DIES IRM 
 
THE LAST JUDGMENT 
 
U% X'X 
 
 IN 
 
 THIRTEEN ORIGINAL VERSIONS 
 
 ABRAHAM' COLES, M.D. 
 
 With Photographic Illustrations 
 
 THIRD EDITION 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 
 1864 
 

 Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1859, 1a 
 
 Abraham Coles, 
 
 in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the District of 
 
 New Jersey, 
 
 RIVERSIDE. CAMBRIDGE : 
 STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED 
 ITENKY O. HOUGHTON. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 1 T would be difficult to find, in the 
 whole range of literature, a production 
 to which a profounder intereft attaches 
 ^S^o than to that magnificent canticle of the 
 .. iddle Ages, the DIES IRJE. Fattening on that 
 which is indeftru&ible in man, and giving fitter ex- 
 preflion than can elsewhere be found, to experiences 
 and emotions which can never cease to agitate him, 
 it has loft after the lapse of fix centuries none of its 
 original frefhness and transcendent power to affecl: 
 the heart. It has commanded alike the admiration 
 of men of piety and men of tafte. By common con- 
 sent, it is as Daniel remarks : sacra poeseos summum 
 decus et Ecclesice Latina ksl^Tuov est pretiojijjimum. 
 Among gems it is the diamond. It is solitary in 
 
 /r££~ 
 
 9/ 
 
VI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 its excellence. Of Latin Hymns, it is the beft 
 known and the acknowledged mafterpiece. There 
 are others which pofless much sweetness and beauty, 
 but this ftands unrivalled. It has superior beauties, 
 with none of their defeats. For the moft part they 
 are more or less Romifh, but this is Catholic, and 
 not Romifh at all. It is universal as humanity. It 
 is the cry of the human. It bears indubitable marks 
 of being a personal experience. 
 
 The author is supposed to have been a monk : an 
 incredible suppofition truly did we not know that a 
 monk is also a man. One thing is certain, that the 
 monk does not appear, and that it is the man only 
 that speaks. He no longer dreams and drivels. He 
 is effectually awake. The veil is lifted. He sees 
 Chrift coming to Judgment. All the tumult and the 
 terror of the Laft Day are present to him. The final 
 pause and syncope of Nature ; the fhuddering of a 
 horror-ftruck Universe ; the down-rufhing and wreck 
 of all things — all are present. But these material 
 circumftances of horror and amazement, he feels are 
 as nothing compared with " the infinite terror of 
 being found guilty before the Juft Judge." This 
 
 
INTRODUCTION. Vll 
 
 fingle confideration swallows up every other. The 
 interefts of an eternity are crowded into a moment. 
 
 One great secret of the power and enduring popu- 
 larity of this Hymn is, undoubtedly, its genuineness. 
 A vital fincerity breathes throughout. It is a cry de 
 profundi s ; and the cry becomes sometimes — so in- 
 tense are the terror and solicitude — almoft a fhriek. 
 It is in the higheft degree pathetic. The Muse 
 is " Mater Lachrymarum, Our Lady of Tears.'' 
 Every line weeps. Underneath every word and syl- 
 lable, a living heart throbs and pulsates. The very 
 rhythm, or that alternate elevation and depreffion of 
 the voice, which prosodifts call the arfis and the 
 thefts^ one might almoft fancy were synchronous 
 with the contraction and the dilatation of the heart. 
 It is more than dramatic. The horror and the dread 
 are real: are a£tual not a£ted. A human heart is 
 laid bare, quivering with life, and we see and hear its 
 tumultuous throbbings. We sympathize — nay, be- 
 fore we are aware, we have changed places. We, 
 too, tremble and quail and cry aloud. 
 
 All true Lyric Poetry is subjective. The Dies 
 Irje is, as we have seen, remarkable for its intense 
 
Vlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 subjectivity ; and whoever duly appreciates this cnhi 
 adteriftic, will have little difficulty in underftanding 
 its superior effectiveness over everything else that 
 has been written on the same theme. The life of 
 the writer has palled into it and informs it, so that it 
 is itself alive. It has vital forces and emanations. 
 Its life mingles with our life. It enters into our 
 veins and circulates in our blood. A virtue goes out 
 from it. It is electrically charged, and contact is 
 inftantly followed by a mock and fhuddering. 
 
 Springing from its subjectivity, if not identical with 
 it, we would further notice, the intenfifying effecSt of 
 what may be called its personalism, in other words 
 its ego-ism. It is I and not We. Subftitute the 
 plural pronoun for the fingular, and it would lose 
 half its pungency. We have had occafion to observe 
 the weakening effe£t of this in tranflation. The 
 truth is, the feeling is of a kind too concentrated and 
 too exacting to allow itself to be diflipated in the 
 vagueness of any grouping generality. The heart 
 knoweth its own bitterness. There is a grief that 
 cannot be fhared, neither can it be joined on to 
 another's. It is not social nor common. It is mine 
 
INTRODUCTION. IX 
 
 and not yours. It is exclufive, not because it is sel- 
 fish, but because it has depths beyond the soundings 
 of ordinary sympathy. 
 
 This is especially true of some of the intenser 
 forms of religious experience, proceeding as they do 
 from that which is moft intimate and innermoft, the 
 penetralia of a man's consciousness, his moft secret 
 and peculiar self. There is an inner and privileged 
 san£tuary of the heart, which is kept as a chamber 
 locked up. It is hidden and sacred. It may be, 
 that the individual, dwelling habitually in the outer 
 courts of his being, rarely if ever enters into it him- 
 self. For man is twofold. A veil divides between 
 the outer and the inner man. Gross and sensual, 
 the majority of mankind are averse to lifting the con- 
 cealing medium, for fear of unwelcome revelations 
 and discoveries respecting themselves. Goethe is an 
 example of this portentous preference for half knowl- 
 edge : " Man," he says, " is a darkened being ; he 
 knows not whence he came, nor whither he goes ; 
 he knows little of the world and less of himself. I 
 know not myself, and may God prote£t. me from it." 
 
 In converfion to God this veil is rent from top to 
 b 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 bottom. There is a self-revelation. Behind the 
 curtain, there in the Moft Holy Place, where ought 
 to be the Shekinah, the mining, senfible Manifefta- 
 tion of the Divine Presence, he beholds the Abomi- 
 nation of Iniquity set up. He awakes to the ftart- 
 ling fa£t that he is Cf without God and without hope 
 in the world." A voice of urgency is sounding in 
 his ears : " Flee from the Wrath to Come." He 
 anticipates the terrors of the Judgment. He feels 
 that there is not a moment to lose. Instinct 
 prompts, and the Word of God enjoins, that he seek 
 to save himself firft. He knows not whether others 
 are in as bad a case as he. But of his own guilt and 
 danger he has no doubt. An offended Maker con- 
 fronts him, him in particular. So he prays and ago- 
 nizes. His may not be "the thews which throw the 
 world" — he is conscious of weakness rather than 
 ftrength — yet fingly and alone, he wreftles with God 
 like Jacob, and prevails like Israel. 
 
 The Hymn is not only lyrical in its effence, but 
 also in its form. It is inftinit with mufic. It fings 
 itself. The grandeur of its rhythm, and the afro- 
 nance and chime of its fit and powerful words, are 
 
 
INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 even in the ears of those unacquainted with the Latin 
 language, suggeftive of the richeft and mightieft har- 
 monies. The verse is ternaiy ; and the ternary 
 number, having been efteemed anciently a symbol 
 of perfection and held in great veneration, may pos- 
 sibly have had something to do with the choice of 
 the ftrophe. Be this as it may, its metrical ftruc- 
 ture, as all agree, conftitutes by no means the leaft of 
 its extraordinary merits. Trench, in his Selections 
 from Latin Poetry, speaks of the metre as being 
 grandly devised, and fitted to bring out some of the 
 nobleft powers of the Latin language ; and as being, 
 moreover, unique, forming the only example of the 
 kind that he remembers. He notices the solemn 
 effe£t of the triple rhyme, comparable to blow fol- 
 lowing blow of the hammer on the anvil. Knapp, in 
 his Liederschatz, likens the original to a blaft from 
 the trump of resurre£lion r and declares its power 
 inimitable in any tranflation. 
 

HISTORY OF THE HYMN. 
 
 HE authorfhip of the Dies Irae is as- 
 cribed, apparently upon good grounds, 
 to Thomas of Celano, so called from a 
 small town of that name in Italy. He 
 was a friend and pupil and subsequently the biog- 
 rapher of St. Francis of Affifi, the founder of the 
 order of Minorites, (called also Friars-Minor, Grey 
 Friars or Franciscans, being one of the four orders 
 of mendicant friars,) inftituted in 1208. Wadding, 
 an Irifhman and a Minorite, who lived in the firft 
 half of the seventeenth century, and who wrote a 
 hiftory of his order, expreflly refers it to Celano. 
 He mentions two other hymns or Sequences com- 
 posed by him, one beginning : Fregit viffor virtua- 
 lis ; the other : Sanftitatis nova Jigna, The circunv 
 
XIV HISTORY OF THE HYMN. 
 
 ftance of the Dominican Sixtus Senenfis affe&ing 
 to sneer at it, calling it rhythmus incondltus^ is re- 
 garded as confirmatory of the opinion, that it was at 
 leaft the work of a Franciscan ; the bitter rivalries 
 subfifting between the two orders affording, it is 
 thought, the moft plaufible explanation of a criticism 
 so manifeftly splenetic and unjuft. Another cor- 
 roborative circumftance is its early admiffion into 
 the Franciscan Miflals, by which means a knowl- 
 edge of it was spread throughout Europe. The 
 correctness of this inference is further suftained by 
 the fa£i, that, inscribed on a marble flab in the 
 Franciscan Church of St. Francis at Mantua, was 
 found one of the earlieft copies of the hymn, rep- 
 resenting, it is believed, the text as it came from 
 the hands of the author. Dr. Mohnike, a learned 
 and able editor of the Dies Irae, furnifhes an old 
 copy of the Mantuan text, which differs from the 
 Received text chiefly in this, that the firft four 
 ftanzas are additional. They are here given with 
 a tranflation annexed \ also the heading which is as 
 follows : 
 
HISTORY OF THE HYMN. XV 
 
 Meditatio Vetufta et Venufta 
 
 de Noviflimo Judicio 
 qua? Mantuae in aede D. Francisci in 
 
 marmore legitur. 
 
