HITHERTO UNCOLLECTED. 1648. NOTE. Whether intentionally, or with his usual carelessness, the two following important and characteristic Poems are not given in Turnbull's edition; and they seem entirely to have escaped the knowledge of even admirers of Crashaw. They appeared originally in the 'Steps of the Temple' of 1648 (pp. 103-105), and were naturally excluded from the Paris collection of 1652, and overlooked in the edition of 1670. See their biographic significance in our Essay in the present Volume. For the second translation (viz. of Baptismus &c.) I tender thanks to my good friend Rev. J.H. Clark, M.A., as before; the other and somewhat difficult one (Fides &c.) I have myself done. G.
Decoration C FIDES, QUAE SOLA JUSTIFICAT, NON EST SINE SPE ET DILECTIONE. Nam neque tam sola est. O quis male censor amarus
Jam socias negat in mutua sceptra manus?
Deme Fidem; nec aget, nec erit jam nomen Amoris:
Et vel erit, vel aget quid sine Amore Fides?
Ergo, Amor, i, morere; i, magnas, Puer alme, per umbras5
Elysiis non tam numen inane locis.
O bene, quod pharetra hoc saltem tua praestat et arcus,
Ne tibi in extremos sit pyra nulla rogos!
O bene, quod tuus has saltem tibi providet ignis,
In tu quas possis funera ferre faces!10
Durus es, ah, quisquis tam dulcia vincula solvis;
Quae ligat, et quibus est ipse ligatus Amor.
O bene junctarum divortia saeva sororum,
Tam penitus mixtas quae tenuere manus!
Nam quae, tam varia, in tam mutua viscera vivunt?15
Aut ubi, quae duo sunt, tam prope sunt eadem?
Alternis sese circum amplectuntur in ulnis:
Extraque et supra, subter et intus eunt.
Non tam Nympha tenax, Baccho jam mista marito,
Abdidit in liquidos mascula vina sinus.20
Compare jam dempto, saltem sua murmura servat
Turtur, et in viduos vivit amara modos.
At Fidei sit demptus Amor; non illa dolebit,
Non erit impatiens aegraque; jam moritur.
Palma, marem cui tristis hyems procul abstulit umbram,25
Protinus in viridem procubuit faciem?
Undique circumfert caput, omnibus annuit Euris;
Siqua maritalem misceat aura comam:
Ah misera, expectat longum, lentumque expirat,
Et demum totis excutitur foliis.30
At sine Amore Fides nec tantum vivere perstat,
Quo dici possit vel moritura Fides.
Mortua jam nunc est: nisi demum mortua non est
Corporea haec, anima deficiente, domus.
Corpore ab hoc Fidei hanc animam si demis Amoris,35
Jam tua sola quidem est, sed male sola Fides.
Hectore ab hoc, currus quem jam nunc sentit Achillis,
Hectora eum speres quem modo sensit herus?
Tristes exuvias, Oetaei frusta furoris,
Vanus, in Alcidae nomen et acta vocas?40
Vel satis in monstra haec, plus quam Nemeaea, malorum
Hoc Fidei torvum et triste cadaver erit?
Immo, Fidem usque suos velut ipse Amor ardet amores;
Sic in Amore fidem comprobat ipsa Fides.
ERGO: NOTE. In line 10 we have corrected an evident but long-continued misprint in the original text of 'In tu aquas' by reading 'In tu quas,' and translate accordingly. G.
TRANSLATION. FAITH, WHICH ALONE JUSTIFIES, EXISTS NOT WITHOUT HOPE AND LOVE. That Faith which only justifies
A sinner as in guilt he lies,
Bow'd aneath the awful blood,
Clinging to the uplifted rood,
Is not alone so as nor Love
Nor heavenly Hope may in it move,
To thrill with touch of ecstasy
The bruisÈd heart, the swimming eye.
What, censor! bitter to ill end,
Dost thou thy dogma still defend?
And wouldest thou to hands allied
Mutual sceptres see denied,
Snapping betwixt Faith and Love
The tie that binds them from Above?
I tell thee nay, stone-hearted one,
The Faith of Christ is not alone:
Take Faith away, and Love will sigh;
Take Hope away, and Faith will die;
Take Faith away, Love will do naught;
Take Love away, and Faith's distraught:
For I tell thee, vain sophister,
They're as sister unto sister.
But mark, this Love that brings Faith joy
Is not blind Cupid. Ah, bright Boy,
Begone; thou shalt not, wouldst thou, stay;
Go, get thee swift from light o' day;
Go, get thee now to the vast shades,
And there indulge thy escapades:
Thou in Elysian realms mayst reign
A fitting deity, not vain:
Go therefore, and with thee thy bow
And quiver. Well it is below
That these for thee shall form a pyre,
To which thy torch will furnish fire.
But, ah, thou hast a heart of stone,
Who wouldest make Faith live alone,
Loos'ning the sweet ties Love has found
To bind Faith to her, herself bound.
O, it is cruel thus to sever
Sisters whom God hath joinÈd ever;
Whose claspÈd hands so closely cling,
E'en as vine-tendrils ring on ring:
You may not tell there's more than one,
So absolute the union.
Where shall you find beneath the sky
Two differing so variously,
And yet each life in other bound,
Touch one, the other you shall wound:
Or where, 'mid all the pairs on earth,
Twins through marriage or through birth,
Shall you find two so truly one?
Arms twining in affection,
They clasp each other, chin to chin,
Above, below, without, within,
Embracing and embrac'd by turns;
Yet not with such wild-fire as burns
In Lust's hot touch, and clasp and grasp
Eager and stinging as tongue of asp.
