DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62133#0071
THE MIRACLE-PLAY AT OBER-AMMERGAU.
55
us. It lies in a smiling green valley surrounded by bills
rather than mountains, and, excepting for the architecture
of the cottages, and certain rugged lines of peaks and cliffs,
telling of Alpine origin, might have passed for a retired
Derbyshire dale.
We had brought from our friend Dr. F-a letter to
the peasant, Tobias Flunger, who performed the character
of Christ •, and this circumstance won for us great respect
among our fellow-travellers. The Stell-wagen drove up to
his house, which is the second in the village, and surrounded
by a gay little garden. Tobias Flunger came out to receive
us ; and you may imagine our surprise, when, instead of a
peasant, as we had imagined, we beheld a gentleman to all
appearance in a grey sort of undress coat, and with a scarlet
Fez on his head. He was certainly handsome, and
welcomed us with a calm yet warm-hearted courtesy. As
he removed his Fez, we saw his dark, glossy hair parted
above the centre of his brow, and falling in rich waves on
his shoulders, and that his melancholy dark eyes, his pale
brow, his emaciated features, his short black beard, all bore
the most strange and startling resemblance to the heads of
the Saviour as represented by the early Italian painters.
There was something to my mind almost fearful in this
resemblance, and Tobias Flunger seemed to act and speak
like one filled with a mysterious awe. If this be an act of
worship in him, this personation of our Lord, what will be
its effect upon him in after-life ? There was a something
so strange, so unspeakably melancholy in his emaciated
countenance, that I found my imagination soon busily
speculating upon the true reading of its expression.
At the door we were also met by his wife and little
daughter, themselves peasants in appearance, but cheerful
and kind in their welcome, as if we had been old friends.
The whole cottage was in harmony with its inhabitants,
bright, cheerful, and filled with traces of a simple, pious,
55
us. It lies in a smiling green valley surrounded by bills
rather than mountains, and, excepting for the architecture
of the cottages, and certain rugged lines of peaks and cliffs,
telling of Alpine origin, might have passed for a retired
Derbyshire dale.
We had brought from our friend Dr. F-a letter to
the peasant, Tobias Flunger, who performed the character
of Christ •, and this circumstance won for us great respect
among our fellow-travellers. The Stell-wagen drove up to
his house, which is the second in the village, and surrounded
by a gay little garden. Tobias Flunger came out to receive
us ; and you may imagine our surprise, when, instead of a
peasant, as we had imagined, we beheld a gentleman to all
appearance in a grey sort of undress coat, and with a scarlet
Fez on his head. He was certainly handsome, and
welcomed us with a calm yet warm-hearted courtesy. As
he removed his Fez, we saw his dark, glossy hair parted
above the centre of his brow, and falling in rich waves on
his shoulders, and that his melancholy dark eyes, his pale
brow, his emaciated features, his short black beard, all bore
the most strange and startling resemblance to the heads of
the Saviour as represented by the early Italian painters.
There was something to my mind almost fearful in this
resemblance, and Tobias Flunger seemed to act and speak
like one filled with a mysterious awe. If this be an act of
worship in him, this personation of our Lord, what will be
its effect upon him in after-life ? There was a something
so strange, so unspeakably melancholy in his emaciated
countenance, that I found my imagination soon busily
speculating upon the true reading of its expression.
At the door we were also met by his wife and little
daughter, themselves peasants in appearance, but cheerful
and kind in their welcome, as if we had been old friends.
The whole cottage was in harmony with its inhabitants,
bright, cheerful, and filled with traces of a simple, pious,