Misericordias Domini in Aeternvm cantabo.
Le Vray portraict de Ste Terese, Fondatrice des Religieuses et
Religieux reformez de l'ordre de N. Dame du mont Carmel: Decedee le
4e Octo. 1582. Canonisee le 12e Mars. 1622.
THE HYMNE.
Loue, thou art absolute, sole lord
Of life and death. To proue the word
Wee'l now appeal to none of all
Those thy old souldiers, great and tall,
Ripe men of martyrdom, that could reach down
With strong armes, their triumphant crown;
Such as could with lusty breath
Speak lowd into the face of death,
Their great Lord's glorious name, to none
Of those whose spatious bosomes spread a throne
For Love at large to fill; spare blood and sweat:
And see him take a priuate seat,
Making his mansion in the mild
And milky soul of a soft child.
Scarse has she learn't to lisp the name
Of martyr; yet she thinks it shame
Life should so long play with that breath
Which spent can buy so braue a death.
She neuer vndertook to know
What Death with Loue should haue to doe;
Nor has she e're yet vnderstood
Why to show loue, she should shed blood,
Yet though she cannot tell you why
She can love, and she can dy.
Scarse has she blood enough to make
A guilty sword blush for her sake;
Yet has she a heart dares hope to proue
How much lesse strong is Death then Love.
Be Loue but there; let poor six yeares
Be pos'd with the maturest feares
Man trembles at, you straight shall find
Love knowes no nonage, nor the mind;
'Tis love, not yeares or limbs that can
Make the martyr, or the man.
Love touch't her heart, and lo it beates
High, and burnes with such braue heates;
Such thirsts to dy, as dares drink vp
A thousand cold deaths in one cup.
Good reason: for she breathes all fire;
Her white brest heaues with strong desire
Of what she may with fruitles wishes
Seek for amongst her mother's kisses.
Since 'tis not to be had at home
She'l trauail to a martyrdom.
No home for hers confesses she
But where she may a martyr be.
She'l to the Moores; and trade with them Moors
For this vnualued diadem:
She'l offer them her dearest breath,
With Christ's name in't, in change for death:
She'l bargain with them; and will giue
Them God; teach them how to liue
In Him: or, if they this deny,
For Him she'l teach them how to dy:
So shall she leaue amongst them sown
Her Lord's blood; or at lest her own. least
Farewel then, all the World! adieu!
Teresa is no more for you.
Farewell, all pleasures, sports, and ioyes
(Never till now esteemed toyes)
Farewell, what ever deare may bee,
Mother's armes or father's knee:
Farewell house, and farewell home!
She's for the Moores, and martyrdom.
Sweet, not so fast! lo thy fair Spouse
Whom thou seekst with so swift vowes;
Calls thee back, and bidds thee come
T'embrace a milder martyrdom.
Blest powres forbid, thy tender life
Should bleed vpon a barbarous knife:
Or some base hand haue power to raze
Thy brest's chast cabinet, and vncase
A soul kept there so sweet: O no,
Wise Heaun will neuer have it so.
Thou art Love's victime; and must dy
A death more mysticall and high:
Into Loue's armes thou shalt let fall
A still-suruiuing funerall.
His is the dart must make the death
Whose stroke shall tast thy hallow'd breath;
A dart thrice dip't in that rich flame
Which writes thy Spouse's radiant name
Vpon the roof of Heau'n, where ay
It shines; and with a soueraign ray
Beates bright vpon the burning faces
Of soules which in that Name's sweet graces
Find euerlasting smiles: so rare,
So spirituall, pure, and fair
Must be th' immortall instrument
Vpon whose choice point shall be sent
A life so lou'd: and that there be
Fitt executioners for thee,
The fair'st and first-born sons of fire
Blest seraphim, shall leaue their quire,
And turn Loue's souldiers, vpon thee
To exercise their archerie.
O how oft shalt thou complain
Of a sweet and subtle pain:
Of intolerable ioyes:
Of a death, in which who dyes
Loues his death, and dyes again
And would for euer so be slain.
And liues, and dyes; and knowes not why
To liue, but that he thus may neuer leaue to dy.
How kindly will thy gentle heart
Kisse the sweetly-killing dart!
And close in his embraces keep
Those delicious wounds, that weep
Balsom to heal themselves with: thus
When these thy deaths, so numerous
Shall all at last dy into one,
And melt thy soul's sweet mansion;
Like a soft lump of incense, hasted
By too hott a fire, and wasted
Into perfuming clouds, so fast
Shalt thou exhale to Heaun at last
In a resoluing sigh, and then
O what? Ask not the tongues of men;
Angells cannot tell; suffice
Thy selfe shall feel thine own full ioyes,
And hold them fast for euer there.
So soon as thou shalt first appear,
The moon of maiden starrs, thy white
Mistresse, attended by such bright
Soules as thy shining self, shall come
And in her first rankes make thee room;
Where 'mongst her snowy family
Immortall wellcomes wait for thee.
O what delight, when reueal'd Life shall stand,
And teach thy lipps Heaun with His hand;
On which thou now maist to thy wishes
Heap vp thy consecrated kisses.
What ioyes shall seize thy soul, when she,
Bending her blessed eyes on Thee,
(Those second smiles of Heau'n,) shall dart
Her mild rayes through Thy melting heart.
Angels, thy old friends, there shall greet thee
Glad at their own home now to meet thee.
All thy good workes which went before
And waited for thee, at the door,
Shall own thee there; and all in one
Weaue a constellation
Of crowns, with which the King thy Spouse
Shall build vp thy triumphant browes.
All thy old woes shall now smile on thee,
And thy paines sitt bright vpon thee,
All thy sorrows here shall shine,
All thy svfferings be diuine:
Teares shall take comfort, and turn gemms
And wrongs repent to diademms.
Eu'n thy death shall liue; and new-
Dresse the soul that erst he slew.
Thy wounds shall blush to such bright scarres
As keep account of the Lamb's warres.
Those rare workes where thou shalt leaue writt
Loue's noble history, with witt
Taught thee by none but Him, while here
They feed our soules, shall clothe thine there.
Each heaunly word, by whose hid flame
Our hard hearts shall strike fire, the same
Shall flourish on thy browes, and be
Both fire to vs and flame to thee;
Whose light shall liue bright in thy face
By glory, in our hearts by grace.
Thou shalt look round about, and see
Thousands of crown'd soules throng to be
Themselues thy crown: sons of thy vowes
The virgin-births with which thy soueraign Spouse
Made fruitfull thy fair soul. Goe now
And with them all about thee, bow
To Him; put on (Hee'l say) put on
(My rosy loue) that thy rich zone
Sparkling with the sacred flames
Of thousand soules, whose happy names
Heau'n keep vpon thy score: (Thy bright
Life brought them first to kisse the light,
That kindled them to starrs,) and so
Thou with the Lamb, thy Lord, shalt goe,
And whereso'ere He setts His white
Stepps, walk with Him those wayes of light,
Which who in death would liue to see,
Must learn in life to dy like thee.
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
The original edition (1646) has this title, 'In memory of the Vertuous
and Learned Lady Madre de Teresa, that sought an early Martyrdome;' and
so also in 1648. 1670 agrees with 1652; only the Latin line above the
portrait and the French verses are omitted.
The text of 1646 furnishes a number of variations corrective in part of
all the subsequent editions. These are recorded below. 1648 agrees
substantially with 1652: but a few unimportant readings peculiar to it
are also given in these Notes.
Various readings from 1646 edition.
Line 3, 'Wee need to goe to none of all.'
" 4, 'stout' for 'great.'
" 5, 'ripe and full growne.'
" 8, 'unto' for 'into;' the latter preferable.
" 10, 'Of those whose large breasts built a throne.'
" 11-13,
'For Love their Lord, glorious and great
Weel see Him take a private seat,
And make ...'
I have hesitated whether this ought not to have been adopted as our
text; but it is a characteristic of CRASHAW to introduce abruptly long
and short lines as in our text, and to carry a thought or metaphor
through a number of lines.
Line 15, 'had' for 'has,' and 'a' for 'the.'
" 21, 'hath,' and so in 1648 edition.
" 23, our text (1652) misprints 'enough:' I correct from 1648.
" 25, 'had,' 1648 'hath.'
" 27, 1648, 'hath.'
" 31, 'wee' for 'you.'
Line 37, 'thirst' for 'thirsts,' and 'dare' for 'dares.'
" 38 spells 'coled.'
" 40, 'weake' for 'white;' the latter a favourite epithet
with CRASHAW: 1648 'weake.'
Line 43, 1648 drops 'at' inadvertently.
" 44 spells 'travell:' 1648 has 'for' instead of 'to.'
" 45, 'her,' by misprint for 'her's.'
" 47, 1648 has 'try' for 'trade.'
" 49, 'Shee offers.' 57 spells 'adeiu.'
" 61, this line is by oversight dropped from our text
(1652).
Line 70, spelled 'barborous' in our text, but I have adopted
'a' from 1646 and 1648.
Line 71, 'race' for 'raze;' a common contemporary spelling.
" 77, 'hand' for 'armes.'
" 93, 'The fairest, and the first borne Loves of fire.'
" 94, 'Seraphims,' the usual misspelling of the plural
of seraph in our English Bible.
Line 104, 'To live, but that he still may dy.'
" 106, our text (1652) misreads 'sweetly-kissing.' I
have adopted 'sweetly-killing' from 1646, 1648 and 1670.
Line 108, 1648 has 'thine' for 'his.'
" 118, 'disolving.'
" 123, our text (1652) inadvertently drops 'shalt,' and
misreads 'you' for 'thou.' I accept the text of 1646, 1648
and 1670.
line 129, 'on.'
" 130, 'shee' for 'reueal'd Life;' and in next line 'her'
for 'His.' Our text (1652) is preferable, as pointing to Christ
the Life, our Life. See under lines 11-13.
Line 133, 'joy.'
" 146, 'set;' a common contemporary spelling.
" 147, this line, dropped inadvertently from our text
(1652), is restored from 1646, 1648 and 1670.
Line 148, 'And' for 'All.'
" 151, 'Even thy deaths.'
" 152, 'Dresse the soul that late they slew.'
" 167 misprints 'nowes;' corrected in 1648, but not in 1670.
" 168 drops 'soueraign.' See under lines 11-13.
" 175, 'keeps.'
" 178, 'shall.' Cf. Rev. xiv. 5, as before. G.