logy with enough of subtlety and acuteness to interest even the scholastic mind, might be welcome to the reader, we give the entire passage: 66 The great crux of the translator is the fourth verse. give all the translations. I. GOD the WORD by one word maketh Very Bread His Flesh to be, And whoso that cup partaketh, Tastes the Fount of Calvary: While the carnal mind forsaketh, Faith receives the mystery." Here the incarnation of the Word, so necessary to the antithesis, is omitted: and so exact a writer as St. Thomas would never have used the expression by ONE word. 2. "At the Incarnate Word's high bidding, Very Bread to Flesh doth turn: Wine becometh Christ's Blood-shedding: And, if sense cannot discern, Guileless spirits, never dreading, May from Faith sufficient learn." Here the antithesis is utterly lost, by the substitution of Incarnate for made flesh and bidding for word, to say nothing of Blood-shedding for Blood. 3. "Word made Flesh! The Bread of nature, Thou by word to Flesh dost turn: Wine, to Blood of our Creator: If no sense the work discern, Yet the true heart proves no traitor: Faith unaided all shall learn." Here the antithesis is preserved, though at the expense of the vocative case. And surely St. Thomas, in an exact, dogmatical poem, would not have spoken of the blood of our Creator. Mr. Caswall, following up the hint given by the last version, and substituting the apposite pronoun for the vocative, has given, as from his freedom of rhyme might be expected, the best version: "Word made Flesh, the Bread of Nature By a Word, to Flesh He turns: Wine into His Blood He changes: What though sense no change discerns, Only be the heart in earnest, Faith her lesson quickly learns." In both these last translations, however, the panem verum of St. Thomas is not given; and Mr. Caswall brings in the more than unnecessary article-By a word.1 Since the first edition of my book, Hymns Ancient and Modern have produced a translation put together from former ones, but nearer my own version than to any other. Their fourth verse is their weakest: 1 Dr. Neale appears to be in error here. Caswall translates "By His word." Word made Flesh, True Bread He maketh It is needless to observe that, the italicized line and a half is not in the original. Forsaketh, too, is scarcely English.2 The reader may pardon this long extract because of the many lessons it teaches the translator of the Latin hymns. It shows, first, the critical and patient industry that will exhaust every expedient in order to preserve intact the essential meanings of this hymn, the pointedness of its several antitheses, the melody of its versification, and its rhymic beauty. The more important lesson is, however, the lesson of triumph over the inherent difficulties so critically pointed out by Dr. Neale. Patience will surely be rewarded by an ever-increasing excellence in the translation. The lesson receives even greater accentuation by comparing the later versions with those found in early hymn- and prayer-books and retained sometimes in the present-day reprints. Thus, careful as Neale was, the Marquess of Bute, who included Neale's version in his Roman Breviary, nevertheless properly corrected "generous" into "noble" (fifth line of the first. stanza), and in a footnote indicated another emendation. In the fifth stanza, the lines Praestet fides supplementum were, says Dr. Neale, avoided by all of the four trans 2 Mediæval Hymns, 3d edition, p. 180 seq, lations upon which he built his own. Thus two of the translations run as follows: Faith, the senses dark refining Mysteries to comprehend and Faith, thine earnest adoration Passing eye and touch, present. He notes that Father Caswall's version, as it is "unshackled by rhyme, is nearest": Faith for all defects supplying, Where the feeble senses fail." His own translation is: Faith, our outward sense amending, The phrasal ellipsis in "defects before" is, it is needless to say, not felicitous. But the lines, so flowing in the original Latin, prove refractory in translation. The last stanza is not the easiest of the six. Neale's rendering (which is, with slight occasional inversions, that of the Baltimore Manual of Prayers) is: Honor loud, and praise addressing To the Father and the Son, Might ascribe we, virtue, blessing, And eternal benison: Holy Ghost, from Both progressing, Equal laud to Thee is done! Amen. With the exception of the rhymes "Son" and "benison ", it is a good version. Illustrations of various Catholic translations may be given here (in the order of the stanzas of the Latin). The first four are from Primers, or devotional books for the laity in England: Primer, 1604. Of Christ, his body glorious, Primer, 1619. He given for us, born for our sakes, Primer, 1695. He, on the final supper night Among his brethren taking seat, Primer, 1706. The Word made flesh, for love of man, And here the faithful rest secure, Whilst God can vouch and faith ensure. R. Campbell (1814-68). Then before his altar bending, D. J. Donahoe, 1908. To the Father's glory leading, To the Son, our sorrows heeding, In the long note (quoted from Dr. Neale) on the 4th stanza, other illustrations are given (No. 2, by the convert, the Rev. A. D. Wackerbarth, is misquoted in the second line, which should be : "Bread to very Flesh doth turn," instead of-as Neale gives it-" Very Bread to Flesh doth turn"). There are still other Catholic translations (e. g., those of Oxenham, Aylward, Bagshawe), but doubtless enough illustration has already been furnished of the attempts to render into English verse the triumphant harmony of the Latin. Sacris Solemniis. In the hymn for Matins of Corpus Christi Day, St. Thomas has imitated the rhythmic swing of the hymn for martyrs-Sanctorum meritis: |