 1. Cogita, anima fidelis, 
 Ad quid respondere velis, 
 Chrifto venturo de coelis. 
 
 Weigh with solemn thought and tender, 
 What response, thou, Soul, wilt render, 
 Then when Chrift mall come in splendor 
 
 2. Cum deposcet rationem 
 Ob boni omimonem, 
 Ob mali commimonem. 
 
 And thy life fhall be inspected, 
 All its hidden guilt detected, 
 Evil done and good neglected. 
 
 3. Dies ilia, dies irse, 
 Quam conemur prsevenire 
 Obviamque Deo ire ; 
 
 For that day of vengeance neareth : 
 Ready be each one that heareth 
 God to meet when He appeareth, 
 
XVI HISTORY OF THE HYMN. 
 
 4. Seria contritione, 
 
 Gratiae apprehenfione, 
 Vitae emendatione. 
 
 By repenting, by believing, 
 
 By God's offered grace receiving, 
 
 By all evil courfes leaving. 
 
 The succeeding fixteen verfes are the same, with 
 flight variations, as those of the Church or Received 
 text ; but in place of the next verse, which forms 
 the 17th of this, beginning: Oro supplex et acdinis, 
 the Mantuan copy has the following for its 21ft and 
 concluding ftanza : 
 
 2i. Confors ut beatitatis 
 Vivam cum juftificatis 
 In sevum seternitatis. Amen. 
 
 That in fellowfhip fraternal 
 
 With inhabitants supernal 
 
 I may live the life eternal. Amen. 
 
 That the abbreviation of the poem, by the omis- 
 fion of the four opening ftanzas, adds greatly to its 
 general, and ftill more to its lyric effectiveness, there 
 can be no doubt. The rejected verfes, partaking of 
 
HISTORY OF THE HYMN. XV11 
 
 a quiet and meditative character, impair the force of 
 the lyric element. In its present form, all is vehe- 
 ment ftir and movement, from the grand and ftart- 
 ling abruptness of its opening, to the sweet and 
 powerful pathos of its solemn and impreffive close. 
 
 Befides Celano, various other names have had 
 their supporters for the honor of the authorfhip of 
 this poem. It has been attributed to Gregory the 
 Great, who lived at a period some fix hundred 
 years earlier. But this would involve the neceffity 
 of suppofing that a poem of such extraordinary merit 
 could remain unknown and unnoticed during so 
 many centuries, which is not at all likely. Befides, 
 it is certain, that, while rhyme was not altogether 
 unknown or unused at that time, it had by no means 
 reached that ftate of perfection which this poem 
 exhibits.* 
 
 Leonard Meifter, a Swiss writer, claimed that 
 Felix Hammerlin, (Latinized into Malleolus,) a 
 Church dignitary of Zurich, born in 1389, and who 
 died about 1457, was tne author of Dies Irae, because 
 among Hammerlin's poems he found a manuscript 
 of this hymn ; but the evidence is quite conclufive, 
 * See Appendix — Origin of Latin Rhyme. 
 
XV111 HISTORY OF THE HYMN. 
 
 that the hymn was in exiftence before his time. In 
 the Hammerlin text, the 16th verse is followed by 
 eight more, probably supplied by Hammerlin him- 
 self. They are here subjoined. 
 
 17= Oro supplex a ruinis, 
 
 Cor contritum quafi cinis : 
 Gere curam mei finis ! 
 
 From the ruins of creation, 
 Make I contrite supplication : 
 Interpose for my salvation I 
 
 18. Lachrymosa die ilia, 
 Cum resurget ex favilla, 
 Tanquam ignis ex scintilla, 
 
 On that day of woe and weeping, 
 When, like fire from spark upleaping, 
 Starts, from afhes where he's fleeping, 
 
 19. Judicandus homo reus, 
 Huic ergo parce, Deus ! 
 Efto semper adjutor meus ! 
 
 Man account to Thee to renders 
 Spare the miserable offender ! 
 Be my Helper and Defender ! 
 
HISTORY OF THE HYMN. XIA 
 
 20. Quando coeli sunt movendi, 
 Dies adsunt tunc tremendi, 
 Nullum tempus pcenitendi. 
 
 When the heavens away are flying, 
 Days of trembling then and crying, 
 For repentance time denying; 
 
 21 Sed salvatis laeta dies, 
 Et damnatis nulla quies, 
 Sed dsemonum effigies. 
 
 To the saved a day of gladness, 
 To the damned a day of sadness, 
 Demon forms and fhapes of madness, 
 
 22. O tu Deus majeftatis, 
 Alme candor Trinitatis,- 
 Nunc conjunge cum beatis ! 
 
 God of infinite perfection, 
 Trinity's serene reflection, 
 Give me part with the election I 
 
 23. Vitam meam fac felicem 
 Propter tuam genetricem, 
 Jeffe florem et radicem. 
 
XX HISTORY OF THE HYMN. 
 
 Happiness upon me mower, 
 
 For Thy Mother's sake, with power 
 
 Who is JehVs root and flower. 
 
 24. Prasfta nobis tunc levamen, 
 Dulce noftrum fac certamen, 
 Ut clamemus omnes, Amen ! 
 
 From Thy fulness comfort pour us, 
 Fight Thou with us or fight for us, 
 So we'll fhout, Amen, in chorus. 
 
 Taking for granted that the Mantuan was the 
 original text, it would follow that the truncation of 
 the four introductory verfes spoken of had already- 
 taken place at the time of Hammerlin ; and it is 
 furthermore obvious that the 17th and 18th verfes 
 of the Received text muft have been formed out of 
 the firft three of the supplemented verfes of Ham- 
 merlin, as follows, viz. : by subftituting, in the 17th 
 verse, " et acclinis " for " a ruinis," and taking 
 the firft two lines of the two succeeding verfes, 
 being triplets, to make up the 18th verse, which 
 confifts of four lines. Bating a few verbal varia- 
 tions, the firft fixteen verfes of the Hammerlin and 
 
HISTORY OF THE HYMN. XXI 
 
 Church texts correspond. The laft named is founded 
 on the Roman Miflal firft publifhed in 1567, under 
 the sanction and after the revifion of the Council of 
 Trent. It forms the bafis of the present, as it does 
 of moft tranflations. 
 
 A brief reference to some of the more important 
 variations in the text, and an explanation of certain 
 allufions which occur therein, may not be unintereft- 
 ing. The firft line, Dies ira, dies i/la y plainly 
 points to a paffage of Scripture from the Vulgate, — 
 Zephaniah I. 15. The whole verse reads thus : 
 " Dies irje, dies illa, dies tribulationis et anguftiae, 
 dies calamitatis et miseriae, dies tenebrarum et caligi- 
 nis, dies nebulae et turbinis, dies tubae et clangoris." 
 In the third line, the change of the Mantuan read- 
 ing, " Petro " into " David," as it now ftands, 
 may have been due, it is conjectured, to a feeling 
 that there was greater appropriateness in David's 
 being affociated with the ante-Chriftian Sibyl. From 
 the averfion felt to the introduction of a heathen 
 Sibyl into a Chriftian and ftill more a Church 
 hymn, a MifTal of the diocese of Metz, publifhed in 
 1778, rejecting the third line, adopts, but without 
 
XX11 HISTORY OF THE HYMN. 
 
 the authority of a fingle manuscript, another reading 
 as follows : 
 
 Dies irae, dies ilia, 
 Crucis expandens vexilla, 
 Solvet saeclum in favilla. 
 
 Day of wrath, that day amazing, 
 High the bannered cross upraifing, 
 While the universe is blazing. 
 
 The allufion here is to the fign of the coming uf 
 the Son of Man in heaven, mentioned in Matthew 
 xxiv. 3 ; and is indicative of the belief, that the fign 
 there spoken of would have its fulfilment in the 
 apparition of a cross in the fky. But the older and 
 the true reading is doubtless the other, which refers 
 to the Sibyl as bearing concurrent teftimony with 
 the prophet of the Old or the New Teftament, 
 David or Peter, (Psalm xcvi. 13 ; xcvii. 3 ; xi. 
 6 -, 2 Peter iii. 7,) touching the definition of the 
 world and the final judgment. The 2d, 7th, and 8th 
 books of the " Sibylline Oracles " are full of pas- 
 sages which refer to these, but it is probable that the 
 reference here is more immediately to verfes ex- 
 
HISTORY OF THE HYMN. XXlll 
 
 trailed therefrom, found in La&antius (Divin. In- 
 ftitut. lib. vii. De Vita Beata, cap. 16-24). ^ n tne 
 earlier ages of the Church, these pretended prophecies 
 were regarded with no little veneration ; wherefore 
 it is by no means uncommon to find Chriftian writ- 
 ers placing them fide by fide with Scriptural proph- 
 ecies, and, as in the case before us, making solemn 
 appeal to them. The discovery of their true char- 
 after as worthless forgeries was reserved for a later 
 period. 
 
