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THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
BIBLIOTHECA PASTORUM
EDITED BY
John Ruskin,
HONORARY STUDENT OF CHRIST CHTKCH, OXFORD.
VOL. II.
ROCK HOiNEYCOMB.
BROKEISr PIECES OF SIR PHILIP SIDNEY'S PSALTER.
LAID UP IN' STORE FOR ENGLISH HOMES.
WITH A PREFACE AND COMMENTARY
^y the Editor.
IN TWO PARTS. PART I.
ELLIS AND WHITE, 29, NEW BOND STREET, LONDON;
AND
GEORGE ALLEN, SUNNYSIDE, ORPINGTON, KENT.
1877.
S5Cx>
PREFACE.
Sunday, <)ih July, 1876. ^\/'ESTERDAY evening, one of the sweetest and •^ brightest of this hitherto sweet summer, the ' Coniston band,' consisting of the musically minded working men of the village, rowed itself, for its 'Saturday at e'en' delectation, into the middle of the lake ; and, floating just between Brantwood and the ' Hall,' on the opposite shore, where Sir Philip Sidney, it is delivered by tradition, lived for a time, with his sister, in our Arcadia of western meres, — poured forth divers pipings and trumpetings, with meritorious endeavour, and, I doubt not, real, in- nocent, and useful pleasure to itself, and to the village hearers on the opposite green shore.
Mostly, polka music, with occasional sublimities — ' My Maryland,' and ' God save the Emperor,' and the like ; — pleasant enough, sometimes, to hear, from this shore also : but, as it chanced, yesterday, very destructive of my comfort in showing the bright roses and deep purple foxgloves on my banks to two
ii PREFACE.
guests, for whom the flowers and the cvcnhig hght were good ; but gay music, not so.
And it might, with little pains, have been much otherwise ; for if, instead of a somewhat briefly exercised band, playing on trumpets and shawms, concerning a Maryland of which they probably did not know either the place or the history, and an Emperor, a proposal for whose instant expulsion from his dominions would have been probably received with as much applause in the alehouse, as the prayer that God would save him, upon the lake ; — if, I say, instead of this tune- ful, and occasionally out-of-tuneful, metallic noise, produced, with little meaning beyond the noise itself, by the fathers of the village, a few clearly understood and rightly intended words had been chanted for us in harmony by the children of it; — suppose, for instance, in truly trained concord and happy understanding, such words as these of Sir Philip Sidney's own, echoed back from the tender ruin of the walls that had been his home, and rising to the fair mountain heaven, which is still alike his home and ours ; —
'• From snare tlic fowler lays He shall ihec sure untyc ; The noisome blast that plaguing strays Untoucht, shall pass thee by.
PREFACE. iii
Soft hived with wing and plume Thou in his shroud shall lie, And on his truth no less presume Than in his shield affy,"
the July sunset would not have been less happy to the little choir, and the peace of it would have been deepened for those to whom it could bring happiness no more.
" Is any among you afflicted ? — let him pray. Is any merry ? — let him sing psalms."
The entire simplicity and literalness of this com- mand of the first Bishop of the Christian Church cannot, of course, be now believed, in the midst of our luxurious art of the oratorio, and dramatically modulated speeches of Moses in Egypt, and Elijah on Carmel. But the command is, nevertheless, as kind and wise as it is simple ; and if ever Old England again becomes Merry England, the first use she will make of her joyful lips, will be to sing psalms.
I have stated, in the first sketch of the design of our St. George's education, that music is to be its earliest element ; and I think it of so pressing im- portance to make the required method of musical teaching understood, that I have thrown all other employment aside for the moment, in order to get this edition of Sir Philip Sidney's Psalter prepared
IV PREFACE.
for school service. I will state the principles of music and of song which it is intended to illustrate, as briefly as possible.
All perfectly rhythmic poetry is meant to be sung to music,* and all entirely noble music is the illustration of noble words. The arts of word and of note, separate from each other, become degraded ; and the muse-less sayings, or senseless melodies, harden the intellect, or demoralize the ear.
Yet better — and manifoldly better — unvocal word and idle note, than the degradation of the most fateful truths of God to be the subjects of scientific piping for our musical pastime. There is excuse, among our uneducated classes, for the Christmas Pantomime, but none, among our edu- cated classes, for the Easter Oratorio.
The law of nobleness in music and poetry is essentially one. Both are the necessary and natural expression of pure and virtuous human joy, or sorrow, by the lips and fingers of persons trained in right schools to manage their bodies and souls.
* Lyric nnd epic of course, without question ; and didactic, if it be indeed poetry. Satirical primarily, or philosophical, verses, as of Juvenal, Lucretius, or Pope's Essay on Criticism, are merely measured prose, — the grander for being measured, but not, because of their bonds, becoming poetry. Dramatic verse is not perfectly rhythmic, when it is entirely right.
PREFACE. V
Every child should be taught, from its youth, to govern its voice discreetly and dexterously, as it does its hands ; and not to be able to sing should be more disgraceful than not being able to read or write. For it is quite possible to lead a virtuous and happy life without books, or ink ; but not without wishing to sing, when we are happy ; nor without meeting with continual occasions when our song, if right, would be a kind service to others.
The best music, like the best painting, is entirely popular ; it at once commends itself to every one, and does so through all ages. The worst music, like the worst painting, commends itself at first, in like manner, to ninety-nine people out of a hundred ; but after doing them its appointed quan- tity of mischief, it is forgotten, and new modes of mischief composed. The less we compose at pre- sent, the better: there is good music enough written to serve the world for ever ; what we want of it for our schools, may be gradually gathered, under these following general laws of song : —
I. None but beautiful and true words are to be set to music at all ; nor must any be usually sung but those which express the feelings of noble persons under the common circumstances of life, and its actual joys and griefs. Songs extreme in pathos are a morbid form of the indulgence of
VI PREFACE.
our desire for excitement ; unless in actual dra- matic function, becoming part of a great course of thought in which they fulfil the highest tone, — as Ophelia's "White his shroud;" which may be properly sung in its appointed place, but there only. It is profane and vulgar to take these pieces out of their shrines ; and injurious to all the finer states of thought and habits of life to compose such without shrines.
II. Accompaniments are always to be subordi- nate, and the voice of the singer, or choir, supreme. But it is quite possible to keep the richest com- binations of instrumental music subordinate to the vocal notes, as great painters can make the richest decoration subordinate to a simple story. And the noblest instrumental execution is felt by true musical instinct to be more conspicuous in this humility and precision of restraint, than in its most consummate dexterity of separate achievement.
III. Independent instrumental music is, to sing- ing, what painted glass is to painting : it admits the extremest multiplication, fantas)', range, . and concord of note ; and has the same functions of magnificence, and powers of awe or pleasure, that the casements have in a cathedral. But all the greatest music is by the human voice, as all greatest painting is of the human face.
PREFACE. vii
IV. All songs are to be sung to their accom- paniment, straight forward, as they would be read, or naturally chanted. You must never sing
aw a-
" Scots whaw-aw aw-hae wi' Wa- a-
a- a- a- a- a- a-a~ a~ a~ a- . , i i i u
al-lace bled,
nor " Welcome, welcome, welcome to your go — to
your go — to your go-oo-ooo-ory bed ;" but sing it as
you would say it. Neither, even if a song is too
short, may you ever extend it by such expedients.
You must sing " Come unto these yellow sands "
clear through, and be sorry when it is done ; but
never
a- a-
"Come unto these ya- a- a, etc., low sands."
V. The airs of songs by great composers must never be used for other words than those they were written for. Nothing is so destructive of all musical understanding as the habit of fitting a tune that tickles the ear to any syllables that it will stick on ; and a single instance may show the point to which this barbarism has reached in the musical catastrophes of modern concert, pre- pared for the uneducated and the idle. The other day, on the table of my inn at Cambridge, I chanced to take up a modern ' adaptation ' of
vni
PREFACE.
Rossini's ' Stabat Mater,' and found that the music intended for the Latin syllables here given in the upper lines was to be sung indifferently to the
English ones below : —
|
Sta |
- bat |
Ma - ter |
Do |
- lo |
- ro - sa |
|
Lord |
most |
ho - ly |
Lord |
most |
migh - ty |
|
Jux |
- ta |
- Ciu - ccm |
La |
- cry |
- mo - sa |
|
Righ |
- teous |
ev - er |
Are |
thy |
judg - ments |
Dum pen - dc - bat Fi Save us for thy Mer
11
cv's
- us
sake
Imagine the idea thus conveyed to the listening mob, of the composer's intention, or of the dramatic power of his work.*
VI. Ballad music is, of course, written with the intent that it shall fit itself to any sentiment by mere difference of adopted time and accent. The right delivery of it will follow naturally on true feeling of the ballad. The absurdity of the ordinary supposition that music can express feeling defi- nitely, without words, is shown in a moment by the fact that such general expressions can be written, and that in any good and classic ballad-
* Rossini's Stabat was, I believe, itself a Iransposition of this kind, the music having been originally written for other words. But the master himself may do this, if he think good ; not liis scholars or executants. What words he finally leaves his composition arranged for, must thenceforward be retained.
TREFACE. ix
music, the merry and melancholy parts of the story may be with entire propriety and satisfaction sung to precisely the same melody.*
* The following very interesting portion of a letter from a man of the highest scientific attainments, and of great general sensitive faculty and intellectual poM'er, expresses the general faith in the independent power of music in so forcible a manner that, in' once more replying to the argmnents he brings forward, I conceive enough to be said on the subject. The letter opens with a reference to my use of the ^\^ord ' subordinate ' in paragraph II. above : —
"My dear Ruskin, — 'Subordinate' is not the right word, though I think you mean right. ' Co-ordinate ' would be more correct. Both M'ords and music should express as far as possible the idea intended to be conveyed ; but music can convey emotion more powerfully than words, and independently of them. Mozart in his Masses only thought of the words as syllables for hanging notes on, and so wrote music quite profane. Bach, on the contrary, wrote, as it were, on his knees, when he Avrote Church music. For instance, the 'Dona nobis' was set by Mozart to noise and triumph ; by J. S. Bach is made a solemn, gentle, and tender prayer, preparing the congre- gation for the rest of the service. There, no repetition of the -words ' dona nobis pacem ' would give calm to the mind of the listener or reader, but the musical repetition, with variation, extends and enhances the calm both in listener and singer ; but it would be quite incorrect to say Bach had ' subordinated ' the music to the words, for, to a musician, no words could express so much as his music does. Like painting and poetiy, music has its own special power, and its own field ; it is vague compared with poetry in description, but more exact in expressing feeling (!) ; painting belongs to a point of time (! !) ; music to its extension beyond poetiy.
" We have just the same kind of thing in music, though so much less is needed for musical criticism. J. S. Bach's greatest w-ork is about to be performed for the first time in London, and L. has had a letter from a professional that might have been a critique on Turner written by Maclise, the man being unable to hear what
X PREFACE.
VII. Playful, and comic, singing are subject to the same laws as play, in life; and jesting, in con- versation. No vulgar person can be taught how to play, or to jest, like a gentleman ; and, for the most part, comic songs are for the vulgar only. Their higher standard is fixed, in note and word, by Mozart and Rossini ; but I cannot at present judge how far even these men may have lowered the true function of the joyful Muse.
Thus far of the great general laws under which music is to be taught in St. George's schools. The reasons for them will be given at greater length elsewhere : and, for beginning of songs to be sung, I have chosen this body of paraphrases of the Psalter, attributed in part to Sir Philip Sidney, and, whether his or not, better written
Bach was aiming at, — devotional expression of the words. So it must ever be — during our days, at any rate."
I hope better, dear friend ; thinking in truth, more highly of music in its true function than you do ; but replying to your over-estimate of its independent strength, simply that music gives emotions stronger than words only to persons who do not completely understand words, but do completely enjoy sensations. A great part uf the energy of the wars of the world is indeed attributable to the excitement pro- duced by military bands ; but a single word will move a good soldier more than an entire day of the most artistic piping and tlrumming. The Dead March in Saul may be more impressive than words, to people wlio don't know what Death is ; but to those who do, no growling in brass can make it gloomier ; and Othello's one ciy, "Oh, Desdemona, Desdemona, — dead!" will go to their hearts,
PREFACE. XI
than any other rhymed version of the Psalms at present known to me, and of pecuhar value as a classic model of the English language at the time of its culminating perfection.
When I came into the country this summer, I had with me the little Chiswick Press edition, published in 1823, expecting to find it tolerably correct, and not doubting but that I should be able, with little difficulty, if any part of it were really Sidney's, to distinguish his work from that of any other writer concerned in the book, and arrange it for publication in a separate form.
But on examining the book, I perceived it to require complete revision, the punctuation being all set at random; and the text full of easily corrigible misreadings. And I found, with greater
when a whole cathedral choir, in the richest and most harmonious of whines, would be no more to them than a dog's howling, — not half so much, if the dog loved the dead person. In the instance given by my friend, the music of Bach would assuredly put any disagreeable piece of business out of his head, and prepare him to listen with edification to the sermon, better than the mere repetition of the woi-ds "Dona nobis pacem." But if he ever had needed peace, and had gone into church really to ask for it, the plain voices of the congregation, uttering the prayer but once, and meaning it, would have been more precious to him than all the quills and trills that ever musician touched or music trembled in. I can only mark the two sentences in the last clause of the letter with notes of — (very extreme) — wonder, — the last especially, for an unchanged chord of colour may be enjoyed by the eye many minutes longer than an unchanged chord of sound by the eal'i
Xll PREFACE.
surprise, that, instead of shining out with any recognizable brightness, the translations attributed by tradition to Sidney included many of the feeblest in the volume ; and that while several curious transitions in manner, and occasional fillings and retouchings by evidently inferior writers, were traceable through the rest, the entire body of the series was still animated by the same healthy and impetuous spirit, and could by no criticism of mine be divided into worthy and unworthy portions.
Under these circumstances, to have attempted a critical edition of the book would have involved a year's labour, a volume of correspondence, and I knew not what wistful hours of research among dark library shelves. Such an edition will, I hope, in good time, be undertaken by some ac- complished English scholar, and a chastised text given us, collected from whatever fragments exist of authoritative MS. But, in the meantime, with such summer leisure as I have at command, I can make the book, as we have it, a serviceable and fitting part of our Bibliotheca Pastorum. In the first place, therefore, the text being clearly in- accurate, I give up the old spelling altogether, and write the version in our own manner, unless here and there, when the former meaning of the word requires also the former lettering. I farther
PREFACE. xiil
correct the punctuation, and replace the visibly needful readings.
In the second place, I omit the pieces which, either by accident or by inferior authorship, fall greatly below the general standard ; and those also in which quaintness of thought or word has been carried beyond the utmost I could ask of the patience of existing taste. Even of the paraphrases which, thus sifted, remained for choice, I have taken only those which contain lessons, or ex- press feelings, applicable to or natural to our own modern life ; and which may therefore be sung, with personal adoption of their sentiment, some by the young, and some by the old, among us, who still can heartily praise their God, or appeal to Him, in the passion of song.
Of such Psalms, forty-four, closing with the seventy-second, are arranged in this volume, Avith so much of commentary as seemed to me likely to make them more serviceable to the general reader ; the second volume, containing a similar selection to the end of the Psalter, will, I' hope, be ready at least before the end of the year, and a little school-manual of the elements of prosody, explaining the laws of English and Latin mediaeval metre, as distinguished from classic metre, is already written ; but I can't get
XIV PREFACE.
it printed till after Easter. It will explain farther some points respecting the musical value of these paraphrases, which are too complex for statements here.
But the main use of these second and third parts of the Shepherd's Library, to the modern reader, will depend on his fully understanding these fol- lowing particulars concerning the manner and the melody of these ancient paraphrases.
First, I say concerning their manner, which dif- fers from that of paraphrases prepared by modern writers for existing church services in a very serious way indeed. For modern writers of de- votional rhyme always assume, that if the thing which David (or other original writer to be para- phrased) said, cannot be conveniently arranged in their own quatrain, or whatever the stanza may be, — a piece of David's saying may be cut off, and a piece of their own or any other pious person's saying, fastened on, without any harm : their object being only to obtain such a concatenation of pious sayings as may, on the whole, be sung without offence, and by their pleasant sound soothe and refresh the congregation after kneeling till they are stiff. But the idea of any of these melodious sentiments being really adopted by the singers, and meant as a true assertion, never for 4
PREFACE. XV
moment enters the composer's head. Thus, in my own parish church, only the Sunday before last, the whole congregation, and especially the children, sang, in great glee and contentment, a hymn which declared their extreme eagerness to die, and be immediately with God : but if, in the course of the tune, the smallest bit of plaster had fallen from the ceiling, implying any degree of instability in the rafters thereof, very certainly the whole symphonious company would have scuttled out as fast as they could ; and a prophetic intima- tion, conveyed to any of the mothers of the curly- haired children sitting by the altar, that their own darling was never again to be seen in that place, would as certainly have spoiled the mother's singing of the devotional exercise appointed for her that afternoon. God be thanked that it would.
Again, I observe that among the canticles which might be supposed, without absurdity, really more or less to be expressive of the feelings of a village congregation, a favourite one, founded on the pro- mise that when two or three are gathered in the name of Christ, He is in the midst of them, closes with the following invocation :
" Lord, we are few, but thou art near ; Nor short thine arm, nor deaf thine ear! Oh, rend the heavens, — come quickly down. And make a thousand hearts thine own."
XVI PREFACE.
Which charming stanza is apparently sung with great unction by everybody; and it never seems to occur to any of their minds that if Christ is in the midst of them, there is no occasion for His arm to be long, and still less for His rending the heavens to come down to them ; or that, although a thousand hearts may be a sonorous phrase for the end of a stanza, it is not what most people would understand by a ' few,' and still less a parallel for Christ's expression ' two or three.' The fact being that the poor rhymester, totally incapable of conceiving the nearness or the being of Christ at all, or any emotion whatever which would be caused by either, fills up his idle verses with the first phrases that jingle into his jaded asses' cars out of the prophecies of Isaiah, though the first, concerning the shortened arm of God, was written for people so far from having Christ in the midst of them, that their iniquities had entirely separated them from Him, and their sins hidden Ills face, — (Isaiah lix. i, 2) ; and the second is an appeal by the prophet for the descent of God, not among His friends, but against His adversaries, that the nations might " tremble at His presence" (Isaiah Ixiv. i, 2).
The entire system of modern F.ngHsh canticle is thus half paralytic, half profane, consisting partly
PREFACE. xvii
of the expression of what the singers never in their lives felt, or attempted to feel ; and partly in the address of prayers to God, which nothing could more disagreeably astonish them than His attending to.
Now Sidney's paraphrase, in common with all gentleman's literary work in the Elizabethan period, differs wholly from such modern attempts in this main particular, that it aims straight, and with almost fiercely fixed purpose, at getting into the heart and truth of the thing it has got to say ; and unmistakably, at any cost of its own dignity, explaining tliat to the hearer, shrinking from no familiarity, and restricting itself from no expansion in terms, that will make the thing meant clearer. So that whereas a modern version, if only it clothe itself in what the author supposes to be genteel language, is thought perfectly satisfactory, though the said genteel language mean exactly the contrary of what David meant, — Sir Philip wall use any cowboy's or tinker's words, if only they help him to say precisely in English what David said in Hebrew : impressed, the v^^hile, himself so vividly by the majesty of the thought itself, that no tinker's language can lower it or vulgarize it in his mind. And, again, while the modern paraphraser wull put in anything that
xviii PREFACE.
happens to strike his fancy, to fill the fag-end of a stanza, but never thinks of expanding or illustrating the matter in hand, Sidney, if the thought in his original appears to him pregnant, and partly latent, instantly breaks up his verse into franker and fuller illustration ; but never adds a syllable of any other matter, to fill even the most hungry gap of verse.
Of the relative simplicity or familiarity of expression, I need give no instances, as they occur continually ; but of the illustrative expan- sion, I may refer for a pretty example to the stanza quoted in the beginning of this preface, paraphrasing the verses of the ninety-first psalm.
Compare our prose version, and observe the manner of Sidney's amplification.
" Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler." Yes, thinks Sir Philip, — but docs that mean, by sJioiving the snare, and so keeping us out of it, — or by delivering us after avc have fallen into it } Not always by showing it, certainly ; (he has been caught, himself, too often to believe that !) but always by redeeming us from it. But how redeem- ing } — by breaking the net roughly at once .'' No, that is not His way ; but by untying it, thread by thread. All this is told w ilh one word :
" From snare the fowler lays, He shall thee sure untyc."
