attention; it was rather to provide an unobtrusive background for the ear against which the voice spoke, as the scenery was a background for the eye against which the figures moved.
THURSDAY
This was the day for visiting the sepulchres in the churches. Turiddu took me to the cathedral, and we saw a procession moving slowly down the nave. It turned up one of the aisles and entered a sepulchre which had been prepared, passing between a double file of dismal creatures entirely shrouded in white except for two eye-holes, like those ghouls that issued stealthily from charnel-houses in German fairy tales, and used to pursue me in dreams when I was a boy. One by one the lights on the altar were extinguished, Phrygian cadences dropped inconclusively from the choir above, the archbishop came out of the sepulchre and the hooded ghosts crept with him. A Dominican occupied the pulpit and began a sermon, but as we could not get near enough to hear what he said, we came away. Turiddu afterwards took me to visit a few more sepulchres, and it was a gloomy business.
In the evening, at the Teatro Sicilia, the curtain rose on Christ bound to the column, and there were two Turks armed with scourges. They did not actually scourge him, it was enough that they told Misandro they had executed their orders. Peter denied his master and the cock crew thrice. While Judas was continuing his remorse, Peter appeared to him, and, confessing his sin of denying Christ, proposed to expiate it by throwing himself into a well; he tempted Judas to follow his example and preceded him to show the way. But we saw that it was not really Peter, it was a devil. Judas was about to follow the devil when an angel appeared and stopped him. He was to die a different death, and not yet.
A tearful scene between mother and son came next; I
did not care for it, but the dream of Claudia, the wife of Pilate, was, as Carmelo said, “una visione tremenda.” In a dress of scarlet satin trimmed with gold and lace, she sat in an arm-chair in a garden and went to sleep. Christ appeared to her. She spoke to him, but he did not reply, and as she woke he vanished. She slept again, and Annas appeared to her in red fire, threatening her if she yielded to the emotions which the vision of the Man of Sorrows had raised in her heart. She woke in dismay as he vanished. She slept again, and saw Pilate in hell surrounded by devils. She woke in fright. She slept again, and a devil appeared and talked to her, justifying Pilate. S. Michele came and killed the devil.
GOOD FRIDAY
The Machiavelli was closed. At the Sicilia the performance began with the trial of Christ. Pilate sat in the middle with Joseph of Arimathæa and Nicodemus on his right, Caiaphas, Annas, and Misandro on his left. Beyond Nicodemus was the Nazarene in a red cloak holding a reed and crowned with thorns; and beyond Misandro was Barabbas. Pilate made the opening speech. Caiaphas then spoke for the prosecution; the question in debate was whether Christ was the Son of God, and he accused Christ of being a deceiver. Nicodemus followed for the defence. Then Annas for the prosecution. He said: “The voice of God is the voice of the people.” He was followed by Joseph, who maintained that the wonders performed by Christ were not done by magic, they were miracles; that is he was not a magician, he was the Son of God. Misandro spoke last.
Here a messenger arrived from Claudia telling her dream and begging Pilate to go to her. The Court rose and Pilate went home to comfort his wife, while the others talked among themselves just as barristers do in the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand when the sitting is suspended.
Pilate returned and took his seat. He proposed to liberate Christ and to sacrifice Barabbas. He presented Christ to the people, saying: