LAUDJL
87
LAUD4
narrow stanxaic fimits, the lines multiply in each
stanza. Thus, the following four stansas in both
sequences have a form which, as it has in various ways
become notable in the LaudaSion", may be given
here in the text of one of its stanzas :
Ecce panis angelorum
Factus cibus viatorum;
Vere panis filiorum
Non mittendus canibus. finally, both sequences close with two stanzas having each five lines, as illustrated by the penulti- mate stanza of the " Lauda 8ion " :
Bone pastor, ^anis vere,
Jesu, nostri miserere;
Tu nos pasce, nos tuere,
Tu nos bona fac videre
In terra viventium. It is clear from the above detailed comparison of the two sequences that St. Thomas, following the form of the " Laudes cnicis" throughout all its raythmio and stahzaic variations, composed a sequence which could be sung to a chant already in existence; but it is not a necessary inference from this fact that St. Thomas directly used the 'Maudes crucis' ' as his model. In form the two seouences are indeed identical (except, as al- ready notea, that one has two stanzas more than the other) . But identity of form is also found in the "Lauda 8ion and Adam's Easter sequence. "Zyma vetus expurgetur ", which Clichtoveus rightly styles "admo- dum cuvina **^ and whose spirit and occasional phrase- ology approxmiate much more closely to those of the " Lauda Sion . This is especially notable in the sixth stanza, where the first peculiar cnange of rhythm oc- curs, and where in both sequences the application of the theme to the feast-day is made directly and for- mally. Thus (in" Lauda Sion): " Dies enim solemnis agitur ", etc.; and (in " Zyma vetus") : " Hsec est dies quam fecit Dominus " (This is the day which the Lord hath made). It may well be surmised that Adam de- sired to include this famous liturgical text in his Easter sequence of " Zyma vetus expurgetur even at the expense of altering the rhythm with which he had begun nis poem; and St. Thomas, copying exactly the new rhythmic form thus introduced, copied also the spirit and pungency of its text. The same thing is not true, however, of the corresponding stanza of the "Laudes crucis", which gives us merely similarity of form and not of content or of spirit. Other verbal correspondences between the "Z3rma vetus" and the "Lauoa Sion" are observable in the closing stanzas. It may be said, then, that the Lauda Sion owes not only its poetic form, but much also of its spirit and fire, ana not a little even of its phraseology, to various sequences of Adam, whom Gu^ranger styles " le plus grand podte du moyen d.ge ". Thus, for instance, the two lines (rhythmically variant from the type set in the first stanza) of the ^' Lauda Sion **:
Vetustatem novitas,
Umbram fugat Veritas, were directly borrowed from another Easter seauence of Adam's, Ecce dies Celebris , in which occurs the aouble stanza:
Lstis cedant tristia,
Cum sit nugor gloria, Quam pnma conf usio.
Umbram fugat Veritas,
Vetustatem novitas, Luctum consolatio— while the " Pascha novum Christus est " of the Easter sequence of Adam, and the " Paranymphi novse legis Ad amplexum novi Regis" of his sequence of the Apostles^ find a strong echo in the " Novum pascha novs leas " of ^e "Lauda Sion".
The plainsong melody of the "Lauda Sion " includes the seventh and eighth modes. Its purest form is found in the recently issued Vatican edition of the RoomQ Gradual. Its authcnrship is not known; and.
accordingly, the surmise of W. S. Rockstro that the
text-authors of the five sequences still retained in the
Roman Missal probably wrote the melodies also (and
therefore that St. Thomas wrote the melody of the
"Lauda Sion"), and the conviction of a writer in the
"Irish Ecclesiastical Record", August, 1888 (St.
Thomas as a Musician), to the same effect, are incor-
rect. Shall we suppose that Adam of St. Victor com-
posed the melody? The supposition, which would of
course date the melody in the twelftn century, is not
an improbable one. Possibly it is of older date ; out the
pecuhar changes of rhythm suggest that the melody
was composed either by Adam or by some fellow-
monk of St. Victor's Abbey; and the most notable
rh3rthmic change is, as has been remarked al)ove, the
inclusion of the intractable liturgical text: Hsec
dies quam fecit Dominus " — a change demanding a
melodfy appropriate to itself. Since the melody dates
back at least to the twelfth century, it is clear tnat the
"local tradition" ascribing its composition to Pope
Urban IV (d. 1264), who had established the feast-day
and had charged St. Thomas with the composition of
the Oflice, is not well-based: "Contemporary writers
of Urban IV speak of the beauty and harmony of his
voice and of his taste for music and the Gregorian
chant; and, according to a local tradition, the music
of the Office of the Blessed Sacrament — a composition
as grave, warm, penetrating, splendid as the celestial
harmonies — ^was the work <M Urban IV" TCruls,
"The Blessed Sacrament", tr., Preston, p. 76). In
addition to the exquisite plainsong melody mention
should be made of Palestnna's settings of the " Lauda
Sion ", two for eight voices (the better known of which
follows somewhat closely the plainsong melody), and
one for four voices; and also of the noble setting of
Mendelssohn.
The " Lauda Sion " is on^ of the five sequences (out of the thousand which have come down to us from the Middle Ages) still retained in the Roman Missal. Each of the five has its own special beauty; but the "Lauda Sion" is peculiar in its combination of rhythmic flow, dpgmatic precision, phrasal condensation. It has been translated, either in whole or in part, upwards of twenty times into English verse; and a selection from it, the " Ecce panis angelorum ", has received some ten additional versions. Amongst Catholic versions are those of Southwell, Crashaw, Husenbeth, Beste, Cakeley, Caswall, Wallace, Aylward. Wackerbarth, Henry. Non-Catholic versions modify the meaning where it is too aggressively dogmatic and precise. E. C. Benedict, however, in his " Hymn of Hildebert ", etc., ^ves a literal translation into verse, but declares that it is to be understood in a Protestant sense. On the other hand, as the editor of "Duffield's Latin Hymns" very sensibly remarks, certain stanzas ex- press " the doctrine of transubstantiation so distinctly, that one must have gone as far as Dr. Pusey, who avowed that he held 'all Roman doctrine', before using these words in a non-natural sense." The ad- miration tacitly bestowed on the sequence by its freauent translation, either wholly or in part, by non- Catnolic pens, found its best expression in the elo- quent Latin eulo^ of Daniel (Thesaurus Hymnologi- cus, II, p. 88), \J^cn, speaking of the hymns of the Mass and Office of Corpus Christi, he saj's: "The Angelic Doctor took a single theme for his singing, one filled with excellence and divinity and, indeed, angelic, that is, one celebrated and adored by the very angels. Thomas was the greatest singer of the venerable Sacrament. Neither is it to be believed that he did this without the inbreathing of God (quern non sine numinis afflatu cecinisse credos), nor shall we be sur- prised that, having so wondrously, not to say uniquely, absolved this one spiritual and wholly heavenly theme, he should thenceforward sing no more. One only off- spring was his— but it was a lion {Peperit semel, sed leonem),*'