PREFACE. xix
" And from the noisome pestilence." Noisome ? thinks Sir Philip, — why this added word ? why is one disease more noisome than another ? It is spiritual evil, and cannot therefore mean mere loathsomeness of bodily affliction ; it must mean the power of corruption, — the deadly power, which strikes so that, even when the disease itself is gone, its effects remain incurable. The deliverance from t/iis evil must be before it strikes, not after- wards !
"The noisome blast that plaguing strays, Untoucht shall pass thee by."
'' He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust."
' Trust,' — yes, but how } thinks Sidney. Not as
armour, these ; a bird does not defend her brood
with her wings, but with beak and claw, if need
be. The wings are for warmth, and shelter, and
hiding-place.
" Soft hived, with wing and plume Thou in his shroud shalt lie ; "
and note the ^ soft hived,' — having the hive, or home, made soft, and warm ; and the beautiful old use of * shroud ' for hiding or covering mantle.
" His faithfulness and truth shall be thy shield and buckler." ' Yes, — now we come to the armour, he thinks ;
XX PREFACE.
but ' truth,' why should that, no less than faithful- ness, be spoken of as guardian ? Then he perceives that the serenity of repose in the promises of God is as necessary a part of the safety of a timid heart as the security of dependence upon His protection. Therefore he says, thou shalt no less 'presume' (take beforehand, or possess beforehand,) on His promises, than have affiance in His guard ;
"And on his truth no less presume Than in his shield affy."
And, indeed, with respect to all these paraphrases, my principal reason for making them a part of our Shepherds' library is not merely their being in a classically melodious form ; but besides, and rather, that they continually interpret or illustrate what is latent or ambiguous in the original. Where there is no manifest gain of this kind, I have seldom admitted the paraphrase into our series ; and, on the ground of what I supposed would be offensive verbal simplicity, have parted with many more than I should have thought myself justified in rejecting, were it not that I trust in the possession, some day soon, of a classical and authoritative edition of the whole.
Enough are here, however, for all practical pur- poses ; and when those which arc to form the closing volume are added, there will also be enough
PREFACE. XXI
to give a complete idea of the variety and art of versification carried througli the whole. I must delay the reader yet a little while presently, to explain the general methods of metre employed.
Thus much it is enough to observe respecting the method of Sir Philip's version. We must now finally note some matters bearing on its theological accuracy.
As consummate expression whether of faith or feeling, the Psalter has retained its power among all nations worshipping the God of Israel, from the day it was completed to our own. But as a code of Christian morality, it has virtually ceased to be profitable to any of us ; — nay, has in many ways become confusing and dangerous, owing to the reckless choice, or transposition, of the terms, correspondent, in English, to those descriptive of virtue and vice, piety and atheism, in the original. I do not know how far, in the Hebrew itself, the subtlety and precision exist which ennoble the Septuagint and the Vulgate : but, assuredly , the writers of these versions understood from the Hebrew, and expressed in their own more capably various diction, a series of distinctions between the methods of vice and virtue in men, on the under- standing of which is founded the proper philosophy of the Psalter, and which, neglecting, we read it
XXll PREFACE.
absolutely without power of applying practically any one of its precepts, or apprehending intelli- gently the issue of any one of its promises or threatenings.
Though without any special attention to this subject, and with frequent lapses into the vagueness of common English, the Sidney version is yet so studiously moulded on the classical originals, that, with only here and there the notice of an am- biguous word, it will become quite clear to us in its expression of these ethics of the Psalter. But that it may become so, we must prepara- torily observe the main distinctions of the Greek and Latin words whose force it thus observantly renders.
The benediction, in the opening of the first psalm, divides at once the virtue which is to be strengthened, or to find voice, in the following psalms, into three conditions, the understanding of which is the key to the entire law of Old Testa- ment morality.
" Blessed is the man who " (first) " has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly."
That is to say, who has not ad\'anccd, or edu- cated himself, in the ' coidiscV, (either the opinions or the advice,) of men who are unconscious of the existence of God.
PREFACE. Xxiii
That is the law of our Intellectual Education.
" Nor " (secondly) " stood in the way of sinners."
That is to say, who has not adopted for the standing, establishing, and rule of his life, the ways, customs, or principles of the men who, whether conscious or unconscious of God's being, disobey His commands.
That is the law of our moral conduct. .
" And hath not " (thirdly) " sat in the seat of the scornful.''
That is to say, who has not, in teaching or ruling others, permitted his own pride or egotism to make him intolerant of their creeds, impatient of their ignorance, or unkind to their failings. This throne of pride is, in the Vulgate, called the throne of Pestilence. I know not on what ground; but assuredly conveying this farther truth, that the source of all noisome blast of heresy, " that plaguing strays " in the Christian Church, has been the pride and egotism of its pastors.
Here, then, are defined for us in the first words of the Psalter, the three great vices of Intellectual Progress, Moral Stature, and Cathedral Enthrone- ment, by which all men are tempted in their learning, their doing, and their teaching ; and in conquering which, they are to receive the blessing of God, and the peaceful success of their human
xxiv PREFACE.
life. These three sins are always expressed in the Greek Psalter in the same terms : Ungodliness is aa-e^eca ; Sin is aixapria ;
Pride is vTreprjc^avia ;
and the tenor of every passage throughout the Psalms, occupied in the rebuke or threatening of the ' wicked,' is coloured by its specific direction aeainst one or other of these forms of sin.
But, separate from all these sins, and governing them, is the monarchic ' Iniquity,' which consists in the ivilful adoption of, and persistence in, these other sins, by deliberately sustained false balance of the heart and brain.
A man may become acre/3>;?, impious, by natural stupidity.
He may become aywapxwXo?, sinful, by natural weakness.
And he may become vvepi](fiavo'i, insolent, by natural vanity.
But he only becomes uSiKo<i, unjust, or un- righteous, by resolutely refusing to see the truth that makes against him ; and resolutely contem- plating the truth that makes for him.
Against this ' iniquity,' or ' unrighteousness,' the chief thrcatenings of the Psalter are directed, striking often literally and low, at direct dishonesty
PREFACE. XXV
in commercial dealings, and rising into fiercest indignation at spiritual dishonesty in the com- mercial dealing and 'trade' of the heart.
And the words 'righteousness' and 'unrighteous- ness/ throughout the Psalter, have this meaning, and no other. It is needless to say how fatally their vital, imperative, and purifying force has been evaded by modern glosses of the evangelical school of readers and teachers, who imagine that the word ' righteousness ' means that ' forgiveness of sins' which they expect to get, without ever being purged from them. The following vocabulary of fourteen words, with their derivatives, for general reference, with a few notes on separate paraphrases, will now make the ethics of the Sidney text in these volumes entirely intelligible. My own com- mentary, when it bears on ethical question, is always made on the ordinary English prose version, using the Sidney text only to illustrate it,
I take first the seven principal words which variously express the nature of the Revelation or Law of God, in which David so perpetually rejoices ; and after each I give his special saying concerning it, in the nineteenth psalm.
I. i^oytio?. The law of the Lord of Creation ; kept by Him inviolate in faithfulness through all the changes of providential dealing. It includes
XXVI PREFACE.
physical law, and whatever is recognized as ' cosmic ' by modern naturalists : but the essence of it is the guardian Law of Life, that which appoints that love shall produce joy ; hatred, pain ; — dis- union, weakness ; concurrence, power ; — license, death ; and obedience, life. It is full of spiritual mysteries, and is felt more and more to be blessed and holy as it is sought out David never speaks of it but with passionate love. It exists always, above, and without, any commandment, being the Law which Christ came, not to destroy, but fulfil.
"THE LAW OF THE LORD IS PERFECT, CONVERTING
THE SOUL."
The derivative ' dvo/xla' means ivilful lawlessness, or rebellion, often translated ' wickedness,' which is in pure English only another word for witch- craft, or evil magic — the defiance of the law of the universe by a crooked enchantment. " For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft."
The derivative 'aVo/^09,' lawless, means the state of mind in which a man not only disobeys the commands of the State, but the dictates of nature. Adultery, usury, cannibalism, and the like, are forms of dvofxid, as distinct from ufiapria.
2. ivToKi']. The ' Commandment,' or, in plural, commandments, equally translated precept, or pre- cepts. That part of the law which God has
PREFACE, XXvii
expressed in words, and which it is enough for simple people to obey, without knowing why. A child may obey its parents, and a man resolve not to live by stealing, without in the least re- cognizing the glory of the eternal obedience, or the loss of spiritual joy by rapine.
"THE COMMANDMENT OF THE LORD IS PURE, ENLIGHTENING THE EYES."
3. [jbapTvpia. The Testimony, or, in plural, testi- monies. The spoken teaching of God, enforcing His commandments with promise or threatening ; and recording what He desires His creatures to know concerning Himself and His work ; and concerning themselves and their work. Of these, David writes, " Thy testimonies are my delight and my counsellors;" and Paul, "He left not Himself without witness." Compare Deut. xxxi. 19, Isa, Iv. 4, Matt. xxiv. 14.
"THE TESTIMONY OF THE LORD IS SURE, MAKING WISE THE SIMPLE."
4. SLKalcofMa. Statute, and in plural statutes. The continual doing of justice ; — the fixed attachment of such and such penalties to the violation, — such and such rewards to the keeping, — of the com- mandment, and hearing of the witness.
" THE STATUTES OF THE LORD ARE RIGHT, AND REJOICE THE HEART."
XXVlil PREFACE.
5. Kpc/xa. Judgment, and, in plural, judgments.
Definite punishment or reward pronounced against
personal or national definite parts of conduct.
"THE JUDGMENTS OF THE LORD ARE TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS ALTOGETHER."
6. A,o709. The Word, or definite exertion (or
to subordinate beings, expression,) of God's will, as
in creation or any other (so-called) act, or series
of acts, of the Supreme Being. It is separate
from the constant v6ixo<;, in so far as " by the
Word of the Lord were the heavens made," but
considered as only a part of the constant v6fxo<;,
when it is said, " heaven and earth shall pass
away, but my Word shall not."
"THE FEAR OF TFIE LORD LS CLEAN, ENDURING
FOR EVER."
7. Xoyta. The oracles. The (to us apparently separate) various divisions of the words and acts of God.
These being the essential divisions of Revelation, the virtue and guilt of men in relation to them arc expressed by this second group of distinct terms, each with its proper opposite,
1. dya66<i. KHKo'i. The good man, — the bad. The terms that, regarding all qualities in both, cast them up, and give the net value.
(I am interrupted in my work at this moment, —
PREFACE. XXIX
Oxford, Sunday, 13th July, 1876, seven, morning, — first by a long rumble, which, — thinking it for a while to be something going on in the next rooms, — I make out to be a luggage train ; and then, just as I begin again, and am considering whether to say ' simple ' or ' general ' terms, — by a steady whistle, — which, coming in with the morning air through the open window, worries me as if a cat were in the room, sustaining her mew at a high note. Vainly trying to fix my mind for ten or twelve seconds, as I find the noise going on, getting louder, and at last breaking into startling demi-semiquavers, I give up my business, for the present, — and count fifty-three, slowly, before this musical entertainment and psalm of modern life stops. Actually there's another train coming, just as I have finished this paragraph. I have counted eighty, and it is still not over ; — at last things are getting quiet, and I will try to go on.)
Give the net value, I was going to say, at St. Michael's price and weight, by St. Michael's scales. 'A good man'; a Positive article, in flesh and soul. Woj'th at least sonicthmg, to his people — to his age. 'A bad man'; a Negative article in flesh and soul. Worth so much less than nothing to his people and age ; a blot, and clog, and plague to them.
These terms not only include, but have primary
XXX PREFACE.
reference to, qualities of breed. They are used of men as we should use them of horses. And the sum of good and evil is calculated, not so much in honour or pleasure to the man himself, as in his pure usefulness and trustworthiness to others,
la. 'Goodness,' not in use. il^. 'Badness,' fre- quent. Sidney's terms, good and evil.
2. BiKaLo<; ; aScKo^. 'Just,' 'unjust,' or righteous and unrighteous. Already enough explained. The main scriptural distinction.
2a. 'Justice.' 2^. 'Injustice.' Both in constant use.*
3. TTiaro'i. (hncTTO'i. Faithful. Unfaithful. Not used in true opposition. The first means usually
* As I begin Article 2, a third luggage train comes and goes. I count 148 — (and it's not quite over,) — what, in the name of all that's profane, do they mean lay taking Sunday morning for tliis business? Actually, after five minutes more, comes a fourth; to this* I count only 105. Now, at eight o'clock, there's my own cathedral bell begins, which would have helped me, rather than hurt, but for the railroad noise first — but now is conclusively destructive of all my power of morning thought.
Vi-nice, Sunday, I'&th Manh, 1877. — The rest of the preface, there- fore, was set down in my notes of it, without expansion. Long enough, perhaps the reader may think ; but I wish those railroad trains had not hindered me from saying what I had in my mind about the service in
shadow,
"Yc th.it by night, stand in the House of the Lord,"
also — about the psalmody before the battle of Leuthen, and in the following night-march, (Frederick, Book i8th, chap. 10,) and Cove- nanting and Cromwellian psalmody in general, as opposed either to Cavalier song, or to the Canticles of modern liberty.
PREFACE. xxxi
faithful in the sense of trustworthy. " Faithful is he that calleth you." The second has the sense of ' incredulous,' (' be not faithless, but believing,' to St. Thomas,) or 'infidel ' (ist Tim. v. 8); 'the fearful and unbelieving (Rev. xxi. 8).
2,a. Faith, ^l^. Infidelity. Constant, and in true opposition, Faith signifying trust, and not truth.
4. ev(Tej3)]q. da-e^rj'^. Godly. Ungodly, The capacity, increased by industry and humility, of intelligently apprehending the existence of higher spirits, and reverently worshipping them ; opposed to the incapacity of doing so, increased by idleness, or vanity.
4«. Godliness. 4*5. Ungodliness. Constant.
5. raireiv6<i- v7r6p-)](j)avo<;. Humble, Proud. Best opposed in the Magnificat : " He hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden. He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts." So Psalm cxix. : " He hath rebuked the proud that are cursed ; " — compare cxxxi. for the opposed humility.
^a. Lowliness, sd. Pride, Constant.
6. SovXo'^. avof^o<;. Servant. Lawless. The most frequent of oppositions, next to just and unjust. In both groups, the virtue and the vice are always considered as wilful; but injustice is the wilful sin
XXXll PREFACE.
of intellectual persons, and lawlessness of fools ; so that a peculiarly cretinous condition of brain has been developed in modern days for the apostle- ship of dvofxM. It is the sin which physically is represented by decomposition — i.e., in organic being, death ; — and all witchcraft, necromancy, and the like, are parts of it. ' Wickedness ' is the Saxon word ; embracing, curiously, derivations from others, meaning 'enchanted,' 'crooked,' (perverse,) and 'viti- ated.' So, also, justice is the resolute virtue of intellectual persons, and servitude the resolute virtue of the simple. " Behold, bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord, which djy nigJit stand in the house of the Lord." Psalm cxxxiv.
6a. Servitude, db. Wickedness. Constant.
7. a'yLo<i. u/jcapTooXo'i. Saint, Sinner. The con- clusive opposition, expressing with respect to birth in the Spirit what d'yado<; and kuko^ express with respect to birth in the flesh. The Saints are the chosen, or found, of God ; the Sinners, the Repro- bate, (tried and found wanting, cast away, or lost,) of God. The Son of Man comes to seek and to save that which is lost ; I Ic comes for dfiapTcoXoi, but not for vTrepijcf^avoi, dvo/j,ot, or dSiKoi. For sinners; but not for the proud, the lawless, or the unjust.
These seven oppositions, kept clearly in mind,
PREFACE. XXxiii
will enable the reader, with little farther pains, to understand, not only the Psalter, but the entire theology of the Old Testament, and mode of its translation in the New. One farther opposition must be noted ; but as external to all the others : 6aco<i and idpiKo<i, holy and profane — that is to say, belonging to the visible church, or to the ' heathen.' Wickedness, or perversity, (disobeying the God it knows well,) is the sin of the visible Church ; but Forgetfulness, — not seeking the God it knows dimly, of the Heathen. " The wicked shall be turned into hell, and the heathen, that forget God." Psalm ix. 17.
Finally, what full sense was intended by David in the terms Hell and Heaven themselves, it is needless to ask more than we may here positively know from the shades or lights of each that " lie about us in our pilgrimage." We need not think even that recognition of our state will always be conscious. In the extreme of perdition, our earthly spirit does not know that it is lost ; and there are souls scattered afar upon the Elysian Hills, that, shepherdless, breathe the air of Paradise, and shall return, every man, to his house in peace,
OF THE SIDNEY METRES.
BEFORE examining the manner of these Eliza- bethan chants, I must say a word or two of the use of metrical psalm at all.
That any words spoken in utter truth and in- tensity of feeling should be 'measured' seems at first impossible, or at least unfitting. On a field of battle, a soldier does not ask for quarter in iambic verse ; and the publican's prayer, " God be merciful to me a sinner," would not be made more pathetic by any echo which we could contrive for it between ' sin ' and ' win,' or ' God ' and ' rod.'
But when our feelings arc moved by no sudden impulse, and raised to no pitch of passion too great to be sustained, it is an honourable sign of our words that they arc measured; — it is proper that they should bear upon them this seal of having been considered before they were uttered ; nor is any sentiment in
OF THE SIDNEY METRES. XXXV
itself SO intense but that, if continuous, it may be expressed more nobly under the laws of harmony and symmetry than without them.
Farther ; in the greater number of persons of average power of mind, when of happy disposition and unoppressed life, feelings of anxiety, distress, or desire, never become so deep as to forbid the enjoyment of cheerful sound in their expression. Whatever regret they may feel at having done wrong, — whatever hope of some day entering a better world if they do right, their remorse is never so poignant, nor their longing so extreme, but that both may be uttered in rhythmic syllables, and even deepened and excited by the cadence of them. The joyful and eager youth of a man like Sidney is necessarily incapable of entering into the darker thoughts of a heart like David's in old age ; and the general mass of amiably and pleasantly religious persons can no more under- stand a psalm, than a kitten a Greek tragedy ; but we may always claim from them sincerity in accepting what is suited to their age ; nor need we refuse to ^he young what farther pleasure or sense of duty they may receive from the chanting of noble words, because the days are yet distant by whose melancholy tutorship such words are to be made finally intelligible.
XXXvi OF THE SIDNEY METRES.
And farther ; while the unrhymed and un- decorated language Avith which graver hearts would be content, is ineffectual on feebler and more impulsive dispositions, there is nothing in the sym- metry of graceful terms, so long as they remain true, which need offend the feelings whose glow has no need of them. So long as the instrument is in real harmony, no strength of thought need be abated by the pleasantness of its echo ; and if those who are the strongest in passion, or intelli- gence, are permitted to say, in some way or another,, exactly the thing they mean, they need not mind saying it with such interval or inflection of voice, and such change or inversion of phrase, as may comply with the innocent desire of others for musical delight. An old man, walking up and down at evening on some meadow hillside, whence he can see the roofs and spires of his native city warm in the setting sun, may murmur to himself, and find enough sweet without melodious accom- panying, the solemn words of the 48th Psalm : " Go ye round about Zion, tell the towers thereof; mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces, that ye may tell it to the generation following." But the veteran returning from war with a company of young knightly riders, entering the city gates in joyful glance of heraldry, and trained prancing
OF THE SIDNEY METRES. XXXVll
of their horses' feet, might, unoffended, hear them burst into the rhythmic chant of Sidney's verse :
" Compass Syon in her standing : ^ Tell her towers, mark her forts ;
Note with care the stately portes, Her royal houses bear ; For that age's understanding, Which shall come when we shall go, — Glad, of former time, to know How many, what they were."
Or again, and in yet more grave field of thought — ■ while in moments of unexpected pain, and help- lessly felt decline of strength, we may bitterly repeat, and with little desire for musical cadence in our words, the cry of the 90th Psalm : " Thou turnest man to destruction ; and sayest. Return, ye children of men ; " yet in the resigned peace of an old age crowned with the light of days that are not, an old man may hear with thank- fulness the voices of the assenting choir proclaim the mercifully irrevocable law, over earth and her children :
" Oh, but man, — by thee created, As he first of earth arose, — When thy Word his end hath dated In equal state, to earth he goes. Thou sayest, — and saying, — mak'st it so, ' Be no more, oh Adam's heir : ' From whence ye came, dispatch to go Dust, again,— as dust ye were."
xxxviii OF THE SIDNEY METRES.
