MARBOD.

MARBOD, born in 1035, of an illustrious family in

Anjou,was chosen bishop of Rennes in 1095 or in the year following, and having governed with admirable prudence his diocese for thirty years, died in 1125. He has left a large amount of Latin poetry, in great part the versified legends of saints. His poem De Gemmis was a great favourite in the Middle Ages, and has been often reprinted. It is perhaps worth reading, not as poetry, for as such it is of very subordinate value, but as containing the whole rich mythology of the period in regard of precious stones and the virtues popularly attributed to them. His poems are for the most part written in leonine verse, but he has shewn in more than one no contemptible skill in the management of the classical hexameter.

LXV. ORATIO AD DOMINUM.

DEUS-HOMO, Rex cœlorum,

Miserere miserorum ;

Ad peccandum proni sumus,
Et ad humum redit humus;

LXV. Hildeberti et Marbodi Opp. p. 1557.

Tu ruinam nostram fulci
Pietate tuâ dulci.

Quid est homo, proles Ada?
Germen necis dignum clade.
Quid est homo nisi vermis,
Res infirma, res inermis.

Ne digneris huic irasci,

Qui non potest mundus nasci :
Noli, Deus, hunc damnare,
Qui non potest non peccare;
Judicare non est æquum
Creaturam, non est tecum:
Non est miser homo tanti,
Ut respondeat Tonanti.

Sicut umbra, sicut fumus,
Sicut foenum facti sumus:
Miserere, Rex cœlorum,
Miserere miserorum.

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DAMIANI.

TER DAMIANI, cardinal-bishop of Ostia, was

PETER

born at Ravenna in 1002, and died in 1072. Profoundly impressed with the horrible corruption of his age, and the need of a great reformation which should begin with the clergy themselves, he was the enthusiastic friend and helper of Hildebrand, his Sanctus Satanas, as fondly and with a marvellous insight into the heights and depths of his character, he calls him, in all the good and in all the evil which he wrought for the Church. He has left a considerable body of Latin verse; but, not to say that much of it is deeply tinged with superstitions of which he was only too zealous a promoter, there is little of it, which, even were this otherwise, one would much be tempted to extract save this, and the far grander poem De Gaudiis Paradisi, which will be found a little later in this volume. Yet doubtless his epitaph, written by himself,

possesses a solemn and a stately grandeur. follows:

It is as

Quod nunc es, fuimus: es, quod sumus, ipse futurus;
His sit nulla fides, quæ peritura vides.

Frivola sinceris præcurrunt somnia veris,
Succedunt brevibus sæcula temporibus.

Vive memor mortis, quo semper vivere possis;
Quidquid adest, transit; quod manet, ecce venit.
Quam bene providit, qui te, male munde, reliquit,
Mente prius carni, quam tibi carne mori.
Cœlica terrenis, præfer mansura caducis,
Mens repetat proprium libera principium :

Spiritus alta petat, quo prodit fonte recurrat,
Sub se despiciat quicquid in ima gravat.
Sis memor, oro, mei:—cineres pius aspice Petri;
Cum prece, cum gemitu dic: Sibi parce, Deus.

Surely it is nothing wonderful that he who had so realized what life and death are, did not wait till the latter had stripped him of his worldly honours, but himself anticipated that hour; having some time previously laid down his cardinal's hat, that what remained of his life he might spend in retirement and in prayer. It is probable that he had already so done, when this epitaph was composed. He died as abbot of Sta Croce d'Avellano in the States of the Church.

LXVI. DE DIE MORTIS.

RAVI me terrore pulsas, vitæ dies ultima;

GRAVI

Mæret cor, solvuntur renes, læsa tremunt viscera,

Tuam speciem dum sibi mens depingit anxia.

Quis enim pavendum illud explicet spectaculum,
Quum, dimenso vitæ cursu, carnis ægra nexibus
Anima luctatur solvi, propinquans ad exitum?
Perit sensus, lingua riget, resolvuntur oculi,
Pectus palpitat, anhelat raucum guttur hominis,
Stupent membra, pallent ora, decor abit corporis.

LXVI. Corner, Prompt. Devot. p. 701; Rambach, Anthol. Christl. Gesänge, p. 238; Daniel, Thes. Hymnol. vol. i. p. 224 ; vol. iv. p. 291.

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Præsto sunt et cogitatus, verba, cursus, opera,
Et præ oculis nolentis glomerantur omnia:
Illuc tendat, huc se vertat, coram videt posita.

Torquet ipsa reum sinum mordax conscientia,
Plorat apta corrigendi defluxisse tempora ;
Plena luctu caret fructu sera pœnitentia.

Falsa tunc dulcedo carnis in amarum vertitur,
Quando brevem voluptatem perpes pœna sequitur ;
Jam quod magnum credebatur nil fuisse cernitur.

Quæso, Christe, rex invicte, tu succurre misero,
Sub extremâ mortis horâ cum jussus abiero,
Nullum in me jus tyranno præbeatur impio.

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Cadat princeps tenebrarum, cadat pars tartarea; Pastor, ovem jam redemptam tunc reduc ad patriam, Ubi te videndi causâ perfruar in sæcula.

24. I know no fitter place to append a poem, which can claim no room in the body of this volume, being almost without any distinctly Christian element whatever, and little more than a mere worldling's lamentation at leaving a world which he knows he has abused, yet would willingly, if he might, continue still longer to abuse. But even from that something may be learned; and there is a force and originality about the composition, which make me willing to insert it here, especially as it is very far from common. I would indeed gladly know something more about it. I find it in a Psalteriolum Cantionum Catholicarum, Coloniæ, 1813, p. 283, with the title De Morte, but with the fifth, sixth, and seventh stanzas omitted; and in its fuller form in Königsfeld's Latein. Hymnen und Gesänge, Bonn, 1847. This is a small and rather indifferent collection of medieval Latin poetry, with German translations annexed-so carelessly