Gesammelte Aufsätze zur romanischen Philologie – Studienausgabe

Second stanzaStanze: the designation of the Virgin as filia generosi Abrahae contains an allusion to Christ as high priest secundum ordinem Melchisedek, Hebr. 7 and Gen. 14, 18ff.32 Fifth stanza: the words ut promisit Deus Abrahae refer to Gen. 22, 18 (et benedicentur in semine tuo omnes gentes terrae), i. e., to the sacrifice of Isaac; the blood of the ram offered instead of Isaac is figura sanguinis Christi.

Sixth stanza: the virga arida Aaron (Num. 17, 8) is explained by the following lines. This is one of the most recurrent of the figurative combinations symbolizing the conception of Christ; it was supported by another even more famous passage: et egredietur virga de radice Jesse, et flos de radice eius ascendet (Is. 11, 1). Later on, there are many puns on the words virgo and virga. Mary is called virgo virga salutaris in a hymn of the twelfth century,33 and St. Bernard designates Christ as virga virgo virgine generatus.34

Seventh stanzaStanze: The porta iugiter serrata belongs to the same group of figures of the conception; it refers to Ezek. 44, 2: porta haec clausa erit, et non aperietur, et vir non transibit per eam; quoniam Dominus Deus Israel ingressus est per eam. We shall discuss this figure later.

Eighth stanza: The mother of the virtues is humilitashumilitas, opposed to superbiasuperbia; Mary’s humility is an important motif in her eulogy (DanteDante: umile … più che creatura), based, in the tradition, on Luke 1, 38ff.; it is opposed to Eve’s superbia (DanteDante, Purgatorio, xxix, 25–27). The words subisti remedium etc. and the following stanza refer to Luke 2, 22–24, cf. Lev. 12, 6–8.35

Eleventh stanzaStanze: the theme of laughter (cui parvus arrisit tunc) is very widespread, but there is some variation concerning the person who is laughing; in a sequence of the twelfth century, to be analysed later (‘Candor surgens ut aurora’), it is Mary’s mother Anne: matris risus te signavit (fourth stanza); in another of the same period, ‘De sancta Maria Aegyptiaca,’36 Christ is called noster risus; Adam de Saint-VictorAdam v. St. Victor, ‘In Resurrtiecone Domini Sequentia’37 designates Christ as

puer nostri forma risus,

pro quo vervex est occisus.

This last quotation explains the meaning: it is again Isaac as figura Christi with an allusion to Isaac’s name and Sarah’s words referring to it: risum fecit mihi Dominus (Gen. 21, 6); it is the joy caused by the birth of the long awaited miraculous child, who may laugh too, and be called noster risus, the gaudium magnum of Luke 2, 10. I am inclined to assume that VergilVergil’s Fourth Eclogue38 has also contributed to this figure; the mediaeval interpretation of VergilVergil’s text as a prophecy of Christ is well known.

Notker’s sequence has no rhymes, its figures of speech are infrequent,39 and they are simple in comparison with what is offered by subsequent texts. The figures of interpretation are not dense enough to veil the facts which they interpret; Mary in her actual story is present in every stanzaStanze, except in stanzas 6 and 7; these are almost entirely figurative, but they still contain the link with Mary’s real life by the formulas Te … praefigurat, Maria and Tu … Maria … esse crederis.

In the sequences of the eleventh century, the progress of the figurative style is evident; there are stanzas and even series of stanzas where the figures completely conceal the story. The following stanza, taken from the sequence ‘In Assumptione Beatae Mariae’40 attributed to Herimannus ContractusHerimannus Contractus:

str. 2 Euge Dei porta quae non aperta veritatis lumen ipsum solem iustitiae indutum carne ducis in orbem,

with its allusions to Ezek. 44, 2, Mal. 4,2, and JohnJohannes (Evangelist) 1, 1–16, is only one in a series of similar paraphrases of Christ’s birth, in which the event disappears, concealed by its symbols; here are two more stanzaStanzes which contain very intricate figurative images:

str. 6 Tu agnum regem terrae dominatorem Moabitici de petra deserti ad monteur filiae Sion transduxisti. str. 7 Tuque furentem Leviathan serpentem tortuosumque et vectem collidens damnoso crimine mundum exemisti.

Strophe 6 is based on Is. 16, 1; strophe 7 on Is. 27, 1; there is probably, too, in the figure of Leviathan an allusion to Job 40, 20 and to the current interpretations of these passages;41 these consider Christ’s incarnation as the bait and his divine nature as the hook by which Leviathan, the devil, is captured.42

In the twelfth century, with the full development of rhyme and the growing smoothness of versification, this figurative style reached its perfection; figures of interpretation were fused with figures of speech and sound; both covered sacred history with some sort of rhetorical and mystical embroidery.43 We begin with a eulogy from Adam de Saint-Victor’sAdam v. St. Victor sequence ‘In assumptione Beatae Mariae Virginis’ (‘Gratulemur in hac die’):

(5) 25 Virgo sancta, virgo munda, Tibi nostra sit iucunda Vocis modulatio; Nobis opero fer desursum, Et post huius vitae cursum Tuo lunge filio. (6) 31 Tu a saeclis praeelecta Litterali diu tecta Fuisti sub cortice. De te Christum genitura Praedixerunt in scriptura Prophetae, sed typice. (7) 37 Sacramentum patefactum Est dum Verbum caro factum Ex te nasci voluit Quod sua nos pietate A maligni potestate Potenter eripuit. (10) 55 De te virga progressuram Florem mundo profuturam Isaïas cecinit, Flore Christum praefigurans Cuius virtus semper durans Nec coepit nec desinit. (8) 43 Te per thronum Salomonis, Te per vellus Gedeonis Praesignatam credimus, Et per rubum incombustum, Testamentum si vetustum Mystice perpendimus. (11) 61 Fontis vitae tu cisterna, Ardens lucens es lucerna; Per te nobis lux superna Suum fudit radium; Ardens igne caritatis, Luce lucens castitatis Lucem summae claritatis Mundo gignens filium. (9) 49 Super vellus ros descendens Et in rubo flamma spendens (Neutrum tamen laeditur) Fuit Christus carnem sumens, In te tamen non consumens Pudorem, dum gignitur. (12) 69 O salutis nostrae porta, nos exaudi, nos conforta…44

This is still a comparatively unsophisticated example, for Adam describes the method he follows (vv. 35–36), and several lines (45, 47–48, 57) recall it; there is not a complete fusion between figuring and figured object. Besides the play of the rhyme, the figures of speech and sound are not too striking. Yet the typological allusions need some commentary.

Sixth stanzaStanze: in this general description of the figurative method, the words tu a saeclis praeelecta, which correspond to DanteDante’s termine fisso d’eterno consiglio, allude to passages such as Prov. 8, 23 (ab aeterno ordinata sum), or Cant. 6, 9; the usual formula is: elegit eam Deus, et praeelegit eam; Mary is sometimes considered as finis figurarum, although this designation is usually applied to Christ himself.45

Eighth stanzaStanze: the three images thronus Salomonis, vellus Gedeonis and rubus incombustus are among the most widespread Marian figures; the poet himself explains the meaning of the latter two (vv. 49–54); the pertinent Biblical texts are Judges 6, 36ff. for the vellus Gedeonis and Exod. 3, 2 for the rubus. Mary as thronus Salomonis refers to Solomon as figura Christi; he is the sponsus of the Song of Songs, and his name is interpreted as ‘pacific’; therefore, the ‘true Solomon’ is Christ who is pax nostra (Ephes. 2, 54), and the Virgin is often called thronus, or templum, or domus, or lectus Salomonis. We have, encountered before, in St. Ambrose’sAmbrosius, hl. hymn ‘De Adventu Domini’, the verse: versatur in templo Deus.46

Tenth stanza: the background of v. 55ff. is, of course, Is. 11, 1ff., one of the basic passages of Biblical figuralism.47 Cf. above, p. 131/132.

Eleventh stanzaStanze: Christ as fons vitae refers to Ps. 35, 10; Mary’s part as mediatress has been expressed innumerable times by images such as fontis vitae cisterna;48 caritascaritas and castitascastitas are among her principal virtues (cf. note 45); Christ as lumen summae claritatis refers to several Biblical passages, the most important of which is the vision of St. Paul, Acta Apost. 22, 11.

Twelfth stanzaStanze: salutis nostrae porta refers again to the gate of Ezek. 44, 2 (cf. p. 132); this gate was interpreted as a figure of the Virgin: et ante partum incorrupta, et post partum mansit illaesa.49 It occurs in a hymn as early as Venantius FortunatusVenantius Fortunatus:

Tu regis alti ianua

et porta lucis fulgida.50

Adam is the great master of the eulogies composed of series of figures; there are many which, like our text, use the tu anaphoraAnaphertu-Anapher, such as ‘Salve mater salvatoris’51 or the sequence addressed to the Holy Spirit ‘Qui procedit ab utroque …’52 But some of the most characteristic eulogies are composed in other forms, e. g. the sequence ‘In Resurrectione Domini’ (‘Zyma vetus expurgetur …’)53 where, as in our text, the method is explained:

Lex est umbra futurorum,

Christus finis promissorum.

As a last specimen of the figurative style, I present a hymn originating from Styria, an anonymous sequence ‘In nativitate Domini’:54 although the eulogy is not composed with the tu anaphoraAnaphertu-Anapher, it has been selected as one of the most striking examples of the combination of typological figures with figures of sound:

1 Candor surgens ut aurora Solvit chaos pulsa mora Noctis de caligine. 2 Geniturae novo iure Non de viro feta miro Deum parfit ordine. 3 Lex naturae matris purae Causam nescit, nec marcescit Feta flos in virgine. 4 Matris risus te signavit Matrem ducis qui salvavit Luto fessum et oppressum In Aegypto populum. 5 Arca dudum quod servavit Manna profers in quo David Gaudet ludens, ludus prudens In te laudat parvulum. 6 Illa mitis Moabitis Ruth quaerebat quod latebat Tunc Noemi gaudium. 7 Bethlemitis botrus vitis Iam non latet quod non patet Spes Ulla per alium. 8 Veri lectus Salomonis Contra regem Aquilonis Parvum fovit qui removit Grave iugum oneris. 9 Quid sit, vide, rationis, Quod conflictus Gedeonis Non salvaret, si non daret Virtutem ros velleris. 10 Quam amoenus ager plenus Madet rore quem ab ore Gabrielis suscipit, 11 Cuius fructus fit conductus Per quem fretus exsul vetus Stolam primam recipit. 12 Audi filia pulchra facie, 13 Fer praesidia plena gratiae. 14 Te placata vivit reus, Quod vis praestat homo Deus Qui mamillas captans illas Tuo flebat gremio. 15 Quem lactasti tuum pridem Non est alter, regnat idem Honor matris, splendor patris In coelorum solio.

The typological eulogy of the Virgin starts with the fourth stanzaStanze;55 we begin again by explaining what has become unfamiliar to modern readers.

Fourth stanzaStanze: we are already familiar with the risus; here, it is Mary’s mother Anne who is laughing;56 she is sometimes prefigured and replaced, on account of the identity of names, by Anne (Hannah), mother of Samuel,57 who first wept and later exulted; both belong to the series of long barren and lately blessed mothers, a series beginning with Sarah, the laughing mother. Anne’s laughter marks Mary as the mater ducis, and for Christ the dux, Moses is introduced. The departure of the Jews from Egypt (Exodus and Ps. 113) is one of the fundamental figures of the salvation through Christ; lutum, mud, is one of the symbols of oppression and servitude (Exodus I, 14 and 5, 7: lutum, later, palea)58 with figurative meaning; as Moses liberated his people from servitude in Egypt, Christ liberated mankind from the servitude of sin and perdition.

Fifth stanzaStanze: this passage, with its elegant poetical use of sounds (gaudet ludens, ludus prudens in te laudat), refers to David’s dance, when he brought the Ark of God into his city (II Sam. 6, 12ff.). The Ark figures Mary, and the manna kept in it (Exod. 16, 32–34, and Hebr. 9, 4) figures Christ; thus, David’s dance prefigures the glorification of Christ’s birth.

Sixth stanza: Ruth is often considered, like most of the women of the Old TestamentAltes Testament, as a figure of the Church or of the Virgin;59 here she appears as one of the ancestors of David, and consequently of Christ. It was this still hidden future which she was seeking (quaerebat: Ruth 4, 17–18), when, on the advice of her mother-in-law Naomi, she ‘laid herself down’ at the feet of Boaz; and her son was a joy for Naomi (Ruth 4, 14–17), the Jewess who had lost her own sons; Ruth, too, is a figure of the pagan peoples converted to Christianity.

Seventh stanzaStanze: Bethlemitis botrus vitis is Christ; this is a typological reference to the botrus qui in vecte portatur (Numeri 13, 24), and also to botrus Cypri dilectus meus mihi (Cant. 1, 13). For this later passage, see the Sermones in Cantica of Saint Bernard;60 for the passage of the book of Numbers, let me quote again Rabanus MaurusRabanus Maurus:61

Ille autem botrus uvae quem in ligno de terrae repromissionis duo advexere vectores, botrus pendens ex ligno, utique Christus ex ligno crucis promissus gentibus de terra genitricis Mariae; terrenae stipis secundum camera visceribus effusus.

The comparison between Mary and the earth (‘virgin soil’) is traditional;62 the words non patet spes per alium refer to passages such as MatthMatthäus (Evangelist). 11, 3 or Luke 7, 19.

Eighth stanza: Mary has been identified above (p. 16) as lectus Salomonis; the rex Aquilonis is probably the king of Babylon (Is. 14, 13) as a figure of the devil or of King Herod.

Ninth stanza: for vellus Gedeonis, see p. 133.

Tenth stanzaStanze: Ager plenus refers to Gen. 27, 27: ecce odor filii mei sicut odor agri pleni, cui benedixit dominus; det tibi Deus de rore caeli … For the explanation of Jacob in this passage as figure of Christ, cf. Rabanus MaurusRabanus Maurus,63 or any other mediaeval commentator on Genesis. In our passage, the ager plenus is, of course, the Virgin.

Eleventh stanza: the exsul vetus is Adam, or fallen mankind; his stola prima refers to the parable of the Prodigal Son (LukeLukas (Evangelist) 15, 11ff.), where the father says: Cito proferte stolam primam, et induite ilium. There is also an allusion to Apoc. 7, 14.

The boldness and elasticity in the use of the figurative images and the continuous play of rhyme and alliteration confers upon this text a remarkable unity of style: joyful, playful, and still expressing the highest mystery. The realismRealismus of the last strophes – qui mamillas captans illas, corresponding to non est alter, regnat idem – is entirely in harmony with this sweet spirituality. It is, however, not yet the emotional and passionate realism of the later Franciscan poets, which we are going to discuss in the following pages.

IV

The figurative eulogies are a new type of an old form. They present historical events (for our purpose it does not matter whether some of these events pertain to legend rather than to history); they do not, however, present historical sequences. They do not tell, in an orderly succession, the history of Christ or the Virgin, but they give a great number of earlier events which are considered as prefiguring what happened through Christ or the Virgin. Every one of these past events is presented independently of the preceding and the following events; their historical interrelations and their temporal order are neglected; but in each of them, the same future event is embodied; for the figures are not mere comparisons, they are genuine symbols, and symbolism sometimes approaches complete identification, as in several passages analysed above, e.g.:

Super vellus ros descendens

Et in rubo flamma spendens

Fuit Christus …

or:

Matris risus te signavit

Matrem ducis qui salvavit

In Aegypto populum.

Thus, the impression given by the figurative eulogy is that of a harmony of world history before Christ: all its events prefigure the same future fulfillment, the incarnation of Christ; they do not form a chain of horizontal evolution, but a series of vertical lines, originating from different points, all converging upon Christ: a converging adoration executed by world history. Biblical history, for this mediaeval approach, was world history; non-Biblical facts were admitted only in so far as they fitted into the figurative system.64

During the thirteenth century, in connection with the Franciscan movement and other similar trends, a new style of religious eulogy developed, based on a new approach to the history of salvation: an approach less figurative, less dogmatic, much more emotional, direct, and lyrical. The events of the incarnation and especially of the Passion appear once again as historical events, not veiled by figurative paraphrase, with a direct appeal to human pity and compassion. This style developed mostly in the vernacular languages, especially in Italian; still, there are a few very famous Latin examples such as the ‘Stabat Mater’.65 The figurative style meanwhile did not disappear; it continued to be cultivated, and there are frequent allusions to figurative motifs even in the popular and lyrical eulogies.