Nevertheless, I should not have thought it neces- sary to add any other version of the Psalms to the accepted one of the Prayer Book, for use in St. George's schools, had not these paraphrases of Sir Philip's contained many illustrative or explanatory passages, making the sense of the original more clear, while, at the same time, their exquisitely accu- rate use of the English language renders them, on the whole, the best examples known to me for the early guidance of its faithful students. In the work of all other great masters, the melody of the word is allowed somewhat to influence them in their choice of it ; but Sidney never minds spoiling the sound of a verse, if the prettiest word is not also the accuratest. How pleasant the sound of verse was to him, however, the singular variety of ar- rangements adopted in this Psalter, may enough show, although, I suppose with reference to some particular kind of music to which they wcic sung, the elements out of which the verses arc arranged are in the first instance exceedingly simple. A certain number of unrhymed psalms, of Latin con- struction, occur towards the close of the book, cither by some other writer, or by Sidney in error
* Tlie I'eadcr unacquainted with the construction of verse should read the little introduction to English prosody which Mi". Allen will have ready, I hope, not long after this beginning of I'salter is pub- lished.
OF THE SIDNEY METRES. xxxix
of too vain scholarship. Putting these aside, the remainder are, with one exception, in trochaic or iambic verse : the iambics severely accurate ; the trochaic admitting, but always with extreme subtlety of appliance, the introductory short syllable, as the 'In equal state' of the fourth line in the just- quoted stanza.
The single exception is the 52 nd Psalm, which is dactylic, with admitted spondee beginning, and troche always closing the second line : —
" Not words from — cursed thee, But gulphs — are poured : Gulphs wherein — daily be Good men — devoured.
Thinkst thou to — bear it so ?
God shall dis — place thee ; God shall thee — overthrow.
Crush thee, de — face thee."
But this metre can by no art be sustained without more license of artificial accent, or in- verted construction, than may be justifiably claimed from the reader's indulgence or attention ; and another two verses, giving examples of this un- conquerable difficulty, but full of force in them- selves, are all that I care to give of this psalm.
xl OF THE SIDNEY METRES.
" Lewd lies thy — tongue contrives ; Loud lies — it soundeth ; Sharper than — sharpest knives, With lies — it wound eth."
The false accent on the ' with ' is just pardonable for the sake of its help in the pretty alliteration of the whole verse.
" Lo, 16, the — wretched wTght, Who God — disdaining, His mischief — made his might. His guard, — his gaining."
This stanza, read without any strained accent, is properly a couplet in iambic pentameter, and is only read in dactyls by courtesy. The inversion of the subject in the last two lines is, however, rather a grace than a fault ; the accent enables ' His ' to stand for ' His own,' and the concentrated meaning makes the entire verse very precious.
All the other psalms given in the following series are, as I have said, iambic or trochaic : but the differences in number of feet between the lines, the number of these in the stanzas, and the alternations of rhyme in the different groups, arc so varied, that out of the hundred and twenty paraphrases given in the two volumes, I believe
OF THE SIDNEY METRES. xli
that, after the text is properly sifted, not one will be found in precisely the same metre as another. And the dainty intricacy of several of these arrangements, and the reasons for the repeating, with little modification, some, rather than others, present questions of so great interest to students of English verse, that I could not resist the temp- tation of tabulating the structure of them all. The number of feet in the lines is of course naturally indicated by figures: i, for a line of one metre; 2, for a dimetre;* and so 3, 4, 5, and 6, up to the hexametre ; only observe that I call the ordinary trochaic line ending with a long syllable,
" Dust again, as dust ye were,"
a three-metred verse, though it is properly four- metred, for the close of such a line is a full troche in tinic^ formed of the monosyllable with a following rest : but it is convenient to express this verse as a trimetre, and to consider as tetrametre only the line with the last short syllable sounded, — " oh, but man, by thee created." On the other hand, an iambic line ending with a superadded short syllable properly does so only by dividing the normal long Syllable into two short ones ; and permits no ex- tension of the time ; therefore it is indicated by a
* My spelling of these names fer verses will be found defended in tliy Elements of Prosody.
xlii OF THE SIDNEY METRES.
«
circumflex above the numeral, thus : " the fields with flocks have hid their faces," will be 4, and " Nor hid from him thy face's fair appearini,^'," 5.
For the indication of arrangement of rhyme I use letters of the alphabet : the first line of any stanza is always called a ; and all lines that rhyme to it, a ; also the first different rhyme that occurs is called b, and all that rhyme to it, b ; the next c, --and so on.
Thus a couplet, with its lines rhyming, is a a ; a quatrain stanza of alternate rhymes, a b a b ; Tennyson's beautiful quatrain of the In Memoriam is abba, and the ordinary Spenserian stanza, ababbcbcc.
With this notation, the Sidney metres, or any others, may be accurately tabulated ; and their analysis becomes, to any one really caring for poetry, extremely interesting ; but the tabulated forms look so appallingly complex that I shall keep them for the appendix to the second volume, when they may be more easily compared with the text ; merely indicating in the present volume the form of rhythm adopted for each psalm. This statement of the rhythm will in general separate the part of the commentary relating to points of general knowledge from that which will consist of verbal criticism ; and by collecting and comparing the abbreviated
OF THE SIDNEY METRES.
xliil
symbols of each stanza, the reader may begin the study of these metres for himself. The notablcst circumstance in all of them is the length of time during which a rhyme remained on the composer's ear, so as to be answered again and again by recurrent symmetries of echo. The 51st Psalm, for instance, is a most interesting group of eight con- nected triplets ending with the rhyme that began them ; and connected by linked triple rhymes, which I Avrite beneath, to show their order : —
aba cdc beb dfd ege faf ghg aha
-b . b
-d. d
e , e
f . f
g g S
a
a a
xliv OF THE SIDNEY METRES.
Again the 55th is written with only three rhyming
words through seventy-two lines, — six stanzas of
four triplets, each couple reflected, thus, a b c — c b a,
a c b — b c a : the first and sixth stanzas beginning
and closing thus with a ; the second and fifth with
b ; and the third and sixth with c. The 1 00th and
1 5 oth are properly sonnets of fourteen lines each ;
but endless varieties of grouping will be found in
the five-lined and six-lined stanzas, of which the
greater number of the paraphrases are composed.
I know of no other religious work in which so
much playful art is blended with so faithful passion.
I am indeed a little vexed to find, as I correct
the press, that quaint or prosaic expressions which
were inoffensive to me in the old spelling, look
weaker in modern dress ; but, in sum, readers
may test the veracity of their emotions by the
degree in which these faults can be forgiven. To
those who have used the Psalter merely to grace
their worship with a sentimental tone, this version
will be useless, or irritating. To those who have
really known either David's joy, distress, or desires,
it will be enlightenment of heart and eyes, as the
tasted honey on the strctchcd-out spear of David's
friend.
PSALM I.
BEATUS VIR.
He blessed is, who neither loosely treads The straying steps, as wicked counsel leads ;
Nor for bad mates in way of sinners waiteth ;
Nor yet himself with idle scorners seateth ; 5 But on God's law his whole delight doth bind, Which, night and day, he calls to marking mind.
II.
He shall be like a freshly planted tree, To which sweet springs of water neighbours be ; Whose branches fail not timely fruit to nourish, I o Nor withered leaf shall make it fail to flourish : So all the things whereto that man doth bend, Shall prosper still, with well succeeding end.
PSALM I.
III.
Such blessing shall not wicked wretches see, But like vile chaff Avith wind, shall scatter'd be ; . 15 For neither shall the men in sin delighted
Consist, when they to highest doom are cited ; Nor yet shall suff'red be a place to take Where godly men do their assembly make.
IV.
For God doth know, and knowing doth approve, 20 The trade of them that just proceedings love :
But they that sin in sinful breast do cherish,-r— The way they go, shall be the way to perish.
Sidney cannot completely versify this psalm, (on which see the notes in Preface,) because he was not old enough to know its full depth ; and feels it, himself, only as if it were an ordinary assertion of what everybody knows : whereas in reality it is a Psalm of Doom, as grand in blessing and malediction as the last song of Moses.
2. " The straying steps." At first the line seems weak, and as if the definite article were redundant.
PSALM I. 3
But the preceding analysis of the moral terms of the Psalter will, I trust, have enabled the reader to see that neither David nor Sidney meant any kind of wandering steps ; but the definite kinds of error always fallen into by the ungodly.
1 1. ''Bend." See note on line 227 (p. 28).
16. "Consist!' Stronger than our English word * stand,' yet farther from the meaning ; which is, " Sinners shall not rise in the judgment." The word is the same in the Septuagint as that used elsewhere of the Resurrection.
20. " Trade." Our degraded use of the word makes us vulgarly feel Sidney's harsh ; it stands with him for ' giving and taking' in all the spiritual wealth of life— the ' righteous dealing' of other parts of the Psalter. (Compare Isabel, in Measure for Measure, " Thy sin's not accidental, but a trade.") Thus in Psalm ciii. he writes,
" His way, and trade, He known to Moses made."
He means also, by the use of it, to direct our thoughts to the following word, 'just.' But the true meaning of the close of this psalm is wider ;
4 PSALM I.
the Lord knows, acknowledges, in all things, the aim, no less than the equity, of the ' way ' that leads to life— knows not the way that leads to death. " Then shall He answer them, ' I never knew you, — depart from me.' "
Rhythm. — The verses are composed of three couplets: two ten-syllabled; the central one, eleven syllabled. The fourth verse, omitting the last couplet, closes the psalm with two eleven-syllable lines.
In our system of notation, such a stanza, rhymed in couplets, is thus expressed : —
5 5 5 5 5 5 — - a a. b b. c c.
3, 1 6. 'Nor' in these lines is 'ne' in my original, while in the fourth and tenth it is ' nor,' there, also I do not know the reason of this difference.
17. "Suffered." Observe, when 'suffered' is made by Sidney a word of two syllables, it is to be pro- nounced suf-fred, not suf-ferd.
PSALM II.
PSALM II.
QUARE FREMUERUNT GENTES.
What ails this heath'nish rage ?
what do the people mean, To mutter murmurs vain ?
25 Why do these earthly kings
and lords such meetings make, And counsel jointly take
Against the Lord of lords,
the Lord of ev'rything
t>>
And his anointed King; ?
t)
Come, let us break their bonds,
say they, and fondly say, 30 And cast their yokes away.
But he shall them deride
who by the heav'ns is borne. He shall them laugh to scorn.
And after speak to them
with breath of wrathful fire ; And vcK them in his ire,
4
6 PSALM II.
3 5 And say, O kings, yet have
I set my King upon My holy hill Syon ;
And I will (saith this king)
the Lord's decree display, And say that he did say,
Thou art my Son indeed,
this day begot by me: 40 Ask, I will give to thee,
The heath'n for thy child's right,
and will thy realm extend Far as world's farthest end ;
With iron sceptre bruise,
thou shalt, and piece-meal break, These men like potsherds weak.
45 Therefore, O kings, be wise ;
O rulers, rule your mind. That knowledge you may find.
Serve God, serve him with fear,
rejoice in him, but so That joy with trembling go ;
PSALM II.
With loving homage kiss
that only Son he hath, 50 Lest you inflame his wrath ;
Whereof if but a spark
once kindled be, you all From your way perish shall ;
And then they that in him
their only trust do rest, — O, they be rightly blest !
The grand massive metre of this paraphrase (which I am vexed to spoil the look of to the eye by breaking the first line) has been obtained here and there by what might seem forced accen- tuation, but all the words that need such accent may receive it frankly. ' Do,' in line twenty-three, is, however, to be naturally shortened, as in prose speaking, with accent on 'what.'
The other accents are all majestic in their rhythmic place ; even in the thirty-fifth and thirty- sixth lines, you may lay it well on the last syllables with pleasant effect.
The exclamatory change in the last line is very passionate and beautiful.
Rhythm. — Couplet. 6. 3. — a. a.
8 PSALM III.
PSALM III.
DOMINE, QUID MULTIPLICATI.
5 ^ Lord, how do they increase
That hateful, never cease
To breed my grievous trouble ?
How many ones there be
That all against poor me 60 Their numerous strength redouble ?
IT.
Even multitudes be they That to my soul do say,
' No help for you remaineth In God, on whom you build.' 5q Yet, Lord, thou art my shield ;
In thee my glory reigneth.
III.
The Lord lifts up my head ; To him my voice I spread ;
From holy hill he heard me : 70 I laid me down and slept,
While he me safely kept,
And safe from sleep I rear'd me.
PSALM lit.
IV.
I will not be afraid, 75 Though legions round be laid,
Which all against me gather : I say no more but this, ' Up, Lord, now time it is.
Help me, my God, and Father.'
V.
For thou, with cruel blows °'^ On jawbone of my foes,
My causeless wrong hast wroken ; Thou those men's teeth which bite, Venomed with godless spite.
Hast in their malice broken.
VI.
85 Salvation doth belong
Unto the Lord most strong ; He it is that defendeth : And on those blessed same Which bear his people's name
90 His blessing he extendeth.
lO PSALM III.
One of the poorest of all, — very nearly doggrcl. I do not in the least believe it Sidney's, and give it only as an example of the inferior manner of the pieces which I have ventured, after the 20th Psalm, to exclude. The fourth stanza is however pretty, and to be remembered among passages, like the last line of the second Psalm., anticipatory of Wordsworth.
Rhythm. — Sixfold. 333333 — a. a. b; c. c. b.
PSALM IV. I I
PSALM IV.
CUM INVOCAREM.
Hear me, O hear me when I call, O God, God of my equity ! Thou set'st me free when I was thrall, Have mercy therefore still on me, 95 And hearken how I pray to thee.
IT.
O men, whose fathers were but men. Till when will ye my honour high Stain with your blasphemies ? till when Such pleasure take in vanity ? lOO And only haunt where lies do lie.
III.
Yet know this too, that God did take. When he chose me, a godly one ; Such one, I say, that when I make My crying plaints to him alone, 105 He will give good ear to my moan.
12 PSAlM IV.
IV.
O, tremble then wath awful will ; Sin from all rule in you depose, Talk with your hearts, and yet be still ; And when your chamber you do close, 1 10 Yourselves, yet, to yourselves, disclose.
V.
The sacrifices sacrifie
Of just desires, on justice staid : Trust in that Lord that cannot lie. Indeed fully many folk have said, I 1 c From whence shall come to us such aid ?
VI.
But, Lord, lift thou upon our sight The shining clearness of thy face ; Where I have found more heart's delight Than they whose store in harvest's space 120 Of grain and wine fills storing-place.
VII.
So 1 in peace and peaceful bliss
Will lay me down and take my rest : For it is thou. Lord, thou it is. By power of whose own only breast 125 I dwell, laid up in safest nest.
PhALM IV. 13
A very lovely one. The last three stanzas deserve to be learned by heart.
92. It is very wholesome to hear the form " God of my equity" sometimes used instead of "God of my righteousness," showing the vivid meaning of the phrase, " the God from whom all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works do proceed."
96. As opposed to the ' sons of God ; ' another vividly explanatory phrase.
100. I don't know if he means, 'where lies do lie,' as one would say where curses curse, or scourges scourge ; or where they lie stagnant, and therefore more poisonous, in lakes of lying. I am inclined to take this latter sense.
1 01. " Know this toor Short, and grave, for *I would have you to know.'
108 — 1 10. The two 'yets' are essential. Speak in your hearts, yet be silent to the world. Shut yourselves from the world, yet be open to your own hearts.
112. ^^ On justice staid." The desire of what is just, being stayed or restrained within the limits of what can be accomplished by just means.
119. ''Harvest's space" The time of harvest:
14 PSALM IV.
" When storehouses of corn and wine are filled in one harvest time."
12 1. "So /." Therefore, in the light of God's face I will lay me down, saying, " Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for evermore."
Rhythm. — Cinqfold. 4 ---- a. b. a. b. b.
93. " TJiraliy Substantive only, I believe, as if he had written, 'When I was slave.'
106. " Aivfuir Properly used here, of the mind full of awe. Only in vulgar English used of the thing that causes awe. Compare Milton, " And kings sat still with awful eye," meaning themselves struck with awe. Sidney uses it, however, in the common sense also, yet with a difference. See note on line 136.
III. " Sacrifice I keep the old spelling, the word having at present fallen out of use ; though it is the right one, and to be restored to pure English, as we say magnify, glorify, and not magnifice, glorifice.
124. " Onlyr I have been at much pause as to the spelling of this word, but as I see that if I kept Sidney's more forcible ' oncly' our American cousins would pronounce and spell it ' wunly,' I am forced at last to drop the e.
PSALM V. 15
PSALM V.
VERBA MEA AURIBUS. I.
Ponder the words, O Lord, that I do say, Consider what I meditate in me : O, hearken to my voice which calls on thee,
My King, my God, for I to thee will pray. 130 So shall my voice climb to thine ears betime :
For unto thee I will my prayer send
With earliest entry of the morning prime,
And will my waiting eyes to thee-ward bend.
II. For thou art that same God ; — far from delight 135 In that which of foul wickedness doth smell :
No, nor with thee the naughty ones shall dwell, Nor glorious fools stand in thy awful sight.
Thou hatest all whose works in ill are plac'd, And shall root out the tongues to lying bent ; 140 For thou, the Lord, in endless hatred hast The murd'rous man, and so the fraudulent.
III.
But I myself will to thy house address With passport of thy graces manifold ; And in thy fear, knees of my heart will fold, 145 Towards the temple of thy holiness.
1 6 rSALM V.
Thou Lord, — thou Lord, — the saver of thine own, Guide me ; O in thy justice be my guide !
And make thy ways to me more plainly known. For all I need, that with such foes do bide.
IV.
150 For in their mouth not one clear word is spent. Mischief their souls for inmost lining have : Their throat it is an open swallowing grave, Whereto their tongue is flatt'ring instrument. Give them their due unto their guiltiness, 155 Let their vile thoughts the thinkers' ruin be :
With heaped weights of their own sins oppress These most ungrateful rebels unto thee.
V.
So shall all they that trust on thee do bend, And love the sweet sound of thy name, rejoice. 160 They ever shall send thee their praising voice ; Since ever thou to them wilt succour send.
Thy work it is, to bless, thou blessedst them ; The just in thee, on thee, and justice, build ; Thy work it is, such men safe in to hem 165 With kindest care, as with a certain shield.
PSALM V. 17
This version is entirely puzzling to me : halting and cramped in language throughout, while yet one of the noblest for its sincerity, — intense force of thought, though not of words, and utter plainness of thought, where needed; as in the 134th line, where the foulness of sin is symbolized by physical stench, no less frankly than the sweetness of virtue by sweet perfume. (" All thy garments smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia," and the like, — and the entire system of the use of frankincense in service or allusion.) Dante uses the metaphor continually ; the great talk with Virgil concerning the relations of Fraud to Malice, and of the unnatural guilt of Usury, is while they shelter themselves a little while behind a rock from the blast of the lower Hell, that they may get partly used to the stench of it before facing it.
The last three stanzas are of extreme beauty, in their earnest kind.
136. ''Naughty ones" Persons of nought, ciphers, vaut-riens.
,137. '' Glorious fools y Not merely vain-glorious, but really glorious in the world's notion, whether with money or mistaken praise. If a fool is admired or enriched by the world, it is totally impossible for him to see God, — for the qualities which he find.s
l8 PSALM V.
are worshipped in himself, are precisely the contrary of God's. ' The word ' awful ' has a most subtle sense in this line ; for Sidney does not mean, by standing in the sight of God, merely standing so that He sees ns^ (for we always do that,) but standing so that we see Him.
143. ^'Passport of thy graces'' Favours, or mercies. " You will not let in such and such, — the murderer, or the fraudful, and the like ; but inc you will love, and give nice things to, and let come into the house like a pet dog."
Not at all your own general style of address to God, this, my humble friends, — is it .-'
And yet, mind you read Burns's Holy Willy's prayer, for a comment on the possibility of misusing also David's manner of speech.
147. ''Guide me" -A-Vidi make Thy ways plain, for everything that I need know, — I — who live with enemies who never speak one clear word, (modern political economists). Their throat is a grave, (for they devour men,) their tongue the flattering bait to it. The ' Angler ' fish, by the way, which lies with its head in the mud, and baits its mouth with a little dangling knot at the end of a tongue, growing on
PSALM. V. 19
the back of its head, is an exact type of this kind of grave.
155. " Let their vile thoughts the thinkers' ruin be." Amen say I, for one. To your modern Charles Dickens manner of Christian, who would have nobody hanged, of course this psalm must appear a most injurious composition.
