'schwerlich habe man schönere Gesänge als die lateinischen aus Wassernoth und Wassermangel.' Whatever the poetical worth of the hymn, it was in the Ambrosian use, at least in three Ambrosian MSS, and also in Mozarabic MSS (2) and use. It has some grace of 'linked sweetness long drawn out,' and was written by a student of Vergil, from whom many words and phrases are borrowed. In the schools of the IVth and Vth cent. Vergil, among Latin poets, held the foremost place; see Dill Roman Society in the last cent. of the Western Empire pp. 419 ff. For the drought which is the subject of the hymn cp. Ambr. Hex. II. 12 cum tanta igitur ubertas aquarum sit, tamen plerumque terra meridianae plagae torretur ardoribus atque aestu soluta fatiscit in puluerem, miserandi agricolae labore consumpto, ut frequenter ad potum siccatis puteis arido gurgite subsidium uitale deficiat. And Fortunatus VII. viii. I f. has a graphic account of the terrors of a scorching July. The prosody is fairly correct, but the poet has copied his master in lengthening short final syllables, cp. 12 despuitur, 34 merce, 35 culpă, 38 placidus. There is not an elision throughout. Ab Mak Vp Squalent arua soli puluere multo, quando nulla uiret gratia florum. fatiscit]break into chinks' with a further sense of exhaustion; Verg. Georg. 1. 180 puluere uicta fatiscat. 3. ruris honos] Verg. Georg. I. 4 uires Ma. roris onus Mak. uenustas] a prose word, used much by Plaut., Cic. and Quint., but also once by Prud. Hamart. 331. tellus dura sitit nescia roris, magno rupta patet turpis hiatu. feruens sole dies, igneus ardor ipsas urit aues, frondea rami uentis ora ferae, bestia uentis, fetus cerua suos, pignora cerua, 5 dira Mak. 7 herbam Mak. nullus...nulla] Schmalz p. 350. 4. nulla...gratia] Verg. Georg. I. 83. 5. Verg. Georg. 111. 297 duram... humum. sitit] Verg. Ecl. VII. 57 sitit... herba. 6. nescit] perhaps imitated from Ambrose, cp. 3. 20 note, rather than from Verg. Georg. I. 391. flumina cursus] a Vergilian clausula, Ecl. VIII. 4. 7. herbas] generally used by Verg. in the plu., though he also has the sing. 8. patet] Aen. VIII. 242 penitus patuere cauernae. turpis] 'disfigured,' 'ugly.' hiatu] Aen. VI. 237 spelunca alta fuit uastoque immanis hiatu. 9. feruens...dies] sc. est. aestu feruet humus looks like a deliberate correction. Iof. frondea...tecta] Verg. Georg. IV. 61f. There are no leaves to form a covert, 8 magnorum Ma. IO ramis Mak. 5 IO 15 9 aestu II necat Mk. 12. Verg. Georg. IV. 97 puluere ab alto cum uenit et sicco terram spuit ore uiator | aridus. 13. bestia] cattle. 14. captantes] Verg. Georg. 1. 376, Aen. III. 514. 241, flamina] Verg. Aen. IV. v. 832, X. 97. It is hard to say whether we should read flamina uenti (Lucr. 1. 291) or uentis, which fits in better with the context, but is suspicious on that very account. 16. fraude] line 28 fraudatum; Verg. Aen. v. 851 caeli...deceptus fraude sereni. uolentes] 'seeking,' 'trying,' Verg. Georg. IV. 501. 17. fetus is the usual word for the young of animals, as at Ecl. 1. 22, not pignora, which usually = 'children,' 30. 3 n. 18. recusat] refuses to suckle them. 19. pios] 'loving,' and therefore feeling the desertion by their dam; a touch of pathos missed by v. 1. suos. 24 fletu seu Ma. 29 plebs Ma. proprio Mak. 30 miseros Ma. 20 uenit Ma. 22 puteum Ma. 27 nuda u. humus Mk. 32 praestet Ma. 20. Verg. Aen. VII. 758 quaesitae...herbae. 'Seeing that the land does not produce the sought for grass,' uehit being used impersonally and in the sense of fert. But though the use of impers. verbs was widely extended in late Latin (Löfst. Stud. p. 56 f.) this use of uehit is hardly possible. [Probably the original was quaesita...uenit herba. This hymn is of course more literary and accomplished than most, but 35 shews that the a would be no difficulty. For uenit in this sense see Verg. Georg. 1. 54] 21. pocula]' water for drinking,' as Verg. Georg. I. 9 and often. 22. The emphatic -que. 23. reuisunt] Verg. Aen. VI. 330. 24. proprios] = suos, line 34, 30. 36, 112. 6, Verg. Georg. II. 428. 26. carpere gramen] Verg. Aen. IX. 353. 27. nudam] bare of grass, as Verg. Ecl. 1. 