 This poem, which, there is every reason to believe, 
 was originally the inspiration of retirement, the soli- 
 tary outpouring of 
 
 " a suppliant heart all crufhed 
 And crumbled into contrite duft," — 
 
 to adopt the language of Crafhaw's verfion at the 17th 
 verse, — came afterwards, when it had pafled into 
 Church use, to receive the title of Sequence, from 
 the place affigned to it in the service of the Mass 
 for the Dead. The precise time when this occurred 
 cannot be determined, but it muft have been early, 
 for Albizzi speaks of it as being in common use 
 as a Sequence in 1385. For an explanation of this 
 
XXIV HISTORY OF THE HYMN. 
 
 term, the reader is referred to the Appendix at the 
 end of this volume. 
 
 If the origin of the hymn be somewhat obscure, 
 not so have been its subsequent fortunes. Through 
 the long centuries that have elapsed fince the 
 time it flrft became known to the world, its ex- 
 traordinary merits have been fteadily recognized. 
 Its light has been that of a ftar, whose keen and 
 diamond luftre intermits not nor grows dim, but 
 mines on the same from age to age. Its miffion 
 from the beginning has been one of power. To 
 some, there is reason to believe, it has been " the 
 power of God unto salvation." Scattered every- 
 where along its track are seen the luminous foot- 
 prints of its victorious progress as the subduer of 
 hearts. The greateft minds have delighted to bear 
 teftimony to its worth. Goethe evinced his appre- 
 ciation of it by introducing certain verses of it into 
 his "Fauft," — with how grand an effect we all know. 
 Boswell relates of Dr. Johnson, that, " when he 
 would try to repeat the celebrated Prosa Ecclefiaftlca 
 •pro Mortuls, beginning : Dies irce, dies Ma, he could 
 never pass the ftanza ending thus : Tantus labor non 
 fit cajjus, without burfting into a flood of tears." 
 
HISTORY OF THE HYMN. XXV 
 
 It is said that Ancina, a ProfefTor of Medicine in 
 the Univerfity of Turin, was so ftrongly affected by 
 hearing one day the Dies Irae chanted in the service 
 for the dead, that he determined to abandon the 
 world. He afterwards became Bifhop of Saluzzo. 
 Milman, in his " Hiftory of Chriftianity," speaking of 
 the Latin poetry of the Chriftian Church, remarks : 
 " There is nothing, in my judgment, to be compared 
 with the monkifh Dies ircz, dies ilia" To these 
 names might be added those of many other eminent 
 scholars and critics, all bearing like teftimony. But 
 the crowning proof of its unrivalled excellence is 
 found in the fact, that, mingled with the fighs and 
 gaspings of diffolving Nature, the measured beat of 
 its melodious rhythm has been so often heard ; now, 
 it may be, in the soft murmur of words half audible, 
 and now in the clear tones of a diftincl: utterance, 
 iffuing from the pale and trembling lips of the dying. 
 The Earl of Roscommon, we are told, repeated with 
 great energy and devotion, in the moment when he 
 expired, two lines of his own tranflation of the 17th 
 verse : — 
 
 " My God, my Father, and my Friend, 
 Do not forsake me in my end ! " 
 d 
 
XXvi HISTORY OF THE HYMN. 
 
 Sir Walter Scott evinced his regard for it in the same 
 affecting manner, during his laft hours : " We very 
 often," says his biographer, " heard diftinctly the 
 cadence of the Dies Irae." 
 
 It is certainly somewhat remarkable, that, while 
 thus solemnly affociated with the dying moments of 
 these two illuftrious mafters of song, who had likewise 
 employed their pens in the tafk of rendering it into 
 Englifh, it fhould have had a connection not diffim- 
 ilar with the death of that great composer by whose 
 means this immortal poem has come to be worthily 
 wedded to immortal mufic. It is well known that 
 Mozart's Requiem is founded on it. This, his 
 greateft work, perhaps, was deftined also to be his 
 laft, of which, it is said, he had a solemn presenti- 
 ment. His death occurred before it was entirely 
 finimed. Befides Mozart, other diftinguifhed com- 
 posers, such as Cherubini, Haydn, Jomelli, Palaftrina, 
 and Pergolefi, have exercised their genius upon the 
 same theme and the same text. 
 
TRANSLATIONS OF THE HYMN. 
 
 HE number of tranflations made of this 
 hymn into different languages it were 
 not easy to eftimate. Those in Ger- 
 man are particularly numerous. In a 
 work dedicated to these, edited by Dr. F. G. Lisco, 
 (Berlin, 1840,) as many as seventy verfions, more or 
 less complete, are given ; the number being further 
 increased three years afterwards by the addition of 
 seventeen others, appended to a volume of tranfla- 
 tions, by the same editor, of the Stabat Mater.* 
 
 * For the loan of both the above works the writer is in- 
 debted to the Rev. William R. Williams, D. D., who, in a 
 Note, afterwards somewhat enlarged and thrown into an Appen- 
 dix, affixed to an Address on the " Conservative Principle of 
 our Literature," firft published in 1843, an d subsequently in- 
 cluded in his volume of " Miscellanies," has, with his usual 
 
XXV111 TRANSLATIONS OF THE HYMN. 
 
 There is one in French, one in Romaic or Modern 
 Greek, one in Dutch, and one in Latin, all the reft 
 being German. In nearly every case, pains have 
 been taken to preserve the exacl: measure and form 
 of the original. The superior flexibility of the Ger- 
 man, and its greater supply of words adapted for 
 double rhyme, give tranflators in that language a 
 decided advantage. The difficulty involved in tripli- 
 cating the double rhymes, owing to the poverty of 
 our language in words suitable for the purpose, with- 
 out practifing awkward and inelegant inverfions, is 
 probably the reason why English tranflators, even 
 where they have been careful to retain the triplet 
 form of the ftanza, have failed to preserve the 
 rhyming close. 
 
 Crafhaw's, one of the oldeft and nobleft of the 
 English tranflations, and which in the opinion of an 
 eminent critic was not surpafled by anything he ever 
 wrote, is done in quatrains, or fingle rhymed couplets 
 
 eloquence and exhauftive learning, given a very full and inftruc- 
 tive account of this hymn and its tranflations ; adding in the 
 later editions a verfion of his own, one of the first made in 
 ternary double rhyme. 
 
TRANSLATIONS OF THE HYMN. XXIX 
 
 repeated ; and, on account of the freeness of the ren- 
 dering, might more properly be called a reproduction 
 than a tranflation. The Earl of Roscommon, cele- 
 brated in Dryden's verse as the greateft poet of his 
 time, was the author of a verfion praised by Pope 
 as the beft of his poetical performances ; although he 
 is confidered as having borrowed both from Crafhaw 
 and Dryden. It is in triplets like the original, but 
 without double rhyme, and the verse is iambic in- 
 ftead of trochaic. 
 
 The few verfes introduced by Sir Walter Scott 
 into the cc Lay of the Laft Minftrel," and which have 
 found their way into almoft all the more recent Col- 
 lections of Hymns used in our Churches, though 
 spirited and impreffive, can scarcely be called a trans- 
 lation, being little more than an echo of one or two 
 of the leading sentiments of the Latin original. 
 Another familiar hymn, contained in moft Hymn 
 books, commencing, 
 
 " Lo ! He comes in clouds descending," 
 
 purports to be a tranflation of the Dies Irae ; but 
 in respect neither to form nor spirit does it corre- 
 
XXX TRANSLATIONS OF THE HYMN. 
 
 spond very accurately to the original. Although there 
 are other verfions of more or less merit, some made 
 by our own scholars, a further enumeration might be 
 tedious. " It is not wonderful," as Trench remarks, 
 "that a poem such as this mould have continually 
 allured and continually defied tranflators." 
 
 The Author of the Tranflations here publifhed 
 scarcely knows how to fhield himself from the im- 
 putation of presumption to which his attempt ex- 
 poses him. The number of his verfions is Thir- 
 teen. The first fix have the somewhat rare merit, 
 so far at leaft as Englifh verfions are concerned, of 
 being metrically conformed, both as it respects 
 rhyme and rhythm, to the original. The five suc- 
 ceeding ones are like in rhythm, but vary from the 
 original in not preserving the double rhyme. The 
 one which follows is in iambic triplets, like Roscom- 
 mon's ; and the laft in quatrains, after the manner 
 of Crafhaw's verfion. 
 
 It has been the aim of the Tranflator to be in all 
 cafes as faithful as poflible to the senfe and spirit 
 of the original, and likewise to the letter, but not 
 so flavilhly as to preclude variety. He has en- 
 
TRANSLATIONS OF THE HYMN. XXXi 
 
 deavored to carry out likeness in unlikeness, and to 
 give to each verfion, so far as practicable, the intereft 
 of a diftinct poem. How far he has succeeded 
 others muft judge. The preservation of the double 
 rhyme involved some special difficulties, which he has 
 overcome as well as he could ; but he would not be 
 surprised if some readers preferred the eafier metres, 
 and indulges the hope that the multiplication of ver- 
 fions may serve, among other things, to meet this 
 diverfity of tafte. But there are some, if he mis- 
 takes not, who enjoy those pleasing surprises in 
 viewing an object, that result from an altered atti- 
 tude and a new angle of vision, — the curious changes 
 which follow every fresh turn of a revolving kaleido- 
 scope, — and the writer is willing therefore to believe 
 that such, at any rate, will not be displeased at this 
 attempt to supply the deficiency of one verfion by 
 another and yet another, in the hope that thereby 
 the original may be exhibited, approximately at least, 
 in its solid entireness. 
 
 Young, in his u Effay on Lyric Poetry," alTerts 
 that difficulty overcome gives grace and pleasure, 
 and he accounts for the pleasure of rhyme in general 
 
XXXll TRANSLATIONS OF THE HYMN. 
 
 upon this principle. Having failed in his own case 
 to afford an exemplification of great success in this 
 particular, his critic and biographer, Johnson, some- 
 what sarcaftically remarks : "But then the writer 
 muft take care that the difficulty is overcome ; that 
 is, he muft make rhyme confift with as perfecl. 
 senfe and expreffion as would be expected, if he 
 were perfectly free from that fhackle." Hence, the 
 greater the difficulties to be surmounted, the greater 
 is the need of elaboration, until art conceals art. 
 