163. " The Just in thcd' Because there may be just persons who are not in thee. The perfect holding of the idea of Justice or Righteousness, as distinct from Religion, is essential to the under- standing of the Psalter.
Rhythm. — Octave. 5 ^^ a. b. b. a ; c. d. c. d.
131. Prayer is continually used by Sidney as a dissyllable, for convenience in singing. But it spoils the read verse to do so, and is to be held a fault.
146. "Saver." It will be well to restore this word to English, spoken of any person in the direct action of saving ; and to keep ' Saviour ' for one endowed with the continual function of saving.
152. "Their tJiroat it is." The superfluous 'it'
20 PSALM V.
very seldom occurs, and must be always noted, not merely as a license, but a blemish.
162. The accents are intended, and rightly, on ' thy' and ' them,' but it is an awkward line ; and I use the stops in the rest of the stanza to mark division, not pause, in its sentences.
165. '^Certain" — trustworthy: but the word should not be retained in this use.
PSALM VI. 2 1
PSALM VI.
DOMINE, NE IN FURORE. I.
Lord, let not me, a worm, by thee be shent,
While thou art in the heat of thy displeasure ; Nor let thy rage, of my due punishment.
Become the measure.
11.
170 But mercy. Lord, let mercy thine, descend.
For I am weak, and in my weakness languish : Lord, help ! for ev'n my bones their marrow spend
With cruel anguish.
III.
Nay, ev'n my soul fell troubles do appal. 1 7 5 Alas ! how long, my God, wilt thou delay me ? Turn thee, sweet Lord ! and from this ugly fall.
My dear God, stay me.
IV.
Mercy, — O mercy, — Lord, for mercy's sake, —
For death doth kill the witness of thy glory,
J 80 Can, of thy praise, the tongues entombed make
A heav'nly story ?
5
2 2 PSALM VI.
V.
Lo, I am tir'd ! while still I sigh and groan :
My moistened bed proofs of my sorrow showeth : My bed (while I with black night mourn alone) J 3 r With my tears floweth.
VI.
Woe, like a moth, my face's beauty eats,
And age, puU'd on with pains, all freshness frettcth ; The while a swarm of foes with vexing feats
My life besctteth.
VII.
190 Get hence, you evil, who in my ill rejoice.
In all whose works vainness is ever reigning. For God hath heard the weeping, sobbing voice
Of my complaining.
VHI.
The Lord my suit did hear, and gently hear ; 195 They shall be sham'd and vex'd that breed my
crymg,
And turn their backs, and straight on backs appear
Their shameful flying.
PSALM VI. 23
This and the following are again admitted into our series only as examples of the feeblest work attributed to Sidney. I do not believe either to be his, but they are still sincere, as all the others.
Rhythm. — Quatrain. 55 52~-abab.
166. ''' Shcntr See note on line 654.
188. ^^ Feats." It is vulgar English to use this word in the sense of achievements, or wonderful performances. It is merely a Latin equivalent to the Saxon ' deeds,' and is, to the person, what fact is to the thing. Thus whether you throw down the Vendome column, or set it up, when down, it is an accomplished ' fact ' that it is down ; when up, an accomplished * fact,' that it is up. In either case, the performance is a 'feat' of the Parisians.
191. " Eviir Pronounced as one syllable, (see lines 334, 428, etc.,) and in the sense to be regarded as such, " Get hence, you ill, who in my ill rejoice."
197. "And sf might 01 backs." Entirely crude and ill-expressed. He means, all men shall see their backs, and know that they fly ; they shall not be able to skulk away unobserved
24 PSALM VII.
PSALM VII.
DOMINE, DEUS MEUS. I.
O Lord, my God, thou art my trustful stay ; O, save me from this persecution's shower ; 200 Deliver me in my endanger'd way.
II.
Lest lion-like he do my soul devour, And cruelly in many pieces tear, While I am void of any helping power.
III.
O Lord, my God, — if I did not forbear 205 Ever from deed of any such desert, —
If aught my hands of wickedness do bear, —
IV.
If I have been unkind for friendly part, —
Nay, if I wrought not for Jiis freedom's sake. Who causeless now yields mc a hateful heart, —
V. 210 Then, let my foe chase me ; and chasing take : Then, let his foot upon my neck be set : Then, in the dust let him my honour rake.
PSALM VII. 25
VI.
Arise, O Lord, in fiercer wrath afret
Against such rage of foes : awake for me 2 1 5 To that high doom which I by thee must get.
VII.
So shall all men with lauds environ thee ;
Therefore, O Lord, lift up thy throne on high, That ev'ry folk thy wond'rous acts may see.
VIII.
Thou, Lord, thy people shalt in judgment try ; — 220 Then Lord, my Lord, give sentence on my side, After my clearness, and my equity.
IX.
O, let their wickedness no longer bide
From coming to the well-deserved end ; But still be thou to just men justest guide.
X.
225 Thou righteous proofs to hearts and reins dost send ; And all my help from none but thee is sent, Who dost thy saving health to true men bend.
XI.
Thou righteous art, — thou strong, — thou patient : And each day art provoked thine ire to show : 230 And if this man will not learn to repent,
26 PSALM VIl.
XII.
For him thou whet'st thy sword and bend'st thy bow,
And hast thy deadly arms in order brought, And ready art to let thine arrows go.
XIII.
Lo, he that first conceived a wretched thought, 235 And great with child of mischief travail'd long, Now brought a-bed, hath brought nought forth but
nought.
XIV. ,
A pit was digg'd by this man, vainly strong ;
But in the pit he, ruined, first did fall, — Which fall he made, to do his neighbour wrong.
XV.
240 He against me doth throw ; but down it shall Upon his pate, his pain, employed thus, And his own ill his own head shall appal.
XVI.
I will give thanks unto the Lord of us
According to his heav'nly equity,
245 And will to highest name yield praises high.
PSALM VII. 27
I have altered one line in this psalm as I best could, the old one being too quaint to be borne with ; but I won't say which it is. In spite of its harshness, I retain the paraphrase, because the original psalm is so important. It is headed, " Concerning the words of Cush the Benjamite ; " and a theory of the relations of this man to David, on the supposition that he is named only in this place, may be found among the com- mentators— of as much value as a dirty cobweb over the page. Either we know notJdn'g at present of the circumstances under which the psalm was written ; or else the word * Cush' must have got into the heading, instead of ' Shimei,' to whom the psalm is accurately applicable throughout, more especially the part of it threatening or foretelling his death; (lines 229, 237, 239). And since the hate of Shimei arose from his relation to the house of Saul, the third and fourth verses of the psalm, (Sidney's third and fourth stanzas,) have especial force, if read in connexion with the ninth chapter of II. Samuel.
215. An obscure line, — " the judgment that thou hast commanded" feebly rendered by " which I by thee must get." David asks for God's decision, not as between himself and worse men ; but between
2 8 PSALM VII.
himself as commanded to reign, and those not so commanded.
243. " Lord of lis!' 'Our' Lord, not the Lord of the wicked. Sidney possibly took . up the phrase in looking to the first verse of the next psalm.
Rhythm. — Triplet. 5 ; terza rima, ending with a
couplet rhyme.
221. " Clearness^ This word is very valuable as an expression of moral quality, and to be restored to English in that sense.
227. '■'Bendy Sidney uses it, I think, always with the full complex Latin sense of 'pandus': the idea of expansion being involved in that of curvature, as of the bow in the cloud. Compare lines II, 132, 138, 157, 307, 410,
239. "Fall" Substantive. Short for pit-fall.
241. Pain; in the sense of labour; the singular of 'pains' taken, not suffered. His labour, so em- ployed, shall strike himself: — his evil, or evil thoughts, shall appal (make pale) himself.
PSALM VIII. 29
PSALM VIII.
DOMINE, DOMINUS NOSTER. I.
O Lord that rul'st our mortal line, How through the world thy name doth shine ! Thou hast of thine unmatched glory Upon the heav'ns engrav'n the story.
II.
250 From sucklings hath thy honour sprung,
Thy force hath flow'd from babies' tongue, Whereby thou stop'st thine en'mies prating, Bent to revenge and over-hating.
III.
When I upon the heav'ns do look, 255 Which all from thee their essence took ;
When moon and stars my thoughts beholdeth. Whose life no life but of thee holdeth ;
IV.
Then think I : ' Ah, what is this man. Whom that great God remember can ? 260 And what the race, of him descended. It should be aught of God attended ? '
so PSALM VIII.
V.
For though in less than angels' state Thou planted hast this earthly mate, Yet thou hast made ev'n /lim an owner 265 Of glorious crown, and crowning honour.
VI.
Thou placest him upon all lands To rule the works of thine own hands : And so thou hast all things ordained, That ev'n his feet have on them reigned.
VII.
270 Thou under his dominion plac't
Both sheep and oxen wholly hast ; And all the beasts, for ever breeding, Which in the fertile fields be feeding.
VIIL
The bird, free burgess of the air ; 275 The fish, of sea the native heir ;
And what things else of water traceth The unworn paths, his rule embraceth. O Lord, that rul'st our mortal line. How through the world thy name doth shine !
*-\.-S.-\.-^-\.-s.
PSALM VIII. 31
This is one of the sweet musical ones for joyful and tender singing : with feeble makeshifts, however, to get the double closing syllable. It much lowers and weakens the noble original ; but here and there, as usual, touches the thoughts more subtly, and carries them farther.
257. " W/iose lifer Thus, for instance, the thought of the life of God being the continual source, to the stars, of motion and light, is deeper than the mere ' which thou hast ordained' of the original.
259. '' Attended^ Thought of, but with further sense of being saved. ' That thou visitest him.'
263. ''■Earthly mater Equal of the earth, and made of it.
267 — 269. Even his feet have reigned over the works of Thy hands. God makes the worm, and moth, and the wild beast ; and we tread on them, or subdue. Compare Blake, of the tiger :
" And what shoulder, and what art, Could twist the sinews of thy heart."
277. The unworn paths ; — beautiful, of the waters. The whole stanza is lovely.
32 PSALM VIII.
Rhythm. — Quatrain. 4444; --^ a a b b, with added terminal couplet a a.
252. " Stop' St, — cji'viics." Quite unjustifiable and harsh contractions ; so also ' plac't,' for placed, 270 ; but it is necessary to distinguish the words which have this contraction properly, without apostrophies, as 'scrapt' (like rapt), 336.
276. " Things else." This use of 'else' must be retained. It means, not merely what other things, but what things of different nature.
PSALM IX. 33
PSALM IX.
CONFITEBOR TIBI, I.
280 With all my heart, O Lord, I will praise thee, My speeches all thy marvels shall discry ; In thee my joys and comforts ever be.
Yea, ev'n my songs thy name shall magnify,
O Lord most high.
II.
285 Because my foes to fly are now constrain'd,
And they are fall'n, nay, perish'd at thy sight ; For thou my cause, my right, — thou, — hast main-
tain'd, Setting thyself in throne which shined bright.
Of judging right.
III.
2 go The Gentiles thou rebuked sorely hast.
And wicked folks from thee to wreck do wend ; And their renown, which seem'd so like to last, Thou dost put out, and quite consuming send
To endless end.
34 PSALM IX.
IV.
295 O bragging foe, where is the endless waste
Of conquer'd states, whereby such fame you got .'' What ! doth their memory no longer last .-* Both ruins, ruiners, and ruined plot
Be quite forgot.
V.
300 But God shall sit in his eternal chair
Which he prepared to give his judgments high ; Thither the world for justice shall repair : Thence he to all his judgments shall apply
Perpetually.
VI.
305 Thou also. Lord, the oppressed wilt defend,
That they to thee in troublous time may flee : They that know thee, on thee their trust will bend, For thou, Lord, found by them wilt ever be
That seek to thee.
VII. 310 O, praise the Lord, this Syon-dweller good ;
Show forth his acts, — and this, as act most high, — That he enquiring, doth require just blood. Which he forgetteth not ; nor letteth die
The afflicted cry.
PSALM IX. 35
VIII. 315' Have mercy, mercy, Lord,' I once did say ; * Ponder the pains which on me loaden be By them whose minds on hateful thoughts do stray : Thou, Lord, that from death-gates hast lifted me,
I call to thee.
IX.
320 That I within the ports most beautiful
Of Syon's daughter may sound forth thy praise : That I, ev'n I, of heav'nly comfort full. May only joy in all thy saving ways
Throughout my days,'
X.
325 No sooner said, but lo, mine enemies sink
Down in the pit which they themselves had
wrought ; And in that net which they well-hidden think. Is their own foot, led by their own ill thought.
Most surely caught.
XI.
3*30 For then the Lord in judgment shows to reign,
When godless men be snared in their own snares, When wicked souls be turned to hellish pain. And that forgetful sort which never cares
What God prepares.
36 PSALM IX.
-XII.
335 But, on the other side, the poor in spright
Shall not be scrapt from out the heav'nly score : Nor meek abiding of the patient wight
Yet perish shall, (although his pain be sore,)
For evermore.
XIII.
-340 Up, Lord, and judge the Gentiles in thy right, And let not man have upper hand of thee : With terrors great, O Lord, do thou them fright ;
That by sharp proofs the heath'n themselves may see
But men to be.
The 'argument' prefixed to this psalm in our common English Bible is an exquisite instance of the gift of learned divines for threshing all the grain well away out of a piece of scripture, and presenting their hearers with the head of chaff, trimmed up in fine spicular form, thus : —
" I. David praiseth God for executing of judg- ment. I I. He incitcth others to praise Him. 13. He prayeth that he may have cause to praise Him."
PSALM IX. 37
Now, it is true that this psahn praises God for executing judgment, but the entire meaning and power of it, to us, depends upon our knowing zc/ioni the judgment is executed upon, and for what. Who are tried according to this way .'' — who weighed .'' — who found wanting } For (ver. 1 6) " the Lord is knoivn by the judgment which he executeth." Now this judgment is " inquisition for blood," (ver. 1 2) ; and it is a judgment to be "ministered to the people," (ver. 8). And it consists in two things ; — A, that the Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, (ver, 9), and forgets not the cry of the humble, (ver. 1 2), nor of the needy, (ver. 18) ; but, B, rebukes the JicatJicn, (ver. 5), — sinks them, (ver. 15), — snares them in their own work, (ver. 1 6), — and turns them into hell, (ver. 1 7, com- pare line 415) — a very considerable and definite piece of judgment to thank the Lord for !
And farther note, the psalm is not only beaten dry by the preface, in our Bible, but corrupted in translation. By cunningly slipping in the word ' nations,' twice over, instead of * heathen,' the translators turn it all into an unintelligible mess. The word is one and the same throughout. Write 'heathen' for 'nations' in verses 17 and 20 of the common version, and see how the whole becomes clear in the sacred assertion — detested alike by divines proud of their divinity, and capitalists
6
38 PSALM IX.
proud of their capital, that the Lord will come to judge, not between Protestants and Catholics — not between Christians and Jews — not between \\hitc Americans and black ones ; but between the oppressor and the oppressed, between the cruel rich and crushed poor ; and between those who love and expect God, and those who hate and forget Him. So He shall judge — not Europe and Africa— not Christendom and Saracendom — but the World, in Righteousness, (ver. 8.)
283. "Ev'n my sojigs." An Elizabethan refine- ment. Sidney looked upon singing as a graceful accomplishment, not, as David held it, a solemn dutj. Sidney thinks of his joys and comforts as great ; of his songs as little ; but even t/uy shall praise God.
288, 289. "Throne — -Judging rigJitl' for 'throne of judgment.' Compare lines 300, 301.
292 — 298. There is no stronger expression in English of the destruction and oblivion of the wicked. It should be learned by heart.
303. "His judgments shall afply" — 'fit accu- rately,' \\\i\\ precise answering and infolding of part to part, as a surgeon the lancet-point, or dressing, to n wound.
PSALM IX. 39
310. ." Syon-divcllerr Quaint ; but stronger than ' that dwelleth in Zion ; ' as ' desert-dweller,' ' in- dweller,' and the like.
315. */ once did say." The current of thought in the eighth and ninth stanzas is — " Once, at the gates of death, I called to thee, and thou liftedst me up from them ; now, at the gates of Zion, 1 call again to thee — that I, full of comfort, may show forth thy praise for ever." " No sooner said," etc., then, is in direct sequel.
RlIYTiiM. — Cinqfold. 5 5 5 5 2 -^-^ a b a b b.
281. " Discry" Give warning of, as a watchman from a tower, of things seen far away. Old French dcscrier.
The modern ' descry,' to see at a distance, is a derivative meaning. It is not possible to retain both. I believe Sidney's meaning is the one which it will be found eventually best to keep.
To discern (to see one thing separately from another) belongs, of course, to an entirely different group of words.
33 5- '' Spright!' lam not sure how far Sidney persists in this old form. The modern ' spirit ' should, I think, be retained for the greater spiritual
40 PSALM iX
powers, and 'spright' for the soul of man only, spoken of as distinct from the body. We should keep Imogen's grand old verb — I am ' sprighted/ haunted or plagued, Avith a fool ; and the word will then serve us in cases where the bodies of men are without the spirit of God, but are moved by their own ghosts or sprights only. Compare lines 389, 480.
PSALM X.
* PSALM X.
UT QUID, DOMINE. I.
345 Why standest thou so far,
O God, our only star, In time most fit for thee To help who vexed be ! For lo, with pride, the wicked man 350 Still plagues the poor the most he can,
O, let proud him be throughly caught In craft of his own crafty thought.
II.
For he himself doth praise When he his lust doth ease : 35 5 Extolling rav'nous gain.
But doth God's self disdain : Nay, so proud is his puff'd thought. That after God he never sought ; But rather much he fancies this, 360 The name of God a fable is.
III. For while his ways do prove. Oh them he sets his love ; Thy judgments are too high. He can them not espy.
41
42 PSALM X.
365 Therefore he doth defy all those
That dare themselves to him oppose ; And sayeth, in his bragging heart, 'This gotten bliss shall never part.'
IV. Nor he removed be, 370 Nor danger ever see :
Yet from his mouth doth spring Cursing and cozening ; Under his tongue do harbour'd lie Both mischief and iniquity. 375 For proof, oft lain in wait he is,
In secret by-way villages.
V. In such a place unknown To slay the hurtless one ; With winking eyes, ay bent 380 Against the innocent.
Like lurking Hon in his den. He waits to .spoil the simple men : Whom to their loss he still doth get. When once he draws his wily net.
VI. 385 O, with how simple look
He oft lays out his hook !
PSALM X. 43
And with how humble shows
To trap poor souls he goes !
Thus freely saith he in his spright;
;90 'God sleeps, or hath forgotten quite;
His far-off sight now hoodwinlv is,
He leisure wants to mark all this.'
VII.
Then rise, and come abroad, O Lord, our only God ; 395 Lift up thy heav'nly hand.
And by the sely stand. Why should the evil, so evil, despise The pow'r of thy through-seeing eyes } And why should he in heart so hard 400 Say, Thou dost not thine own regard
VIII.
But nak'd, before thine eyes All wrong and mischief lies : For of them in thy hands The balance ev'nly stands : 405 But who aright poor-minded be.
Commit their cause, — themselves, — to thee, The succour of the succourless, The father of the fatherless.
44 PSALM X.
IX.
Break thou the wicked arm, 410 Whose fury bends to harm :
Search them, and wicked he Will straightway nothing be. O Lord, we shall thy title sing, Ever and ever, to be King, 415 Who hast the heath'ny folk destroy'd
From out thy land by them annoy'd.
X.
Thou op'nest heav'nly door To prayers of the poor ; Thou first prepar'd their mind, 420 Then ear to them incHn'd ;
O, be thou still the orphan's aid, That poor from ruin may be staid : Lest we should ever fear the lust Of earthly man, a lord of dust.
This Psalm is in the Hebrew, one with the ninth. It is the fuller explanation and enforcing of the ninth ; and if, therefore, we learn to know our ninth psalm right!}', for c\'cr and a day, ^^■c shall find
PSALM X. 45
the tenth has become vivid and immortal together with it. And these two psahns, containing in their unison, quite clear, unmistakable, and noble Word of God, — of inexpressible value to all nations, speaking that ' desire of all nations ' which is the name of Christ, are, by all wolves in sheep's clothing, utterly- abhorred, and trodden under their paws.
For, (verse 3,) "the wicked boastcth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth," and " thy judgments," — (those for which these Psalms are written to praise him) — " are far above out of his sight" (verse 5).
