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 Passion 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 Grasso acted in his own Machiavelli theatre,
before he went on tour and acquired his world-wide reputation, they used
to do the Passion 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 principal 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 brillian