 The present Tranflator, recognizing fully the pro- 
 priety of the rule here ftated, does not feel that he 
 has any right to plead the arduousness of his taik, as 
 an excuse for any inftances, if such there be, of 
 forced and unnatural conftruition, resorted to in 
 order to meet the exigencies of rhyme or metre. 
 What is called poetic license is, he is aware, a 
 license of power and grace, and not of weakness and 
 deformity, being tantamount to a license to dance or 
 fing, in place of ordinary walking or speaking. Po- 
 etic chains, undoubtedly, were meant not to confine 
 and cripple, but to regulate movement in conformity 
 with settled laws ; the object being, not to punifh 
 
TRANSLATIONS OF THE HYMN. XXXlll 
 
 speech, but to exalt and honor it, — to grace language, 
 not disgrace it. 
 
 To preserve, in connection with the utmost fidelity 
 and ftrictness of rendering, all the rhythmic merits 
 of the Latin original, — to attain to a vital likeness as 
 well as to an exact literalness, at the same time that 
 nothing is sacrificed of its mufical sonorousness and 
 billowy grandeur, easy and graceful in its swing as 
 the ocean on its bed, — to make the verbal copy, 
 otherwise cold and dead, glow with the fire of lyric 
 passion, — to reflect, and that too by means of a fingle 
 verfion, the manifold aspects of the many-sided orig- 
 inal, exhaufting at once its wonderful fulness and 
 pregnancy, — to cause the white light of the primitive 
 so to pass through the medium of another language 
 as that it fhall undergo no refraction whatever, — 
 would be defirable, certainly, were it practicable ; 
 but so much as this it were unreasonable to expect 
 in any tranflation. 
 
 All the verfions here given were written and nearly 
 
 ready for the press more than two years ago ; but, 
 
 influenced partly by a senfe of their imperfectness, 
 
 and partly by a doubt as to the reception that a book 
 
 e 
 
XXXIV TRANSLATIONS OF THE HYMN. 
 
 exclufively devoted to a fingle hymn might meet 
 with from the public, the Translator has delayed 
 their appearance until now, when, encouraged by 
 the favorable opinion exprefied by some, whose 
 names, were it proper to give them, would be re- 
 garded, he doubts not, as an apology for his bold- 
 ness, he ventures the experiment of .publication. 
 He does not deny that the amount of public favor 
 that has been already accorded to two of the ver- 
 fions, viz., those marked 1. and U., publifhed anony- 
 moufly in the "Newark Daily Advertiser" sev- 
 eral years fince, the firft as long ago as 1847, has 
 had something to do with overcoming his diftruft. 
 To avoid misapprehenfion, it is right to ftate, that 
 two verses of the firft were introduced into Mrs. 
 Stowe's " Uncle Tom's Cabin," and by these acci- 
 dental means have enjoyed a world-wide currency. 
 More recently this verfion has been honored with 
 a place in the " Plymouth Collection of Hymns and 
 Tunes," edited by Henry Ward Beecher, and set 
 to mufic. It was, so far as the Translator knows, 
 the firft attempt, with a fingle exception, to repro- 
 duce in English the ternary double rhyme of the 
 original. 
 
z « 
 
 CO 2 
 
 2E S 
 
 
 
 \ N 
 
 pi 
 i 
 
DE NOVISSIMO JUDICIO. 
 
 IES irae, dies ilia 
 Solvet saeclum in favilla, 
 Telle David cum Sibylla. 
 
 Quantus tremor eft futurus, 
 Quando Judex eft venturus, 
 Cuncta ftticte discuffurus ! 
 
 Tuba, mirum spargens sonum 
 Per sepulchra regionum, 
 Coget omnes ante thronum. 
 
 Mors ftupebit et natura, 
 Quum resurget creatura 
 Judicanti responsura. 
 
DIES 1RJE. 
 
 Liber scriptus proferetur, 
 In quo totum continetur, 
 De quo mundus judicetur. 
 
 Judex ergo quum sedebit, 
 Quidquid latet, apparebit, 
 Nil inultum remanebit. 
 
 Quod sum miser tunc difturus, 
 Quern patronum rogaturus, 
 Quum vix juftus fit securus ? 
 
 Rex tremendae majeftatis, 
 Qui salvandos salvas gratis, 
 Salva me, fons pietatis ! 
 
 Recordare, Jesu pie, 
 Quod sum causa tuae viae, 
 Ne me perdas ilia die ! 
 
 Quaerens me sedifti laflus, 
 Redemifti crucem paffus : 
 Tantus labor non fit caffus ! 
 
DIES 1RJE. 
 
 Jufte Judex ultionis, 
 Donum fac remiffionis 
 Ante diem rationis ! 
 
 Ingemisco tanquam reus, 
 Culpa rubet vultus meus : 
 Supplicanti parce, Deus ! 
 
 Qui Mariam absolvifti, 
 Et latronem exaudifti, 
 Mihi quoque spem dedifti. 
 
 Praeces meae non sunt dignae, 
 Sed tu bonus fac benigne 
 Ne perenni crerner igne ! 
 
 Inter oves locum praefta, 
 Et ab haedis me sequeftra, 
 Statuens in parte dextra ! 
 
 Confutatis maledicTiis, 
 Flammis acribus addi£tis, 
 Voca me cum benediclis ! 
 
dies irje. 
 
 Oro supplex et acclinis, 
 Cor contritum quasi cinis : 
 Gere curam mei finis ! 
 
 Lachrymosa dies ilia, 
 Qua resurget ex favilla, 
 Judicandus homo reus : 
 Huic ergo parce, Deus ! 
 
I. 
 
 AY of wrath, that day of burning, 
 Seer and Sibyl speak concerning, 
 All the world to afhes turning. 
 
 Oh, what fear fhall it engender, 
 
 When the Judge fhall come in splendor, 
 
 Strict to mark and juft to render ! 
 
 Trumpet, scattering sounds of wonder, 
 Rending sepulchres asunder, 
 Shall resiftless summons thunder. 
 
 All aghaft then Death fhall fhiver, 
 And great Nature's frame fhall quiver, 
 When the graves their dead deliver. 
 
DIES 1RJE. 
 
 Book, where a£tions are recorded, 
 
 All the ages have afforded, 
 
 Shall be brought and dooms awarded. 
 
 When fhall fit the Judge unerring, 
 He'll unfold all here occurring, 
 No juft vengeance then deferring. 
 
 What fhall / say, that time pending ? 
 Ask what advocate's befriending, 
 When the juft man needs defending ? 
 
 Dreadful King, all power poffeffing, 
 
 Saving freely those confefling, 
 
 Save thou me, O Fount of Blefling ! 
 
 Think, O Jesus, for what reason 
 
 Thou didft bear earth's spite and treason, 
 
 Nor me lose in that dread season ! 
 
 Seeking me Thy worn feet hafted, 
 On the cross Thy soul death tafted : 
 Let such travail not be wafted ! 
 
DIES IRJE. 
 
 Righteous Judge of retribution ! 
 Make me gift of absolution 
 Ere that day of execution ! 
 
 Culprit-like, I plead, heart-broken, 
 On my cheek fhame's crimson token : 
 Let the pardoning word be spoken ! 
 
 Thou, who Mary gav'ft remiffion, 
 Heard'ft the dying Thief's petition, 
 Cheer'ft with hope my loft condition. 
 
 Though my prayers be void of merit, 
 What is needful, Thou confer it, 
 Left I endless fire inherit ! 
 
 Be there, Lord, my place decided 
 With Thy fheep, from goats divided, 
 Kindly to Thy right hand guided ! 
 
 When th' accursed away are driven, 
 
 To eternal burnings given, 
 
 Call me with the blessed to heaven! 
 
DIES IRJE. 
 
 I beseech Thee, proftrate lying, 
 Heart as afhes, contrite, fighing, 
 Care for me when I am dying ! 
 
 Day of tears and late repentance, 
 Man fhall rise to hear his sentence : 
 Him, the child of guilt and error, 
 Spare, Lord, in that hour of terror ! 
 
II. 
 
 AY fhall dawn that has no morrow, 
 Day of vengeance, day of sorrow, 
 As from Prophecy we borrow. 
 
 It fhall burn, that day of trouble, 
 As a furnace heated double, 
 And the wicked fhall be ftubble. 
 
 O, what trembling, when the rifted 
 Skies fhall fhow the Judge uplifted, 
 And all ftrictly fhall be fifted ! 
 
 Trump fhall sound a blaft appalling, 
 On the grave's deep ftillness falling, 
 Small and great before Him calling. 
 
 Death with fear fhall be o'ertaken, 
 Nature to her base be fhaken, 
 When the fleeping dead fhall waken. 
 
10 DIES IRJE. 
 
 Volume (hall be brought, whose pages 
 
 Regifter the deeds of ages, 
 
 Whence the world fhall have juft wages. 
 
 When that Court fhall hold its seflion, 
 Every mouth fhall make confeflion, 
 Left unpunifhed no transgreflion. 
 
 How, alas ! in that dread season, 
 Shall I answer for my treason, 
 When the righteous fear with reason ? 
 
 Awful King, who nothing craveft, 
 Since Thyself full ransom gaveft, 
 Save Thou me, who freely saveft ! 
 
 Me, for whom, with love so tender, 
 Thou didft leave Thy throne of splendor, 
 Jesus, do not then surrender ! 
 
 Wearily for me Thou toiledft, 
 Diedft for me and Satan spoiledft : 
 Let not triumph whom Thou foiledft ! 
 
DIES IRJE. II 
 
 Thou, whose frown will be damnation, 
 Grant me earneft of salvation, 
 Ere that day of consummation ! 
 