The ' argument ' of this Psalm, in our common Bible, is — exactly like the former one, — absolute husk, fit only for swine to eat. But the common translation is good and grand — (could not well be otherwise, the main force of the original words being by no stupidity mistakable, and by no subterfuge disguisable) — and should be learned by heart by all honest and religious Englishmen.
Sidney's verses are thin and weak in comparison, but are full of bright flashes of literal and well- applied wit ; and, as it were, carve and polish the edges of the text, axe-hewn in the Hebrew.
347. ''In time most fit T Obscure, for 'just at the time we rnost wanted.' (In the Greek, evKaipia)
46 PSALM X.
3 51. "(9 let proud him." A pretty instance of the utiHty of true \'er.se in compelling an accent where it makes a sentence stronger.
353. "7/6' Jiinisclf dotJi praiscr The quantity of worship pronounced by ' business men ' on them- selves, in the literature of this last half-century, will be found in future study of the human race the most curious and voluminous gospel of its * puffed ' hollowness of pride, yet preached in the plague- struck world.
359. 'Rather much,' for 'much rather.' Choosing resolutely and delightedly to think God a fable.
419, 420. A pretty little piece of Protestant theology. ^
Rhythm. — Octave. 33334444. a. b. a. b. c. c. d. d.
361. ^' Prove." 'Stand trial,' as armour of proof. Johnson gives ' succeed ' for his third meaning, quoting Bacon, — " if the experiment proved not." The meaning' is, while his own ways succeed he sets his love on them.
375. I am not sure of the .sense of 'proof in this place. ' Lain in wait,' for ' lying in wait ' needs examination.
PSALM X. 47
391. I believe Sidney wrote only 'hoodwink,' not * winked,' though I do not find any instance given of this form in Johnson.
396. " SelyT Simple, in good sense.
415. Heath'ny, for heathenish.
419. I believe it will be well to accept Sir Sidney's second persons as grammatical, and re- cover use of them, instead of ' preparedst,' etc.
422. I believe for ravin, devouring, not ruin, which is spelt ' ruyne ' in 488.
48 PSALM XL
PSALM XL
IN DOMINO CONFIDO. I.
425 Since I do trust Jehovah still,
Your fearful words why do you spill ? That like a bird to some strong hill
I now should fall a-flying.
IL
Behold the evil have bent their bow, 430 And set their arrows in a row,
To give unwares a mortal blow
To hearts that hate all lying.
TIL
But that in building they begun, With ground-plot's fall shall be undone : 43 5 For what, alas, have just men done?
In them no cause is growing.
IV.
God in his holy temple is : The throne of heav'n is only his : Nought his all-seeing eye can miss, 440 His eyelids pei.se our going.
PSALM XL 49
V.
The Lord doth search the just man's reins,
But hates, abhors, the wicked brains ;
On them storms, brimstone, coals, he rains :
That is their share assigned.
Vl.
445 But so of happy other side
His lovely face on them doth bide, In race of life their feet to guide
Who be to God inclined.
Out of the millions of times in the year, during which the average kind of persons set up through- out England and Scotland to preach in pulpits on Sundays take the word of God's ' righteousness ' in vain, I wonder how often it occurs to any of them to preach from the third verse of this psalm, notable (if it were a verse of the Bible at all) beyond most : " If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do ? "
One would have thought that question might have struck one of them, if God — or what they call the Word of God — really asked it ? — reading
50 PSALM XI.
it out, too, and piping it out, in their cathedrals, once a month, all over the land!
But the verse never was in the Bible — the fact being that whatever foundations are destroyed, their destruction does not matter to the righteous. They can always do- — ^just what they did before.
It will enable the reader to understand a great many more things than Sir Philip Sidney's para- phrase, though that is the thing at present in question, if I first write the Psalm into plain English, as it stands in the Septuagint and Vulgate.
" I have believed in the Lord ; how will ye say to my soul, Get thee out of thy house to the mountains, like a sparrow. For, behpld, the sinners have bent bow, they have made ready arrows in quiver that they may shoot in black ambush at the straight in heart. For what thou hast esta- blished, they have taken away. But what has the just m.an done } The Lord is in his holy temple, the throne of the Lord is in heaven.
" His eyes are intent on the poor man. His eyelids search out the sons of men.
" The Lord searches out the just man, and the impious ; and the man, who loves injustice hates his own soul. He will rain snares upon sinners, fire, and sulphur, and wind of hurricane shall be the portion of their cup. P"or the Lord is just, and
PSALM XI. 51
loves deed of justice. His face beholds straight- forwardness."
The reader will have now a clear idea of the substance of this psalm, as Sidney endeavoured to render it.
He has been in- an especiall}' gay and lyrical humour when he did this one ; and is rather careless of his phrases, for once : so only that they will fit the bright notes : ' fall a-flying,' instead of ' fly,' is a little too frank a makeshift of this kind, except only in that it means, not only to fly on one alarm ; but to get into a flying or fluttering habit of soul, instead of a quiet one.
426. "IV/^j do yoH spill?" A little for the sake of rhyme, but with the under-sense that frightened people drop, or spill, their words, as a trembling person shakes anything out of a glass.
434. " JVit/i groimd-plof s fall!' I believe, 'by the fall of the ground-plot, or foundation-story ;' but I have changed the punctuation of my original to get this sense.
In any case, it is not the sense of the Greek or Vulgate : the second clause of the verse being right, I don't know whence Sidney took the first.
440. '' Peise" — weigh; 'peser,' French. " Used in
52 PSALM XL .
this sense still in Hampshire." — (Johnson). ' Poise ' is a more altered form, yet a better word, giving more sense of weight.
445. " So." As t/ieir share assigned. The oppo- sition of the tumbling and violent verse of the fifth stanza to the dainty quietness of the sixth, is a perfect piece of Elizabethan word-art and music.
But the true psalm is far grander. There are no ' coals ' in it, but pure fire ; and the storm awaked is not the healthy and vital storm, ordained to cool and purify the summer air, but the hurri- cane of total destruction. The rain of fire and sulphur, with nitre, on modern Christendom has been more deadly than that on Gomorrah, because God in His anger has given the criminals a dis- position to enjoy it ; and to think it comes down upon them " as showers that water the earth."
RllYTILAL — Doubled quatrain. 4443 - -^--- a a a b c c c b.
PSALM XII. 53
PSALM XII.
SALVUM ME FAC. I.
Lord, help, it is high time for me to call : 450 No men are left that charity doth love :
Nay, ev'n the race of good men are decay'd.
II. Of things vain with vain mates they babble all ; Their abject lips no breath but flatt'ry move, Sent from false heart, on double meaning staid.
III. 45 5 But thou, O Lord, give them a thorough fall ; Those lying lips from cozening head remove. In falsehood wrapt, but in their pride displaid.
IV.
' Our tongues,' say they, ' beyond them all shall go : We both have pow'r, and will, our tales to tell, 460 For what lord rules our brave embolden breast ? '
V.
' Ah ! now even for their sakes, that taste of woe, Whom troubles toss, whose nature's need doth quell ; Ev'n for the sighs, — true sighs of man distrest, —
7
54 PSALM XII.
YI.
I will get up,' saith God, ' and my help show 465 Against all them that against him do swell : ^Nlaugrc his foes, I will him set at rest.'
Yll.
These are God's words, God's words are ever pure, — Pure, — purer than the silver throughly tried, When fire sev'n times hath spent his earthy parts.
VIII.
470 Then thou, O Lord, shalt keep the good still sure : By thee preserv'd, in thee they shall abide : Yea, in no age thy bliss from them departs.
IX.
Thou see'st each side the walking doth endure Of these bad folks, more lifted up with pride, 47 5 WHiich, if it last, woe to all simple hearts.
This Psalm is quite one of the grandest in tlie whole series of translations, — every word vital, and entirely true to its original. It might rather, one would think, have been written for our days than for David's or Elizabeth's. But in reality Judah
PSALIM XII. 5 5
and England were already showing the first of their decay in those times of their chief eminence : and both their singers felt the breaking of the law of Truth with the same bitterness,
450. '^ That charity doth love." For, 'whom' charity doth love. A most important line. Foolish people think that charity loves all things, and all men. She hopes, believes, and bears, all things. But loves only — Good ; and those who do it ; or would, if they knew how.
451. 'Not only good men are gone, but the breed and stock of them, so that none can be born now.' A woful state for a nation to be in !
453. The lips move the breath, observe, — not the breath the lips.
454. " Oji double meaning staid." Having con- fidence in their own under-meaning : What I say is of no consequence ; I will do quite otherwise. Fair words cost nothing. ' I go, sir.'
457. Open enough in their insolence, though secret enough in their falsehood.
Compare line 151.
458. Compare I. Thessalonians iv. 6: "That
56 PSALM XII.
no man go beyond or defraud his brother in any matter."
459, 460. '' Onr tales to tell!' ''What lord rules ?" Modern poHtical economy and Hberty.
462. "Need" — want. The queUing of human strength for want of food — of human nature for want of love.
465. Against ///;// ('the man distrest')-
467, 468. ''Pure: pure, purer'.' Three times, seven times, tried in the fire.
469. " Spcut " — burnt away.
475. "JVhich, if it last." It has well lasted to our day, and brought worse than woe on all simple hearts. " Thou, God, seest."
PSALM XIII. 57
PSALM XIII.
USQUE QUO, DOMINE. I.
How long, O Lord, shall I forgotten be ?
What ? ever ? How long wilt thou thy hidden face fi-om me
Dissever ?
II.
480 How long shall I consult with careful spright
In anguish.? How long shall I with foes triumphant might
Thus languish ?
III.
Behold me, Lord ; let to thy hearing creep 485 My crying ;
Nay, give me eyes and light, lest that I sleep
In dying :
IV.
Lest my foe brag, that in my ruyne he
Prevailed ; 490 And at my fall they joy, that, troublous, mc
Assailed.
58 PSALM XIII.
V.
No ! no ! I trust on thee, and joy in thy
Great pity : Still therefore of thy graces shall be my 495 Song's ditty.
Sidney could not paraphrase this Psalm, not havine the least sense himself of ever having been forgotten by God, — neither had he been. David, on the contrary, often and often, — till at last he was fain to ask if ' for ever.'
RllVTilM. — Quatrain. 5 T 5 T. a b a b.
We can scarcely judge of the rhythm of the psalm, unless we had the music meant for it ; but at all events it is to be read as essentially consisting of long lines, in A\hich the rlunie of the tenth syllables need never be dwelt on. I^lse the 'thy' and ' m}' ' of the last \crse would be unpardon- able.
"'Ditty'' observe, properl)', is the saying or con- tents of a song, as distinguished from its melody.
PSALM XIV. 59
PSALM XIV.
DIXIT INSIPIENS. I.
The foolish man, by flesh and fancy led, His guilty heart with this fond thought hath fed : There is no God that reigneth.
II.
And so thereafter he and all his mates 500 Do works, which earth corrupt, and Heaven hates Not one that good remaineth.
III. Even God himself sent down his piercing eye. If of this clayey race he could espy
One, that his wisdom learneth.
ix. 505 y\nd lo, he finds that all a-straying went :
All plung'd in stinking filth, not one well bent, Not one that God discerneth.
V. O madness of these folks, thus loosely led ! These cannibals, who, as if they were bread, 510 God's people do devour.
6o PSALM XIV.
VI. Nor c\er call on God ; but they shall quake More than they now do brag, when he shall take The just unto his power.
VII. Indeed the poor, opprest by you, }'ou mock : 5 I 5 Their counsels are youv common jesting stock : But God is their rccomfort.
VIII. Ah, when from S)'on shall the saver come, That Jacob, freed by thee, may glad become, And Israel full of comfort ?
\-'*-"S-'\.'\--l.'
The great fourteenth and fifteenth psalms are alwa}'s to be read and remembered together, as defining and describing the opposed lives of the Heathen, and the Godly, — unrighteous and righteous, — or chiklrcn of men, and children of God.
l^oth are at first spoken of as represented by one person, but the children of men presently as a multitude ; the child of God, as alone.
For strait is the gate, and narrow the wa)-, that
PSALM XIV. 6 I
leads to life ; and the command to each of the servants of God must always be — ' Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil.'
The perversion of the fourteenth psalm into an accusation of the human race, has been one of the chief means by which the Avorkers of iniquity, undistinguished from the righteous, have been enabled to persist at their ease in eating up the people of God as they eat bread.
496. " FlesJi and fancy r The lust of the flesh, and waywardness of imagination. Compare line 587.
500. Which corrupt earth, and are hated in heaven ; while good works pacify the earth, and glorify Heaven : and more than Heaven, — Him who sits on the throne of it.
509. " Cannibals''' — quite literal, eating the flesh of men, in their labour. See notes on Usury in ' Fors Clavigera ' for August, 1876.
515. ^^ Their coiinsels are your jesty The original is stronger : ' Ye have shamed the counsels, not merely mocked at them, but even caused them to fail, or seem to fail, by your tyranny.'
62 PSALM XIV.
Rhythm. — Sixfold. 5 5 3 5 5 3 ^-^ a a b c c b.
510. "'Devour.'' In the original devower, pro- nounced as a dissyllabic, to rhyme with power, a gross license, which I refuse, though to the breaking the law of the metre.
516. ^' Reconiforty 'Comfort us ^r^*-^?/;/, because of the years wherein thou hast afflicted us.' But the word is scarcely needed in present English. Re- comfort rhyming to comfort, we must put up with. But compare at once the beautiful version of the repeated psalm, the fifty-third (p. 106). The two together show in a most interesting manner how various the treatment of fine paraphrase may be, with retention of equal accuracy.
PSALM XV. 6^
PSALM XV.
DOMINE, QUIS HABITABIT.
520 In tabernacle thine, O Lord, who shall remain ?
Lord, of tliy holy hill who shall the rest obtain ?
Ev'n he that leads a life of uncorrupted train,
Whose deeds of righteous heart,
whose hearty words be plain :
Who with deceitful tongue hath never us'd to fain ; 525 Nor neighbour hurts by deed,
nor doth with slander stain :
Whose eyes a person vile doth hold in vile disdain,
But doth, with honour great, the godly entertain :
Who oath and promise given doth faithfully maintain,
Although some worldly loss thereby he may sustain ; 530 From biting usury who ever doth refrain :
Who sells not guiltless cause for filthy love of gain,
Who thus proceeds for aye,
in sacred mount shall reign.
This psalm is mainly David's practical expla- nation of the details of the second (great) com- mandment of the duty of love towards one's neighbour. It falls into ten heads, founded on the
64 PSALM XV.
ninth and tenth commandment of the old Decalogue, thus : —
1. "Whose deeds are of righteous heart." That
we work true work for our neighbour.
2. " Whose hearty words be plain." That we
speak from our heart, and intelligibly in all our teachings to our neighbour. Not making him learn church-catechism instead of his own business ; and being sure that he understands what catechism he does learn.
3. "Who with deceitful tongue." That we tell
our neighbour no lies.
4. Nor hurt him by deed.
5. Nor by report.
6. That, dividing the truly base from the truly
honourable, wc duly scorn the vile. Com- pare the second verse of Psalm xvi.
7. That we duly honour the honourable.
8. That we remain true to our promise, and
change not, though the promise turn out as sore to keep as Jcphthah's.
9. That we take no usury.
10. That wc take no reward against the innocent, to pervert judgment. " I myself have been without a loaf o' bread to set before my Httle ones, dismissed at
PSALM XV. 65
a moment's notice, and with no redress. The magistrates zvon't convict the masters; ■ we have tried it again and again." — (Miss Thackeray's Jack and the Bean-stalk.)
Sidney thus gives the full decalogue of the psalm in ten lines, the meaning and value of which, who- ever strives to live nobly,- will, every day, more and more discern. I wish the tenth line (529) had been omitted ; though it is not put in merely to fill the series, but to complete the idea of swear- ing " to his own heart." But it was unworthy of Sydney to think of ' worldly loss ' as of the only penalty of rash promise. Nevertheless, the whole is too precious a piece of work to be touched, even in its fault ; and should, be learned by heart as it stands.
Rhythm. — Continuous. 6 ; and a, throughout.
66 PSALM XVI.
PSALM XVI.
CONSERVA INIE. I.
Save me, Lord ; for why, thou art All the hope of all my heart. 5 3 5 Witness thou, my soul, with me.
That to God, my God, I say ; Thou, my Lord, thou art my stay, Though my works reach not to thee.
II.
This is all the best I prove : 540 Good, and godly men, I love :
And foresee their wretched pain Who to other gods do run : Their blood off'rings I do shun ;
Nay, to name their names disdain.
III.
545 God my only portion is.
And of my child's part the bliss : He then shall maintain my lot. Say then, is not my lot found In a goodly pleasant ground ?
550 Have not I fair partage got ?
PSALM XVI. ^"J
IV.
Ever, Lord, I will bless thee. Who dost ever counsel me,
Ev'n when Night with his black wing Sleepy darkness doth o'ercast, 5 55 In my inward veins I taste.
Of my faults, and chastening.
My eyes still my God reguard. And he my right hand doth guard ;
So can I not be opprest, 560 So my heart is fully glad,
So in joy my glory clad ;
Yea, my flesh in hope shall rest.
VI.
For I know the deadly grave On my soul no pow'r shall have, 565 For I know thou wilt defend
Even the body of thine own Dear-beloved holy one
From a foul corrupting end.
VII.
Thou life's path wilt make me know, 570 . In whose view doth plenty grow.
68 PSALM XVI.
All delights that souls can crave ; And whose bodies placed stand On thy blessed-making hand,
They all joys, .like endless, have.
I greatly delight in this paraphrase myself, and am quite willing, once caught in the dancing measure of it, to let Sidney put the forced accent on ' will ' in the fourth, and ' my ' in the fifth verse. But it is not exemplary in workmanship.
5 39- ''^ TJiis is all the best." He can at least already see the difference between right and wrong ; at last he is sure he will be taken out of all fellow- ship with wrong. ' Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell.'
546. ^^ Child's part;'' the inheritance of good which he has, for his share as a son.
561. "So in my joy my glory clad." I don't know what authority there is for our English reading, which Sidney here strangely follows. In the Sep- tuagint and Vulgate it is * my tongue rejoiceth ; ' and the entire meaning is — My heart is glad, my
PSALM XVI. 69
tongue rejoices, and my flesh shall rest, through all troubles of this world, in hope,
565, 566. A noble assertion of faith in the resurrection of the body. " For I know thou wilt defend even the body of thine owji."
567. ^'Dear-beloved holy one." The exclusive application of this to Christ has simply taken the meaning, preciousness and discipline, out of the psalm. It is all spoken by David of himself, and himself only. I am a poor creature enough ; my goodness extends not to thee : but I love good and hate evil ; I live among thy holy ones, and love them ; and I know thou wilt make me holy like them, and love me also, and show me the path of life.
573. 'They whose bodies stand at thy immortal hand that makes blessed, shall have joys like it in imperishableness.'
Rhythm. — Sixfold. Trochaic. 3 ; abba.
8
70 PSALM XVII.
PSALM XVII.
EXAUDI, DOMINE, JUSTITIAM. I.
5 75 My suit is just ; just Lord, to my suit hark,
I plaine : sweet Lord, my plaint for pity mark. And, since my lips feign not to thee, Thine ears vouchsafe to bend to me.
II.
O, let my sentence pass from thine own face : 580 Show that thine eyes respect a faithful case. Thou that by proof acquainted art With inward secret of my heart.
TIT.
Where silent Night might seem all faults to hide, Then was I, by thy searching insight tried : 585 And then by thee was guiltless found
From ill \\ord, and ill meaning, scjund.
IV.
Not weighing aught how fleshl)- fancies run. Led by thy word, the rav'ner's steps I shun ; And pray that still you guide mv way, 590 Lest yet I slip, or go astray.
PSAL.M XVII. 71
V.
I say again that I have called on thee, And boldly say thou wilt give ear to me : And let my words,— my cries, — ascend. Which to thyself my soul will send.
VI. 595 Show then, O Lord, thy wondrous kindness show : Make us in marvels of thy mercy know That thou by faithful men wilt stand. And save them from rebellious hand,
VII.
Then keep me as the apple of an eye : 600 In thy wings' shade then let me hidden lie, From my destroying wicked foes, Who for my death do me enclose.
VIII. Their eyes do swim, their face doth shine, in fat, And cruel words their swelling tongues do chat, 605 And yet their high hearts look so low As how to watch our overthrow.
IX.
Now like a lion gaping to make preys.
Now like his whelp, in den that lurking stays :
72 PSALM XVII.
Up, Lord, prevent those gaping jaws, 6 1 o And bring to naught those watching paws.
X.
