Readings from Latin Verse Part 15

Like most of the other hymns in this collection, it has often been translated; as by Schaff in his _Christ in Song_. The oldest text known is as early as the fourteenth century.

The subject is the birth of Christ. Cf. Matthew 2. 1. Bethlehem: indeclinable, like most proper names of Hebrew origin. 5, 6. The ox and a.s.s were believed to have occupied the stable with Christ on the combined authority of the Septuagint reading of Hahakkuk 3. 2: 'Between two animals shalt thou be known'; and of Isaiah 1. 3: 'The ox knoweth his owner, and the a.s.s his master's crib.' quod: that. 7. Reges: Isaiah 60. 3; Psalms 72. 10, 15. Saba: Psalms 72. 10, 15. 11. Sine serpentis vulnere: without 'original sin.' Cf. Genesis 3. 14, 15; 1 John 3. 5.

FOR EASTER DAY.

This fine sequence was highly esteemed by Luther and became a favorite in many countries. Its composition was as early as the eleventh century.

At first sight it appears to be prose, but proves on closer examination to be rhymed throughout. The dialogue form made possible its dramatic use in the Easter Mystery Plays and the church service. For this and for translations see Julian, p. 1223 ff.

The subject is the Resurrection. Cf. Matthew 28. 1-15; John 20. 1-18.

2. Agnus: John 1. 29. oves: John 10. 11. 3. regnat: Matthew 25. 34. 4-9.

Dic ff.: the conversation supposed to have taken place between Mary Magdalene and the disciples after her return from the sepulchre.

Surrexit: Luke 24. 34.

PLAUDITE CAELI.

This hymn was composed by a member of the Jesuit Order. Its date is of the fourteenth to the sixteenth century; its subject the Resurrection.

1. Plaudite: cf. Flumina plaudent manu, Psalms 97. 8; 'All the trees of the field shall clap their hands.'--Isaiah 55. 12. 2. aether: the upper air. 3, 4. Let the heights and the depths of the world rejoice. 5, 6.

The black storm-rack has pa.s.sed by. 7. almae: bountiful. 11, 12.

pictis...campis: cf. 'daisies...do paint the meadows.'--_Love's Labour's Lost_, V. 2. 905. 17, 18. Full veins are metaphorical for the full strong flow of song. 20. Barbytha: bad spelling for barbita, lutes. 26.

Ludite: flow merrily.

The hymn has been translated into English by Mrs. Charles, _Christian Life in Song_, p. 184, and by Duffield, _Latin Hymns_, p. 398. The latter thus renders ll. 9-24:

Spring breezes are blowing, Spring flowers are at hand, Spring gra.s.ses are growing Abroad in the land,

And violets brighten The roses in bloom, And marigolds heighten The lilies' perfume.

Rise then, O my praises, Fresh life in your veins, As the viol upraises The gladdest of strains, For once more he sees us, Alive, as he said; Our holy Lord Jesus Escaped from the dead.

PONE LUCTUM, MAGDALENA.

The subject is the appearance of the risen Christ to Mary Magdalene at the tomb, John 20. 11-18.

1. Pone: dismiss thy grief. 3. Simonis: Mary Magdalene, as in _Dies Irae_, 37, is identified with 'the woman which was a sinner' of Luke 7.

37-50, who, while Jesus sat at meal in the house of Simon, the Pharisee, 'weeping, began to wet his feet with her tears,' 1. 4. 22, 23. Lift thy face, O Magdalen! Behold the risen Christ. 25. Quinque plagas: the five strokes are the nail prints in Jesus' hands and feet and the spear wound in his side, Luke 24. 40; John 20. 24-29. inspice: as Thomas and the other disciples beheld.

Translation by Mrs. Charles, _Christian Life in Song_, p. 182.

BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX.

1091-1153 A.D.

SALVE, CAPUT CRUENTATUM.

This selection is taken from a hymn in seven parts, each addressing some member of Christ's body on the cross, the feet, the knees, etc. The composition is more probably by some German poet than by Bernard, but its supposed origin with the latter has become a subject of religious legend. One ancient copy describes the hymn as 'a divine and most devout prayer of the Abbot St. Bernard, which he made when an image of the Saviour with outstretched arms embraced him from the cross.' Again we read, 'The image on the cross bowed itself and embraced him with its wounded arms as a sure token that to it this prayer was most pleasing.'

