These projections on the seats are each and all of
them carved with curious devices, no two alike. The guide showed us one,
representing, apparently, the first quarrel of a new-married couple,
wrought with wonderful expression. Indeed, the artist never failed to
bring out his idea in the most striking manner,--as, for instance, Satan,
under the guise of a lion, devouring a sinner bodily; and again in the
figure of a dragon, with a man halfway down his gullet, the legs hanging
out. The carver may not have seen anything grotesque in this, nor
intended it at all by way of joke; but certainly there would appear to be
a grim mirthfulness in some of the designs. One does not see why such
fantasies should be strewn about the holy interior of a cathedral, unless
it were intended to contain everything that belongs to the heart of man,
both upward and downward.
In a side aisle of the choir, we saw a tomb, said to be that of the
Emperor Henry IV. of Germany, though on very indistinct authority. This
is an oblong tomb, carved, and, on one side, painted with bright colors
and gilded. During a very long period it was built and plastered into
the wall, and the exterior side was whitewashed; but, on being removed,
the inner side was found to have been ornamented with gold and color, in
the manner in which we now see it. If this were customary with tombs, it
must have added vastly to the gorgeous magnificence, to which the painted
windows and polished pillars and ornamented ceilings contributed so much.
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