Not so closely interwine
The graceful Elm and clinging Vine,
When to bosom of the tree
Bacchus' clusters prest you see,
And the Nymph the fruit receives,
And hides it amid dewy leaves;
Ev'n as the poets tell of old,
In legends of the Age of Gold.
Faith and Love know no such flame,
Their pure twining brings no shame;
Look for taint, you'll find it missing:
'Tis as flower flower kissing;
Or twin-roses dewy dripping,
And twin-bees their honey sipping.
The Turtle-dove, robb'd of her mate,
Pines and mourns disconsolate;
Yet still lives on in widow'd grief,
Knowing at times Hope's sweet relief.
But Faith when once of Love bereft
Loses her all, has nothing left;
Nor mourns nor frets nor pales—she's dead,
Struck to the heart astoniÈd.
The Palm that by the wintry blast
Sees her companion-tree downcast,
Whose mighty shadow o'er her threw
Protection when the fierce storm blew;
Her umbrage sheds, and quivering
Seeks that some fav'ring wind would bring
Her branches with his boughs to mingle,
Since she is left in sadness, single;
Wretched, she wears and wastes away,
Leaf following leaf in wan decay,
Until at last, naked and bare,
She shivers in the piercing air;
And when the Spring comes, Winter sped,
'Tis vain to call her—she is dead!
But when Love from Faith is gone,
Faith lingers not still on and on;
That while her form yet meets your eye,
You can pronounce 'She'll surely die.'
She's dead i' the instant: or you will
Maintain a stark corpse liveth still,
Whose soul has pass'd beyond the sky,
Sunder'd until the last great Cry.
Faith is the body, Love the soul;
Take Love from it, you take the whole:
Now, now indeed thy Faith's alone,
But being alone, lo, it is none.
To make it clear, turn Homer's page
That paints Achilles' hate and rage,
When, having mighty Hector slain,
He dragg'd him dead over the plain—
That Hector whom the chariot feels
Dragg'd helpless, lifeless at its wheels,
Was it the same who, with proud crest,
That chariot's lord had lately prest,
Eager the victory to wrest?
Hercules' name and deeds dost see
In Œta's bloody tragedy,
When dead the mighty hero lay,
Of jealousy the poison'd prey.
His living strength the lion slew,
And hide NemÆan round him threw:
'Gainst more than lion-rage of Death
Dost summon the sad corpse of Faith?
Sure Love with love for Faith will burn,
While Faith herself trusts Love in turn.
THEREFORE: That Faith alone, lording it high,
Which Hope despairs of, and with cry
Of anguish Love can never love,
Is not the Faith sent from Above:
The Faith that thus would be alone,
What is't to us—desolate, lone?
Faith then, that lovÈd will not love
Nor hope—may no such Faith me move!
But ever in my bosom lie
Faith, Hope, and Love in trinity:
Yea, Love himself shall Faith's best lover prove,
And Faith confirm his strongest faith in Love. G.
BAPTISMUS NON TOLLIT FUTURA PECCATA. Quisquis es ille tener modo quem tua mater[93] Achilles
In Stygis aethereae provida tinxit aquis,
Sanus, sed non securus dimitteris illinc:
In nova non tutus vulnera vivis adhuc.
Mille patent aditus; et plus quam calce petendus5
Ad nigri metues spicula mille dei.
Quod si est vera salus, veterem meminisse salutem;
Si nempe hoc vere est esse, fuisse pium;
Illa tibi veteres navis quae vicerat Austros,
Si manet in mediis usque superstes aquis;10
Ac dum tu miseros in littore visis amicos,
Et peccatorum triste sodalitium,
Illa tibi interea tutis trahet otia velis,
Expectans donec tu rediisse queas:
Quin igitur da vina, puer; da vivere vitae;15
Mitte suum senibus, mitte supercilium;
Donemus timide, Ô socii, sua frigora brumae:
Aeternae teneant hic nova regna rosae.
Ah, non tam tetricos sic eluctabimur Euros;
Effractam non est sic revocare ratem.20
Has undas aliis decet ergo extinguere in undis;
Naufragium hoc alio immergere naufragio:
Possit ut ille malis oculus modo naufragus undis,
Jam lacrymis melius naufragus esse suis.
TRANSLATION. BAPTISM CANCELS NOT AFTER-SINS. O young Achilles, whom a mother's care
Hath dipp'd as in a sacred Stygian wave;
Whole, but yet not secure, thou hence dost fare,
For there are wounds from which it will not save.
A thousand ways of entrance open lie
For evil; not alone against thy heel
The prince of darkness in his rage lets-fly
The thousand arrows thou mayst dread to feel.
But if remember'd health may still have given
True health, and to have been is still to be,
Thou seem'st as one whose bark, by storms unriven,
Still rides, as yet unconquer'd, on the sea;
And, while on shore thy friends thou visitest,
And the sad company of them that sin,
With furlÈd sails upon the waves at rest,
Thy bark floats idly till thou art within.
But if for this thou criest overbold,
'Bring wine! enjoy the moment as it goes;
Leave to old age its cares; dismiss the cold,
While in new realms for ever reigns the rose!'
Ah, know that not in revels such as these
Learn we to struggle with the spiteful gale;
Nor thus can hope to rescue from rough seas
The broken cable and the driven sail.
These waves must in another wave be wash'd,
This shipwreck in another shipwreck drown'd;
The eye in such ill storms so vilely dashed,
A happier wreck in its own tears be found. Cl.
Decoration J
Latin Poems.
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