III. DE S. JOANNE EVANGELISTA. ERBUM Dei, Deo natum, Quod nec factum, nec creatum, Hoc vidit, hoc attrectavit, Hoc de cœlo reseravit Joannes hominibus. Inter illos primitivos 5 Veros veri fontis rivos Toti mundo propinare Coelum transit, veri rotam Solis vidit, ibi totam 10 III. 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., v. 2, p. 166.-This sublime hymn, although not the composition of Adam of St Victor, evidently proceeds from one formed in his school, and on his model, and is altogether worthy of him. Daniel ascribes it to the thirteenth or fourteenth century, but has nothing distinct to say about its authorship. 4. Cf. 1 Joh. i. 1. 12. de throno] Cf. Rev. xxii. 1. 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, Mentis figens aciem. Quasi Seraphim sub alis Dei vidit faciem. Audiit in gyro sedis Quid psallant cum citharædis 15 20 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 à parentibus sic probari, patris scilicet ungue suspendi, et radiis solis opponi; qui firmè 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 his (own) face, (faciem suam,) is given thus: Duabus velabant faciem ejus, i. e. Domini: with two wings they covered the face of the Lord. And this was referred to the obscure vision of God vouchsafed under the Old Covenant, so that even a prophet did but see δι ̓ ἐσόπτρου, ἐν αἰvíyμarı: the wings of the seraphim being as a veil between God and him. Thus H. de S. Victore (De Arcâ Mor., 1. 1, c. 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 beneath these covering wings (seraphim sub alis) saw the unveiled glory of God.—A passage in St Bernard, (Opp., v. 1, p. 955, Bened. ed.) shews that even in the middle ages they were not unaware that suam would have been the preferable translation. 19-21. Cf. Rev. iv. 4; xiv. 2.-22-24.] By the "money of our earthly city" we must understand the mind of man. Man is God's money, having the image and superscription of the great King. (Gen. i. 27; Matt. xxii. 21; Luke xv. 8.) On this money Quater seni proceres : De sigillo Trinitatis Volat avis sine metâ Quo nec vates nec propheta Evolavit altius : Tam implenda, quàm impleta, Sponsus rubrâ veste tectus, Visus sed non intellectus, 25 30 Aquilam Ezechielis Sponsæ misit, quæ de cœlis 35 Referret mysterium. Dic, dilecte, de Dilecto, Qualis adsit, et de lecto St John stamped anew clear and distinct impressions (characteres) of the Holy Trinity, bringing down from heaven as he did, and imparting to us, those transcendent truths which he himself had beholden there. 25-30. Olshausen has taken this stanza, than which sacred Latin poetry scarcely possesses, if indeed it possess, a grander, as the motto of his commentary on St John. The implenda are the Apocalypse, the impleta the Gospel. 31-33. Cf. Isai. lxiii. 1, 2.—34, 35. Cf. Ezek. i. 10. 38, 39. So Clichtoveus. Daniel, however, (Thes. Hymn., v. 2, p. 168,) reads: Qualis sit, et ex dilecto Sponsi sponsæ nuncia: Dic quis cibus angelorum, 40 and affirms that he has abundant authority for so doing. 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 liberties 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 are frequent offenders in this regard. But while the Latin rhyming poets, like the French, permit 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 they would not rhyme mundus to itself, the word in both places signifying the world. And rightly; since such rhymes are indeed no rhymes, contradicting as they do the fundamental idea of rhyme, which is that of likeness with difference -difference which should preferably be in the sound, since that is the region in which rhyme moves; but if not there, at least in the It is true there are exceptions among the Latin rhymers to this rule, but they are so exceedingly rare, and under circumstances which so entirely explain them, (circumstances which do not here occur,) that there is the strongest à priori unlikelihood that a reading is the right one, which would make dilecto rhyme to itself. Moreover the mystics often spoke, and had much to say, of the lectus Domini, the deep rest and joy of perfected souls in innermost communion with their Lord. It is almost needless to say they got the image from the Canticles. sense. 40. Allusion to the Incarnation was often found in the words of the Psalmist, (lxxviii. 25), “ Man did eat angels' food." The Eternal Word was from the beginning the food of angels, but in the Incarnation became also the food of men. Thus Augustine (In Ep. Joh., Tract. 1.): Erat enim [Vita] ab initio; 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 Veri panem intellectûs, Coram Agno, coram throno, 45 est ipsa Vita in carne. And Damiani blends in a fine stanza this thought and the other of St John as the eagle: En illa felix aquila Ad escam volat avida, 44, 45. That it was from his greater nearness to that bosom that he drew the deeper depths of his wisdom, this has been often urged. Thus, to rescue a few lines from a poem otherwise but of slighter merit : Hic, cujus alæ virtutum alæ, Horâ cœnæ hausit plenè Meæ fontem gratiæ; Ales alis spiritalis Præminens scientiæ, Figens visum non elisum In me Solem gloriæ. 46. Patrono] Led away by the word patronus, 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. It is the "new song "there spoken of to the Lamb himself, at once the Agnus and Patronus, in which he desires to take part. |