MR. DITFFIELD'S "LATIN HYMNS."• THE author of this valuable and
interesting book did not live to complete it. But in Professor Thompson he found a friend who was able and willing to complete it for him. It is im- possible to speak too highly of this gentleman's manly and sym- pathetic preface. And Mr. Duffield's " Introduction " places the origin and scope of his work very clearly before the reader. It is written, he says, " in the American language," because his purpose was to reach the popular desire for better know- ledge. There was an ominous ring in this assertion, but Mr. Duffield writes excellent English, and if he caters, as he says he does, for the public, he takes due care that his work shall deserve the approbation of scholars. He abstains from dealing critically with the text of the hymns, and from attempting to cope with " such illustrious scholarship as that of Daniel or Mone." He has been content, therefore, as he modestly says, to pipe to a lesser reed, and to attempt the history of the hymns and their writers in a more familiar and gossiping way. The hymn-writers, in fact, fill more, far more, of Mr. Duffield's pages than their hymns do. But, so far as we can judge, not a single hymn of any import- ance has been left without due notice. If the lives of some of the writers prove slightly soporific, they are all so brightly and freshly written, that the reader's sleep will be " full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing." A few examples of what Mr. Duffield's " familiar and gossiping way" permits him to write, will serve to show the reader what is in store for him. He concludes his excellent account, of Thomas a Kemple with the following words :- " Most of his poetry lacks the inspiration which characterises his best prose. He is a poet in prose, and a prosy poet, and writes in verse because he has been required to fill up some empty place in the hymn list of his monastery. His acquaintance with the hymn-writer's art is bounded by his daily familiarity with the hymns of his breviary. But in this hymn (' Adstant angelorime chori') on the joys of Heaven, he for once struck the right key, although even here he shows some stiffness in the joints, like a monk more used to a seat in the Scriptorium, than to the saddle of Pegasus."
Mr. Duffield has some excellent remarks on the importance of the Vulgate to the student of Latin hymnology. It stands, he says, in much the same relation to the Latin hymns of the fifth and later centuries, as the English Bible stands to the English hymn-writers. It controls their vocabulary and explains their allusions. His account of the oldest hymn in which rhyme is employed intentionally and throughout is very noticeable. It was written by Pope Demeans in the fourth century, in commemoration of the Martyr Agatha. It is printed here in extenso, and it is curious to notice that while flograns rhymes with ovans, fugiens rhymes with opera, and omnipotent; with m.emorem.
Of the famous "Dies Irte," Professor Thompson mentions the curious fact that although the first English version was made in 1621, and the first American version in 1841, there have now been published at least ninety-six versions in America, as against fifty-one in England. Whether Thomas of Celano was the author of that celebrated hymn, may be doubted. If he was, however, it seems unreasonable to suggest that he has ploughed with the heifer of an earlier countryman. Dr. Neale contends that the " Pangs lingua gloriosi " of Thomas Aquinas contests the second place among the hymns of the Western Church with the " Vexilla Regis," the " Stabat Mater," the " Jean dulcis memoria," the " Ad regias Agni Dapes," and one or two others, leaving the " Dies Irx " in its unapproachable glory.
Mr. Duffield takes the Doctor to task here. He admits the logical neatness, dogmatic precision, and force of the almost argumentative statements which the great schoolman's hymn displays. But he rightly argues that these qualities are not poetical. And he illustrates his position neatly enough when he suggests that the " Flange lingua gloriosi " is not altogether unlike Toplady's " Rock of Ages," a hymn in which the intellect has cut a channel for the emotions to flow in. Toplady's hymn was written as a tail-piece to a controversial article, in which Toplady discussed John Wesley's doctrines in the matter of faith and works, and is a terse statement of theological discriminations on that point. We dare say that this statement is correct enough, But we are unable to follow the Professor when he contends that the • The Latin Hymn-Writers and their Hymns. By the late 8. W. Duffield. Edited and completed by Professor B. E. Thompson, D D., of the university of Pennsylvania. New York and London: Punk and Wagualle. 1889.
numerous translations of the "Dies Ira) " are " partly due to the entirely Evangelical type of its doctrine, its freedom from Mariolatry, its exaltation of divine mercy above human merit, and its picture of the soul's free access to God without the intervention of Church or priest." It would be idle, however, to express difference of opinion on a question of this kind. There are plenty of points in this volume which challenge contradiction, but readers must be rather hard to please if they do not feel grateful to the authors for the pains which they have taken. They have written very pleasantly, as well as carefully, on an interesting theme, and we think that their book is quite sure of meeting with the success which it richly deserves. Still, as the old Latin grammarian observes,-
" Pro captu lectoris habent sus fata libelli."
What we have to add is a warning to those who have no great taste for hymnology, from thinking that this book will not suit them. It is very likely to suit them well, for its pages abound in matter which scholars will be glad to refresh their memories by reading, and which others will be pleased to acquire so pleasantly.
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