The Oxford Book of Medieval Latin Verse
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Oxford University Press, Ely House, London W. I GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE WELLINGTON CAPE TOWN SALISBURY I8ADAN NAIkOBI LUSAKA ADDIS ABABA. The 80MBA Y CALCU'ITA MADRAS KAltACm LAHORE DACCA KUALA LUMPUB. HONG KONG Oxford Book of Medieval Latin 'krse Newly selected and edited by F. J. E. Raby, C.B. Fellow of the British Academy Hon. Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge Oxtord At the Clarendon Press © Oxford University Press I959 FREDERICO BRITTAIN AMICITIAE ERGO FIRST PUBLISHED 1959 SET IN GREAT BRITAIN AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, OXFORD AND REPRINTED LITHOGRAPHICALLY FROM CORRECTED SHEETS OF THE FIRST EDITION 1961, 1966 PREFA CE HE texts given in this volume are presented, for the Tmost part, in the fa miliar spelling of classical Latin, but in some of them I have thought it desirable to preserve the spelling of the manuscripts. I am indebted to Dr. Frederick Brittain, Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, fo r help and encouragement in the preparation of this volume. Fr. Paul Grosjean S.]., has most kindly taken great trouble in answering my questions about the difficult problems connected with the Latinity of Hi!perica Famina, and I owe to him many valuable sug gestions as to the meaning of the extract given on pp. 58 sq. I am grateful also to Dr. b. R. Shackleton Bailey and to Professor C. O. Brink for their helpful advice. F.J. E. R. NOTES TO CORRECTED REPRINT Nos. 108 and I09, pp. 151-3, are to be found, with the rest of Notker's Sequences, in W. von den Steinen, Notker de r Dichter und seine geistige Welt, z vols., Bern, 1948. No. 13Z,p. 18 4. For ft. 1050 read d. c. 10IO. No. z07,p. 309. For another and perhaps earlier text, R. W. Hunt, in Medium Ae'VUm, xxviii (1959), p. I9Z. see Nos. Z77, p. 417 and z8z,p. 4z6 should probably be assigned to Philip the Chancellor. No. z79,p. 4Z0 is probably by Peter of Blois (d. IZIZ and not c. !Zoo as on p. 364) . Fora text of No. Z8I,P. 425,with a third strophe, A.Wilmart, in Mediaeval and Renaissance Studies , iv (1958),see p. 76. For another and longer text of No. z83,p. 428, Hunt,op. cit., pp. 193 sq. see INTRODU CTION TUDENTS or amateurs of classical Latin verse, whose interest or curiosity has led them as far as Claudian Sand Ausonius, may often have wondered what kind of poetry was written in the following centuries which were the prelude to what they had been taught to regard as the 'dark ages'. And others whose acquaintance with Christian Latin poetry was confined, for the most part, to the hymns of the Roman Breviary may have wished to know more of a poetry which possesses a mysterious fascination and charm. As early as 1741 Polycarp Leyser published his Historia poetarum et poematum medii aeei, and his work contained some previously unpublished texts. In the nine teenth century two movements contributed to that pro vision of texts which was an essential preliminary to the systematic study of medieval Latin poetry. One was initiated by Daniel in his Th esaurus Hymn%gicus, followed by the more critical collection of Mone in his Lateinische Hymnen det'Mittela/ters, and culminating in the fifty-five volumes of Ana/eCla Hymnica, edited by Dreves and Blume. The other movement was part of the great historicalmovement, common to most western European countries, the basis of which was the study of original sources in new and critical editions. So, in collections such as the Monumenta Ger maniae Historica, and the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasti corum Latinorum, supplemented by our own Rolls Series and the useful, if uncritical, reprints of Migne's Patr%gia Latina, poetical texts were included which became avail able for the student of literature as well as for the historian. ix INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION It was soon realized that this vast body of Latin verse, long practice and the imitation of approved models. T�ere secular as well as religious, which was the product of a was a whole series of poets, such as Iuvencus, Seduhus, thousand years of assiduous composition, was important, Dracontius, Avitus, and Arator, stretching from the fourth not merely on historical and cultural grounds, but in rela to the sixth century, who represent an 'epic' tradition in tion to the vernacular literatures of medieval Europe. This their setting-out of scriptural subjects in classical measures is the reason why medievalists and, in particular, Romance for the benefit of readers or hearers who could more easily scholars, have, for a considerable number of years, paid appreciate this kind of poetry than anyt��ng of a popular much attention to medieval Latin poetry and especially to or semi-popular