, the sword of Orlando, was a magical sword and not a miraculous one. And yet this distinction between miracle and magic was the pivot of the plot as it was presented to them. If they had felt themselves lifted out of their ordinary routine I do not think they would have done what they did after the curtain had fallen on the section of the story presented each evening.

At the Machiavelli they are accustomed to remain for the farce and the Canzonettisti Napoletani which close the performance; so at the Sicilia they remain for the cinematograph. Every evening during Holy Week the programme posted up at the door concluded with these words "Indi Cinematografo," and there were always three parts to the show. First there was cruelty--victorious tyrants forcing conquered queens to drink their lovers' blood, or some horror of the Inquisition, or the barrel of Regulus bumping down-hill and coming to smash at the bottom. The second part was a modern comedy carried on in Parisian drawing-rooms or on board an electric launch on an American river. The third part was always a wild farce and usually contained an impossible chase. Not till after the cinematograph had concluded its show did the audience go away contented.

ORTIGIA