48. uersat] Verg. Georg. 1. 119. The ox is reduced to turning the clods over, like the swine. hanc peccata famem nostra merentur; sed merce propria, Christe, foueto ; 35 iusti supplicii uincla resoluens. iam caelum reseres aruaque laxes donasti pluuiam, nos quoque dones. 34 mercem propriam Mak. 40 pluuie Vp. 33. merentur in this one passage out of all these hymns has its usual classical meaning 'deserve'; see 4. 8 note; perhaps owing to Vergil's frequently having it in this sense. 34. merce propria] [There can be little doubt that merce propria means simply with Thine own mercy.' This would exactly answer to the requirements of the context. The word " mercy' is directly derived from merces, -dis: Skeat s.v., Wörting Lat.-roman. Wörterb. s.v. merces. Ducange, s.v. merces, gives many mediaeval examples to justify the translation m.=misericordia. ་ see But he gives some others. The earliest example is from Faustus of Riez (Ep. VI, ad Felicem) causa uestrae deuotionis et mercedis uestrae materia sumus (p. 196, 1. 8 ed. Engelbrecht). Here the word may bear its classical sense of recompense,' but it at least illustrates the process by which the word passes to the sense of 'mercy'; the process being the reverse of that by which gratia passes from favour' to 'thanks.' Two references to Gregory the Great in Ducange are nearer to the point, Ep. lib. IV. xxxi (ad Theodor. sub fin.) facere uos rogo quod facitis, ut dum peto quod fieri uideo, mercedi uestrae me petendo subiungam ('may submit myself to your good grace'). 36 resoluat Ma. 40 38 secundo Mak. Ep. lib. XI. xiv (ad Asclep.) dum praestantiorem sibi locum ad animae utilitatem datum intellegunt [reges], certum est quia mercedis causas, ubi inueniunt, non postponunt. This might be understood as means of obtaining reward,' like the passage in Faustus; but it suits the context more easily to take it as 'objects of charity.' In our poem there is the objection that merce is used, not mercede. But the word merxwares' could have no possible meaning here. It is evident that the author uses merce as mercede in whatever sense he intended to use that word, and in spite of his Vergilian erudition it is likely that he thought merce an allowable abl. from merces.] 35 f. the heavier our fault, the greater be, or is, the grace undoing the bonds of our well-earned punishment.' With gratia supply sit, or est. Cp. Rom. vi. 20. 37. reseres] Verg. Aen. VIII. [GRAMMATICAL NOTES WALPOLE spent much time and labour in the attempt to draw up what he called a Grammar of the Hymns. He said that if he did not do it, no one else would. It may be doubted whether the task was worth undertaking. Considering what a long period of time is covered by these hymns, and what varying degrees of culture they represent, an inquiry into their linguistic peculiarities lacks the interest attaching to the study of the Latin of a particular author, or of a particular region at a given date. Walpole's plan was never carried out. He left many books full of notes on the subject, but nothing completed. What follows is compiled from his notes, but does not pretend to be all that he aimed at. The Index of Words will supply a good deal of the information which he wished to convey.] I. FORMATION OF WORDS Substantives In -tor (-trix) and -sor (see Rönsch 55, Schmalz 607): altor, auctor, auditor, conditor, congregator, creator, cultor, dator (datrix), debitor, defensor, dicator, donator, ductor, excitator, factor, fictor, indultor, insecutor, interemptor, inuentor, inuestigator, largitor, lauator, mercator, pastor, peccator, perditor, plasmator, praenuntiatrix, praestigiator, proditor, raptor, rector, redemptor, remissor, repertor, sacrator, saluator, scrutator, sessor, speculator, successor, tortor, traditor, uastator, uictor (uictrix), ultor (ultrix), uorator. N.B. Vergil has 61 such words, Prudentius 149. In -tio and -sio (see Rönsch 69, Schmalz 603): absolutio, benedictio, confessio, corruptio, demptio, deprecatio, diremptio, electio, iubilatio, natio, oratio, passio, redemptio, reparatio, supplicatio, tunsio, uisio, unctio. |