IV. DE S. JOANNE EVANGELISTA. VERBUM Dei, Deo natum, Quod nec factum, nec creatum, Hoc vidít, hoc attrectavit, Hoc de cœlo reseravit Joannes hominibus. Inter illos primitivos Veros veri fontis rivos 5 IV. Sequentiæ de Tempore, Argentinæ, 1516, p. 2; Clichtoveus, Elucidat. Eccles. Paris, 1556, p. 213 (not in the earlier editions); Rambach, Anthol. Christl. Gesänge, Altona u. Leipzig, 1817, p. 340; Daniel, Thes. Hymn. vol. ii. p. 166; Mone, Hymni Lat. Med. Evi, vol. iii. p. 118.-This sublime hymn, though not Adam of St Victor's, proceeds from one formed in his school, and on his model, and is altogether worthy of him. It is, indeed, to my mind grander than his own, which has just preceded it. Daniel ascribes it to the thirteenth or fourteenth century, but has nothing certain to say about its authorship. 4-6. Cf. 1 Joh. i. 1. 6. It is seldom that we meet in Christian sapphics so fine a stanza as this, which occurs in a hymn of Damiani's to St John: and which may here be brought into comparison: Fonte prorumpens fluvius perenni Curris, arentis satiator orbis ; Hausit ex pleno modo quod propinat Pectore pectus. 7-9. See note on no. I. 57–64. Joannes exsiliit; Toti mundo propinare Cœlum transit, veri rotam Quasi Seraphim sub alis 12. de throno] Cf. Rev. xxii. 1. 10 15 13. Cœlum transit] Ambrose (Prol. in Exp. in Luc. c. 3): Nemo enim, audeo dicere, tantâ sublimitate sapientiæ majestatem Dei vidit, et nobis proprio sermone reseravit. Transcendit nubes, transcendit virtutes cœlorum, transcendit angelos, et Verbum in principio reperit, et Verbum apud Deum vidit. 15. figens aciem] Augustine (In Joh., Tract. 36): Aquila ipse est Johannes, sublimium prædicator, et lucis internæ atque æternæ fixis oculis contemplator. Dicuntur enim et pulli aquilarum a parentibus sic probari, patris scilicet ungue suspendi, et radiis solis opponi; qui firme contemplatus fuerit, filius agnoscitur; si acie palpitaverit, tanquam adulterinus ab ungue dimittitur. 17, 18. These verses can only be fully understood by reference to Isai. vi. 2 (Vulg.), where "with twain he covered his face," i.e. the seraphim with two wings covered their (own) face, (faciem suam, as it should have been), is given: Duabus velabant faciem ejus, i.e. Domini. This was referred to the obscure vision of God vouchsafed under the Old Covenant, so that even prophets saw but δι' ἐσόπτρου, ἐν αἰνίγματι: the wings of the seraphim being as a veil between God and them. Thus H. de S. Victore (De Arcâ Mor. i. 3): Quod autem in Esaiâ scriptum est, Velabant faciem ejus, eo modo intelligi debet, quo dictum est ad Moysem: Non poteris videre faciem meam : non enim videbit me homo, et vivet. But St John, the poet would say, looking Audiit in gyro sedis Quid psallant cum citharœdis De sigillo Trinitatis Impressit characteres. Volat avis sine metâ Quo nec vates nec propheta Tam implenda, quam impleta, Sponsus rubrâ veste tectus, beneath these covering wings (seraphim sub alis) saw the unveiled glory of God. A passage in St Bernard (Opp. 1, 955, Bened. ed.) shews that even in the middle ages they were aware suam would have been a more accurate translation. 19-21. Cf. Rev. iv. 4; xiv. 2.-22-24. I said in the first edition, that by the "money of our city" we must understand the mind of man. This, as I am now convinced, was a mistake. Language is the money by aid of, which the moral and intellectual business of the world is carried on between man and man. On this St John set his stamp. Thus the Greek Logos, our English "Word," since they have past under his hands, mean something quite else, and something far higher and deeper, than they ever did, before he put a heavenly stamp, the sigillum Trinitatis, upon them. 25-30. Volat avis] Olshausen has taken this stanza, than which sacred Latin poetry does not possess a grander, as the motto of his Commentary on St John. The implenda are the Apocalypse, the impleta the Gospel. 31. Cf. Isai. lxiii. 1-3; Rev. xix. 11. 32. non intellectus] Cf. Isai. liii. 2—4. Redit ad palatium : Sponsæ misit, quæ de cœlis Dic, dilecte, de Dilecto, Qualis adsit, et de lecto Sponsi sponsæ nuncia: Dic quis cibus angelorum, 35 40 34. Aquilam Ezechielis] Cf. Ezek. i. 10; Rev. iv. 7. 38, 39. So Clichtoveus; but Daniel and Mone: Qualis sit, et ex dilecto Sponsus sponsæ nuncia: But, not to say that, so read, the lines yield no tolerable sense, the reading violates the laws of rhyme which the Latin medieval poets observe. They allow themselves, it is true, greater freedom than we do with us a syllable may not rhyme with itself, even when in the second line it belongs to an entirely different word from that to which it belonged in the first. Thus vine and divine are faulty as rhymes, though many-Spenser in particular — frequently admit them. But the medieval Latin poets, permitting rhymes such as these, so that a word may even rhyme with itself, if different senses be attached to it, as mundus the world, with mundus clean; yet would not rhyme mundus to itself, the word in both places signifying the world. And rightly: such rhymes contradicting the fundamental idea of rhyme, which is that of likeness with difference-difference, if possible, in the sound, since that is the region in which rhyme moves; but if not there, at least in the sense. Moreover the mystics had much to say of the lectus Domini, the deep rest and joy of perfected souls in innermost communion with their Lord; deriving, as is needless to observe, the image from the Canticles. 40. cibus angelorum] Allusion to the Incarnation was often found in the words of the Psalmist (lxxviii. 25), "Man did eat angels' food." The Eternal Word, from the beginning the food of angels, in the Incarnation became also the food of men. Thus Augustine (In Ep. Joh. Tract. 1): Erat enim [Vita] ab initio; Quæ sint festa superorum De Sponsi præsentiâ. Veri panem intellectûs, Cœnam Christi super pectus Christi sumptam resera: Coram Agno, coram throno, 45 sed non erat manifestata hominibus; manifestata autem erat angelis videntibus, et tanquam pane suo cibantibus. Sed quid ait Scriptura? Panem angelorum manducavit homo. Ergo manifestata est ipsa Vita in carne. So too Hildebert: Quam felix Panis, caro felix, hostia dives, In terris homines, qui pascit in æthere cives. And Damiani yields a fine stanza here: En illa felix aquila Ad escam volat avida, 44, 45. That he who was named greater nearness to that bosom (John Quæ cœli cives vegetat, Toτhotos, drew, from his xiii. 23), the deeper depths of his wisdom, has been often urged. Thus, to rescue the best lines from a poem otherwise of no eminent merit: Hic, cujus alæ virtutum scalæ, Horâ cœnæ hausit plene Meæ fontem gratiæ; Ales alis spiritalis Præminens scientiæ, 46. Patrono] Led away by this word, Clichtoveus will have it, that the end to which the enraptured poet aspires is, that he may sing the praises of St John before the throne and the Lamb! A reference to Rev. v. 9 should have taught him better. That Patronus may be used of a divine Person the following quotation makes abundantly plain (Hymn. de Temp. Argent. p. 25): Præsta, Pater et Patrone, |