Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-09-18

"neher nc hau received an educaton OF the schools OF
not Quantity, with its values often merely fictitious
and involving many Inconsistencies could longer be
maintained the basis of harmony The church natu
rally fell back accent which is essentially popular APP
pealing to the sense of every ear and in ts
broader features in its simple rise and fall appreciable
by all; which had also in its union with music this adj
vantage that it allowed those who were much more
concerned about what they said than how they said It,
and could i'll brook be crossed and turned out of their
way by rules and resrantsthe necessity Of which they
did not acknowledged greater liberty than quantity
would have afforded them inasmuch the music in its
great choral harmones ready threw its broad
mantle over the to coneeat weakness and where
needfu to its multitude of sins For these several
and concurrent reasons the strctnes Of metrca OBJ
servance being gradually relaxed it remains to trace
the progressive steps by which the manifested
tendency towards rhyme, which, already indicated
by the extract above given from Guest is uniformly its
nseparable adjunct To present this part Of subject
adequately would require length of dissertation and
multiplicity OF examples quoted from the early and later
christian verse which would far transcend the limits with
in which constrained to confne our remarks Suf-
fee it say in the words of author that rhyme rather
showed itself first in lines which, having little relaxed
the srctness of mercal Observance sought to find
pensaon for this in similar closes the verse and very
far it at first from that elaborate and perfect nsru
ment which it afterwards became We may trace step
by step from its first rude and uncertain beginnings TILL
in the later hymnologss of the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries, Aquinas Adam of ST. Victor it dis
played all its latent capacities and attained its final glory
and perfection, satatng the with richness Of melo
dy that scarcely any where is to be surpassed At first
the rhymes were often merely vowel Ones the
consonants not being required agree the rhyme
adhered to when it convenient but when 1t cost tro
bic find the needfu word abandoned the rhyme
allowed arranged to fall on unaccented
syllable, and therefore scarcely noticeable or con-
sisted merely in the similar termination Of single letter
or the strength Of this like ending and in reliance up
this sufficiently sustaining the melody, the whole
other construction of the and arrangement of the
syabes neglected. Thus it lies in power
distinctly and as it step by STEP the whole rise and
growth Of the Latin rhymed poetry from its first "un
conscious preludngs' in ST. Ambrose its full dapa
in the choral harmones of Thomas de Celano
Adam of st. Victor.
With respect to the natural genius and quality of the
sacred Latin poetry forbear inserting the fol-
lowing observations which translate from the glowing
pages of Fortlage:*
sThe fire Of Revelation its strong and simple energy
by which, were it rends the rock and bursts the icy
barriers of the human heart predomnates in those oldest
pieces OF the sacred Latin poesy which comprised in
in the simplest tones and seldom rhyme It's chief
Characteristic is the absence of Even through
horns and brambles it ofentmes takes its way but be-
meath the rugged covering of the words there often gows
fiery energy the power of that revealed word which
erpenetrates the universe. This well be called the
primal song of Christendom the song of its moral force
for by it Christianity begot in the soul of her confessors
soicsm that the world and which, by its
firing persistence at last victory for the The
FIRE of enthusiasm and sentiment which in the old Roman
song never came to an immediate outburst cleaned
brightly up however in Spain especially in the poesy of
Prudentus If the severe simplicity of the Ambrosian
hymns reminds of the Mosaic mandate to sacrifice to
God on affairs of unhewn stone observe the
rary, in Prudentus bursting forth of the old
flaming psalmody, blazing in manycoored lights, like the
varegaed hues transmitted through stained glass
window As listen the soul weters in deep and strong
emotion. From this has arisen whatever of SUBJ
lime, magnificent and fair the sacred poesy of Chrisen
dom has brought to light In it the organ pipes which
thunder through heaven and earth seem in full play as
with shudders of inner unworhness with cries and melt
ing tears with ubiant shouts the goodness of God
and plants and signs over Adams fall and with triumph
ant strains that praise the great redemption they thrill
through the universe 1t is thus that the heights Of
feer and ecstatic melody reached in opposi
ton to the measured and subdued notes of elder
Rome just in the profane poetry of the South the
many coored lights of Calderon differ from the more
sombre severity of Dante and the exqustey
hues of Tasso.
Under Fortunatus this fuller strain of song proceeds
to Italy in the shudderng notes of his sVesa Regis
and Pange Lngua, and there unites at later day in
France, with the rich veins Of song opened by Peter
Domiani, Thomas Aquinas Adam of St. Victor, Bernard
and Bonaventura until last it reached its highest
mits in the tenors of the flaming Dies Ie" and the
pathos of the fearful Sta5at Mater" But that which
spans the distance between them BOTH and in which con-
siss the depth of the Christian poetry is the element of
deep remorse in which the wood of the appears
like wonder working tree the central mystery Of
Christianity"
We pass in conclusion to notice briefly possible
the literary history and fortunes of of the choicest
specimens Of this medieval Latin verse and for this pur
pose select the Posa which is doubtless the best known
Thomas de Celano for him do hesitate to ascrbe
its authorship, without at present entering into the
troyery which has been waged this subject deeming
it sufficient merely to state that the claims Of Thomas dc
Ceano have been INDICATED by those whose research and
scholarship best entite them pronounce judgment
this ve1ed question-by Lsco and Mohnike, and Gese-
ler Neither do limits permit to discuss the three
rival lections of this celebrated hymn that of the Man
tuan marble, the text Of Hammern the Roman mis-
SAL though rather incline with Daniel to believe that
the last contains il in the shape which it bore first
leaving the hands of its composer instead Of being the
residuum of two successive recisons. t
OF this majestic hymn Daniel has forciby said quot
snt verba ponderd imao oHrud and justly ranks it
the highest ornament of sacred poetry and most
valuable heirloom Of the Latin church for they he
adds whom the Latin hymns Of the church wholly
unknown at least know Of this and Sany are found 50
destitute Of and culture all to appreciate
the sweetness Of sacred melody he thinks even these
must be charmed by its thrilling strains 1t is diff
cult to understand explain the wide and general popu
q