of St Peter, 11, but the other is found in 12-17 as a commentary on Romans 13, II-14, from which is taken the Chapter for weekday Lauds. This passage, to which many references are made in the notes, is as follows: Hora est jam nos de somno surgere... Nox praecessit, dies autem appropinquavit. Abjiciamus ergo opera tenebrarum, et induamur arma lucis. Sicut in die honeste ambulemus: non in comessationibus et ebrietatibus, non in cubilibus et impudicitiis, non in contentione et aemulatione: sed induimini Dominum Jesum Christum. The morning office of Lauds, so full of joy that light and the Light are coming, ends fittingly with the Benedictus which daily recalls the Oriens ex alto, Who has come illuminare his qui in tenebris... sedent. Notes on Hymn 10 Author, Metre and Use. Cf. 1, which is its counterpart at Matins. I. tenuatur (tenuo, 1), make thin or small; diminish. 2. rutilans (rutilo, 1), make or be reddish; blushing; cf. 59, 1, note. 3. rerum Dominum, the Lord of creation; canora, melodious, not only musically but as springing from a heart aflame with love of God. The original Nisibus totis rogitemus omnes and the original Viribus totis of 1, 3, mean with all our strength and effort, both referring to ex omnibus viribus tuis of Lk. 10, 27. 6. angorem, anguish, torment, trouble, etc. Original languorem, i.e. sickness as contrasted with health, salutem. For this use of languor (and languidus), cf. sanans omnem languorem, Mt. 4, 23, and 34, 7 and 81, 15. For the doxology Praestet, cf. 1, 9–12. Notes on Hymn II Author. St Ambrose (cf. Introduction S3, and introduction to 13). That St Ambrose is the author is mentioned by St Augustine in Retract. 1, 21: qui sensus etiam cantatur ore multorum in versibus beatissimi Ambrosii, ubi de gallo gallinaceo ait: Hoc ipsa petra ecclesiae/Canente, culpam diluit. A passage in St Ambrose's Hexaemeron is a good commentary on this hymn and, in spite of its length, is worth quoting. It was probably written after the hymn. Est etiam galli cantus suavis in noctibus, nec solum suavis sed etiam utilis; qui quasi bonus cohabitator et dormientem excitat et sollicitum admonet et viantem solatur, processum noctis canora voce protestans. Hoc canente latro suas relinquit insidias, hoc ipse lucifer excitatus oritur caelumque illuminat. Hoc canente maestitiam trepidus nauta deponit omnisque crebro vespertinis flatibus excitata tempestas et procella mitescit; hoc devotus affectus exsilit ad precandum, legendo quoque munus instaurat. Hoc postremo canente ipse ecclesiae petra culpam suam diluit, quam, priusquam gallus cantaret, negando contraxerat. Istius cantu spes omnibus redit, aegri relevatur incommodum, minuitur dolor vulnerum, febrium flagrantia mitigatur, revertitur fides lapsis, Jesus titubantes respicit, hymns were more concerned with light in the darkness, but these think of the light which ends the darkness. There is, for instance, Prudentius' breathless Lux intrat, albescit polus,/Christus venit-discedite, 14, 3-4, and St Ambrose's Aurora cursus provehit,/Aurora totus prodeat, 12, 29-30, note, and hymn 17 which carries the idea right through to the Last Day. The first hymn of the Lauds series, as was the case in the Matins series, differs from the rest in spirit as well as in metre. It is an appeal to worship God with all one's strength at the morning service of praise. The other hymns have in them the note of vigilance. Vigilate ergo; nescitis enim quando dominus domus veniat: sero, an media nocte, an galli cantu, an mane. ... Quod autem vobis dico, omnibus dico: Vigilate, Mark 13, 35-7. This idea of vigilance is developed in two ways. The first is through the story many of St Peter, 11, but the other is found in 12-17 as a commentary on Romans 13, 11-14, from which is taken the Chapter for weekday Lauds. This passage, to which references are made in the notes, is as follows: Hora est jam nos de somno surgere... Nox praecessit, dies autem appropinquavit. Abjiciamus ergo opera tenebrarum, et induamur arma lucis. Sicut in die honeste ambulemus: non in comessationibus et ebrietatibus, non in cubilibus et impudicitiis, non in contentione et aemulatione: sed induimini Dominum Jesum Christum. The morning office of Lauds, so full of joy that light and the Light are coming, ends fittingly with the Benedictus which daily recalls the Oriens ex alto, Who has come illuminare his qui in tenebris. . . sedent. Notes on Hymn 10 Author, Metre and Use. Cf. 1, which is its counterpart at Matins. I. tenuatur (tenuo, 1), make thin or small; diminish. 