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Tu rigaris cœli rore
Ex terræ pinguedine;
Delectaris in terrenis
Rebus vanis et obscenis,
Jacob tractat de serenis,
Et Christi dulcedine.

Unguentorum in odore

Sancti currunt cum amore,
Quia novo fragrat flore
Nova Christi venia.
Ad peccatum prius prona
Jam percepit sponsa dona,
Sponsa recens, et coronâ
Decoratur aureâ.

35. Tu rigaris] This tu is addressed to Esau, as representing the Jewish Synagogue, and he is here reminded that he did but receive earthly promises from his father's mouth (in pinguedine terræ et in rore cœli desuper erit benedictio tua, Gen. xxvii. 39, 40, Vulg.), the heavenly having been all anticipated by his brother. Not to him, delighting in earthly things, but to his brother, it was given to behold the marvellous ladder reaching from earth to heaven, and with angels ascending and descending upon it (Gen. xxviii. 11—22); for, though it is not very clear, I must see an allusion to this at ver. 39.

41. Unguentorum] So the Bride in the Canticles (i. 3, Vulg.): Trahe me. Post te curremus in odorem unguentorum

tuorum.

45. Ad peccatum] Cf. Hos. ii. 2-24; Ephes. v. 26, 27. This line is alone sufficient to refute Gautier's assertion that the Blessed Virgin, and not the Church, is contemplated as the Bride of these latter stanzas.

45

40

335

Adstat sponsa regi nato,
Cuï ritu servit grato
In vestitu deaurato,
Aureis in fimbriis:
Orta rosa est ex spinis,
Cujus ortus sive finis
Semper studet in divinis,
Et regis deliciis.

Hæc est sponsa spiritalis,
Vero Sponso specialis;
Sponsus iste nos a malis
Servet et eripiat ;

Mores tollat hic ineptos,
Sibi reddat nos acceptos,
Et ab hoste sic ereptos

In cœlis recipiat. Amen.

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49-52. Cf. Ps. xliv. 10, 14 (Vulg.): Astitit regina a dextris tuis in vestitu deaurato, in fimbriis aureis.

...

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XVIII. Bibl. Max. Patrum, Lugduni, 1677, vol. xxvii. p. 517. -This little poem, sometimes ascribed to Hartmann, a monk of St Gall, brings together well the three events of the Lord's life, the three manifestations of His glory, which the Western Church brought into connexion with the feast of Epiphany, and commemorated upon that day. Thus Maximus Taurinensis, at the beginning of the fifth century (Hom. 23): In hâc celebritate multiplici nobis est festivitate lætandum. Ferunt enim hodie Christum Dominum nostrum vel stellâ duce a gentibus adoratum: invitatum ad nuptias aquas in vinum vertisse: vel suscepto a Johanne baptismate consecrâsse fluenta Jordanis. Oportet itaque nos ad honorem Salvatoris nostri, cujus nativitatem debitâ nuper cum exultatione transegimus, etiam hunc virtutum ejus celebrare natalem. Cf. Durandus, Rational. vi. 16.

A Johanne in Jordane
Christus baptizatus est:
Unde lotus mundus totus
Et purificatus est.

Lector, lege; a summo Rege
Tibi benedictio

Sit in cœlis: plebs fidelis

Psallat cum tripudio. Amen.

15

20

20

FORTUNATUS.

VENANTIUS Fortunatus, an Italian by birth, whose

life, however, was chiefly spent in Gaul, belongs to the latter half of the sixth century. He was born in the district of Treviso, in the year 530, but passed the Alps a little before the great invasion of the Lombards and the desolation of Northern Italy, and is memorable as one of the last, who, amid the advancing tide of barし barism, retained anything of the old classical culture. A master of vers de société, which he made with a negligent ease, yet not without elegance, he wandered, a highly favoured guest, from castle to cloister in Gaul, repaying the hospitalities which he everywhere received, with neatly-turned compliments in verse. Such was the manner of his life, until Queen Rhadegunda, now separated from her husband Clotaire, persuaded him to attach himself to her person, and, having received ordination, to settle at Poitiers, in the neighbourhood of which she was presiding over a monastic institution that had been founded by herself. Here he remained till his death, which some place in the year 609, having become, during the latter years of his life, bishop of Poitiers.

There is a chapter of singular liveliness in Thierry's Récits des Temps Mérovingiens, Récit 5me, on the character of Fortunatus, and on his relations, which, though intimate, even Thierry does not pretend to consider otherwise than perfectly innocent, and removed

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