 Culprit-like, I, self-convi£ted, 
 Blufliing, proftrate, and afflicted, 
 Kneel for mercy unreftriited. 
 
 Thou, who Mary's faith rewarded!!, 
 Pardon to the Thief accordedft, 
 Me, too, trembling hope affordedft. 
 
 Poor my prayers, but give ensample 
 Of Thy goodness rich and ample, 
 Left insulted Juftice trample ! 
 
 With Thy chosen flock unspotted, 
 Severed from the herd besotted, 
 Be my place that day allotted ! 
 
 When Thv curse fhall blaft and wither, 
 
 Doom to hell and banifh thither, 
 
 Bid me with the blefled, Come hither ! 
 
12 
 
 DIES IRJE. 
 
 Care for me as one who feareth, 
 One who hafteth when he heareth, 
 When my solemn exit neareth! 
 
 When the light of that day flafhes, 
 And man rises from his allies 
 At Thy bar account to render, 
 Spare then, Lord, the pale offender ! 
 
 
III. 
 
 AY of Vengeance and of Wages, 
 Fiery goal of all the ages, 
 Burden of prophetic pages ! 
 
 Guilty wretches, vainly fleeing 
 
 From that flaming Eye, whose seeing 
 
 Searches all the depths of being. 
 
 Wakened by that Trump of Wonder, 
 Answering Earthquakes, roaring under, 
 Heave and split the ground asunder ; 
 
 And the buried generations, 
 People of all times and nations, 
 Live again and take their ftations, 
 
 Each immortal pale offender, 
 
 Round the Great White Throne of Splendor, 
 
 Strict account to God to render -, 
 
14 DIES 1RJE. 
 
 Who, unmocked and unmiftaken, 
 Shall pronounce the doom unfhaken, 
 And long flumbering vengeance waken. 
 
 What if weighed and found deficient ? 
 Standing at that bar omniscient, 
 Who hath righteousness sufficient ? 
 
 King of Holiness unspotted, 
 By Thy merit me allotted 
 Let my guilt be freely blotted ! 
 
 Me, for whom Thou fhame didft borrow, 
 Trod'ft the paths of earthly sorrow, 
 Lose not on that dreadful morrow ! 
 
 Seeking me Thou weary sankeft, 
 
 All my cup of trembling drankeft, 
 
 Nor from death, to save me, shrankeft. 
 
 Muft I fink yet to perdition ? 
 God of Vengeance, grant remifiion, 
 Ere that Day of Inquifition ! 
 
DIES IRJE. 15 
 
 Filled with fhame and confirmation, 
 Lifting hands of supplication, 
 Spare me, God of my Salvation ! 
 
 Let such grace be manifested, 
 
 As on weeping Mary relied, 
 
 As was towards the Thief attefted ! 
 
 Though no worth in me discerning, 
 Spurn not, though I merit spurning : 
 Rescue me from endless burning ! 
 
 When divifion is effected 
 
 'Mong the race of men collected, 
 
 Leave me not with the rejected ! 
 
 When Thy curse from Thee mall sever, 
 Kindling hells, extinguished never, 
 Join me to Thyself forever ! 
 
 From the afhes of contrition, 
 From the depths I make petition : 
 Grant my soul a safe dismiffion ! 
 
i6 
 
 DIES IRJE. 
 
 When that day {hall snare th' unwary, 
 And mall guilty man unbury, 
 Spare me then, Dread Adversary ! 
 
TV. 
 
 AY of Prophecy ! it flames, 
 Falling spheres together dallies, 
 And the world consumes to allies. 
 
 O, what fear of wrath impending, 
 When the Judge is seen descending, 
 Inquifition ftrict intending ! 
 
 God's awakening Trump mail scatter 
 Summons through the world of matter, 
 And the Throne of Death mail (hatter. 
 
 What amazement, when forgotten 
 Generations, dead and rotten, 
 Suddenly are rebegotten ! 
 
 Book and Record universal 
 Shall be opened for rehearsal, 
 Whence the doom without reversal. 
 3 
 
l8 DIES 1RJE. 
 
 When by that dread Judge inspected, 
 Nothing (hall pass undetected, 
 Unavenged nor uncorrected. 
 
 How fhall I, a wretch unftable, 
 
 Bide that hour inevitable, 
 
 When the juft man scarce is able ? 
 
 Dreadful King, from Thee, the Giver, 
 Flows salvation like a river : 
 Fount of Mercy, me deliver ! 
 
 Thou, who, touched with my condition, 
 Sought to save me from perdition, 
 Be Thou mindful of Thy miflion ! 
 
 Let Thy death for my offences, 
 Horror of Thy soul and senses, 
 Be not void of consequences ! 
 
 , Blot my fins, ere that revifion, 
 Day of ultimate decifion, 
 When Thy foes are in derifion : 
 
DIES IRJE. 
 
 From my eyes repentance gufhes, 
 
 O'er my cheeks spread crimson blufhes : 
 
 Spare the worm Thy terror crufhes ! 
 
 Thou, who wert of old moft gracious 
 Ev'n to finners moft audacious, 
 Is Thy mercy now less spacious ? 
 
 Worthless all the prayers I offer : 
 Grace muft seal what grace doth proffer, 
 Else I perilh with the scoffer. 
 
 When Thou makeft separation, 
 With Thy sheep affign my ftation, 
 Saints of' every age and nation ! 
 
 When the malison eternal 
 
 Banifhes to fires infernal, 
 
 Bid me enter realms supernal ! 
 
 Thou, who doft, with care unfleeping, 
 Keep that trufted to Thy keeping, 
 Save my eyes from endless weeping ! 
 
 '9 
 
20 DIES 1RJE. 
 
 Day of tears, consuming, cruel, 
 With a burning world for fuel, 
 Man (hall rise from glowing embers, 
 Made complete in all his members : 
 Ah ! what plea will then be valid, 
 When the finner, trembling, pallid, 
 Waits to hear his sentence given ? 
 Spare him then, O God of Heaven ! 
 
V. 
 
 J) AY of vengeance, end of scorning, 
 World in aflies, world in mourning, 
 Whereof Prophets utter warning ! 
 
 O, what trembling, when the falling 
 Rocks and mountains hear men calling, 
 "Hide me from that face appalling! " 
 
 Freezing fear the blood will thicken, 
 Death and Hell be horror-ftricken, 
 When the myftic Trump fhall quicken 
 
 All the buried duft of ages, — 
 Monarchs, chieftains, ftatesmen, sages, 
 Adiors on unnumbered ftages, — 
 
 Summoned to the dread recital 
 Of that Record ftrift and vital, 
 Basis of a juft requital. 
 
22 DIES IRJE. 
 
 Every mafk of falsehood riven, — 
 Guilt, from every covert driven, 
 Shall to punifhment be given. 
 
 'Mid the horror and confufion 
 Of that sorrowful conclufion 
 Of each miserable delufion, 
 
 Whither, ah! fhall I betake me? 
 
 Thou, O King, whose terrors fhake me, 
 
 Of Thy grace a trophy make me ! 
 
 Jesus ! by Thine incarnation, 
 By Thy miffion of salvation, 
 Then avert juft condemnation! 
 
 By Thy pity, love unfailing, 
 By the cross's bitter nailing, 
 Let not all be unavailing ! 
 
 Dread Avenger of transgreffion, 
 Cleanse these lips that make confeflion, 
 Ere th' awards of that laft seflion. 
 
DIES IRiE. 23 
 
 Spare a culprit, groans faft heaving, 
 Self-con viited, blufhing, grieving, 
 In Thy power and grace believing. 
 
 Since Thy nature doth not vary, 
 
 Thou, who heard'ft the Thief and Mary, 
 
 My transgreflions blot and bury I 
 
 Worthless works behind me calling — 
 Grace muft save, not prayer nor fafting, 
 From the fire that's everlafting. 
 
 On Thy right hand fix my ftation 
 With the chosen generation, 
 In the fheep-fold of salvation ! 
 
 When Thy curse the wicked chases, 
 With the bleft in heavenly places 
 Call me to Thy dear embraces! 
 
 Care for me, whom guilt abafhes, 
 Proftrate, contrite, heart as afhes, 
 When that day of terror flalhes ! 
 
^\ DIES IRiE. 
 
 Day of weeping and of wailing, 
 Human hearts and fates unveiling : 
 Then, when Time (hall be no longer, 
 And the ftrong yields to the Stronger, 
 Death and Hell their dead surrender, 
 And the Sea its own fhall tender, 
 Multitudinous, unbounded 
 Generations rise aftounded, 
 Each to answer for his finning, 
 He who lived at the beginning, 
 He who when the world is hoary, — 
 Spare, O, spare, Thou God of Glory! 
 
VI. 
 
 AY of wrath and confirmation, 
 Day of fiery consummation, 
 Prophefied in Revelation ! 
 
 O, what horror on all faces, 
 
 When the coming Judge each traces, 
 
 Flaming, dreadful, in all places ! 
 
 Trump fhall sound, and every fingle 
 Mortal slumberer's ears fhall tingle, 
 And the dead mail rise and mingle : 
 
 All of every tribe and nation, 
 That have lived fince the creation, 
 Answering that dread citation. 
 
 Volume, from which nothing's blotted, 
 Evil done nor evil plotted, 
 Shall be brought and dooms allotted. 
 4 
 
26 DIES 1RJE. 
 
 Judge, who fits at that affizes, 
 Shall, deceived by no disguises, 
 Try each work that man devises. 
 
 How mail I, a wretch polluted, 
 
 Answer then to fins imputed, 
 
 When the juft man's case is mooted ? 
 
 Awful Monarch of Creation ! 
 Saving without compensation, 
 Save me, Fountain of Salvation ! 
 
