"Oh, Virgin-Mother, daughter of thy Son! Created beings all in lowliness Surpassing, as in height above them all; Term by the eternal counsel preordain'd; Ennobler of thy nature, so advanc'd In thee, that its great Maker did not scorn To make himself his own creation; For in thy womb, rekindling, shone the love Reveal'd, whose genial influence makes now This flower to germin in eternal peace: Here thou, to us, of charity and love Art as the noon-day torch; and art beneath, To mortal men, of hope a living spring. So mighty art thou, Lady, and so great, That he who grace desireth, and comes not To thee for aidance, fain would have desire Fly without wings. Not only him who asks, Thy bounty succours; but doth freely oft Forerun the asking. Whatsoe'er may be Of excellence in creature, pity mild, Relenting mercy, large munificence, Are all combin'd in thee!" It is interesting to turn to the corresponding stanzas in Chaucer. The invocation to the Virgin with which he commences the story of St. Cecilia is rendered almost word for word from Dante:-- "Thou Maid and Mother, daughter of thy Son! Thou wel of mercy, sinful soules cure!" The last stanza of the invocation is his own, and as characteristic of the practical Chaucer, as it would have been contrary to the genius of Dante:-- "And for that faith is dead withouten workis, So for to worken give me wit and grace! That I be quit from thence that most dark is; O thou that art so fair and full of grace, Be thou mine advocate in that high place, There, as withouten end is sung Hozanne, Thou Christes mother, daughter dear of Anne!" Still more beautiful and more his own is the invocation in the "Prioress's Tale." I give the stanzas as modernized by Wordsworth:-- "O Mother Maid! O Maid and Mother free! O bush unburnt, burning in Moses' sight! That down didst ravish from the Deity, Through humbleness, the Spirit that that did alight Upon thy heart, whence, through that glory's might Conceived was the Father's sapience, Help me to tell it in thy reverence! "Lady, thy goodness, thy magnificence, Thy virtue, and thy great humility, Surpass all science and all utterance; For sometimes, Lady! ere men pray to thee, Thou go'st before in thy benignity, The light to us vouchsafing of thy prayer, To be our guide unto thy Son so dear. "My knowledge is so weak, O blissful Queen, To tell abroad thy mighty worthiness, That I the weight of it may not sustain; But as a child of twelve months old, or less, That laboureth his language to express, Even so fare I; and therefore, I thee pray, Guide thou my song, which I of thee shall say." And again, we may turn to Petrarch's hymn to the Virgin, wherein he prays to be delivered from his love and everlasting regrets for Laura:-- "Vergine bella, che di sol vestita, Coronata di stelle, al sommo Sole Piacesti sì, che'n te sua luce ascose.