Part 8

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 repetition 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 God 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.

19, 20. Lava, Riga: John 3. 5; Isaiah 44. 3. 27. septenarium: the seven-fold gift. The spirit is septiformis munere, the seven gifts being 'the spirit of wisdom,' 'of understanding,' 'of council,' 'of might,' 'of knowledge,' 'of piety,' and 'of the fear of the Lord,' Isaiah 11. 2, 3.

ANONYMOUS.

PHOENIX INTER FLAMMAS EXPIRANS.

The suggestion of this beautiful poem is from _Canticles_. The date of composition is the seventeenth century.

The subject is the soul's 'desire to depart and to be with Christ.' The second to the fifth stanzas take their form from the legend of the phoenix, a fabulous bird which was said to build its funeral pyre, to burn itself, singing a death-song, and to rise from its ashes in renewed youth. The soul, passing from this life to immortality, conceives itself as a phoenix consuming in the flames and singing a death-song (the third, fourth, and fifth stanzas).

3. aegram: Canticles 2. 5. 4. Dilecto: Christ in heaven. Cf. Canticles 2. 3. 27-30. The flame leaping toward the sky is a type of the soul in its eagerness to ascend to heaven. Cf.:

Rivers to the ocean run Nor stay in all their course: Fire ascending seeks the sun: Both speed them to their source. So the soul that's born of God Pants to view his glorious face, Upward tends to his abode To rest in his embrace. --Seagrave.

THOMAS A CELANO.

DIES IRAE.

Thomas, called _a Celano_ from a small town in central Italy, was a Franciscan monk who lived in the thirteenth century and was custos of certain convents of his order on the Rhine. His authorship of this hymn is probable, not certain.

For the literature see Julian, p. 294.

In the ritual the _Dies Irae_ is used for All Souls' Day and for requiem masses. The most famous musical setting is by Mozart.

Daniel says of this hymn, 'Each word is a peal of thunder.' Trench says, 'The triple rhyme has been likened to blow following blow of the hammer on the anvil.'

Goethe introduces the _Dies Irae_ into a scene of the first part of Faust; the remorse of Gretchen becomes overwhelming as she hears the hymn pealing through the cathedral, the culmination corning with the repetition of the words Quid sum miser tunc, dicturus?

Sir Walter Scott thus quotes and summarizes at the end of _The Lay of the Last Minstrel_:

Far the echoing aisles prolong The awful burthen of the song,-- DIES IRAE, DIES ILLA, SOLVET SAECLUM IN FAVILLA;... Thus the holy fathers sung.

HYMN FOR THE DEAD.

That day of wrath, that dreadful day, When heaven and earth shall pass away, What power shall be the sinner's stay? How shall he meet that dreadful day?

When, shrivelling like a parched scroll, The naming heavens together roll; When louder yet, and yet more dread, Swells the high trump that wakes the dead.

Oh! on that day, that wrathful day, When man to judgment wakes from clay, Be THOU the trembling sinner's stay, Though heaven and earth shall pass away.

The same poet was heard to quote portions of the hymn on his deathbed, and the last words of the Earl of Roscommon, author of one of the well-known versions, were a rendering of line 51:

My God, my Father, and my Friend, Do not forsake me in my end!

Hundreds of metrical translations of this hymn exist. A good selection will be found in Nott, _Seven Great Hymns).

1. Dies irae, dies illa, dies tribulationis et angustiae, dies calamitatis et miseriae, etc.--Zephaniah 1. 16. Cf. dies magnus irae, Revelation 6. 17. 2. Shall lay the world in glowing ashes. Cf. 2 Peter 3. 10-12, especially 'The elements shall melt with fervent heat.' 3. Teste David cum Sibylla: Jew and Gentile both testify that the Day of Judgment shall come. As Vergil in his fourth _Eclogue_ was believed to have foretold Christ, so the Sibyl was thought to have prophesied the Day of Judgment. This was due to the still extant 'Sibylline Oracles,' a collection of twelve books in Greek hexameters supposed to have emanated from the Sibyl, but really pretended prophesies composed in the interest of their respective religions partly by Alexandrian Jews, partly by Christians. For the witness of David see Psalms 11. 5, 6; 96. 13; 97. 2, 3. Cf. Trench, pp. 303, 304. Teste David is ablative absolute. 6. Discussurus: investigate, a meaning not classic in the literary language. 7. Tuba: 'the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised.'--1 Corinthians 15. 52. Cf. 1 Thessalonians 4. 16. 11. creatura: every creature. 13. Liber scriptus: Daniel 1. 10; Revelation 20. 12. 16. Matthew 25. 31. 17. Luke 12. 2. 20. patronum: advocate, 1 John 2. 1. 21. vix iustus: 'if the righteous is scarcely saved.'--1 Peter 4. 18. 22-24.