Save me from them thou usest as thy blade ; " From men, I say, and from men's worldly trade : Whose life doth seem most greatly blest, And count this life their portion best.
XI.
6 r 5 Whose bellies so with dainties thou dost fill. And so with hidden treasures grant their will, That they in riches flourish do, And children have to leave it to.
XII.
What would they more .'' And I would not theircasc 620 My joy shall be, pure, to enjoy thy face, When waking of this sleep of mine, I shall see thee in likeness thine.
This Psalm maybe headed simply 'The prayer against rich men.' l)ut it cannot be abstracted, being already as brief as possible.
PSALM XVII. yi
577. "Since my lips feign 7iot." The use of good paraphrase is again to be noted. We are apt to read the verse, " Hearken to my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips," without enough marking the second clause as the plea for the first. Sidney's introduced word ' since ' makes this distinct. But how many praying, nowadays, can say so boldly .? ' They believe in God,' — yes ; but they don't believe in themselves, or their own prayer ; nor seek the least surety that their hearts are honest, and prayer made only for what they really want. When they pray (for instance) for " that most excellent gift of charity, the very bond of peace," haw many, in their hearts, pray the stock-broker's prayer for a bloody war,* if they could get a hun- dred a year more by it ? Read lines 593 and 594 together with this first couplet.
583. ''Where silent Night!' The darkness of the soul, — the shadow which conceals it from itself: the shadow out of which we are brought to know- ledge of ourselves. " When I did not know myself, thoit knewest me."
586. "/// meaning sound" 111 word first; but much more than that, from ill meaning accent and
* See 'Fors Clavigera,' July, 1876.
74 PSALM XVII.
force of word. Not only guiltless from actual lying, but from malicious truth. Compare Blake, of " ill meaning sound."
" A truth that's told with bad intent Beats all the lies you can invent."
588. ''The Ravenerr — Destroyer, the men spoken of presently, in verse 8th, as having gaping jaws, and * watching ' Paws, every muscle set for instant snatch or stroke.
611. " TJion nsest as t/iy blade." I should like these two verses (9 and 10) to be learned by heart, that they may fix in our minds the con- ception which is the foundation-stone of all the statements respecting the sinners in the Psalms, that they are not merely themselves lost and con- demned of God, but that they arc used as his sword, to chastise his children with ; that their especial function is that of the Ravcner, — tearer in pieces, or wolf, to the Lambs of his flock ; and that they are to be recognized, among other signs, very definitely, by their worldly prosperity, having their bellies filled with ' hidden ' treasures, (got cunningly, and by secret wrongs of commerce,) and leaving them to their children.
KiiNl'iiM. — Quatrain. 5 5 4 4 -^--^^ a a b b.
PSALM XVII. 75
604. " Chat " — short for chatter. The words of wicked men are always more or less brutal in stupidity, like the chattering of monkeys or jack- daws. The ' opinions ' of the British press, for instance.
620. I am a little proud of some of my alterings of punctuation, which I make generally without pointing out the former mistake to the reader's notice. But the alteration of this line from the former one is worth pausing at, to show the value of proper respect for Sidney's musical accent. It was quite impossible that he should construct a pentametre line with these following caesuras, as it has been hitherto printed,
" My j5y | shall be pure, | t5 enjoy | thy face."
But he, with perfect measure and ease, can write,
" My joy I shall be, | pure, | to enjoy j thy face."
Compare the original, and you will see how we recover the meaning, with the right accent.
621. "(9/" — short for 'out of.'
76 PSALM XVIII.
PSALM XVIII.
DILIGAM TE. I.
Thee will i love, O Lord,
WITH all my heart's DELIGHT, My strength, my strongest rock,
which my defence hast borne : 625 My God, and helping God,
my might, and trustful might. My never-pierced shield, my ever-saving home, My refuge ; — refuge then when most I am forlorn : Whom then shall I invoke,
but thee, most worthy praise. On whom, against my foes, my only safety stays ?
IL
630 On me the paincs of death already 'gan to prey : The floods of wickedness on me did horrors throw : Like in a winding-sheet, wretch, I already lay, This my distress to God, with wailful cries I show : All ready, ready to my snaring grave to go,
635 My cries climb'd up ; and He
bent down, from sacred throne. His eyes unto my case, his ears unto my moan.
PSALM xviii. ^^
III.
And so the earth did fall to tremble and to quake, The mountains proudly high,
and their foundations bent With motion of his rage, did to the bottom shake. 640 He came, but came with smoke,
from out his nostrils sent : Flames issu'd from his mouth,
and burning coals out went : He bow'd the heav'ns, and from
the bow'd heav'ns did descend With hugy darkness, which about his feet did wend.
IV.
The cherubims their backs,
the winds did yield their wings, 645 To bear his sacred flight ;
in secret place then clos'd ; About which he dim clouds, like a pavilion brings Clouds, ev'n of waters dark,
and thickest air compos'd ; But straight his shining eyes
this misty mass disclos'd : Then hail, then fiery coals,
then thundred, heav'nly Sire, 650 Then spake he his loud voice,
then hailstones, coals, and fire
78 PSALM XVIII.
Then out his arrows fly;
and straight they scattred been : Lightning on lightning he
did for their wreck augment ; The gulfs of waters then
Avere through their channels seen : The world's foundations then
lay bare ; because he shent 655 With blasting breath, O Lord,
that in thy chiding went. Then sent He from above, and took me from below, Ev'n from the waters' depth, my God preserv'd me so.
VI. So did he save me, from my mighty furious foe, So did he save me, from their then prevailing hate : G60 For they had caught me up when I was weak in woe ; But He, staff of my age,
he staid my stumbling state : This much : yet more, when I
by him this freedom gat, By him, because I did find in his eyesight grace. He lifted me unto a largely noble place.
VII.
665 My justice, my just hands thus did the Lord reward, Because I walk'd his ways,
nor 'gainst him evilly went :
PSALM XVIII. 79
Still to his judgments look'd,
still for his statutes card : Sound and upright with him,
to wickedness not bent. Therefore, I say again, this goodness he me sent, 6/0 As he before his eyes did see my justice stand. According as he saw the pureness of my hand.
VIII. Meek to the meek thou art,
the good thy goodness taste : Pure, to the pure, thou dcal'st
with crooked crookedly. Up then, thou lift'st the poor,
and down the proud wilt cast ; 67 5 Up, thou dost light my light,
and clear my darkned eye. I hosts by thee o'ercome ; by thee o'er walls I fly ; Thy way is soundly sure, thy word is purely tried : To them that trust in thee, a shield thou dost abide.
IX, For who is God besides this great Jehovah ours ? 680 And so besides our God, who is endu'd with might ? This God then girded me in his all-mighty pow'rs. He made my cumb'rous way,
to me most plainly right :
8o PSALM XVIII.
To match with Hghtfoot stags,
he made my foot so light, That I chmb'd highest hill ; he me war points did show, 68 5 Strength'ning mine arms, that they
could break an iron bow.
X.
Thou gav'st me saving shield ;
thy right hand was my stay ; Me in increasing still, thy kindness did maintain ; Unto my strengthened steps,
thou didst enlarge the way, My heels, and plants, thou didst
from stumbling slip sustain ; 690 What foes I did pursue, my force did them attain, That I, ere I return'd, destroy'd them utterly. With such brave wounds, that they
under my feet did lie.
XI.
For why ? my fighting strength,
by thy strength strengthened was : Not I, but thou, throw'st down
those who 'gainst me do rise, 695 Thou gavcst me their necks,
on them thou mad'st me pass : Behold they cry, but who to them his help applies > Nay, unto thee they cried,
but thou heard 'st not their cries :
PSALM XVIII. 8 I
I beat those folks as small
as dust, which wind doth raise, I beat them small as clay is beat in beaten ways.
XII. yoo Thus freed from troublous men,
thou makest me to reign ; Yea, thou makest me be serv'd
by folks I never knew : My name their ears, their ears
their hearts, to me enchain'd : Ev'n fear makes strangers show
much love, though much untrue. But they do fail, and in their mazed corners rue : 705 Then live Jehova still, my rock still blessed be : Let him be lifted up, that hath preserved me.
XIII. He that is my revenge, in whom I realms subdue, Who freed me from my foes, from rebels guarded me, And rid me from the wrongs
which cruel wits did brew. 7 1 o Among the Gentiles then
I, Lord, yield thanks to thee, I to thy name will sing, and this my song shall be ; " He nobly saves his king, and kindness keeps in store, For David his anoint, and his seed, evermore."
82 PSALM XVIII.
When first I read this paraphrase, I was in fairly strong health, and had done some work in which I felt triumphant ; and was set at my commentary on a bright spring morning; and this was what I wrote:
' I have no words to express my admiration of this entirely glorious piece of massive English scripture of pure, eternal truth. The majestic art and music of it are like the greatest work of Handel ; the storm and spirit-painting of it like Tintoret's. The precise logic and verbal symmetry of it like Horace's ; the passion of it is David's, — and his own.'
I am now correcting the press in ruined Venice, in a bleak November day, and with slightly feverish cold upon me ; and the paraphrase now appears to me often weak, and occasionally ridiculous.
Both views are false ; but the one received in health is nearer the truth, and its error is on the noble side : but, above all the other paraphrases, it requires intense feeling and fine reading.
623. I have put the first line of this psalm in capitals ; but it needs no enforcement by lettering, and I wish it to be remembered not only for a kind of title to the psalm, but for its definition of the right manner of the ' Love of God,' as it is meant, manifestly through all the Psalter, and secretly, through all the Bible. For the command-
PSALM XVIII. 83
ment, " Thou shalt love -with all thine heart'' does not mean with miserable abandonment of all else that the heart cherishes, — but through all, and with all, heart's delight in the world, small and great ; — doubling, — trebling, — infiniting it, by taking it from God's hand, as a child a jewel from its father ; the jewel, indeed of price, but the gift^ ivithoiit price.
And when this is once felt, rightly, it will be felt rightly also, how God gives grief as well as joy. For as He rejoices with us as a Father, in the joy He gives, so He grieves with us as a Father in the pain He gives ; and thus Himself takes our infirmities. Himself bears our sicknesses. But He no more (let the unfortunate modern evangelical well note) bears our griefs, that ivc may not bear them, than He rejoices in our joys that we may not enjoy them !
^n . ''And so the earth did fall to tremble." Here begins, in the original, one of the grandest passages of the whole Bible ; and it has never occurred to me till this moment to ask, — What it is all about ?
I have read it simply as a description of God's anger at all times : perhaps once or twice, glancing at its heading, I have noticed that David wrote
84 PSALM XVIII.
it at a particular time, — but actually, never till this morning (8th July, 'jd) inquired what time it really was, or what David meant by this thundrous melody. " In the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul." What day t Not the day of Saul's death, assuredly. David wrote quite another kind of psalm when he heard of that deliverance.
Neither when he heard of the death of Saul's last and noblest servant. " Thy hands were not bound," (he sang,) "nor thy feet put into fetters. As a man falleth before wicked men, so fellest . thou. Know ye not that a Prince is this day fallen in Israel, and / am this day weak, though Anointed King."
The precise and literal contrary, you see, of the close of tJiis psalm !
But now look to II. Samuel, and read of it chap. V. I — 10, and I2, 14, 17, 18, and 19 ; and chap. vii. from beginning to end. The close of that chapter gives us the solemn and deliberate prayer in which, at such time as the words were put on his lips, followed this passionate psalm.
631. ''Like in a winding-sheet^ I think Sidney interprets the fourth and fifth verses in too spiritual
PSALM XVIII. 85
a sense. David could not have had, at this time of his Hfe, any sense of the snares of hell in their reality. He seems to me only to be thinking of the day when he was first separated from Jonathan, Saul's spear just missing him as he sang : so, also, the passage describing the anger of God is meant literally, not spiritually, of the Philistines' victory over Israel, and the captivity of the ark. The imaged cherubim were in captivity, that had lifted up their silent wings, — but God yet Himself " rode upon a cherub, and did fly " ; the ark was lost from behind the vail of the tabernacle, — but His pavilion round about Him was dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies.
^6Z. "I beat them — as the clay is beat in beaten ivaysy Far worse than potter's beating ; — into vile, incoherent destruction. The iteration and beat of the psalm itself is in no line more splendid.
Rhythm. — Sevenfold. 6 ^™ a b a b b c c.
626. "■Home." I believe Sidney is thinking of Roland's horn at Fontarabia ; and I therefore keep the e at the end of the word, prolonging its sound, I should like to keep this orthography in classical English. He wilfully lets go, as in-
9
S6 PSALM XVIII.
harmonious with the other metaphors, the Hebrew meaning of an animal's horn ; and, indeed, there is no other Hebrew^ metaphor so unfortunate. It has made the figure of Moses always ludicrous in mediaeval missal painting, and been the root of much absurdity and mischief in dress.
643. "• Hiigy!' Classical, in Dryden and others. A grand word, taking the office of the vulgar 'hugeous.' From old French ' ahugue ' — Johnson.
649. " TJicn ihicndrcd, heavenly Sire." All ex- clamatory— no time for definite articles.
651. "Been." I am not sure how far Sidney carried the use of this aorist, Shakspeare's * bin.'
654. '' Shent." 'Destroyed with indignation.' ' Shend ' and ' shcnt ' are the two old forms. But the word is obsolete, and should be so.
675. ''Up thou dost light" for 'light up.'
682. '' Cinnbroiis" — 'vexing,' 'troublesome,' not ' heavy.' This is the proper classical sense ; from < kommeren,' Dutch, — see Johnson. His quotation from Sir Isaac Newton, " very long tubes are cumbersome, and scarce to be readily managed," shows how easily the sense of troublesomeness
PSALM XVIli. 87
may pass into that of weight. But ' ponderous,' or simply ' heavy,' is the proper word for weight. It is very desirable both in ' cumber ' and ' incum- brance ' to keep the original sense as clear as possible.
689. '■'■Plants'* Soles of the feet. See note to 870.
713. ''For David his anointr The final ' ed ' is cut off, not in hurry, but in intensity of leaning on the word, and desire to bring it literally, in the ending letter, nearer to the form ' Christ.' The line is to be read or sung very slowly, but continuously, so as to elide the ' ed ' before the ' a ' in natural sequence, then laying the next accent on 'his.'
88 PSALM xix.
PSALM XIX.
CCELI ENARRANT. I.
The heav'nly frame sets forth the fame 715 Of him that only thunders ;
The firmament, so strangely bent, Shows his hand, working wonders.
11.
Day unto day, doth it display,
Their course doth it acknowledge :
720 And night to night, succeeding right,
In darkness teach clear knowledge.
III.
There is no speech, nor language, which
Is so of skill bereaved, But of the skies, the teaching cries, 725 They have heard, and conceived.
IV.
There be no eyne, but read the line From so fair book proceeding ;
Their words be set in letters great For ev'ry body's reading.
PSALM XIX. 89
V. 730 Is not he blind that doth not find
The tabernacle builded There, by his grace, for sun's fair face. In beams of beauty guilded ?
VT.
Who forth doth come, like a bridegroom, 735 From out his veiling places :
As glad is he, as giants be To run their mighty races.
VII. His race is ev'n from ends of heav'n ; About that vault he goeth : 740 There be no realms hid from his beams,
His heat to all he throweth.
VIII.
O law of his, how perfect 'tis !
The very soul amending ; God's witness sure for aye doth dure, 745 To simplest, wisdom lending.
IX.
God's dooms be right, and cheer the spright :
All his commandments being So purely wise, they give the eyes
Both light, and force of seeing.
90 PSALM XIX.
X.
750 Of him the fear doth cleanness bear,
And so endures for ever : His judgments be self-verity, They are unrighteous never.
XI.
Then what man would so soon seek gold, 755 Or glitt'ring golden money ?
By them is past, in sweetest taste, Honey, or comb of honey.
XII.
By them is made thy servant's trade, Most circumspectly guarded : 75o -^"^^ ^^'^"^° "^ot^"^ frame to keep the same
Shall fully be rewarded.
XIII. Who is the man, that ever can
His faults know and acknowledge ! O Lord, cleanse me from faults that be
765
Most secret from all knowledge.
XIV. Thy servant keep, lest in him creep
Presumptuous sin's offences : Let them not have me for their slave.
Nor reign upon my senses.
PSALM XIX.
XV. 77^ So shall my spright be still upright
In thought and conversation ; So shall I bide, well purified From much abomination.
XVI. So let words sprung from my weak tongue 775 And my heart's meditation ;
My saving might, Lord, in thy sight Receive good acceptation.
91
I cannot say much for the sublimity of this paraphrase ; but it is splendidly joyful and clear- thoughted. The one line, " The statutes of the Lord are right, and rejoice the heart" having been taken as key to the whole treatment of it.
Rhythm. — Sixfold. 223223 — — a a b. c c b.
715. " That only',' for 'that alone.'
718. "//." His hand.
733. " Guildedr Fastened together as a guild. The ' beams ' are the ' beams of his chambers,' and of the sun's tabernacle. Sidney is thinking of the
92 PSALM XIX.
boards and sockets of the tabernacle in the wilder- ness, and playing with the equivocation between the two senses of both words, beams, and gild, as the sunshine plays on the two sides of a wave.
740. " Realms." Pronounced ' Reams,' only a little more roundly, like ' Royaume.'
752. "Self-verity;' for 'truth itself.'
758. " Trade!' See note to line 20.
760. '' Fi-amey Construct the several parts of life in harmony. So, line 809, "did frame" — bring about — their fall.
PSALM XX. 93
PSALM XX.
EXAUDIAT TE DOMINUS. I.
Let God the Lord hear thee, "
Even in the day when most thy troubles be : 780 Let name of Jacob's God,
When thou on it dost cry, Defend thee still from all thy foes abroad.
11. From sanctuary high Let him come down, and help to thee apply 785 From Zion's holy top ;
Thence let him undertake With heav'nly strength thy earthly strength to prop.
III. Let him notorious make, That in good part he did thy off'rings take ; 790 Let fire for trial burn
(Yea, fire from himself sent,) Thy offerings, so that they to ashes turn.
IV.
And so let him consent To grant thy will, and perfect thy intent,
94 PSALM XX.
795 That in thy saving, we
May joy, and banners raise Up to our God, when thy suits granted be.
V.
Now in me knowledge says, That God from fall his own anointed stays. 800 From heav'nly holy land
I know that he hears me ; Yea, hears with powers, and help of helpful hand.
VI.
Let trust of some men be In chariots arm'd, others' in chivalry ; 805 But let all our conceit,
Upon God's holy name. Who is our Lord, with due remembrance wait.
VII.
Behold their broken shame ! We stand upright, while they their fall did frame. 810 Assist us, Saviour dear ;
Let that King deign to hear, Whcnas to him our prayers do appear.
This is called a Psalm of David ; but if the King wrote it, he wrote it for the people to sing. It seems
PSALM XX. 95
to me far more probable It was written for the great choirs by one of the priests ; and there is no reason why it might not have been written by anybody of good loyalty and true heart. It is finer in the common version than in Sidney's, but has no other than simple or serviceable character in either.
787. " With heavenly strength." This second verse, at the cost of some lengthiness, fully explains the meaning of the second verse in the original. The prayer is made by the people, (attending a sacrifice of the King's, in the tabernacle,) that his offering might be accepted, and that the Dweller between the Cherubim might give him heavenly strength, out of the Holy Place. It is entirely literal and local : as much as the bowing down of a Roman Catholic congregation before the elevated Host, presently to be shut up again in the little golden cell above the altar.
792. " So that they to ashes turny He expands the meaning of the burnt sacrifice, — accepted most when burnt by fire coming from heaven. There is a time when Heaven utterly accepts, by utterly destroying, what we gave of our own.
796, 797. " Ba7mers raise, tip to our God." Sir Philip, for once, errs like a modern, and misses the
96 PSALM XX.
gist of the psalm by spiritualizing it. The congre- gation are no more in the real psalm supposed to think of raising their banners to God, than our own Guards think of it, when presented with new colours by the colonel's wife. They only promise to set up their literal banners against their literal enemies ' in the name of our God': — God grant we do so much as that, honestly.
798. " Nozu in me." This, like the original verse, is meant to be said by each one of the con- gregation for himself, — not vaguely, " %ve know," but " assuredly /," and doubtless, therefore, all of us — know.
799. " His oivn anointedr Here, only another phrase for the King.
801. "■Hears me." Sidney, or whoever it is, quite wrong again, and not minding what he is about. The congregation say that they know that God saves the King, and hears Jiiin. Not at all that He hears them, except through the King's prayer, or saves tJicm, except by the King's hand.
