Chorus of Angels.
The Lord hath arisen—
Sorrow no longer;
Temptation hath tried him,
But he was the stronger!
Happy, happy victory!
Love, submission, self-denial
Marked the strengthening agony,
Marked the purifying trial:
The grave is no prison:
The Lord is arisen.
Faustus—Those bells announced the merry sports of youth;
This music welcomed in the happy spring;
And now am I once more a happy child,
And old remembrance twining round my heart,
Forbids this act, and checks my daring steps—
Then sing ye forth—sweet songs that breathe of heaven!
Tears come, and earth hath won her child again.
Dr. Anster’s Translation.
In this beautiful incident, purely English readers may be apt to attribute to German extravagance the chorus of angels; but Goëthe had in his eye the Catholic pageants—pageants that once were common here. The only theatres of the people were the churches, and the monks were the actors. Plays were got up with a full dramatis personæ of monks, in dresses according to the characters they assumed. The sepulchre was erected in the church near the altar, to represent the tomb wherein the body of Christ was laid. At this tomb, which was built at an enormous cost, and lighted at an equal one, and for which there was a gathering from the people, there was a grand performance on Easter day. In some churches Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany, and Mary of Nain, were represented by three deacons clothed in dalmatics and amisses, with their heads covered in the manner of women, and holding a vase in their hands. These performers came through the middle of the choir, and hastening towards the sepulchre with downcast looks, said together this verse, “Who shall remove the stone for us?” Upon this, a boy clothed as an angel, in albs, and holding a wheat-ear in his hand before the sepulchre, said, “Whom do you seek in the sepulchre?” The Marys answered, “Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.” The boy-angel answered, “He is not here, but is risen,” and pointed to the place with his finger. The boy-angel departed very quickly, and two priests in tunics, sitting without the sepulchre, said, “Women, whom do you seek?” The middle one of the three said, “Sir, if you have taken him away, say so.” The priest, shewing the cross, said, “They have taken away the Lord.” The two sitting priests said, “Whom do you seek, women?” The Marys, kissing the place, afterwards went from the sepulchre. In the meantime a priest, in the character of Christ, in an alb, with a stole, holding a cross, met them on the left horn of the altar, and said, “Mary!” Upon hearing this, the mock Mary threw herself at his feet, and with a loud voice, cried, “Cabboin!” The priest representing Christ, replied, nodding, “Noli me tangere;” touch me not. This being finished, he again appeared at the right horn of the altar, and said to them as they passed before it, “Haik,” do not fear. This being finished, he concealed himself, and the women-priests, as though joyful at hearing this, bowed to the altar, and turning towards the choir, sung “Alleluia, the Lord is risen!” This was the signal for the bishop or priest to begin and sing aloud, Te Deum.
Brand quotes, from the churchwardens’ accounts at Reading, several items paid, for nails for the sepulchre; for rosin for the Resurrection-play; for making a Judas; for writing the plays themselves; and other such purposes. Fosbrooke gives “the properties” of the Sepulchre-show of St. Mary Redcliff church, at Bristol, from an original MS. in his possession, formerly belonging to Chatterton, viz. “Memorandum:—That Master Cannings hath delivered, the 4th day of July, in the year of our Lord 1470, to Master Nicolas Pelles, vicar of Redcliff, Moses Conterin, Philip Barthelmew, and John Brown, procurators of Redcliff aforesaid, a new sepulchre, well gilt with fine gold, and a civer thereto; a image of God Almighty rising out of the same sepulchre, with all the ordinance that longeth thereto; that is to say, a lath made of timber and iron-work thereto. Item; hereto longeth Heven made of timber and strined cloths. Item; Hell made of timber, and iron-work thereto, with Devils the number of thirteen. Item; four knights keeping the sepulchre with their weapons in their hands; that is to say, two spears, two axes, with two shields. Item; four pair of angels’ wings, for four angels, made of timber and well painted. Item; the Fadre, the crown and visage; the ball with a cross upon it, well gilt with fine gold. Item; the Holy Ghost, coming out of Heven into the sepulchre. Item; longeth to the four angels four Perukes.”—Fosbroke’s British Monachism.
Throughout the Christian world, wherever the Catholic and Greek churches extend, great and magnificent are the pageants, processions, and rejoicings still of this day. The lights themselves at the sepulchre are objects of great admiration. When this kingdom was catholic, the paschal, or great Easter taper at Westminster Abbey, was three hundred pounds weight. Sometimes a large wax light called a serpent was used; its name being derived from its form, which was spiral, and was wound round a rod. To light it, fire was struck from a flint consecrated by the abbot. The paschal in Durham cathedral was square wax, and reached to within a man’s length of the roof, from whence this waxen enormity was lighted by “a fine convenience.” From this superior light all others were taken. Every taper in the church was purposely extinguished, in order that this might supply a fresh stock of consecrated light, till at the same season of the next year a similar parent torch was prepared.
Of the lighting of the annual fire at the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, Turner, in his Tour to the Levant, gives a similar account. “We entered the church of the Holy Sepulchre with difficulty, our janizary carrying before us a whip of several leathern thongs, which he used most liberally. The church was filled with pilgrims and spectators, not less in number than 7000. What a scene was before me! The Greek and Armenian galleries overlooking the dome, were filled with female pilgrims of those nations, enthusiastically looking towards the sepulchre, and crossing themselves. Below me, the whole church, and particularly the circular apartment containing the dome, was absolutely crammed with pilgrims, men and women, hallooing, shouting, singing, and violently struggling to be near the sepulchre, while the Turkish soldiers were driving them back with their whips. One man I saw in the contention had his right ear literally torn off. The place immediately near the window whence the fire was given, was occupied by the richest pilgrims, who, for this precedence, pay to the Turks 200 or 300 sequins. An old woman sitting on the step of the door of the Greek church, had kept that seat for a day and a night without moving, and paid two dollars to get it. A ring was kept, as well as the tumult would allow, by the crowd around the sepulchre, round which pilgrims were carried on others’ shoulders, singing religious songs in Arabic and Greek; while, at other times, a party of ten or twelve ran rioting round it, knocking down every one that stood in their way. The Greek and Armenian bishops were shut in the sepulchre at two o’clock with a single Turk, who is well paid to declare that he saw the fire descend miraculously, or, at least, to keep silence. Before they enter, the sepulchre is publicly inspected, and all the lamps extinguished.
“At twenty minutes to three, the fire was given from the window, and was received with a tremendous and universal shout through the whole church. On its first appearance, the torch was seized by a boy who rubbed it against his face, hand, and neck, with such vehemence as to extinguish it, for which he was well beaten by those near him. Eight different times was the fire given from the window, and as every pilgrim carried candles in his hand, in bunches of four, six, eight, or twelve, in ten minutes the whole church was in a flame, and in five more nearly every candle was extinguished. But what enthusiasm! The men rubbed them against their heads and faces, their caps, and handkerchiefs; and the women uncovered the bosom, directing the flame along their heads, necks, and faces, and all crossing themselves during the operation, with the utmost devotion and velocity. The candles, when a little of them is burnt, are carried home, and ever afterwards preserved as sacred. Messengers with lanterns, stood ready at the door, to carry the fire to the Greek convent of Bethlehem, of the Cross at Sullah, and of St. Saba, near the Dead Sea.”