2. rutilans (rutilo, 1), make or be reddish; blushing; cf. 59, 1, note. 3. rerum Dominum, the Lord of creation; canora, melodious, not only musically but as springing from a heart aflame with love of God. The original Nisibus totis rogitemus omnes and the original Viribus totis of 1, 3, mean with all our strength and effort, both referring to ex omnibus viribus tuis of Lk. 10, 27. 6. angorem, anguish, torment, trouble, etc. Original languorem, i.e. sickness as contrasted with health, salutem. For this use of languor (and languidus), cf. sanans omnem languorem, Mt. 4, 23, and 34, 7 and 81, 15. For the doxology Praestet, cf. 1, 9–12. Notes on Hymn II Author. St Ambrose (cf. Introduction § 3, and introduction to 13). That St Ambrose is the author is mentioned by St Augustine in Retract. 1, 21: qui sensus etiam cantatur ore multorum in versibus beatissimi Ambrosii, ubi de gallo gallinaceo ait: Hoc ipsa petra ecclesiae/Canente, culpam diluit. A passage in St Ambrose's Hexaemeron is a good commentary on this hymn and, in spite of its length, is worth quoting. It was probably written after the hymn. Est etiam galli cantus suavis in noctibus, nec solum suavis sed etiam utilis; qui quasi bonus cohabitator et dormientem excitat et sollicitum admonet et viantem solatur, processum noctis canora voce protestans. Hoc canente latro suas relinquit insidias, hoc ipse lucifer excitatus oritur caelumque illuminat. Hoc canente maestitiam trepidus nauta deponit omnisque crebro vespertinis flatibus excitata tempestas et procella mitescit; hoc devotus affectus exsilit ad precandum, legendo quoque munus instaurat. Hoc postremo canente ipse ecclesiae petra culpam suam diluit, quam, priusquam gallus cantaret, negando contraxerat. Istius cantu spes omnibus redit, aegri relevatur incommodum, minuitur dolor vulnerum, febrium flagrantia mitigatur, revertitur fides lapsis, Jesus titubantes respicit, Hoc excitatus lucifer 10 Solvit polum caligine; Hoc omnis erronum cohors Viam nocendi deserit. Hoc nauta vires colligit Pontique mitescunt freta; 15 Hoc, ipsa petra ecclesiae, Canente, culpam diluit. Surgamus ergo strenue: Gallus jacentes excitat Et somnolentos increpat; 20 Gallus negantes arguit. Gallo canente spes redit, 25 Jesu, labantes respice Tu lux refulge sensibus 30 Mentisque somnum discute; Te nostra vox primum sonet Et vota solvamus tibi. Let us then rise promptly. The cock awakes the sleepers, loudly upbraids the sleepy and puts to shame the lie-abed. When he crows, hope comes back, a feeling of health returns to the sick, the robber sheathes his sword and trust makes its way back to sinful souls. Look on us, Jesus, when we waver and with a glance correct us; for if You look on us, our sins fall from us and our tears wash away our guilt. Be a shining light to our minds and drive sloth away from our souls. May our tongue's first act be to praise You; so may we discharge our promises to You. errantes corrigit. Denique respexit Petrum et statim error abscessit; pulsa est negatio, secuta confessio. (W.) of spiritual darkness, whose leader is Lucifer. Errorum is the equivalent of the vagantes daemones of Use. From October to Lent, Advent and the Prudentius, Cath. I, 37 and both passed into the Christmas season excepted. 1. conditor; our Lord, as in 2, 3 and 53, 11. Because of the Arians, St Ambrose naturally stressed the divinity of the Second Person. 