In German there remain very few Christmas plays earlier than the fifteenth century. Later periods, however, have produced a multitude, and dramatic performances at Christmas have continued down to quite modern times in German-speaking parts.
At Oberufer near Pressburg—a German Protestant village in Hungary—some fifty years ago, a Christmas play was performed under the direction of an old farmer, whose office as instructor had descended from father to son. The play took place at intervals of from three to ten years and was acted on all Sundays and festivals from Advent to the Epiphany. Great care was taken to ensure the strictest piety and morality in the actors, and no secular music was allowed in the place during the season for the performances. The practices began as early as October. On the first Sunday in Advent there was a solemn procession to the hall hired for the play. First went a man bearing a gigantic star—he was called the “Master Singer”—and another carrying a Christmas-tree decked with ribbons and apples; then came all the actors, singing hymns. There was no scenery and no theatrical apparatus beyond a straw-seated chair and a wooden stool. When the first was used, the scene was understood to be Jerusalem, when the second, Bethlehem. The Christmas drama, immediately preceded by an Adam and Eve play, and succeeded by a Shrove Tuesday one, followed mediaeval lines, and included the wanderings of Joseph and Mary round the inns of Bethlehem, the angelic tidings to the shepherds, their visit to the manger, the adoration of the Three Kings, and various Herod scenes. Protestant influence was shown by the introduction of Luther's “Vom Himmel hoch,” but the general character was very much that of the old mysteries, and the dialogue was full of quaint naïveté.[{27}]
At Brixlegg, in Tyrol, as late as 1872 a long Christmas play was acted under Catholic auspices; some of its dialogue was in [144]the Tyrolese patois and racy and humorous, other parts, and particularly the speeches of Mary and Joseph—out of respect for these holy personages—had been rewritten in the eighteenth century in a very stilted and undramatic style. Some simple shepherd plays are said to be still presented in the churches of the Saxon Erzgebirge.[{28}]
The German language is perhaps richer in real Christmas plays, as distinguished from Nativity and Epiphany episodes in great cosmic cycles, than any other. There are some examples in mediaeval manuscripts, but the most interesting are shorter pieces performed in country places in comparatively recent times, and probably largely traditional in substance. Christianity by the fourteenth century had at last gained a real hold upon the German people, or perhaps one should rather say the German people had laid a strong hold upon Christianity, moulding it into something very human and concrete, materialistic often, yet not without spiritual significance. In cradle-rocking and religious dancing at Christmas the instincts of a lusty, kindly race expressed themselves, and the same character is shown in the short popular Christmas dramas collected by Weinhold and others.[{29}] Many of the little pieces—some are rather duets than plays—were sung or acted in church or by the fireside in the nineteenth century, and perhaps even now may linger in remote places. They are in dialect, and the rusticity of their language harmonizes well with their naïve, homely sentiment. In them we behold the scenes of Bethlehem as realized by peasants, and their mixture of rough humour and tender feeling is thoroughly in keeping with the subject.
One is made to feel very vividly the amazement of the shepherds at the wondrous and sudden apparition of the angels:—
“Riepl. Woas is das für a Getümmel,
I versteh mi nit in d'Welt.
Jörgl. Is den heunt eingfalln der Himmel,
Fleugn d'Engeln auf unserm Feld?
R. Thuen Sprüng macha
J. Von oben acha![145]
R. I turft das Ding nit noacha thoan,
that mir brechn Hals und Boan.”[74][{30}]
The cold is keenly brought home to us when they come to the manger:—
“J. Mei Kind, kanst kei Herberg finden?
Muest so viel Frost leiden schoan.
R. Ligst du under kalden Windeln!
Lägts ihm doch a Gwandl oan!
J. Machts ihm d'Füess ein,
Hüllts in zue fein!”[75][{31}]
Very homely are their presents to the Child:—
“Ein drei Eier und ein Butter
Bringen wir auch, nemt es an!
Einen Han zu einer Suppen,
Wanns die Mutter kochen kann.
Giessts ein Schmalz drein, wirds wol guet sein.
Weil wir sonsten gar nix han,
Sind wir selber arme Hirten,
Nemts den guten Willen an.”[76][{32}]