Castellinaria, and Other Sicilian Diversions Part 32

I was not embarra.s.sed. A few days before, when one of the priests at Tindaro asked me the same question, I replied that I had been baptised into the Christian faith soon after birth. The priest said that between the two Churches of Rome and England there were unfortunate differences as to the mysteries but I need not concern myself with them. "Nature does not believe in the mysteries," said my priest, who was a most friendly person, and as I had been baptised, if I lived a good life, and he was politely certain I did, then I was a Christian. So I considered myself justified in answering Carmelo's question in the affirmative.

In the evening I returned to the Teatro Sicilia; Carmelo put me into a good place and this time I saw the whole performance. The Nazarene was taken before Annas, Caiaphas, Pilate and Herod. The priests taxed him with being a magician. Herod proposed that he should perform a miracle if he could, but Christ was silent and did nothing. Herod therefore concluded that the priests were wrong and that Christ must be mad. He directed that he should be clothed in white and taken back to Pilate, and this was done.

We were then in the house of the Madonna, and S. John came and told her and the other Maries all that had happened to her son. Each of the holy women carried a handkerchief and the lamentation became monotonous.

Judas had received the thirty pieces of silver and began his remorse by taking them, in a red purse, back to the priests, who scoffed at him and turned him out. His rage and despair were extreme and gave the audience an opportunity to relieve their feelings by laughing.

Before the last scene Gregorio in his ordinary clothes came on and told the audience the programme for the next day. He also apologised for presenting the Pa.s.sion with marionettes, he usually performs it with living actors, he himself being the Nazarene. This year, however, he did not feel strong enough to undertake the part or to get all the other actors together; and he appealed to our consideration and begged us to accept marionettes.

In the days when Giovanni Gra.s.so acted in his own Machiavelli theatre, before he went on tour and acquired his world-wide reputation, they used to do the Pa.s.sion there also, and he was Judas. Sometimes he doubled his part and did Annas as well, or Pilate or the good centurion, making any necessary alterations in those places where his two characters ought to have appeared together. It would be a great thing to see Giovanni as Judas, but I suppose he will never do it again.

I noticed that all the figures had been newly dressed and painted for the occasion and the pupils of their eyes were freshly varnished to catch the light. About the soldiers there was still some reminiscence of paladins, but the princ.i.p.al characters had been prepared with due regard to the works of the great masters--though here again I suppose they were really following the traditions of the theatre as preserved by the pictures.

The figures gained by hiding their legs, but Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus had not this advantage. They were princes and were like Shakespearean young men of the brilliant water-fly type, such as Osric.

Misandro was also a prince. He was a swaggerer and behaved as badly as any paladin, but he was not a buffo. When they do the Nativita at Christmas a buffo is permitted, he accompanies the Shepherds as their servant, and I should like to see him. Misandro was all in golden armour, as fine a figure as one could expect a Prince of Judaea to be.

He had a contrast in Claudio Cornelio the good centurion. Claudio was left alone with Christ and confessed his faith, while a bright light from the cinematograph box illuminated the stage as though to signify that if we believe, all will become clear. The most successful of the figures was Pilate. He was in black with a red sash and his robes fell in folds of great dignity.

The words were all declaimed either from memory or extempore, and there were several speakers. The one who had most to do did it with a great deal of energy, especially as Judas and Misandro. Gregorio spoke for Christ and a woman spoke for the women and the angels.

The Christ was of course a failure, in art all Christs are failures, even the Christ in the chapels at Varallo-Sesia, even the Christ in the pictures by the masters. The Child Christ may be a success, at least we can sometimes fancy that that baby might become the Saviour of the World, he reminds us of those babies we have all seen in real life with a look in their eyes as though they had solved the riddle of the universe. But the Man Christ does not convince; we only tolerate him because we have been brought up to acquiesce in the convention. The Christs of pictures and statues are not, however, such failures as the Christ at Ober-Ammergau; by keeping still and not trying to appear so real they leave more to the imagination. If all these fail how can a marionette be expected to succeed? Hiding its legs when it moves is not enough.

Gregorio knew he was attempting the impossible and did his best to save the figure from being worse than it might have been, but the result was rather as though it were all the time apologising for having undertaken the part. He made it move very little and very slowly, so slowly that the action of the drama was interrupted. He allowed it no gestures, except an occasional raising of the hand. He spoke for it only the few words given to Christ in the gospels. When it caused a miracle, there came a great light, as when the good centurion confessed his faith, and there was music. When it entered, the drum beat a Saracen rhythm and there was music again. By these means the figure was detached from the others and appeared as though belonging to another world. When the marionettes do the Orioles play at Palermo, Christ speaks much more than the words from the gospels and is treated more like one of the other characters, at least nothing is done to suggest that they are giving the Pa.s.sion with the part of Christ as nearly omitted as possible.

The music at Catania was faint and sc.r.a.ppy. Gounod's _Meditation on Bach's First Prelude_ occurred frequently, but it seldom got beyond the first ten or twelve bars, sometimes not beyond the second or third. And there were similar short references to some of the more sentimental melodies of Bellini and Verdi. It was not intended to distract the attention; it was rather to provide an un.o.btrusive 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, pa.s.sing 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 c.o.c.k 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 h.e.l.l 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 Arimathaea 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 G.o.d, and he accused Christ of being a deceiver. Nicodemus followed for the defence. Then Annas for the prosecution. He said: "The voice of G.o.d 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 G.o.d. 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:

"Ecce h.o.m.o."

