Medieval rhetoric and poetic to 1400 : $b Interpreted from representative worksBaldwin, Charles Sears
History
Medieval rhetoric and poetic to 1400 : $b Interpreted from representative works
Baldwin, Charles Sears
Literature, Medieval -- History and criticism; Poetics -- History -- To 1500; Rhetoric, Medieval
Rime no longer incidental, but integral and composing, opened to medieval
poetic wide artistic possibilities of stanza. The austere requiem
sequence of Thomas of Celano, _Dies iræ_, is cast in three-line trochaic
stanzas of a single rime.
Dies iræ, dies illa,
Solvet sæclum in favilla,
Teste David cum Sibylla.
Quantus tremor est futurus
Quando Judex est venturus,
Cuncta stricte discussurus!...
Britt, 87.
That forty of the forty-five hymns assigned by Misset-Aubry to Adam of
St. Victor are trochaic shows the strong preference of the time. The
commonest of these trochaic stanzas, the favorite hymn measure of the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, expands _Corde natus_ into a six-line
stanza by doubling the first stave in a riming couplet twice and using
the second stave between the two couplets and at the riming end.
In natale Salvatoris
angelorum nostra choris
succinat conditio.
Armonia diversorum
sed in unum redactorum
dulcis est connexio.
Felix dies hodiernus,
in quo Patri coeternus
nascitur ex virgine;
felix dies et iocundus!
illustrari gaudet mundus
veri solis lumine....
Adam of St. Victor, _In die Natali Domini_.
Using this scheme oftener than any other, Adam rarely holds to it
throughout a hymn. His way is rather to vary it in one or two stanzas;
and in some of his hymns he even interpolates a stanza of a different
measure. For example, the ninth stanza of this Christmas hymn departs
entirely from the pattern except in the middle and end lines.
Quam subtile Dei consilium,
quam sublime rei misterium!
virga florem,
vellus rorem,
virgo profert filium.
Nec pudorem lesit conceptio,
nec virorem floris emissio:
concipiens
et pariens
comparatur lilio.
This is the only variation; all the other stanzas are regular. The _Lauda
Sion_ sequence of St. Thomas Aquinas varies the measure but slightly; and
the _Stabat Mater_ keeps it strictly—even reinforces it with additional
rimes.
Adam’s harmonizing of rimed rhythmic, conspicuous above, has great range
and variety. The range appears in the following contrast:
Suggestor sceleris
pulsus a superis
per huius aeris
oberrat spacia,
dolis invigilat,
virus insibilat;
sed hunc adnichilat
presens custodia.
_St Michael_, v (Misset-Aubry 214)
Salve dies dierum gloria,
dies felix Christi victoria,
dies digna iugi leticia,
dies prima!
Lux divina cecis irradiat
in qua Christus infernum spoliat,
mortem vincit et reconciliat
summis ima.
Feria IV [_Pasche_], i (Misset-Aubry 185)
Within a hymn the variations are delicate adjustments. The hymn on the
Cross strikes the familiar measure, swerves from it, returns to it,
varies it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account