All written by the King himself, you begin to think, or by a King's sycophant ? No, disloyal reader ; — written by a very honest and worthy person, depend upon it, whoever he was.
BSALM XX. XXIV. 97
8io. '^ Assist us, Saviour." Finally wrong. The real verse is simply our own national one : " Oh, Lord, save the King ; this King now with us, and hear ics, in the day when we call on thee."
Rhythm. — Cinqfold, sequent. 35335 - — a a b c b
ceded, etc.
The twenty-first psalm, in the original, com- panions the foregoing ; and completes its prayer in thanksgiving ; but the paraphrase is entirely valueless, and better unread. The metre of it, ludicrously forced, marks the interference of some entirely unmusical person in the finishing of the book, whose discordant touch may be detected in some even of the more perfect psalms, and entirely spoils the three next following, of which especially the twenty-second cannot possibly be Sidney's, and is full of old English quaintnesses now un- endurable in relation to its mighty theme. I keep the last four verses of it only : we have heard and seen fulfilled the prophecy of its beginning ; let us hear also, and look for the fulfilment of, the prophecy of its close.
Th' afflicted then shall cat, and be well pleased ; And God shall be, by those his seekers praised.
9^ PSALM XXL XXIV.
8 1 5 Indeed, O you, you that be of such mind, You shall the life that ever liveth find.
But what ? I say, from earth's remotest border, Unto due thoughts, mankind his thoughts shall order ; And turn to God, and all the nations be 820 Made worshippers, before Almighty Thee.
And reason, since the crown to God pertaineth, And that by right upon all realms he reigneth. They that be made ev'n fat with earth's fat good Shall feed, and laud the giver of their food.
825 To him shall kneel even who to dust be stricken, Even he whose life no help of man can quicken : His service shall from child to child descend. His dooms one age shall to another send,
I am sorry to omit the twenty-third and twenty- fourth, which are companion psalms ; the first, sing- ing of God's grace to the humble ; the second, of God's grace to the noble.
Probably few psalms are oftener read, or with stronger feeling, by careless readers ; and there arc probably no other two whose real force is so little thought of. Which of us, even the most attentive, is prepared at once to tell, or has often enough con- sidered, what the ' Valley of the Shadow of Death' means, in the one, or the 'Hill of the Lord,' in the other?
t»SALM XXV. 99
PSALM XXV.
AD TE, DOMINE. I.
To thee, O Lord most just, 830 I lift my inward sight :
My God, in thee I trust.
Let me not ruin quite. Let not those foes, that me annoy. On my complaint build up their joy.
II.
835 Sure, sure, who hope in thee.
Shall never suffer shame : Let them confounded be That causeless wrongs do frame. Yea, Lord, to me thy ways do show ;
840 Teach me, thus vex'd, what path to go.
III.
Guide me as thy truth guides ; Teach me ; for why, thou art »0 The God in whom abides
The saving me from smart. 845 For never day such changing wrought,
That I from trust in thee was brought.
lOO PSALM XXV.
IV. Remember, only King, Thy mercies' tenderness : To thy remembrance bring 8 50 Thy kindness, lovingness.
Let those things thy remembrance grave, Since they eternal essence have.
V. But, Lord, remember not Sins brew'd in youthful glass : 8 5 5 Nor my rebellious blot,
Since youth, and they, do pass : But in thy kindness me record, Ev'n for thy mercy's sake, O Lord.
VI. Of grace and righteousness 860 The Lord such plenty hath.
That he deigns to express To sinning men his path : The meek he doth in judgment lead, And teach the humble how to tread.
VTI. 865 And what, think you, may be
The paths of my great God ?
PSALM XXV. 10 I
Ev'n spotless verity, And mercy spread abroad, To such as keep his covenant, 8/0 And on his testimonies plant.
VIII.
O Lord, for thy name's sake, Let my iniquity Of thee some mercy take. Though it be great in me : 875 Oh, is there one with his fear fraught ?
He shall be by best teacher taught.
IX.
Lo, how his blessing buds Inward, an inward rest ; Outward, all outward goods 880 By his seed eke possest.
For such he makes his secret know. To such he doth his cov'nant show.
X.
Where then should my eyes be, But still on this Lord set ? 885 Who doth and will set free
My feet from tangling net. O look, O help, let mercy fall, For I am poor and least of all,
10
102 PSALM XXV.
XI. My woes are still increas'd ; 890 Shield me from these assaults :
See how I am oppress'd, And pardon all my faults. Behold my foes, what store they be, Who hate, yea, hate me cruelly.
XII. 895 My soul, which thou didst make,
Now made, O Lord, maintain ; And from me these ills take, Lest I rebuke sustain. For thou the Lord, thou only art, 900 Of whom the trust lives in my heart.
XIII. Let my Uprightness gain Some safety unto me : I say, and say again, My hope is all in thee. 905 In fine, deliver Lsrael,
O Lord, from all his troubles fell.
The original is one of the most precious in the Psalter, written in prolonged depression of heart
PSALM XXV. ■ IC3
under memory of sin ; and it is more sweet arid wide in its sympathy with all human error, and acceptableness by the feeble heart and tremblint^ lips of common persons, than the psalms of more violent and bitter repentance.
838. '' Causeless wrongs!' Too vague. The real words are, " which break the law to no purpose," — wantonly, for breaking's sake.
854. " Binu'd," or 'mixed,' The nature of sin being as of a mixed and composed wine. " In the hand of the Lord is a cup, and the wine is red ; it is full mixed ; the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them."
You must always remember that Sidney uses every metaphor with full command of its entire scriptural use ; and the scriptural use is always further illustrated by all the laws of nature and courses of human conduct. Think of a mixed American drink, compared with old wine of the vineyard, and you will feel how the one is the natural type of the poisonous cup of fornication, as the other is of the life of man.
870. " Plantr Set the soles of their feet firmly
104 PSALM XXV.
and consistently upon; as 'tread' in 864, the metaphor of a path being retained throughout. Compare 689.
895, 896. Two grand lines, explaining the single word to ' keep ' the soul.
Rhythm. — Sixfold. 33334 4, ababcc.
PSALM XXVI. 105
PSALM XXVI.
JUDICA ME, DOMINE. I.
Lord, judge me and my case. For I have made my race
Within the bounds of innocence to bide : 910 And setting thee for scope
Of all my trustful hope,
I held for sure that I should never slide.
II. Prove me, O Lord most high, Me with thy touchstone try ; 9 1 5 Yea, sound my reins, and inmost of my heart. For so thy loving hand Before my eyes doth stand. That from thy truth I never will depart.
III. I did not them frequent, 920 Who be to vainness bent.
Nor kept with base dissemblers company. Nay, I did ev'n detest Of wicked wights the nest. And from the haunts of such bad folk did fly.
I06 PSALM XXVI.
IV.
925 In th' innocence of me
My hands shall washed be ; And with those hands about thy altar wait ; That I may still express With voice of thankfulness
930 The works perform'd by thee, most wond'rous great.
V.
Lord, I have loved well
The house where thou dost dwell,
Ev'n where thou mak'st thy honour's biding-place. Sweet Lord, write not my soul 035 Within the sinner's roll :
Nor my life's cause match with blood-seeker's case,
VI.
With hands of wicked shifts, With right hands stained with gifts. But while I walk in my unspotted ways, 940 Redeem and show me grace,
So I in public place, Set on plain ground, will thee, Jehovah, praise.
This psalm refers, first, to the conduct and honour ol practical life, and is of great importance
PSALM XXVI. 107
as asserting, on David's part, his actual practice of the separation from wicked men, on which sepa- ration the great benediction of the first psalm is pronounced.
Then the 'judgment' it prays for is the farther search into the truth of his heart, which is necessary to make the eternal separation of any use.
" I have not sat with vain persons," (he says,) " nor kept company with knaves, nor with evil doers : I have loved thy tabernacle, and the place of thine honour ; " (see notes on Psalm xxvii. ;) " and all this I have done, and will do, with utter honesty and desire to be honest ; but I can't try my own heart ; I will walk in mine integrity, — all the in- tegrity I can muster for myself ; do thou try my reins and heart, — redeem me, and be merciful to me."
And the practical gist of this psalm, for living- Christians, is, first, that they are not to keep com- pany with idle fashionable people, nor busy rogues ; but to love God's heaven, and the places He dwells in (which are neither factories, nor barracks, nor London squares, and least of all spruce Gothic chapels built to sanctify factories, or barracks, or the pride of the West-end) ; and having redeemed themselves from all real visible iniquity, then to pray for nobler and purer redemption. It Is one
I08 PSALM XXVI.
of the worst paraphrases in the book, as far as its poetiy is concerned ; but it is very searching in sense ; and I therefore admit it.
907. " CascV What has befallen me ?
909, 910. ''Race'' — "scope." Instead of the 'walk' of life, Sir Philip calls it a 'race' of life. Scope is the aim or goal ; bounds, the stakes of the course. He chooses the Pauline metaphor, to enforce the last word ' slide.' For there is little fear of slipping in walking, and little harm if we do. But much of both, in racing.
922. "• Nay, I did cvnr He detested, not merely the vain and wicked persons, but their nests and haunts, also. Not only the cruel people of the West End, but the very sight of Brook Street and Grosvenor Square.
925. ''Innocence of me." Leaning on the dis- tinction between such innocence as he could refine himself into, and that which God could refine him into.
So in line 939 — "my unspotted ways."
934. "Sweet Lord, ivrite noC 'Yet after all
PSALM XXVI. 109
this, my name may still be written by thee in the Book of Death. Lord, save me.'
I know not the authority for our English word ' gather.' In the Vulgate, it is the direct reverse do not ' lose,' and in the Septuagint, do not •destroy.' But see note on line 956.
941. A standard resolution for all public men, from the parish beadle to the Prime Minister. Let them first be set on plain ground ; and then, — praise God.
Rhythm. — Sixfold. 335,335 — a a b, c c b.
I cannot give the paraphrase of the next psalm, being too feeble ; nor does it need any ; its ordinary version is entirely clear in terms, and cannot be mended. But though clear in terms, it is not by any means so clear in meaning. What is this one thing that David seeks after ? — " to behold the beauty of the Lord, and inquire in His temple." What does ' His temple ' mean for us ? I don't think that even David meant the tabernacle ; still less, for a Londoner, can it only mean St. Paul's How are we to use this psalm ourselves } In the time of trouble he shall hide me in — St. Paul's } or in Mr. Spurgeon's tabernacle at
no PSALM XXVII.
the Elephant and Castle ? Scarcely ; — yet where else ? I will answer, for the present, but partly, — in the last verse of Sir Philip Sidney's paraphrase :
What had I been, except I had Believed God's goodness for to see, c)45 In land witJi living creatures glad?
In which, note Sidney's pretty expansion and enforcement of a phrase which has become, with us, of late, vulgarized into mere conversational periphrasis. "Are you yet in the land of the living.''" says the cockney to his acquaintance, seen after hermitage for a month at Margate. Even in the original, perhaps the words mean little more than personal life. But Sidney thinks of the difference between the earth glad with life, and sorrowful with its return to her dust.
PSALM XXVIII. I I I
PSALM XXVIII.
AD TE, DOMINE. I-
To thee, Lord, my cry I send ;
0 my strength, stop not thine ear : Lest if answer thou forbear,
1 be like them that descend 950 To the pit, where flesh doth end.
II. Therefore while that I may cry. While I that way hold my hands Where thy sanctuary stands, To thyself those words apply, 95 5 Which from sueing voice do fly.
III. Link not me in selfsame chain With the wicked working folk ; Who, their spotted thoughts to cloak, Neighbours friendly entertain, 960 When in hearts they malice mean.
IV. Spare not them ; give them reward, As their deeds have purchas'd it.
I I 2 PSALM XXVIII.
As deserves their wicked wit : Fare they as their hands have far'd, 965 Ev'n so be their guerdon shared.
V.
To thy works they give no eye ; Let them be thrown down by thee : Let them not restored be ; But let me give praises high 970 To the Lord that hears my cry.
VI. That God is my strength, my shield All my trust on him was set, And so I did safety get : So shall I with joy be fill'd, 975 So my songs his lauds shall yield.
VII.
God on them his strength doth lay, Who his anointed helped have, — Lord, then still thy people save ; Bless thine heritage, I say ; 980 Feed and lift them up for aye.
This is a companion psalm to the 27th. The same questions occur about the meanin^- of ' rock '
PSALM XXVIII. I I 3
and ' oracle,' (verses i and 2), and the same prayer essentiall}^ (verse 3) ; while ' the beauty of the Lord,' in the 27th, becomes ' the operation of his hands' in the 28th. The paraphrase is another poor one, but worth keeping.
950. '' Wliere flesh" — not soul — '■'doth end!'
956. " Link not me" Whether in true coinci- dence of thought, or actually having seen the pictures. Sir Philip uses the same symbol as Fra Angelico, and all the other believing painters, of the Last Judgment : their demons always drag the condemned down in the loop of an encircling chain, like the edge of a net.
It is ' Draw ' in the Septuagint, as in our version, partly justifying the former ' gather ' — " Gather ye together first the tares, and bind," etc.
964. " Fare they as their hands." See Johnson on this word ' fare,' and its derivations. The root seems to be the Icelandic ' Far,' a journey, whence ' to fare,' to travel ; ' fare,' the price of convey- ance ; and ' fare well,' journey you well. (' Fard,' Icelandic to depart, giving our 'far,' 'off,' etc. Here it is obscurely used for " Let them be done to as they have done."
Rhythm. — Cinqfold, 4 .^.^-- a b b a a.
114 PSALM XXIX.
PSALM XXTX.
AFFERTE DOMINO. I.
Ascribe unto the Lord of light,
Ye men of pow'r ; — ev'n by birthright,
Ascribe all glory and all might.
II. Ascribe due glory to his name ; 9^5 And in his ever-glorious frame
Of sanctuary do the same.
III. His voice is on the waters found, His voice doth threatning thunders sound, Yea, through the waters doth resound.
IV. 990 The voice of that Lord ruling us
Is strong, though he be gracious. And ever, ever glorious.
V. By voice of high Jehovah we The highest cedars broken see, 995 Ev'n cedars which on Liban be.
PSALM XXIX. I I 5
VI.
Nay, like young calves in leaps are borne, And Liban's self, with nature's scorn ; And Sirion, like young unicorn.
VII. His voice doth flashing flames divide ; 1000 His voice have trembling deserts tried ;
Ev'n deserts, where the Arabs bide.
VIII. His voice makes hinds their calves to cast : His voice makes bald the forest waste : But in his church his fame is plac't.
IX.
1005 He sits on seas, he endless reigns,
His strength his people's strength maintains, Which, blest by him, in peace remains.
A true David's psalm, full of rapture, but full, like its companion, the 114th, of intense purpose also. The questions again return, What is the ' beauty of the Lord' — here ' beauty of holiness' ? — Where is the Temple, in which every one speaks gf his glory ? (ver. 9.) What Exodus of ours shall
I 1 6 PSALM XXIX.
make of us also such a sanctuary as Israel became ' in exitu ' ?
The paraphrase is grand in beat and tone, but absolutely needs music.
982. ''By birthright" In both the Septuagint and Vulgate, In your birthright, bring to him the gift of the praise of sons.
" Bring unto the Lord, ye sons of God."
1002. "■And Liban's self." 'And' is used here as ' Et ' would be in Latin. Even the cedars are broken ; nay, and Libanus itself, and Sirion, leap.
This leaping of the mountains is meant as an expression, not of their joy, but their terror, or at least, hurry to get out of God's way, as grasshoppers leaping aside from the foot's tread. The metaphor is one of the partly violent, partly vague, Hebrew modes of thought which are useless to persons of little passion, and perilous to careless readers ; but very precious to the faithful and true, who have hot hearts, and feci that they themselves ought also to be able to say, ' Be thou removed,' unless as the wicked in their last hope, ' Fall on us.'
RilVTiiM. — -Triplet. 4 - . ■ .- a .1 a.
PSALM XXX. I 1 7
PSALM XXX.
EXALTABO TE, DOMINE. I.
O Lord, thou hast exalted me, And sav'd mc from foes' laughing scorn : 1 010 I owe thee praise, I will praise thee.
II. For when my heart with woes was torn, In cries to thee I shew'd my cause : And was from ev'l by thee upborne,
III. Yea, from the grave's moist hungry jaws : I o I 5 Thou would'st not set me in their score.
Whom death in his cold bosom draws.
IV. Praise, praise this Lord then evermore. Ye saints of his ; remcmb'ring still With thanks his holiness therefore.
V.
1020 For quickly ends his wrathful will ;
But his dear favour, where it lies,
From age to age life -joys doth fill.
1 1
I I 8 PSALM XXX.
VI. Well may the evening clothe the eyes In clouds of tears, but soon as sun 1025 Doth rise again, new joys shall rise,
VII. For proof, while I my race did run, Full of success, fond ,1 did say, That I should never be undone,
VIII. For then my hill, good God, did stay : 1030 But aye, he straight his face did hide.
And what was I but wretched clay ?
IX. Then thus to thee I praying cried, ' What serves, alas, the blood of me, When I within the pit do bide ?
X.
1035 Shall ever earth give thanks to thee ?
Or shall thy truth, on mankind laid In deadly dust, declared oe ^
XI.
Lord, hear ! let mercy thine be staid On me, from me help tiiis nnnoy.' 1040 This much I said, this being said,
PSALM XXX. 1 I 9
XII. Lo, I that wailed, now dance for joy : Thou did'st ungird my burial-cloth, And made me gladsome weeds enjoy.
XIII. Therefore my tongue's eternal troth 1045 Shall tell thy praise : O God, my King,
I will thee thanks for ever sing.
This is one of the most simple and lovely of the paraphrases — more personally applicable by most readers than the more lofty original.
The three verses from the sixth to eighth are wholly exquisite. I have retouched the last two stanzas, which had a too provokingly quaint line in them.
1039. ^^ From uie help." As Shakspeare's
" Love did to her eyes repair To help him of his blindness."
1042, '" Burial-clotJir Sackcloth, properly; but shortened by Sidney into sack, or sacque. We have vulgarized the word : it is a very classical one, the same in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, and in Saxon and English.
Rhythm, 4 —- > terza rima.
120 PSALM XXXI.
PSALM XXXI.
IN TE, DOMINE, SPERAVl. I.
All, all my trust, Lord, I have put in thee, Never, therefore, let me confounded be. But gently save me in thy righteousness, 1050 Bow down thine ear to hear how much I need ; Deliver me, deliver me in speed : Be thou my strong rock, be thou my fortress,
II. Indeed thou art my rock and my fortress : Then since my tongue delights that name to bless, 1055 Direct mc how to go and guide me right. Preserve me from the wily wrapping net, Which they for me with privy craft have set : For still I say, thou art my only might.
III. Into thy hands I do commend my sprite : 1 060 For it is thou that hast restor'd my light :
0 Lord, that art the God of verity.
1 hated have those men, whose thoughts do cleave To vanities : which most trust, most deceive :
For all my hope fixed upon God doth lie.
PSALM XXXi. 12 1
IV.
1065 Thy mercy shall me fill with jollity,
For my annoys have come before thine eye : Thou well hast known what plague my soul was in. And thou hast not for aye enclosed me Within the hand of hateful enmity :
1070 But hast enlarged my feet from mortal gin.
V.
All my fierce foes reproach on me did cast : Yea neighbours, more, my mates, were so aghast. That in the streets from sight of me they fled : Now I, now I, myself forgotten find, 1075 Even like a dead man, dreamed out of mind. Or like a broken pot, in mire that's tredd.
VI. I understand what railing great men spread : Fear was each where, while they their counsels led All to this point, how my poor life to take ; 1080 But I did trust in thee. Lord, I did say.
Thou art my God, my time on thee doth stay : Save me from foes who for my bane do seek.
VII. Thy face to shine upon thy servant make, And save mc in, and for, thy mercy's sake ;
I 1:^2 PSALM XXXI.
1085 I-et me not taste of shame, O Lord, most high. For I have called on thee ; let wicked folk- Confounded be ; and pass away like smoke ; Let them in bed of endless silence die.
VIII. Let those lips be made dumb which love to He ; 1090 Which full of spite, and pride, and cruelty,
Do throw their words against the most upright. Oh, of thy grace what endless pleasure flows To whom fear thee ! What hast thou done for those That trust in thee, ev'n in most open sight !
IX.
1095 And when need were, from pride in privy plight Thou hast hid them ; yet leaving them thy light. From strife of tongues in thy pavilions plast. Then praise, then praise, I do, the Lord of us. Who was to me more than most gracious :
I 100 Far, far, more sure, than walls most firmly fast.