And the crowd shouted: "Not this man, but Barabbas."

Pilate ironically congratulated them:

"You are right, O ignorant People!" and, telling Barabbas to go and thieve again, he liberated him.

Then the false witnesses came. One was a soldier, the other a Turk.

They took the oath to speak the truth and nothing but the truth. They were both of them stupid and comic, confused and contradictory, and made the audience laugh, and when one of them admitted that he had been bribed, Annas in his rage gobbled like a turkey.

Pilate closed the debate and washed his hands in a basin held by a servant. Then he wrote the sentence and made Misandro read it. The trial lasted a whole hour, the intention being, I suppose, to reproduce that tediousness which is so characteristic of real trials.

In the next scene Judas continued his remorse and Peter--it was really Peter this time--came and counselled him to ask pardon of Jesus, but he would not listen.

Then came the journey to Calvary and the meeting with the Daughters of Jerusalem and S. Veronica, Misandro ill-treating the women and Claudio Cornelio protecting them.

The last scene was the Crucifixion. The thieves were in place. At the back was the Cross lying on the ground. The figure of Christ was nailed to it by a Turk with a hammer; the Cross was raised; Misandro approved; the Turk gave the sponge; Misandro reviled Christ, saying: "Thou that destroyest the temple of G.o.d and buildest it in three days, save thyself"; Christ and the thieves held their dialogue; the Madonna and S.

John stood at the foot of the Cross while Christ spoke the sentences and inclined his head. Then there was the earthquake, and we saw the souls in purgatory surrounding the Cross and heard them welcoming their Lord.

SAt.u.r.dAY

Compare Turiddu came early and we went to the duomo to see the Gloria.

The church was full and he told me to be careful about my watch and my money because--"picketi pocketi"; and then he asked me whether I understood those two words which his mother had brought back from one of her tours.

His Eminence, the Cardinal Archbishop, was conducting a service in a side chapel--blessing the baptismal water, or the font, or both, or perhaps doing something else, for Turiddu is not such an authority on ecclesiastical matters as Carmelo is on matters theatrical. He knows more than I do, however; it was he who made me go to see the Gloria on the Sat.u.r.day, without him I should have missed it by waiting till the Sunday. The western doors were thrown open and we looked through into the sunshine and up to the arch that stands at the top of the Via Garibaldi. The archbishop finished his service and returned through the congregation to the s.p.a.ce within the rails of the princ.i.p.al altar.

Behind him as he stood and concealing the altar and the east end of the church hung a curtain from the roof to the floor. There was chanting and movement among the priests; they continually kept going and coming, disappearing into the secret place behind the great curtain and reappearing; they were preparing the mystery. Presently the curtain shook and the congregation understood. The suppressed excitement grew and a murmuring began, caused, I suppose, by everyone telling everyone else, as Turiddu told me, that the curtain was about to fall. Another instant--and its fall revealed the Gloria.

Above the altar was a tomb and above the tomb was the figure of the risen Christ triumphing over death; in his left hand he held a banner and, with his right, he blessed the people. There were lights, and sudden music from the organ and from the choir; the deafening bells clanged and, through the great open doors, we heard the sound of revolvers being shot off into the air and of fireworks being exploded.

Turiddu could not see over the heads of the people; I lifted him up, he looked at the Gloria and turning himself round in my arms kissed me as he said:

"Buona Pasqua, Compare."

Everyone was saying "Buona Pasqua" to everyone else, everyone standing near a friend or a relation was exchanging kisses with him or her as a sign of goodwill; many were weeping for joy, and those who had been quarrelling became reconciled, forgiving one another their offences and entering upon a new life, vowing that, with the help of their Heavenly Father, who had revealed to them the Mystery of the Resurrection, they would from this day avoid all further disputes even though, in order to perform the vow, it should be necessary to avoid one another's company.

This is not imaginative writing, like Peppino Fazio's account of the effect of the bolide, it is what I saw--the effect of the Gloria.

And the spirit of the Gloria floated down the nave and through the open doors and out into the piazza, where the elephant of lava stands over the fountain. It pa.s.sed up the Via Garibaldi, down the Corso, along the Stesicoro Etnea, it spread itself through the city and became identified with the morning sunshine.

"Come along," said Turiddu, "let's go and buy a paschal lamb for mother."

We followed the Gloria into the piazza among the fireworks and the revolvers.

I said: "What about the plates, Turiddu? Don't the people throw the crockery out of window in their joy? We must be careful."

He replied that they only do that in the poorer parts of the town, and they always look first to make sure that no one is pa.s.sing. But we had better be careful, all the same, because the revolvers are loaded and the squibs are dangerous.

He took me past the municipio, where the band was playing, and we came to a sweet-shop, where paschal lambs made of almond paste and sugar were flocking together on all the tables and shelves. They were not like the one at the Last Supper, they were in their fleeces and were standing or lying among candied fruits and tufts of dried gra.s.s that had been artificially dyed unlikely colours. Turiddu chose one, and I sent him off home with it as an Easter offering of goodwill to his mother.