The Complete Works of Richard Crashaw Volume I Part 14

V. " 6. 'our great sins' sacrifice.'

VII. " 1. 'The Nightening houre'--a curious coinage.

In the 'Prayer,' 'unto all quick and dead' is dropped, and reads 'the,'

not 'Thy,' Church. In line 55 Turnbull reads 'weakful,' and, line 243, 'heed' for 'head,'--two of a number of provoking blunders in his text.

G.

VEXILLA REGIS:

THE HYMN OF THE HOLY CROSSE.[28]

I.

Look vp, languisting soul! Lo, where the fair 1 Badge of thy faith calls back thy care, And biddes thee ne're forget Thy life is one long debt Of loue, to Him, Who on this painfull tree 5 Paid back the flesh He took for thee.

II.

Lo, how the streames of life, from that full nest Of loues, Thy Lord's too liberall brest, Flow in an amorous floud Of water wedding blood. 10 With these He wash't thy stain, transferred thy smart, And took it home to His own heart.

III.

But though great Love, greedy of such sad gain, Vsurpt the portion of thy pain, And from the nailes and spear 15 Turn'd the steel point of fear: Their vse is chang'd, not lost; and now they moue Not stings of wrath, but wounds of loue.

IV.

Tall tree of life! thy truth makes good What was till now ne're understood, 20 Though the prophetick king Struck lowd his faithfull string: It was thy wood he meant should make the throne For a more than Salomon.

V.

Large throne of Loue! royally spred 25 With purple of too rich a red: Thy crime is too much duty; Thy burthen, too much beauty; Glorious or greiuous more? thus to make good Thy costly excellence with thy King's own blood. 30

VI.

Euen ballance of both worlds! our world of sin, And that of grace, Heaun-way'd in Him: Vs with our price thou weighed'st; Our price for vs thou payed'st, Soon as the right-hand scale reioyc't to proue 35 How much Death weigh'd more light then Loue.

VII.

Hail, our alone hope! let thy fair head shoot Aloft, and fill the nations with thy n.o.ble fruit: The while our hearts and we Thus graft our selues on thee, 40 Grow thou and they. And be thy fair increase The sinner's pardon and the iust man's peace.

Liue, O for euer liue and reign The Lamb Whom His own loue hath slain!

And let Thy lost sheep liue to inherit 45 That kingdom which this Crosse did merit. Amen.

NOTES AND ILl.u.s.tRATIONS.

These variations &c. as between 1648 and 1652, deserve record:

St. i. line 1. 'Languishing,' which is the reading in 1648.

Ib. line 2. Here, and in v. line 1, I have added 'e' to 'badg' and 'larg' respectively from 1648.

St. vi. line 2. Our text (1652) corrects a manifest blunder of 1648, which reads 'wag'd' for 'way'd' = weighed. In 1648, lines 3-4 read

'Both with one price were weighed, Both with one price were paid.'

St. vii. appeared for the first time in our text (1652). In the closing four lines, line 4, 1648, reads noticeably

'That Kingdome which Thy blessed death did merit.'

The allusion in st. iv. is to the old reading of Psalm xcvi. 10: 'Tell it among the heathen that the Lord reigneth from _the tree_.' The reference to Solomon points to the mediaeval mystical interpretations of Canticles iii. 9-10.

I place 'Vexilla Regis' immediately after the 'Office of the Holy Crosse,' as really belonging to it, and not to be separated as in 1648.

G.

[THE LORD SILENCES HIS QUESTIONERS.][29]

'Neither durst any man from that day aske Him any more questions.'

_St. Matthew_ xxii.

Mid'st all the darke and knotty snares, 1 Black wit or malice can, or dares, Thy glorious wisedome breaks the nets, And treds with uncontrouled steps; Thy quell'd foes are not onely now 5 Thy triumphs, but Thy trophies too: They both at once Thy conquests bee, And Thy conquests' memorie.

Stony amazement makes them stand Wayting on Thy victorious hand, 10 Like statues fixed to the fame Of Thy renoune, and their own shame, As if they onely meant to breath To be the life of their own death.

'Twas time to hold their peace, when they 15 Had ne're another word to say; Yet is their silence unto Thee, The full sound of Thy victorie; Their silence speaks aloud, and is Thy well p.r.o.nounc'd panegyris. 20 While they speak nothing, they speak all Their share, in Thy memoriall.

While they speake nothing, they proclame Thee, with the shrillest trump of Fame.

To hold their peace is all the wayes 25 These wretches have to speak Thy praise.

OUR B[LESSED] LORD IN HIS CIRc.u.mCISION TO HIS FATHER.[30]

1. To Thee these first-fruits of My growing death 1 (For what else is My life?), lo! I bequeath: