A similar confidence may be discerned in the poems purporting to be discussions between Christ on the cross and the Blessed Virgin at its foot, some of which are direct translations from the Latin.
For instance, the introduction to The Blessed Virgin to her Son on the Cross reads:
Crisostomus et ymaginatur de planctu virginis quod beata
virgo stat sub cruce dicens filio suo sic O fili agnosce
matrem, &c.
[Chrysostom imagines the plaint of the Virgin when the
Blessed Virgin stands under the cross, saying to her Son:
'O Son, acknowledge the mother . . .' etc.]
Brown (1924:285) writes;
I have not been able to find the Latin original of these lines among the works of Crysostom, but it is to be recognised in (a) passage from the Sermon on the Passion attributed (doubtfully) to St Bernard.
THE BLESSED VIRGIN TO HER SON ON THE CROSS
A Sone! tak hede to me whas sone þou was remember whose
and set me with þe opon þi crosse.
Me, here to leue, & þe, hennys þus go, hence
hit is to me gret care & endeles wo woe
stynt now, sone, to be hard to þi moder, cease
þu þat were euer godliche to al oþir kind; others
Et sicut idem doctor ymaginatur ibidem filius matri conquerenti sic respondet
[and likewise the same doctor imagines the Son to persuade His mother, as He responde thus:]
'Stynt now, modir, & wep no more cease; weep
þi sorrow & þi disseise greuyþ me ful sore; misery; grieve
þou knowyst þat in þe i tok mannys kynde, assumed humanity
in þis for mani(s) synne to be þus pynde. sins; tormented
Be now glad, moder, & haue in þi þough(t)e, remember
þat manys hele is founde, þat i haue souʒ t. healing; sought
þou shalt noʒt now care what þow schalt done do
lo! Iohan, þi cosyn, shall be þi sone' cousin/nephew
(1-12)
From the word cosyn in the last line of the second verse it seems that the poet was under the illusion that John the Baptist was standing beside the cross. This could be a mistake because the Gospel according to Mark (VI:16-28) tells us that he had been imprisoned and beheaded by King Herod at the request of the daughter of Herodias, the king's brother's wife with whom he was living. On the other hand, cosyn could be a term of endearment for a friend, in the same way as the Bible loosely speaks of Jesus's brethren, or as in Afrikaans, even today, a man may address a neighbour or friend who is not a blood relation as: "ou neef" (old cousin).
Whatever the explanation, the poet displays a warmth and easy familiarity in this imagined speech between Christ and His Mother while He suffers on the cross as there might well have been in real life. Mother and Son do not pretend with one another; without subterfuge they achieve the crux of what they wish to say and return natural, unequivocal replies. This indicates that to the poet of mediæval times Christ was a reality and the Blessed Virgin likewise. It shows, moreover, that the mediæval interpretations of poems based on the Latin "Stabat Mater dolorosa iuxta crucem" [the sorrowful Mother stood beside the cross] were considerably less formidable, stark and stilted than the Latin original, reflecting, despite the ever-present sense of pain, the lack of formality between Mother and Son, while simultaneously striking a blow for Christianity by spelling out the reasons for Christ's need to suffer thus.
Dr Luky Whittle
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