 Lose me not then, Jefus, seeing 
 I am Thine by gift of being, 
 Doubly Thine by price of freeing ! 
 
 Thou, the Lord of Life and Glory, 
 Hung'ft a victim gafhed and gory : 
 Let not all be nugatory ! 
 
 Pardon, Thou whose vengeance smiteth, 
 But whom mercy moft delighteth, 
 Ere that reck'ning day affrighteth ! 
 
DIES 1RJE. 27 
 
 As a culprit, ftand I groaning, 
 Blufhing, my dement owning : 
 Sprinkle me with blood atoning ! 
 
 Thou, who Mary's sins remittedft, 
 And the softened Thief acquittedft, 
 Likewise hope to me permittedft. 
 
 Weak these prayers Thy throne aflailing; 
 But let grace, o'er guilt prevailing, 
 Save me from eternal wailing ! 
 
 While the goats afar are driven, 
 'Mid Thy fheep me place be given, 
 Blood-wafhed favorites of Heaven ! 
 
 While " Depart ! " mall doom and gather 
 Those to flame, address me rather : 
 " Come thou blefled of my Father ! " 
 
 In my final hour, when faileth 
 
 Heart and flefli, and my cheek paleth, 
 
 Grant that succor which availeth ! 
 
28 DIES IRJE. 
 
 Day unutterably solemn : 
 Crypt and pyramid and column, 
 Ifle and continent and ocean, 
 Rocking with a fearful motion, 
 Shall give up, a countless number 
 Starting from their long, long flumber, 
 Horror ftamping every feature, 
 While is judged each finful creature, 
 End of pending controversy : 
 Spare Thou then, O God of Mercy ! 
 
VII. 
 
 AY of wrath, that day of days, 
 Present to my thought always, 
 When the world mail burn and 
 blaze ! 
 
 O, what trembling, O, what fear, 
 When th' Omniscient Judge draws near, 
 Scanning all with eyes severe ! 
 
 When the Trump of God mail sound 
 Through the vague and vaft profound 
 Of the regions under ground ; 
 
 And th' innumerable dead, 
 Answering to that summons dread, 
 Shall forsake their dufty bed ; 
 
 And that Book of ancient date 
 Shall be opened, whereon wait 
 Mighty iffues big with fate -, 
 
30 DIES IRJE. 
 
 And each secret thing (hall lie 
 Thenceforth bare to every eye, 
 Nought unpunifhed or pafled by. 
 
 Ah, me ! what fhall I then plead, 
 Who for me then intercede, 
 When the juft of help have need ? 
 
 Thou, who doft, O Heavenly King, 
 Free forgiveness freely bring, 
 Let me drink of Mercy's Spring ! 
 
 Thou didft empty and exhauft 
 Heaven for me : when such the coft, 
 Jesus, let me not be loft! 
 
 Wearily Thou soughteft me, 
 Bought'ft me on th' accursed tree : 
 Let it not all fruitless be ! 
 
 Righteous Judge, who wilt repay, 
 Grant me pardon, ere that day 
 Of decifion and dismay ! 
 
DIES IKJE. 31 
 
 I, a finful man and base, 
 Blufhing, groaning o'er my case, 
 Seek and supplicate Thy grace. 
 
 Thou, who heardeft Mary's fighs, 
 Thou, who openedft Paradise 
 To the Thief, regard my cries ! 
 
 Worthless are my prayers and worse, 
 But, good Lord, be not adverse, 
 Left I fink beneath the curse ! 
 
 Set me, when at Thy command 
 
 All mankind divided ftand, 
 
 With the fheep at Thy right hand ! 
 
 When th' insufferable doom 
 Shall the reprobate consume, 
 With Thy chosen give me room ! 
 
 In the solemn hour of death, 
 When the earthly vanifheth, 
 O, receive my parting breath ! 
 
32 
 
 DIES IRJE. 
 
 Ah ! that day made up of tears, 
 
 When from afhes reappears 
 
 Th' Adam of fix thousand years, — 
 
 Who, by its red glare and gleam, 
 Sees, as in an awful dream, 
 Juftice lift her trembling beam, — 
 
 Conscious on that hinge of fate 
 All things hang and hefitate : 
 Spare then, Lord, if not too late ! 
 
VIII. 
 
 THAT dreadful day, my soul ! 
 Which the ages fhall unroll, 
 When the knell of Time fhall 
 toll ! 
 
 O, the terror and the fhame, 
 When the Judge with eyes of flame 
 Shall make piercing search of blame ! 
 
 Suddenly the Trumpet's fhock 
 Doors of Hades fhall unlock, 
 And before Him all fhall flock. 
 
 Struck with wonder and dismay, 
 Death and Nature fhall obey 
 Summons to give up their prey. 
 
 Loudly each indictment dread 
 Shall in every ear be read 
 Of the living and the dead. 
 5 
 
34 DIES 1RJE. 
 
 Every idle word and thought, 
 Every work in secret wrought, 
 Into Judgment fhall be brought. 
 
 Scarce the juft man's case is sure, 
 Scarce the heavens themselves are pure 
 Ah ! how then fhall I endure ? 
 
 Dreadful Potentate and high, 
 
 Who doft freely juftify, 
 
 Fount of Grace, my need supply! 
 
 Jefus, mind the kind intent 
 Of Thy weary banifhment, 
 And my ruin then prevent ! 
 
 Let Thy paffion and Thy pain, 
 All Thou sufferedfl me to gain, 
 Be not barren and in vain ! 
 
 Righteous Arbiter of fate ! 
 
 Life and death upon Thee wait, 
 
 Pardon, ere it be too late ! 
 
DIES IRiE. 
 
 35 
 
 Spare me, vileft of the race, 
 Guilty, infamous and base, 
 Blufhing mendicant of grace ! 
 
 Though of finners I be chief, 
 
 Hear me, Thou who heard' ft the Thief, 
 
 Driedft the fount of Mary's grief! 
 
 All my prayers are guilty breath, 
 And the beft nought meriteth : 
 But in mercy save from death ! 
 
 When, disposed on either hand, 
 All mankind before Thee ftand, 
 Set me with Thy chosen band ! 
 
 When, O, terrible to tell ! 
 
 Yawns inevitable Hell, 
 
 With the bleffed bid me dwell ! 
 
 When I reach the awful goal, 
 And Death's billows o'er me roll, 
 Care for my undying soul ! 
 
36 
 
 DIES IRJE. 
 
 Day of weeping and surprise, 
 Opening tombs and opening eyes, 
 Rocking earth and burning fkies ! 
 
 Day of universal dread, 
 
 When the quick and quickened dead 
 
 Shall have solemn sentence said ! 
 
 Then, O, then, when in despair, 
 Man mail speak or fhriek the prayer, 
 " Spare me ! " God of Mercy, spare ! 
 
IX. 
 
 AY foretold, that day of ire, 
 Burden erft of David's lyre, 
 j| When the world fhall fink in 
 fire! 
 
 O, what horror and amaze, 
 When at once on mortal gaze 
 All the Judge's pomp fhall blaze ! 
 
 When the Trumpet's myftic blaft, 
 To the world's four corners caft, 
 Disentombs the buried Paft ; 
 
 And from all the heaving sod, 
 From each foot of trampled clod, 
 Starts a multitude to God ; 
 
 And that Volume is unrolled 
 Wherein are minutely told 
 All men's doings from of old -, 
 
38 DIES IRJE. 
 
 While, from what is there contained, 
 Shall be judged a world arraigned, 
 And eternal fates ordained : 
 
 What defence can I then make, 
 
 To what Patron me betake, 
 
 When the righteous fear and quake ? 
 
 King, who doft all power pofTess, 
 Free Thy grace and limitless, 
 Save me, Fount of Bleffedness ! 
 
 Jefus, Mafter, Thou doft know 
 I Thy million caused below, 
 All Thy weariness and woe ! 
 
 Let Thy blood, that drenched the hilt 
 Of that sword unfheathed for guilt, 
 Be not vainly died and spilt ! 
 
 O my Judge, forgive, forget ! 
 Cancel my tremendous debt, 
 Ere the sun of grace fhall set ! 
 
DIES IRiE. 39 
 
 Filled with fhame I hang my head, 
 Blufhes deep my face o'erspread : 
 Stay Thy lightnings fierce and red ! 
 
 Thou canft darkeft ftains efface ; 
 Haft made monuments of grace 
 Of the vileft of the race. 
 
 My poor prayers please not repel ! 
 Grace and goodness with Thee dwell : 
 Snatch me from the flames of Hell ! 
 
 When Thou fhalt discriminate, 
 Sheep from goats fhalt separate, 
 Let me on Thy right hand wait ! 
 
 When Thy sentence, smiting dumb, 
 Down to Hell fhall banifh some, 
 With the blefTed bid me come ! 
 
 To Thy care, O Kind as Juft ! 
 Heart all penitential duft, 
 I my end commit and truft ! 
 
40 
 
 DIES IRiE. 
 
 Floods of tears that day fhall pour ; 
 Man fhall wake to fleep no more ; 
 Guilty, horribly afraid : 
 Spare him, Lord, whom Thou haft made ! 
 
X. 
 
 O ! it comes, with ftealthy feet, 
 Day, the ages fhall complete, 
 When the world fhall melt with 
 heat! 
 
 O, what trembling fhall there be, 
 When all eyes the Judge fhall see, 
 Come to fift iniquity ! 
 
 Trump mall syllable command, 
 And the dead of sea and land 
 All before the Throne fhall fland. 
 
 Death fhall fhudder, Nature too, 
 When the creature lives anew, 
 Called to render answer true. 
 
 Volume, that omitteth nought 
 Man e'er said or did or thought, 
 Shall for sentence then be brought. 
 6 
 
42 DIES IRJE. 
 
 When fhall fit the Judge severe, 
 All that's dark (hall be made clear, 
 Nothing unavenged appear. 
 