nature. To the same tradItIOn of the schools that part of it which can be conveniently described as belongs the poetry of Prudentius and of Paulinus of N la, lyrical. � The present volume is intended to provide a repre two accomplished versifiers, as much at home lYrIcal sentative m selection of medieval Latin verse up to about the as in other measures. year 1350. It is on a larger scale than the original Oxford By the side of this learned poetry the Christian hymn Book ofMed iefJalLatin Perse, edited by the late Sir Stephen was making its appearance in the Latin West. It was Gase1ee, who would willingly have given his blessing to a introduced from the East and was destined to have a long more extensive collection. A comparison of the present and significant influence on versification. Hilary of Poitiers selection with his will show how much it owes to its pre decessor. wrote metrical hymns for the instruction of Gallic con gregations (5), but Ambrose, whose verses were to form the core of Western hymnaries, was the real father of 2 Western hymnody (9-12). He had the genius to see in the simple iambic dimeter the measure for his pu pose, a Medieval Latin poetry may be said to begin � in the measure which was soon to be adapted for rhythmIcal and middle of the third century with Commodian,an African, rhymed compositions-the so-called Ambrosian hymns. whose strange verses were intended for the instruction of So, along with the hymns of Prudentius and his Periste an unlearned audience and had no future before them phanon (Odes on the martyrs), a large body of hymns (1-2). Augustine's Psalm against the Donatists (23) had a could be gathered, for use especially in the now developed similar intention. Early Christian Latin poetry is_for the monastic Offices (15-22). Prose hymns, like the Gloria �n most part the work of writers who were trained in the excelsis and the Te Deum (14), were also used, the one schools of grammar and rhetoric, schools whose tradition ID the Eucharist and the other at Lauds. Two of the fine was continued with changes and modificationsthroughout hymns of Fortunatus, the Pange, lingua, gloriosi proelium the Middle Ages. For the poets of classical Latin antiquity certaminis and the Pexilla regis (54-55) were composed as for their medieval successors poetry was a branch of for a special occasion, but found their way into use at rhetoric; its rules were definite and must be mastered by Passion tide. x xi INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION 3 of Charles the Great himself, who brought to his Court The origins of rhymed and rhythmical verse have been not only Alcuin, with the tradition of the English schools, much disputed. Rhyme had long been a familiar ornament but scholars and poets from Italy, where there had been of rhetorical prose and from this it may well have passed no break in classical studies from the last days of the ancient into verse, though both rhyme and rhythm may also have world. The most accomplished poet of all, Theodulph, 0:wed something' to eastern (Christian) influences.The prin Bishop of Orleans, brought the contribution of Spanish CIples of regular rhythm and of fixity in the number of learning (81). Most of this poetry is in classical measures, showing especially the influence of Ovid and Virgil. But syll�bles were only gradually established and the full per fection of regular rhyme was a slow process. In his treatise Irish and perhaps English influences had created some De orle melrico Bede deals with rhythmical verse as an interest in rhyme, and North Italy produced a large amount established form, and in the seventh century the Irish of rhythmical poetry, both religious and secular, which was poets showed in their Latin hymns a fondness for rhyme read, collected, and imitated in the Frankish monasteries. and even for rhymes of two syllables. It is certain that the These monasteries, after the eclipse of the Palace School at composition of rhythmical as well as of quantitative verse Aachen, had become the chief centres of learning and was taught in the monastic and cathedral schools in western literature. Some of the Frankish 'rhythms' celebrate con Europe. As it was from the Latin rhymed and rhythmical temporary events, a victory in war or the death of a ruler. verse that rhyme and rhythm passed into the vernacular The rhythmical trochaic tetrameter was a favourite measure. literatures, the importance of this remarkable invention The Italian (Lombardic) contribution to this rhythmical can hardly be exaggerated. Such was the attraction of verse is important. Epic, historical, and didactic poetry rhyme that from the ninth century onwards it began to be was also practised, mostly in classical measures, though at attached to hexameters and later to pentameters of classical times with leonine rhyme.