King of awful majesty, Saving sinners graciously, Fount of mercy, save Thou me!

23. gratis: freely, Revelation 21. 6. 28-30. Dr. Johnson frequently quoted this stanza with tears. 28. 'Jesus, being wearied with his journey, sat thus by the well.'--John 4. 6. 33. 'After a long time the Lord of those servants cometh and maketh a reckoning with them.'-- Matthew 25. 19. 37. The writer identifies Mary Magdalene with 'the woman which was a sinner' to whom Jesus said, 'Thy sins are forgiven thee.' 38. latronem: the penitent thief, Luke 23. 39 ff. 43-48. Matthew 25. 31 ff. 49. acclinis: bowing before Thee. 50. A heart bruised even as ashes. The literal meaning of contritum, 'separated into small pieces,' is strongly in mind. Cf. cor contritum; Psalms 51. 17. Cor is in apposition with the subject of oro. 52-57. These lines adapt the hymn to the service. 56, 57. Note the wonderful sweetness of these lines, like calm after storm.

BERNARD OF CLUNY.

DE PATRIAE CAELESTIS LAUDE.

This writer, born in Brittany of English parents and a contemporary of St. Bernard, was a monk in the monastery of Cluny under Peter the Venerable. The verses here given form the opening of his _De Contemptu Mundi_, a bitter satire about three thousand lines long upon the corruptions of the time. The passage is described by Neale as 'the most lovely of mediaeval poems.'

The metre is dactylic hexameter with the leonine and tailed rhyme, each line being broken up into three parts. This measure is so difficult that the composer was enabled to master it only, as he believed, by a special inspiration; but two translators into English, Moultrie and Duffield, have attempted to reproduce it, as:

Here we have many fears; this is the vale of tears, the land of sorrow. Tears are there none at all, in that celestial hall, on life's bright morrow.

The great English rendering is by Neale in his _Rhythm of Bernard de Morlaix on the Celestial Country_. From this many favorite hymns have been drawn.

The subject is the speedy coming of Christ to judge the world and the joys and glories of the New Jerusalem. Cf. Revelation 21 and 22.

3. terminet: subjunctive of wish. 8. homo deus: the God-man; i.e. Christ. 10. non breve vivere: subject of retribuetur. 17. Sion: the church. Babylone: the world. Cf. such passages as Revelation 16. 19. 19. sobria: sober and impliedly watchful. Cf. 1 Thessalonians 5. 6. 24-29.

With jasper glow thy bulwarks, Thy streets with emerald blaze; The sardius and the topaz Unite in thee their rays;

Thine ageless walls are bonded With amethyst unpriced; Thy saints build up its fabric, And the corner-stone is Christ.

The cross is all thy splendor, The crucified thy praise; His laud and benediction Thy ransomed people raise.

Thou hast no shore, fair ocean; Thou hast no time, bright day Dear fountain of refreshment To pilgrims far away. --Neale.

26. The heavenly throng compose thy fabric and Christ is thy precious stone; i.e. each believer is a stone built into the structure of the heavenly city of which Christ, the 'living stone, elect and precious,' is the foundation. Cf. 1 Peter 2. 3-6. 29. Thou without shore (i.e. unbounded in extent), thou without time (i.e. never ceasing to flow), fountain that art soon a stream. 34.

Beneath thy contemplation Sink heart and voice oppressed. --Neale.

49. Plaude...Deus:

Exult, O dust and ashes! The Lord shall be thy part. --Neale.

HILDEBERT.

1057-1184 A.D.

THE HEAVENLY CITY.