 What, alas ! fhall I then say, 
 
 To what Interceflbr pray, 
 
 When the juft fhrink with dismay ? 
 
 Awful King, fince all is free, 
 Without merit, without fee, 
 Fount of Mercy, save Thou me ! 
 
 Mind, O Jesus, Friend fincere, 
 How I caused Thy advent here, 
 Nor me lose who coft so dear ! 
 
 Straying, I by Thee was sought, 
 On the cross with blood was bought 
 Let it not be all for nought ! 
 
 Righteous Judge ! Avenging Lord ! 
 Full remiffion me afford, 
 Ere that final day's award ! 
 
DIES IRJE. 43 
 
 Groan I, like a culprit base, 
 Conscious guilt inflames my face : 
 Spare the suppliant, God of Grace ! 
 
 Thou, who erft didft Mary clear, 
 And the dying Thief didft hear, 
 Hope haft given me to cheer. 
 
 Though my prayers create no claim, 
 Be propitious, Lord, the same, 
 Left I burn in endless flame! 
 
 Place among Thy fheep provide, 
 From the goats me sunder wide, 
 Standing safe at Thy right fide ! 
 
 While " Depart ! " to foes addreffed 
 
 Banifheth to woes unguefled, 
 
 Call me near Thee with the blefled! 
 
 Contrite pangs my bosom tear, 
 Heart as afhes : hear my prayer, 
 Let my end be not despair! 
 
44 
 
 DIES IRJE. 
 
 On that day of grief and dread, 
 When man, rifing from the dead, 
 Shall eternal juftice face, 
 Spare the finner, God of Grace ! 
 
XI. 
 
 AY of wrath, that day of dole, 
 When a fire fhall wrap the whole, 
 And the earth be burnt to coal ! 
 
 O, what horror, smiting dumb 
 When the Judge of all fhall come, 
 Sinful deeds to search and sum ! 
 
 Trump's reverberating roar 
 Through the sepulchres fhall pour, 
 Citing all the Throne before. 
 
 Death and Nature ftand aghaft, 
 While the dead in numbers vaft 
 Rise to answer for the paft. 
 
 Volume, writ by God's own pen, 
 
 Chronicling the deeds of men, 
 
 Shall be brought, and dooms be then. 
 
4-6 DIES 1RJE. 
 
 When the Judge fhall sit, behold ! 
 What is secret He'll unfold, 
 No juft punifhment withhold. 
 
 Ah ! what plea fhall I prepare, 
 To what Patron make my prayer, 
 When the juft well-nigh despair ? 
 
 King, majeftic beyond thought, 
 Whose free grace cannot be bought, 
 Save me, whose desert is nought ! 
 
 O, remember, Jefus, I 
 
 Was the cause and reason why 
 
 Thou didft come on earth to die ! 
 
 Me Thou sought'ft with weary feet, 
 And my ransom didft complete : 
 Let such pity nought defeat ! 
 
 Judge, inflexible and ftri6t, 
 Pardon, ere that day convi6t 
 And th' unchanging doom infliit ! 
 
DIES IRJE. 47 
 
 Like a criminal I sigh, 
 Blufhing, penitently cry : 
 Pass, Lord, my offences by ! 
 
 Thou, who Mary erft did'ft bless, 
 Heard'ft the Thief in his diftress, 
 Hope haft given me no less. 
 
 Worthless are my prayers and vain, 
 But in love do not disdain, 
 Left I reap eternal pain ! 
 
 On Thy right hand grant me place 
 'Mid the fheep, a chosen race, — 
 Far from goats devoid of grace ! 
 
 When the thunder of Thine ire 
 Headlong hurls to quenchless fire, 
 Let Thy welcome me inspire ! 
 
 I entreat Thee, bending low, 
 Heart as afhes, full of woe, 
 Succor in my end beftow ! 
 
4 8 
 
 DIES IRiE. 
 
 When upon that day of tears 
 Man from duft again appears, 
 Fate depending on Thy nod : 
 Spare the finner then, O God ! 
 
XII. 
 
 DAY of wrath ! O day of fate! 
 Day foreordained and ultimate, 
 When all things here fhall termi 
 nate ! 
 
 What numbers horribly afraid, 
 
 When comes the Judge, in fear arrayed, 
 
 To try the creatures He hath made ! 
 
 The blare of Trumpet, pealing clear, 
 
 Shall through the sepulchres career, 
 
 And wake the dead, and bring them near. 
 
 Aftonifhed Nature then mail quail, 
 What time the yawning graves unveil, 
 And man comes forth, amazed and pale, 
 
 To answer : The o'erwritten scroll 
 Shall charge and certify the whole, 
 Whence fhall be judged each human soul. 
 
 7 
 
50 DIES IRJE. 
 
 The Judge enthroned fhall bring to light 
 Whate'er is hid, in open fight 
 Avenge and vindicate the right. 
 
 Ah ! with what plea fhall I then come, 
 When, terror-locked, each sense is numb, 
 And even righteous lips are dumb ? 
 
 O King immortal and supreme, 
 
 Whose fear is great, whose grace extreme, 
 
 Make me to drink of Mercy's ftream ! 
 
 Remember, Jefus, Thou didft make 
 Thyself incarnate for my sake, 
 Left Hell insatiate claim and take ! 
 
 Thou soughteft me when far aftray, 
 Didft on the cross my ransom pay : 
 Let not such love be thrown away ! 
 
 Juft Judge, of purity intense, 
 Remit my infinite offence, 
 Before that day of recompense ! 
 
DIES IRJE. 51 
 
 Like one convinced of heinous deed, 
 I groan, I weep, I blufh, I plead : 
 Lord, spare me in that hour of need ! 
 
 Thou, who wert moved by Mary's tears, 
 Absolved the Robber from his fears, 
 Haft given me hope in former years. 
 
 My prayers are worthless well I know ; 
 But, good, do Thou Thy goodness fhow, 
 And save me from impending woe ! 
 
 Number and place me 'mong Thy own, 
 Beneath the flielter of Thy Throne, 
 Until Thy wrath be overblown! 
 
 When that the almighty word mall leap 
 From out Thy Throne, Thy foes to sweep, 
 My soul in perfect safety keep ! 
 
 In proftrate worfhip, I implore, 
 With heart all penitent and sore : 
 Then care for me when life is o'er I 
 
5* 
 
 DIES IRiE. 
 
 Ah ! on that day of grief and dread, 
 
 And resurrection of the dead, 
 
 Of trial and of juft award, 
 
 In wrath remember mercy, Lord ! 
 
If®? 
 
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 18 
 
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 fO%^A3l 
 
 XIII. 
 
 HAT day, that awful day, the laft, 
 Result and sum of all the Paft, 
 Great neceffary day of doom, 
 When wrecking fires mail all con- 
 sume ! 
 
 What dreadful fhrieks the air fhall rend, 
 When all fhall see the Judge descend, 
 And hear th' Archangel's echoing fhout 
 From heavenly spaces ringing out ! 
 
 The Trump of God with quickening breath 
 Shall pierce the filent realms of Death, 
 And sound the summons in each ear : 
 " Arise ! thy Maker calls ! Appear ! " 
 
 From eaft to weft, from south to north, 
 The earth fhall travail and bring forth ; 
 
54 DIES IRiE. 
 
 As desert's sands and ocean's waves 
 Shall be the sum of empty graves. 
 
 Th' unchanging Record of the Paft 
 Shall then be read from firft to laft ; 
 And out of things therein contained, 
 Shall all be judged and fates ordained. 
 
 No lying tongue, that truth diftorts, 
 Shall witness in that Court of Courts ; 
 Each secret thing mail be revealed, 
 And every righteous sentence sealed. 
 
 Ah ! who can ftand when He appears ? 
 Confront the guilt of finful years ? 
 What hope for me, a wretch depraved, 
 When scarce the righteous man is saved ? 
 
 Dread Monarch of the Earth and Heaven ! 
 For that salvation's • great 'tis given; 
 And fince the boon is wholly free, 
 O Fount of Pity, save Thou me ! 
 
DIES IRiE. 55 
 
 Remember, Jefus, how my case 
 Once moved Thy pity and Thy grace, 
 And brought Thee down on earth to ftay : 
 O, lose me not, then, on that day! 
 
 I seek Thee, who didft seek me firft, 
 Weary and hungry and athirft ; 
 Didft pay my ransom on the tree : 
 Let not such travail fruftrate be ! 
 
 Juft Judge of vengeance in the end, 
 Now in the accepted time befriend ! 
 My fins, O, gracioufly remit, 
 Ere Thou judicially ftialt fit! 
 
 Low at Thy feet I groaning lie ; 
 With blufhing cheek, and weeping eye, 
 And ftammering lips, I urge the prayer : 
 O spare me, God of Mercy, spare ! 
 
 When Mary Thy forgiveness sought, 
 Wept, but articulated nought, 
 
56 DIES IRJE, 
 
 Thou didft forgive ; didft hear the brief 
 Petition of the dying Thief. 
 
 On grace thus great my hope is built 
 That Thou wilt cancel, too, my guilt ; 
 That, though my prayers are worthless breath, 
 Thou wilt deliver me from death. 
 
 When Thy dividing rod of might 
 Appointeth ftations oppofite, 
 Among Thy fheep grant me to ftand, 
 Far from the goats, at Thy right hand ! 
 
 And when despair fhall seize each heart 
 That hears the dreadful sound, "Depart!" 
 Be mine, the heavenly lot of some, 
 To hear that word of welcome, " Come ! " 
 
 I come to Thee with trembling truft, 
 And lay my forehead in the duft ; 
 In my laft hour do Thou befriend, 
 And glorify Thee in my end ! 
 