Julian refers to eight English metrical versions. One of the finest forms in which it has come into the language (through P. Gerhardt's free German version 'O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden') is _O sacred Head! now wounded_.

3. Conqua.s.satum: mangled. 7. Immutatus: 'His visage was so marred more than any man.'--Isaiah 52. 14. 10. All heaven shudders. The curia is the centre of government. 11. viror: Late Latin for viriditas, vigor; we might freely render brightness. 14. Expressing the extremity of weakness, hanging all in faintness. 19. intersigno: proof, Late Latin.

23-25. From whose mouth I have taken honey with the sweetness of milk, beyond all delights. A figurative use of the story of Samson, who found a honeycomb in the mouth of the carca.s.s of the lion which he had slain, Judges 14. 8, 9. Milk is religiously a.s.sociated with honey because of the description of Canaan in Deuteronomy 31. 20, terram lacte et melle manantem. 28-30. Now that death is near Thee, lay here Thine head, rest in my arms. 32. gauderem: I would rejoice, were I a.s.sociated with Thy holy pa.s.sion; present contrary to fact condition. 40. absque: without, ante- and post-cla.s.sic preposition. 46. emigrare: depart from life. Cf.

qui e vita emigravit, Cicero, _De Legibus_, 2. 48. 49. Temetipsum: Thine own self. An emphatic -met is suffixed to Te.

'JESUS, THE VERY THOUGHT OF THEE.'

The author is probably St. Bernard, the abbot of Clairvaux and the great preacher of the Second Crusade. Few men in Christendom have ever exercised a personal influence equal to his.

These quartrains are selected from a hymn composed of fifty such, and familiar to English-speaking Christians from Caswall's translation, _Jesus, the very Thought of Thee_, and Ray Palmer's _Jesus, Thou Joy of Loving Hearts_. It was a favorite of Livingstone who quotes from it in his _African Diary_. 'No other poem in any language,' says Julian, 'has furnished to English and American hymn-books so many hymns of sterling worth and well-deserved popularity.'

Subject, Jesus.

1-4. Iesu: vocative. We would expect das instead of dans and tui instead of eius. Supply est with praesentia.

13-16.

Thou bliss of souls in bitter need, Water to lip and light to eye, All joy thou dost how far exceed, All yearning more than satisfy.

ROBERT II, KING OF FRANCE.

971-1031 A.D.

'COME, HOLY SPIRIT, FROM ABOVE.'

Robert, the son of Hugh Capet, to whom this hymn is commonly, but probably incorrectly, ascribed, became king of France in 988 A.D. He 'was a kindly, easy man, endowed with all the charming and dangerous virtues which commend themselves in the man and often prove fatal to the king. His reign was a constant struggle, first with the church for his wife, afterwards with his barons for his existence.'--_Encyclopaedia Britannica_, vol. ix, p. 536.

This hymn was in the Middle Ages often called the _Golden Sequence_.

Clichtovaeus (_Elucidatorium_, Paris, 1516, f. 171) declares it 'above all praise whether by reason of its wonderful sweetness...or of its brevity along with wealth of ideas or...of the elegant grace of its structure.' Trench, _Sacred Latin Poetry_, says it 'could only have been composed by one who had been acquainted with many sorrows and also with many consolations.'

Julian refers to thirty-eight renderings into English. One of the best of these is A. P. Stanley's version, _Come, Holy Spirit, from Above_.

The subject is an entreaty to the Spirit to come and to bestow His gifts. To the former thought belong the earlier stanzas, to the second thought the latter stanzas. At the beginning of the poem veni, emphasizing the former thought, is in its position and repet.i.tion like da at the close, emphasizing the latter.

3. lucis: cf. lumen cordium, 1. 6, lux beatissima, 1.13. The Spirit, as the 'guide into all truth,' is naturally addressed as light and the giver of light. 7. Consolator: John 14. 16. 9. refrigerium: refreshment.

'May G.o.d refresh thy spirit' is a phrase not uncommon in Christian epitaphs of the Catacombs. 7-12. Stanley renders:

O Thou, of comforters the best, O Thou, the soul's most welcome guest, O Thou, our sweet repose, Our resting-place from life's long care, Our shadow from the world's fierce glare, Our solace in all woes.