Hildebert, a contemporary and fellow-countryman of the Bernards, became Archbishop of Tours in 1125. His verses number more than ten thousand.

The selection is taken from his _Address to the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity_.

Cf. Revelation 21 and 22.

3. Auctor lucis: Genesis 1. 3. 5. lapis vivua: 1 Peter 2. 4, 6. 6. Rex festivus: Matthew 22. 2. 12-14. Revelation 21. 4; 1 John 3. 2. 15-18. Cf. O civitas sancta, civitas speciosa, de longinquo te saluto, ad te clamo, te require.--Augustine, _De Spiritu et Anima_. 26. Revelation 21. 24.

The following is a portion of Neale's translation (_Mediaeval Hymns_, pp. 35-36):

Mine be Sion's habitation, Sion, David's calm foundation: Built by him, light's source immortal,-- To whose streets the cross is portal: In this city, uninvaded Peace,--spring endless, light unfaded: Endless breath of flowerets vernal, Festal melody eternal. Home, no change nor loss that fearest, From afar my soul thou cheerest: Thee it seeketh, thee requireth, Thee affecteth, thee desireth.

---

LATIN

COLLEGE LATIN SERIES

_Odes and Epodes of Horace_

Edited by Professor CHARLES E. BENNETT, of Cornell University 12mo, cloth, 464 pages. Price, $1.40.

_Satires and Epistles of Horace_

Edited by Professor JOHN C. ROLFE, of the University of Pennsylvania, 12mo, cloth, 458 pages. Price, $1.40.

_Complete Works of Horace_

Edited by Professors BENNETT and ROLFE. Printed on Bible paper and bound in flexible covers. 12mo, cloth, 922 pages. Price, $2.00.

IN these volumes each poem is preceded by a careful analysis, giving in a line or two all necessary information regarding the subject, date, and metre.

The comprehensive Introduction to the Odes and Epodes has sections devoted to Horace's Life and Works; Manuscripts, Scholia, and Editions; Classification of the Odes and Epodes; Language (treating the poet's most striking deviations from standard prose usage); The Metres.

The Introduction to the Satires and Epistles is equally exhaustive, and treats of the Life and Works of Horace; The Development of the Roman Satire; The Dramatic and Literary Satire; The Schools of Ennius and Lucilius; General Characteristics of the Satires; The Style of the Satires; Colloquial Language of the Satires; The Metres.

In both volumes the commentary is eminently judicious, telling the student all he needs to know, but never more than he will understand and appreciate.

The two volumes, printed on Bible paper and bound together in flexible covers, form the most attractive and convenient edition of the complete works of Horace.

_Topography and Monuments of Ancient Rome_

By Professor S. B. PLATNER, Western Reserve University. 8vo, cloth, 528 pages. Nine Maps and Plans and 95 Illustrations. Price, $3.00.

THIS book is intended to serve as an introduction to the study of the topography of ancient Rome for students of Roman antiquities and history, and incidentally as a book of reference for those who have any special interest in the monuments which still remain. It contains an outline of the successive stages in the growth of the city, a discussion of the topography of each region, and the position of its buildings so far as this is known, and a detailed description of the more important structures.

To facilitate further study, references of two classes have been added: first, to the sources of information in ancient literature and inscriptions, and second, to the most important material in current periodicals and the standard works on topography.

The volume contains five double-page and four single-page maps, nearly all of which are colored. There are ninety-five illustrations, many reproduced from photographs.

There are chapters devoted to each of the hills of Rome, to the Tiber and its Bridges, the Forum, the Campus Martius, Aqueducts and Sewers, Walls, Gates and Roads, the Sacra Via, and to the Transtiberine Region.

Chapters are also devoted to Building Materials and Methods, and the History of the Development of the City.

_Handbook of Latin Inscriptions_

By W. M. LINDSAY, M.A., Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford. 16mo, cloth, 134 pages. Price, $1.25.

THE author states very clearly some of the principles of form changes in Latin, and gives a collection of inscriptions by way of illustration. These are fifty-eight in number and extend from the earliest period down to Imperial and Late Latin.

End of Project Gutenberg's Readings from Latin Verse, by Curtis C. Bushnell