2 116. THE LATIN POETS AND UTMNS. 597
" Arbor decora et fulgida " 0 Tree of Beauty ! Tree of Ijight I
Ornata regis purpura, 0 Tree with royal purple dight !
Electa digno stipite Elect upon whose faithful breast
Tam sancta membra tangere. Those holy limbs should find their rest
"Beata cuius brachiis "On whose dear arms, so widely flung,
PretJum pependit s^culi, The weight of this world's ransom hung, Statera facta sfficuli The price of human kind tc pay,
Prasdamque tulit tartaris." ' And spoil the spoiler of his prey ! "
Pange^ Lingua^ Glor'wsi Prodium Certami'ms '
"Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle,' with completed victory rife, And above the Cross's trophy, tell the triumph of the strife ; Bow the world's Redeemer conquer'd, by surrendering of His life.
" God, his Maker, sorely grieving that the first-bom Adam fell. When he ate the noxious apple, whose reward was death and hell. Noted then this wood, the ruin of the ancient wood to quell.
" For the work of our Salvation needs would have his order so, And the multiform deceiver's art by art would overthrow ; And from thence would bring the medicine whence the venom of the foe.
"Wherefore, when the sacred fulness of the appointed time was come. This world's Maker left His Father, left His bright and heavenly home, And proceeded, God Incarnate, of the Virgin's holy womb.
" Weeps the Infant in the manger that in Bethlehem's stable stands ; And His Umbs the Virgin Mother doth compose in swaddling bands. Meetly thus in linen folding of her God the feet and hands.
"Thirty years among us dwelUng, His appointed time fulfilled, Born for this. He meets His Passion, for that this He freely willed : On the Cross the Lamb is lifted, where His life-blood shall be spilled.
'* He endured the shame and spitting, vinegar, and nails, and reed ; As His blessed side is opened, water thence and blood proceed : Earth, and sky, and stars, and ocean, by that flood are cleansed indeed.
- Brev. Rom. : " Tulitque praedam tartari."
* See the original, which is not rhymed, in Daniel, i. p. 163 sqq., and in somewhat different form in the Roman Breviary. The masterly English translation in the metre of the original is Xsale's, 1. c. p. 237 sq., and in his Mediajval Hymns and Sequences, p. 1. Another excellent English version by E. Caswell commences : " Sing, my tongue, the Saviour's glory ; tell His triumph far and wide."
' Prmlhim certaminis, which the Roman Breviary spoiled by substituting law ream. The poet describes the glory of the struggle itself rather than the glory of its t«.»rmination, as is plain from the conclus.on of the verse.
698 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
■' Faithful Cross ! above all other, one and only noble Tree ! None in foliage, none in blossom, none in fruit thy peers may be ; Sweetest wood and sweetest iron, sweetest weight is hung on thee (
" Bend thy boughs, 0 Tree of Glory ! thy relaxing sinews bend ; For awhile the ancient rigor, that thy birth bestowed, suspend; And the King of heavenly beauty oa tliy bosom gently tend.
" Thou alone wast counted worthy this world's ransom to uphold ; For a shipwreck'd race preparing harbor, like the Ark of old : With the sacred blood anointed from the wounded Lamb that roll'd.
" Laud and honor to the Father, laud and honor to the Son, Laud and honor to the Spirit, ever Three and ever One : Consubstantial, co-eternal, while unending ages run.
Far less important as a poet is Gregory I. (59C -60Jt), the last of the fathers and the first of the mediaeval popes. Many hymns of doubtful origin have been ascribed to him and received into the Breviary. The best is his Sunday hymn : " Primo dierum omnium." "
The hymns are the fairest flowers of the poetry of the ancient church. But besides them many epic and didactic poems arose, especially in Gaul and Spain, which counteracted the invading flood of barbarism, and contributed to preserve a connection with the treasures of the classic culture. Juvencus, a Spanish presbyter under Constantine, composed the first Cliristian epic, a Gospel history in four books (3,226 lines), on the model of Virgil, but as to poetic merit never rising above mediocrity. Far superior to him is Prudentius (t405); he wrote, besides the hymns already mentioned, several didactic, epic, and polemic poems. St. Pontius Paulinus, bishop of Nola (t 431), who was led by the poet Ausonius to the mysteries of tlie Muses," and a friend of Augustine and Jerome, is the
' The Latin of this stanza is a jewel :
" Crux fidelis, inter omncs arboi una nobilis ! Nulla talem silva profort fronoc, Horc, germine : Dulce lignum, dulci clavo, dulce pondus suatincns." (In the Roman Breviary : " Dulce ferrum, dulce lignum, dulce pondus sustinent.")
' See Daniel's Cod. i. p. 176 sqq. For an excellent English version of the hynji above alluded to, see Neale, 1. c. p. 283.
• Ausonius yielded the palm to his pupil when he wrote of the verses of Paul* BUS:
" Codimus ingenio, quantum pnecedimus acvo : Asaurget Musk nostra caniouna uac."