The Complete Works of Richard Crashaw, Volume ICrashaw, Richard
General
The Complete Works of Richard Crashaw, Volume I
Crashaw, Richard
English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700
In the 'Prayer,' 'unto all quick and dead' is dropped, and reads 'the,'
not 'Thy,' Church. In line 55 Turnbull reads 'weakful,' and, line 243,
'heed' for 'head,'--two of a number of provoking blunders in his text.
G.
VEXILLA REGIS:
THE HYMN OF THE HOLY CROSSE.[28]
I.
Look vp, languisting soul! Lo, where the fair 1
Badge of thy faith calls back thy care,
And biddes thee ne're forget
Thy life is one long debt
Of loue, to Him, Who on this painfull tree 5
Paid back the flesh He took for thee.
II.
Lo, how the streames of life, from that full nest
Of loues, Thy Lord's too liberall brest,
Flow in an amorous floud
Of water wedding blood. 10
With these He wash't thy stain, transferred thy smart,
And took it home to His own heart.
III.
But though great Love, greedy of such sad gain,
Vsurpt the portion of thy pain,
And from the nailes and spear 15
Turn'd the steel point of fear:
Their vse is chang'd, not lost; and now they moue
Not stings of wrath, but wounds of loue.
IV.
Tall tree of life! thy truth makes good
What was till now ne're understood, 20
Though the prophetick king
Struck lowd his faithfull string:
It was thy wood he meant should make the throne
For a more than Salomon.
V.
Large throne of Loue! royally spred 25
With purple of too rich a red:
Thy crime is too much duty;
Thy burthen, too much beauty;
Glorious or greiuous more? thus to make good
Thy costly excellence with thy King's own blood. 30
VI.
Euen ballance of both worlds! our world of sin,
And that of grace, Heaun-way'd in Him:
Vs with our price thou weighed'st;
Our price for vs thou payed'st,
Soon as the right-hand scale reioyc't to proue 35
How much Death weigh'd more light then Loue.
VII.
Hail, our alone hope! let thy fair head shoot
Aloft, and fill the nations with thy noble fruit:
The while our hearts and we
Thus graft our selues on thee, 40
Grow thou and they. And be thy fair increase
The sinner's pardon and the iust man's peace.
Liue, O for euer liue and reign
The Lamb Whom His own loue hath slain!
And let Thy lost sheep liue to inherit 45
That kingdom which this Crosse did merit. Amen.
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
These variations &c. as between 1648 and 1652, deserve record:
St. i. line 1. 'Languishing,' which is the reading in 1648.
Ib. line 2. Here, and in v. line 1, I have added 'e' to 'badg' and
'larg' respectively from 1648.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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