APPENDIX.— SEQUENCE. 
 
 m STATEMENT of the order observed 
 in the celebration of Mass will beft ex- 
 plain the nature and import of this term, 
 in its application by the Romifh Church 
 to a large body of hymns, — Daniel, in the 5th vol- 
 ume of his learned and laborious work, u Thesaurus 
 Hymnologicus," citing no less than eight hundred, 
 the laft one given being a new Sequence, composed 
 in honor of the Virgin in 1855, " Sequentia de Beata 
 Maria Virgine fine Labe Concepta, Virgo Virginum 
 Praeclara." 
 
 The dispofition of parts in the Mass is as follows, 
 viz. : 1. The Introit, which is the part sung or 
 chanted when the prieft enters within the rails of the 
 altar. 2. The Collect, or Prayer. 3. Reading 
 of the Epistle, being, in the Mass for the Dead, 
 1 Cor. xv. 51-57, or Rev. xiv. 13. 4. The Grad- 
 ual, so called from its having been sung or chanted 
 
58 SEQUENCE. 
 
 formerly from the fteps (gradus) of the altar, clofing 
 with the Alleluia. 5. The Tract, which is 
 omitted when the Alleluia is sung ; otherwise it is 
 sung in the interval to prepare for the following. 
 The primary meaning of the word (from traho, to 
 protra£t or draw out) is adapted to suggeft either the 
 use here indicated, i. e. to fill up time, or else to ex- 
 press the flow, mournful movement which character- 
 izes the chant. 6. The Sequence, being, in the 
 Mass for the Dead, the Dies Y&m. 7. Reading 
 of the Gospel, being, in the Mass for the Dead, 
 John v. 25-29. 8. The Offertory, which is a 
 fhort sentence that varies. 9. The Secret, a brief 
 prayer recited by the prieft in a very low tone of 
 voice. 10. Communion, or the application of the 
 Mass. 11. Post-Communion. 
 
 The Sequence, it will be seen, occupies a pofition 
 exactly midway, being juft after the Gradual and 
 Tract, and immediately before the Gospel. The 
 Reading of the Gospel happening to be introduced by 
 the words, " Sequentia SancSti Evangelii secundum 
 ," (The Continuation of the Holy Gospel ac- 
 cording to ,) some have supposed that the term 
 
 Sequentia or Sequence was derived from this source. 
 Michael Praetorius was of this opinion. But the 
 
SEQUENCE. 59 
 
 moft approved authorities give the following explana- 
 tion of its origin. 
 
 From an early period, it was the cuftorn of the 
 Latin Church to fing the Gradual with the Alleluia 
 between the Epiflle and the Gospel ; the Gradual 
 being completed, the Alleluia followed ; and in order 
 to give to the officiating prieft or deacon sufficient 
 time to prepare and ascend the ambon or pulpit, the 
 choir repeated and continued the laft syllable A 
 through a series of notes. This neuma, as it was 
 called, or mufical prolongation of a letter, was named 
 Sequentia, because it was sequent to and governed 
 by the melody and rhythm of the Alleluia. At a 
 later period, this paffage of notes sung without text, 
 conftituting the original form of the Sequence, came 
 to have words set thereto, thereby preparing the 
 way for other changes ; and forasmuch as the firft 
 eflays of this kind were unmetrical in their ftructure, 
 the term Prosa or Prose was applied by way of dis- 
 tinction to this species of compofition ; of which 
 Notker, surnamed the Stammerer, (Balbulus,) who 
 died in 912, canonized in 15 14, is confidered to have 
 been the originator. Gradually, rhyme, so much 
 and so fondly cultivated in the Middle Ages, found 
 its way into these also ; and from the twelfth century 
 
60 SEQUENCE. 
 
 onward, Sequences became proper metrical songs, 
 differing from other hymns only in this, that the 
 ftrophes, inftead of four, were made to consist of 
 three or fix lines, according as they were double 
 or fingle. To this rule, however, there were some 
 exceptions. The name of Prose, although not 
 ftrictly proper in its application to metrical composi- 
 tions, continued to be used, nevertheless, as a general 
 title for all Sequences ; and so we find the Dies Irae 
 bearing the appellation in the Mass-books of " Prosa 
 Ecclefiaftica de Mortuis." 
 
 Defigned in the firft inftance, as alleged by Notker, 
 merely to aflift the memory in retaining the long- 
 drawn, caudal melodies of the Alleluia, the defirable- 
 ness of having other songs for the Mass than the 
 Gloria in Excelfis, Kyrie, Credo, &c, songs eafier 
 in ftructure, which could be joined in, not only by 
 the choir, but also by the congregation, — perhaps, 
 too, the wifh to introduce greater variety into the 
 service, and bring the finging into closer relation 
 with the objects of particular Church feftivals, which 
 could be done more readily by these Sequences, — ■ 
 caused them to be multiplied greatly. 
 
 But the Roman ritual finally limited them to four, 
 viz. : Victima paschali laudis^ S. for Eafter Sunday ; 
 
SEQUENCE. 6l 
 
 Veni Sancte Spiritus^ S. for Whitsunday and St, 
 Peter's Day ; Lauda Sion Sahatorem^ S. for Solem- 
 nity of Corpus Chrifti ; and Dies Irce, S. Mass for 
 the Dead and All-Souls' Day ; nevertheless, other 
 Mass-books of diocefes and monaftic orders con- 
 tain more Sequences. The Sequence firft named 
 has a different metre from the other three, being one 
 of those rare cafes in which the chara£r.eriftic triplet 
 form of the ftrophe is departed from. The second 
 named, Veni Sancl:e Spiritus, which Trench speaks 
 of as " the lovelieft, though not the grandeft, of 
 all the hymns in the whole circle of Latin sacred 
 poetry," contains ten ftrophes of three lines each. 
 Its author was Robert the Second, son of Hugh 
 Capet, who ascended the throne of France in the 
 year 997, and died in 103 1. Like Henry the Sixth 
 of England, of a meek and gentle dispofition, a lov- 
 er of peace, he was ill suited to contend with the 
 turbulent and reftless spirits who surrounded him, 
 whose delight was in war. The next Sequence has 
 twelve double ftrophes of fix lines each. It is com- 
 monly attributed to the so-called Angelical Doctor, 
 St. Thomas Aquinas. The laft, which is the Dies 
 Irje, grand and unapproachable in its excellence, 
 comprises seventeen ftrophes of three lines each, and 
 one of four lines. 
 
ORIGIN OF LATIN RHYME. 
 
 "HILE it is true that the Latin hymns 
 written during the firft centuries of the 
 Chriftian era are, speaking generally, 
 characterized by the absence of rhyme, 
 and that the prevalence of rhyme belongs peculiarly 
 and almoft exclufively to the period intervening 
 between the pontificate of Gregory the Great and 
 that of Leo X., it would be a great error to suppose 
 that rhyme was then firft introduced, or that it was 
 borrowed, as some have surmised, from the Romance 
 or Gothic languages. If we look for its origin, we 
 mail find preludings and anticipations of it in every 
 one of the Latin poets, not excepting the oldeft. 
 Examples of both middle and final rhyme occur in 
 all. In the Introduction to Trench's " Sacred Latin 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
ORIGIN OF LATIN RHYME. 63 
 
 Poetry," where this whole subject is ably discufied, 
 we have a collation of many of these. Witness the 
 following. An ancient author, quoted by Cicero, 
 (Tusc. 1. 1. c. 28,) poflibly Ennius, has this ' — - 
 
 Coelum nitescere, arbores frondescere, 
 Vites laetificae pampinis pubescere, 
 Rami baccarum ubertate incurvescere. 
 
 Of middle rhyme, we have in Ennius : — 
 Non cauponantes bellum, sed belligerantes ; 
 
 In Virgil : — 
 
 Limus lit hie durescit, et ha^c ut cera liquescit ; 
 
 In Ovid : — 
 
 Quern mare carpentem, substrictaque crura gerentem ; 
 
 Where also is found this example of leonine pen- 
 tameter : — 
 
 Quasrebant flavos per nemus omne favos. 
 
 Of final rhyme, we have, in Virgil : — 
 
 Nee non Tarquinium ejectum Porsenna jubebat 
 Accipere, ingentique urbem obsidione premebat ; 
 
 Also : — 
 
 Omnis campis diffugit arator, 
 Otnnis et agricola, et tuta latet arce viator 5 
 
64 ORIGIN OF LATIN RHYME. 
 
 In Horace : — 
 
 Non satis est pulcra esse poemata ; dulcia sunto, 
 Et quocumque volent, animum auditoris agunto ; 
 
 Also. - 
 
 Multa recedentes adimunt. Ne forte seniles 
 Mandentur juveni partes, pueroque viriles. 
 
 Lucan abounds in examples. Even the Latin prose- 
 writers, it would seem, did not disdain now and then 
 to play at rhyme, by putting rhyming words in jux- 
 tapofition. Cicero has florem et color em ; Pliny, ve- 
 ram et meram ; Plautus, melle et felle ; and so others. 
 Rhyme being thus shown to have been a thing 
 known to the language from the earlieft times, it 
 may be thought surprifing, that what at a later 
 period w T as so highly prized, and so fondly and so 
 laboriously cultivated, should have been, during so 
 many centuries, to such an extent, neglected ; having 
 been apparently fhunned rather than sought for, par- 
 ticularly by those great matters of poetry who illus- 
 trated the Auguftan age. The fad: is, that the 
 ancient claffic metres, though found occafionally, as 
 we have seen, toying with rhyme, never seriously 
 
ORIGIN OF LATIN RHYME. 
 
 65 
 
 affected it ; and it was not until the fhackles imposed 
 by these had been wholly fhaken off, and a fimpler 
 and more natural verification, based upon accent 
 inftead of quantity, had succeeded in eftablifhing its 
 juft claims over the Greek intruder, that the regime 
 of rhyme fairly commenced. 
 
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