with the Vesper Psalms, in order that the recalling of the Lord's Incarnation by this means may the oftener incite the souls of the faithful to devotion, and that the consideration of the example set by His Mother may confirm them in the stability of virtue. And it is meet that this should be done at Vespers, so that the mind, wearied in the course of the day, and distracted by various opinions, may, at the approach of the season of quiet, collect itself in the oneness of meditation, and through this wholesome reminder may hasten to cleanse itself by the prayers and tears of the night from everything useless or harmful which it had contracted by the business of the day." NOTE 7, p. 17. The following key to the position in the text of "The Christ" of Cynewulf's paraphrase of the antiphons may found useful: : The Greater O's in the order sung at Vespers from December 17th to December 23rd inclusive, according to Sarum use. 1. O Sapientia: cf. lines 239-240 (?) of "The Christ.” 2. O Adonai: (possibly in the lost beginning of the poem). 3. O Radix Jesse: cf. lines 348-377 (?) 4. O Clavis David: 99 18-49 Four Advent antiphons associated with the great O's by certain medieval churches. 8. O Virgo Virginum: cf. lines 71-103 of the poem. 9. O Rex Pacifica: Two combined antiphons for Lauds on Trinity Sunday. 12. O Beata Trinitas: cf. lines 378 ff. of the poem. By way of illustration of Cynewulf's method, of interpretation I add translations of his reading of two of the antiphonsO Oriens and O Emmanuel. I. LATIN TEXT. O Oriens splendor lucis æternæ, et sol justitiæ: veni et illumina sedentes in tenebris et umbra mortis ! Cardinal Newman's translation (Tracts for the Times, No. 75). O Rising Brightness of the everlasting Light and Sun of Righteousness: come Thou and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. Eala Earendel ofer middangeard Swa pu God of gode gearo a cenned, sunu soþan Fæder swegles in wuldre butan anginne Cynewulf, 104-129 Æfre wære, swa pec nu for þearfum þin agen geweorc bideth purh byldo, þæt þu pa beorhtan us sunnan onsende, on be sylf cyme þæt thu inledhte Hail Earendel, Thou art the Light-beam, þa þe longe ær prosme bebeahte ond in peostrum her sæton sinneahtes synrum bifealdre deorc heathes sceadu dreogan sceoldan Those who from long ago Wrapt round with darkness Sit in the night glooms Shrouded with sin, and cast Deep in Death's shadow. II. LATIN TEXT. O Emmanuel, Rex et legifer noster, expectatio gentium, et Salvator earum veni ad salvandum nos, Domine Deus noster! Newman's translation. O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the gatherer of the People and their Saviour: come Thou to save us, O Lord our God! Eala gæsta God hu pu gleawlice mid noman ryhte Cynewulf, 130-152. nemned wære Emmanuhel Swa hit engel gecwath ærest on Ebresc þæt is eft gereht Swa se mære iu Melchisedech, gleaw in gæste, godbrym omwrah Eces alwaldan. O of all spirits Lord Wisely by right wast Thou First in the Hebrew tongue E'en as of old time When young were the years, yet Old men said truly Lo, the great King of kings Priest of the sacred place cometh of surety. Yea, as of yore the great God the world ruler. Se was a bringerd lara lædend pam longe his hytan hidercyme. Swa hym gehaten was gefælsian foldan mægthe swylce grundes eac Gæstes mægne bitrum bynetearum. God the law-bringer He gave them precepts For it was promised them Nations of earth. And in his course should seek Deep Hele's abode Lord of the Spirits there bound in their fetters in their affliction Speaking with doleful cry NOTE 8, p. 18. The dramatic character of this section of Cynewulf's poem was first noted by Professor Conybeare in his Anglo-Saxon lectures at Oxford. "It is in fact a dialogue between the Virgin Mary and Joseph, initiated probably from some of those apocryphal writings current in the Middle Ages under the titles of the Life, or the Gospel, of the Virgin. The dialogue commences with an address by the Virgin to Joseph, expressing her fears lest she should be subjected to the rigour of the Jewish law in the punishment of an adulteress; and the answer of Joseph is occupied, partly by the assurance of his steady belief in her purity, and other expressions calculated to remove her distress; and partly of prayers and thanksgiving to the Power which had so signally favoured himself and his lineage. It will be readily agreed that this subject, from its grave and mysterious nature, is ill-adapted to the purposes of poetry. The general absence of taste and refinement which characterised the age in which the poem was originally written, may fairly be pleaded in defence of its author; but in the present day no such excuse could well be discovered for a translator. Indeed, I should have felt disposed to pass over the poem without notice, had not the form in which it is written rendered it an object of some curiosity. Dialogues of this kind were probably, in our own country, as in Greece, the earliest and rudest species of the drama; and that here preserved is unquestionably by many years the most ancient specimen of this kind of poetry existing in our native language." Mr. Gollancz in his introduction to "The Christ," p. xxi., has a somewhat similar comment. He speaks of this dialogue as "the earliest dramatic scene in English literature." "What a contrast," he continues, "an Anglo-Saxon religious drama would have presented to the homely miracles and mysteries of later ages. The original of the greater part of Passus I. must, I think, have been a later hymn-cycle, the 'Joseph and Mary' section being derived from an undiscovered hymn arranged for recital by half-choirs." Mr. Stopford Brooke, "Early English Literature," vol. ii. p. 221, thus speaks of the scene: "It seems to be the first dawning in our literature of the mystery play." But in a later written note to the passage he gives up the idea that it was actually written to be recited "in the market-place on a stage," and is content with Mr. Gollancz to follow Wülker (Grundriss, p. 385) in regarding the scene as derived from some later festival hymn dramatically constructed to be sung in parts. |