3. Temporum are the fixed periods of day and night, and the fixed seasons; tempora the fixed times at which they change. 4. fastidium; probably boredom (from monotony), which would result if there were no such changes. 5. nocturna lux, like a lamp at night, i.e. serving as a guide, and giving heart to the traveller; cf. viantem solatur in the prose passage. 'extravagant and erring spirit' of Hamlet I, 1, 154. cohors. All MSS have chorus; cf. quodam nequitiarum choro circumfusum, Ambr. de Cain, I, 14, for a similar use by Ambrose. 15. ipsa. Thus in very many MSS, in Breviaries and in St Augustine's quotation above. In the prose passage it is ipse-a favourite usage of Ambrose; cf. aurora totus, 12, 29, note. 16. diluit, washed away; cf. Mt. 26, 75. 18. excitat. Note the climax: excitat, awakens, increpat, rebukes, arguit, denounces, convicts of. The cock is a symbol of the Resurrection; inde est 6. Nox=vigilia; cf. processum noctis in the prose quod omnes credimus/illo quietis tempore quo gallus passage. 7. Praeco diei; cf. 13, I and 'The cock that is trumpet to the morn', Hamlet I, 1, 150. Praeco diei is the subject, nocturna... segregans being in apposition. 8. jubar, ray. This non-Ambrosian line is due to a misunderstanding of lucifer in line 9. 5-8 in the original are: Praeco diei jam sonat,/noctis profundae pervigil,/nocturna lux viantibus/a nocte noctem segregans. This the revisers ruined by inverting the order of the lines and by omitting the most expressive line. The Church, because of its unbroken public prayer, may also be said to be noctis profundae pervigil. 9. Hoc. Here and in lines 11, 13 and 15 (and in the prose passage) supply canente from 16. The rhetorical repetition of hoc, gallus and tu, te and tibi is Ambrosian; cf. W. excitatus lucifer, the sun is awakened. In the hymns lucifer sometimes means the sun, sometimes the daystar as in 16, 9. 10. polum (Greek módos), vault of heaven. Polus= (1) pivot, especially of the earth, 'the pole'; (2) the vault of heaven, as here and in nec lucidus aethra/ siderea polus, Virg. Aen. III, 585-6; and (3) heaven, as in 2, 12. II. erronum (erro, -nis), vagabond, wanderer, night-prowler-a word introduced into the Roman Breviary in 1632 and adopted by many editors for the MSS errorum; cf. W and Trench. Ambrose is apparently referring to roving demons (errorum) not to evil men (erronum), the connection being between the physical darkness, caligine, and the powers exsultans canit/Christum redisse ex inferis, Prud. Cath. I, 65-8. It is also an emblem of the preacher: quia et gallus iste, quem pro exprimenda boni praedicatoris specie in locutione sua Dominus assumit, cum jam edere cantus parat, prius alas excutit, et semetipsum feriens vigilantiorem reddit; ... prius se per sublimia facta excutiant (sc. praedicatores), et tunc ad bene vivendum alios sollicitos reddant. Greg. Regula Pastoralis, III, 40. For a medieval summary of the symbolism of the cock, cf. Oxford Medieval, 97. 22. refunditur, pours, flows back. Fundere and its compounds are favourite words of Ambrose. ... 25. labantes (labare, 1), tottering, wavering, about to fall. For the whole verse cf. Et continuo cantavit gallus. Et conversus Dominus respexit Petrum ... Et egressus Petrus flevit amare, Lk. 22, 60–2. 27. labes, stains, sins. Probably lapsus (cf. 26, 11) should be read. MSS vary between lapsos, lapsi and lapso. For lapsus in Ambrose's prose, cf. lessons 5 and 6, Fifth Sunday after Pentecost. 29. lux refulge, blaze forth as a light. It seems more likely that lux is predicative here rather than the vocative which the Breviary punctuation suggests. Our Lord, as lux, is likened to the cock which is a nocturna lux viantibus. Sensibus, thoughts, mind—the usual meaning in the hymns. 30. somnum, slothful negligence, lethargy; mentis, cf. 3, 6; discute, dispel; cf. 13, 13. 31. primum; cf. 3, s. 32. vota solvamus, discharge our vows (by singing God's praises). In 12, 9, votis prayers. |