Most of these are too long to be quoted here in full; yet, I may give some Italian passages as specimens. There is a praise of the Virgin in the Laudi cortonesi del secolo XIII,66 beginning with the words

Ave, vergene gaudente,

madre de l’onnipotente,

and continuing with a rather loose and haphazard enumeration of traditional elements, dogmatic, figurative, and metaphoricalMetapher. There are, moreover, enumerations of the virtues of Mary which recall some of DanteDante’s verses:

Tu sei fede, tu sperança;

and later:

Tu thesauro, tu riccheçça,

tu virtude, tu largheçça,

tu se’mperial forteçça.

These all are traditional themes; there are, however, a few lines which touch a note not only more popular, but also more emotional:

– Quel te fo dolor de parto

Ke’l videre conficto’n quarto,

tutto’l sangue li era sparto

de la gran piaga repente.

– Quel dolor participasti,

giamai no l’abandonasti …

The great master of this emotional style in Italian religious poetry is Jacopone da TodiJacopone da Todi. His dramatic ‘laudaLauden’ describing the Virgin at the Passion (Donna del Paradiso) is almost as famous as the ‘Stabat mater’; but it does not contain a eulogy in the specific sense. There is another lauda, ‘De la beata Vergine Maria,’67 beginning with the words: O Vergen piu che femina … In its eulogy, Jacopone subordinates the dogmatic motifs (which are, nevertheless, very important and interesting for the history of dogma) to the chronological and historical order of the events; and after the description of Christ’s birth, he breaks through the normal frame of a eulogy with an outburst of highest emotion:

O Maria co facivi – quando tu lo vidivi?

or co non te morivi – de l’amore afocata?

Co non te consumavi – quando tu lo guardavi,

chè Dio ce contemplavi – en quella came velata?

Quand’esso te sugea – l’amor co te facea,

la smesuranza sea – esser da te lattata?

Quand’esso te chiamava – et mate te vocava,

co non te consumava – mate di Dio vocata?

This popular and emotional style keeps much closer to the historical or literal sense of the Gospels than does the figurative; the events of Christ’s incarnation and passion are continuously kept present; there is a dominant interest in their emotional value which prevents dogmatic and figurative themes from veiling them. On the other hand, the emotional eulogies share with the figurative ones the lack of a strict composition; they have no tendency towards condensation and concentration. In the figurative eulogies, the unity of the whole is maintained, to a certain extent, by the motif of ‘convergent harmony’ which I have tried to describe above; in the popular ones, this motif, though not lacking, is, at least, expressed in a less consistent manner. In reading them, one has the impression that additions or suppressions are possible without detriment to the whole. Most mediaeval authors of hymns do not feel the ambition to condense the content into a stringent and unalterable form, where every member is a necessary and indispensable part of a synthetic conception; the all-embracing conception was present to each of these poets; repetitionsWiederholung (rhetorische), variants and accumulations seemed to be legitimate, and were sometimes fostered by the liturgical purpose.

It is obvious that DanteDante’s eulogy presents something entirely new and different. He uses all the material of the tradition, historical, dogmatic, and figurative, but he condenses and organizes it. However, the lucidity produced by what seems to be a more conscious and rigorous planning is not only rational perspicuity, but poetic irradiation; the mystery, in the full light of this illumination, remains mystery. Thus, the prayerLobrede which no other man but DanteDante could have written, preserves the true spirit of Saint Bernard.

The first three stanzas (vv. 1–9) deal with the Virgin’s earthly part in the history of human salvation; vv. 1–3, containing the invocation, summarize this historical aspect.

The last three stanzaStanzes (vv. 13–21) deal with the Virgin’s permanent aspect as mother of grace and mediatress; vv. 19–21, finishing the eulogy, summarize this permanent aspect.