X.
Yet I confess in that tempestuous haste I said, that I from out thy sight was cast ; But thou did'st hear when I to thee did moan. Then love the Lord all ye that feci his grace ;
tSALM XXXI. 123
1 105 For this our Lord preserves the faithful race,
And to the proud in deed pays home their own. Be strong, I say, this strength confirming you, You that do trust in him who still is true, And he shall your establishment renew.
^.^^-^ ■V^'N
Few words in the Hebrew Scriptures seem to be more solemnly prophetic than this psalm. But its use to ourselves depends upon our reading it as David meant it, and ourselves saying, " Into thy hands I commend my spirit," — not as a foretelling of the death-words of Christ, but as a simple laying of our own daily life in the hands of its Giver.
The paraphrase is for the most part fine. I have omitted a verse of it, displeasingly quaint.
1063. ^^ Most trust'' — by a somewhat bold license for ' most trusted.'
1065. "Aunoie" (so 1039). As much grander a word than ' annoyance,' as ' grief than ' grievance.'
1075. "■ Dreamedr Only thought of, or remem- bered, as in a dream ; and at last forgotten wholly.
1076. Ijci reading this psalm for ourselves, we
124 PSALM XXXI.
must first consider whether we have ever really had this feeling of being outcast and useless. Many of us only do not mourn our good-for- nothingness, because we never knew in our lives what it was to be good for anything ; and can't grieve over our likeness to a broken pot, because we never had the grace in us to be like a whole one.
1 109. It is not Sidney's fault that this line is prosy, or the word ' establishment ' base to your ear. It is your own fault, for allowing the word to be painted over haberdashers' shops, which will be selling off 'at ruinous prices' the day after to- morrow.
Rhythm. — Sixfold, continuous. 5 -— a a b c c b, b b d e e d, etc., with added triplet in the close.
1076. " Trcdd." Perhaps only a license ; but I believe rather a proper parallel with spread, as spredd from spread, and that 'trodden' is in reality no more pure English than 'sprodden.' Use is all, in such cases.
1093. ''To whom." Again boldly short for 'those who.'
1095. ""Plight." Fold, as of dress.
1099. "■More than most" Four degrees of com-
PSALM XXXI. 125
parison, and even then not enough, as we find in the next verse. There is no real grammatical or logical fault. ' Most,' grammatically, means only greatest of what precedes, or is known, and may be as much less as we please than what follows, or is unknown.
126 PSALM XXXIli.
PSALM XXXIII.
EXULTATE, JUSTI. I.
1 1 1 o Rejoice in God, O ye
That righteous be : For cheerful thankfulness, It is a comely part, In them whose heart
I I I 5 Doth cherish rightfulness.
II. O praise with heart the Lord ;
O now, accord Viols wdth singing voice : Let ten string'd instrument, I I 20 — O now, — be bent
To witness you rejoice.
III.
A new, — sing a new, — song
To him most strong, Sing loud and merrily : 1 1 2 5 Because that word of his
Most righteous is, And his deeds faithful be.
PSALM XXXIIi. 127
IV. He righteousness approves, And judgment loves : I I 30 God's goodness fills all lands.
His word made heav'nly coast,
And all that host By breath of his mouth stands.
V. The waters of the seas I 135 In heaps he lays,
And depths in treasure his : Let all the earth fear God,
And who abroad Of world a dweller is.
VI. I 1 40 For he spake not more soon.
Than it was done : He bade, and it did stand. He doth heath'n counsel break, And maketh weak 1 145 The might of people's hand.
VII. But ever, ever shall His counsels all Throughout all ages last.
128 PSALM XXXilT.
The thinkings of that mind I 150 No end shall find,
When time's time shall be past.
VIII.
That realm indeed hath bliss Whose God he is,
Who him for their Lord take : I I 5 5 Even that people, even those
Whom this Lord chose
His heritage to make.
IX.
The Lord looks from the sky :
Full well his eye I 1 60 Beholds our mortal race.
Even where he dwellcth, he
Throughout doth see Who dwell in dusky place.
1165
X.
Since he our hearts doth frame,
He knows the same : Their works he understands. Hosts do the king not save ;
Nor strong men have Their help from mighty liands.
PSALM XXXIII. 129
XI.
II 70 Of quick strength is an horse,
And yet his force Is but a succour vain : Who trusts him, sooner shall Catch harmful fall, I 175 Than true deliverance gain.
XII.
But lo, Jehovah's sight On them doth light Who him do truly fear : And them which do the scope II 80 Of all their hope
Upon his mercy bear.
XIII. His sight is them to save
Ev'n from the grave. And keep from famine's pain. 1 1 8 5 Then on that Lord most kind
Fix we our mind, Whose shield shall us maintain.
XIV. Our hearts sure shall enjoy In him much joy
130 PSALM XXXIII.
1 190 Who hope on his name just.
O let thy mercy great
On us be set ; We have no plea, but trust.
I have retained this paraphrase with some doubt. But there are quaint flashes of earnestness about it which I cannot resolve to lose.
II I 3. " // is a comely party Accent the ' is.' It is comely, for the upright, to praise God. Very uncomely, for rascals to praise him. What come- liness there may be to God's eyes and ears in a modern commercial congregation singing Te Deum laudamus, is to be thought upon.
1 127. Sung with real heart and joy, these three first stanzas, simple as they are, would be very lovely. The twice repeated ' Oh, now,' is pretty in its eagerness.
I 131. '■'Heavenly coasts Made the earth and the other worlds, as a coast to the sea of heaven,
1152. " That realm." This stanza entirely de-
PSALM XXXIII. 131
pends on its accents for force and beauty. Thus the rhythmic accent on ' their,' in the third line, is equivalent to italicizing it.
The fourth line is to be scanned like Latin.
" Ev'n that peopl', even those Whom this," etc. Compare 1194.
The rest of the psalm will be beautiful to people who mean it, and trivial to people who do not.
Rhythm. — Sixfold. 323323, v.— a a be c b.
132 PSALM XXXIV.
PSALM XXXIV.
BENEDICAM DOMINO. I.
I, EV'n I, will always 1 195 Give hearty thanks to him on high,
And in my mouth continually Inhabit shall his praise. My soul shall glory still In that dear Lord with true delight : 1200 That hearing it, the hearts contrite
May learn their joys to fill.
II.
Come then and join with me Somewhat to speak of his due praise : Strive we that in some worthy phrase 1205 His name may honour'd be.
Thus I begin : I sought This Lord, and he did hear my cry : Yea, and from dreadful misery,
He me, he only, brought.
III. 1 2 I o This shall men's fancies frame
To look and run to him for aid. Whose faces on his comfort stay'd Shall never blush fur shame.
PSALM XXXIV. 133
For lo, this wretch did call, 1^15 And lo, his call the skies did climb :
And God freed him, in his worst time, From out his troubles all.
IV. His angels' armies round About them pitch, who him do fear ; 1220 And watch and ward, for such, do bear
To keep them safe and sound. I say, but taste, and see How sweet, how gracious is his grace : Lord, he is in thrice blessed case 1225 Whose trust is all on thee.
V.
Fear God, ye saints of his. For nothing they can ever want Who faithful fears in him do plant ;
They have, and shall have, bliss. 1230 The lions oft lack food,
Those ravener's whelps oft starved be : But who seek God with constancy
Shall nothing need that's good.
VI.
Come, children, lend your ear 1235 To me, and mark what I do say ;
12
134 PSALM XXXIV.
For I will teach to you the way How this our Lord to fear. Among you, who is here,
That life, and length of life requires, 1240 And blessing such, with length, desires.
As life may good appear ?
VII.
Keep well thy lips and tongue, Lest inward ills do them defile ; Or that by words enwrapt in guile 1245 Another man be stung.
Do good ; from faults decline, Seek peace, and follow after it : For God's own eyes on good men sit,
His ears to them incline.
VIII.
1250 So his high heavenly face
Is bent, but bent against those same That wicked be, their very name From earth quite to displace. The just, when harms approach, 1255 Do cry ; their cry of him is heard ;
And by his care for them is barr'd All trouble, all reproach.
PSALM XXXIV. 135
IX.
To humble, broken minds This Lord is ever, ever near ; 1260 And will save whom his true sight clear
In spright afflicted finds. Indeed the very best Most great and grievous pains doth bear : But God shall him to safety rear, 1265 When most he seems oppress'd.
X.
His bones he keepeth all, So that not one of them is broke ; But malice shall the wicked choke ;
Who hateth God, shall fall. 1270 God doth all souls redeem
Who wear his blessed livery : None, still I say, shall ruined be,
Who him their trust esteem.
This psalm is one of the most distinct in promise of temporal blessing to the meek ; little proved, far less disproved, because it is so difficult to know who are meek and faithful.
The version is, for the most part, very beautiful ; though the first stanza is unusually forced in metre
n,6 PSALM XXXIV,
■ o
and phrase. Spenser's stanza, the expansion of the fourth, here, with its added similes, " like flying pursui\'ant " and diluting words, " d/z/f ward," would be felt entirely artificial compared to this in its simple and true joy, if both were sung in in succession.
1 194. The line will not scan unless read with great resoluteness, and subdued emphasis on the I's, as if the speaker uttered them with hushed breath :
" I, ev'n I, — will rdwaies. '
1 20 1. '' To fill tJtcir joys!' As to fill wine in a cup. ]^ut it is a forced phrase.
1239. "Who is here, among you, who would have life, and length of life, and such blessing with the length of it that it may all seem good.''" The couplet is obscure, but, once clearly understood, it would be very pleasant to sing ; and so to the end.
Rtivttim. — Octave. 3443344 3"-- a b b a c d d c.
PSALM XXXV. iT^y
PSALM XXXV.
JUDICA, DORIINE. I.
Speak thou for me against wrong-speaking foes ; 1275 Thy force, O Lord, against their force oppose : Take up thy shield and for my succour stand ; Yea, take thy lance, and stop the way of those That seek my bane — O make me understand In spright, that I shall have thy helping hand.
II. 1280 Confound those folks, thrust them in shameful hole,
That hunt so poor a prey as is my soul.
Rebuke, and wreck, on those wrong doers throw.
Who for my hurt each way their thoughts did roll ;
And as vile chaff away the wind did blow, 1285 Let angel thine a-scattering make them go.
III. Let angel thine pursue them as they fly. But let their flight be dark and slippery ; For, causeless, they both pit and net did set : For, causeless, they did seek to make me die : 1290 Let their sly wits unwares destruction get, Fall in self-pit, be caught in their own net.
138 PSALM XXXV.
IV. Then shall I joy in thee, then saved by thee, I both in mind and bones shall gladdened be. Ev'n bones shall say, O God, who is thy peer ? 1295 Who poor and weak from strong and rich dost free : Who helpest those whose ruin was so near, From him whose force did in their souls appear.
V.
Who did me wrong, against me witness bare, Laying such things as never in me were: I 300 So my good deeds they pay with evil share, W^ith cruel minds thy very soul to tear. And whose .-' ev'n his, who when they sickness bare, With inward woe, an outward sackcloth ware.
VI. I did pull down myself, fasting for such, I pray'd with prayers which my breast did touch : 1305 In sum, I showed that I to them was bent As brothers, or as friends beloved much. Still, still for them I humbly mourning went, Like one that should his mother's death lament.
VII. I 3 10 But lo ! soon as they did me stagg'ring see, Who joy but they, when they assembled be ? Then abjects, while I was unwitting, quite
PSALM XXXV. 139
Against me swarm, causeless to rail at me With scoffers false, I was their feast's delight, 1 3 1 5 Even gnashing teeth, to witness more their spite.
VIII.
Lord, wilt thou see, and wilt thou suffer it ? Oh ! on my soul let not those tumults hit. Save me distress'd from lions cruel kind, I will thank thee, where congregations sit, 1320 Even where I do most store of people find. Most to thy laijds will I my speeches bind.
IX.
Then, then let not my foes unjustly joy ; Let them not fleer, who me would now destroy : Who never word of peace yet utter would, 1325 But hunt with craft the quiet man's annoy,
And said to me, wide mouthing, as they could : * Aha, sir, now we see you where we should.'
X.
This thou hast seen, and wilt thou silent be } O Lord, do not absent thyself from me ; 1330 But rise, — but wake, — that I may judgment get. My Lord, my God, ev'n for my equity, Judge, Lord ; judge God, even in thy justice great : Let not their joy upon my woes be set.
HO PSALM XXXV.
XI.
Let them not, Lord, within their hearts thus say: 1335 'O soul, rejoice, we made this wretch our prey.'
But throw them down, put them to endless blame, Who make a cause to joy of my decay. Let them be cloth'd in most confounding shame, That lift themselves my ruin for to frame.
XII.
1340 But make such glad, and full of joyfulness. That yet bear love unto my righteousness : Yet, let them say, ' Laud be to God always, Who love, with God, his servants good to bless.' As for my tongue, while I have any days,
1345 Thy justice witness shall, and speak thy praise.
I cannot guess under what circumstances this psalm was written ; nor the real intent of it, meta- phorical or practical. There are few living by whom all its words can be adopted, except in an entirely modified and distant sense. Nevertheless, few people arc verily good for much in this world, who cannot at least say, "With hypocritical mockers in feasts, they gnashed upon mc with their teeth."
1286. ''Let angel t/iiiie." Latin order again, —
PSALM XXXV. 141
familiar as English, to Sidney, may some day, it is to be hoped, be also again to us. The echoing chant in this and the next verse, " angel thine, — causeless, they," is taken up again and again, in answering or opposing couplets, throughout the march of the psalm : —
" Then shall I joy in thee, — then saved by thee, Who poor and weak, from rich and strong, dost
flee. Who did me wrong — against me witness bare," etc.
1 29 1. ^^ Self -pit." The pit of their own self: as we say of a man, he was no one's enemy but his own.
1297. ''Appear!' I don't understand this line. Perhaps appear, or appeere, may have some sense I do not know,
1298, 1299. The construction is, " They who did me wrong, bare witness, laying against me," etc.
1344. A difficult verse. Who love to bless God, and his erood servants.
It' must be understood after 'tongue' in next
ime.
Rhythm. — Sixfold. 5 — — a a b a b b.
142 PSALM XLI.
PSALM XLI.
BEATUS QUI INTELLIGIT. I.
He blessed is who with wise temper can
Judge of th' afflicted man, For God shall him deliver in the time
When most his troubles climb. 1350 The Lord will keep his life yet safe and sound,
With blessings of the ground ; And will not him unto the will expose
Of them that be his foes.
IT. When bed from rest becomes his seat of woe, 1355 In God his strength shall grow,
And turn his couch, where sick he couched late,
To well recover'd state ; Therefore I said in most infirmity, Have mercy, Lord, on me : I 360 O, heal my soul, let there thy cure begin, Where 'gainst thee lay my sin.
III. My foes, ill words their hate of me display, While thus, alas, they say :
PSALM XLI. 143
' When, when will death o'ertake this wretched
wight, 1365 And his name perish quite ?'
Their courteous visitings are courting lies,
They inward ill disguise, Ev'n heaps of wicked thoughts, which straight
they show As soon as out they go.
IV. 1370 For then their hateful heads close whisp'ring be, With hurtful thoughts to me. Now he is wreck 'd, say they, lo, there he lies.
Who never more must rise. O, you my friend, to whom I did impart 1375 The secrets of my heart.
My friend, I say, who at my table sat. Did kick against my state.
V.
Therefore, O Lord, abandon'd thus of all. On me let mercy fall ; 1380 And raise me up, that I may once have might. Their merits to requite : But what .'' this doth already well appear
That I to thee am dear : Since foes, nor have, nor shall have, cause to be 1385 Triumphing over me.
144 * PSALM XLl.
VI. But triumph well may I, whom thou did'st stay
In my sound rightful way : Whom thou (O place of places all) dost place, For aye, before thy face. 1390 So then be blest now, then, at home, abroad, Of Israel the God : World without end, let still this blessing flow, Oh so ; oh be it so.
This psalm is of singular importance in the bless- ing promised to the man who understands the poor. There are hundreds of places in which direct help to them is commanded, or blessed ; but here is meant the rarer virtue of understanding their infirmities. For which the reward is that God will make our own bed, in our own sickness, and uphold us in our integrity before those who think evil of us, and above all that he will bless us with the blessing of the poor ; blessings of the ground — on humility of heart.
135 I. "Blessings of the ground." As distinct from those of the soul, for which he prays imipediately afterwards that the healing may begin with' //; — (line 1360).
PSALM XLI. 145
1366. " Their courteous visitingsr These com- plaints of David against liis false friends have never been clearly intelligible to me ; at least so far as the psalm may be understood of literal sickness. If a man is worth anything, as far as I kno-\\' the world, even his enemies become his friends when he is ill. But compare the fift}'-fifth psalm.
1377. Did instead of didst, for euphony. So 1458.
Rhythm. — Octave. 53535353 -^-- a a b b
c c d d.
146 PSALM XLII.
PSALM XLII.
QUERIADMODUM, I.
As the chafed hart which brayeth 1395 Seeking some refreshing brook,
So my soul in panting playeth, Thirsting on my God to look. My soul thirsts indeed, in me, After ever-living thee ; 1400 Ah, when comes my blessed being,
Of thy face to have a seeing ?
Day and night my tears out-flowing Have been my ill feeding food, —
With their daily questions throwing, 1405 Where is now thy God so good ?
My heart melts, rememb'ring so, How in troops I wont to go :
Leading them, his praises singing,
Holy dance to God's house bringing,
III.
14 10 Why art thou, my soul, so sorry.
And in me so much dismay'd ? Wait on God, for yet his glory
PSALM XLII. 147
In my song shall be display'd.
When but with one look of his 141 5 He shall me restore to bliss.
Ah, my soul itself appalleth, In such longing thoughts it falleth.
IV.
For my mind on my God bideth, Ev'n from Hermon's dwelling led, 1420 From the grounds where Jordan slideth,
And from Mizar's hilly head. One deep with noise of his fall, Other deeps of woes doth call : While my God, with wasting wonders, 1425 On me, wretch, his tempest thunders.
V.
All thy floods on me abounded, Over me all thy waves went :
Yet thus still my hope is grounded, That, thy anger being spent, 1430 I by day thy love shall taste,
I by night shall singing last,
Praying ; — prayers still bequeathing,
To my God that gave me breathing.
148 PSALM XLII.
VI.
I will say, ' O Lord, m}' tower, 1435 Why am I forgot by thee ?
Why should grief my heart devour While the foe oppresseth me ? Those vile scoffs of naughty ones Wound and rend me to the bones ; 1440 When foes ask, with foul deriding.
Where is now your God abiding ? '
VII.
Why art thou, my soul, so sorr}'. And in me so much dismay'd ?
Wait on God, for yet his glory 1445 In my song shall be display 'd.
To him my thanks shall be said, Who is still my present aid :
And in fine my soul be raised,
God is my God, by me praised.
I am not clear about the meaning of this psalm. I do not sec why the king's soul was disquieted, or for what oppression of the enemy, or what comfort was in memory of the hill Mizar. JUit it is a psalm good for all of us when wc are disquieted about
PSALM XLII. 149
anything : above all, a lesson to most of us that we are not disquieted enough by that sacred thirst.
1396. '■'Ill panting play ethy I believe the meaning is that his soul wavers or trembles in panting, as we say waves or ripples ' play.'
1404. " With their daily questions throwing.'^ Awkward and unscholarly in expression ; and, indeed, this paraphrase greatly embarrasses me, in its un- usual forcing of expression and accent, while yet in tenderness of feeling it is one of the loveliest.
't>
14 1 6. " My soul itself appalleth, in such longing." So in Psalm cxix. : " My soul fainteth, for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments."
1422. " One deep, ivitk noise." This false accent, and still harsher "Thy waves went" (1427), and "When foes ask" (1440), are not like Sidney's work. "To him my thanks" (1446), "God is my God" (1449), have more reason in them, but are still ungraceful. In 1490 it rhymes to 'poured.' The next psalm, however (xliii.), is still worse ; but then follows the " Deus auribus," given with singularly fluent melody, though with the same concessions in language.
Rhythm. — Octave. 44444444 --— a b a b c c d d.
13
I50 PSALM XLIV.
PSALM XLIV.
BEUS, AURIBUS. T.
1450 Lord, our fathers' true relation,
Often made, hath made us know How thy power, on each occasion. Thou of old, for them did show. How thy hand the pagan foe 1455 Rooting hence, thy folk implanting.
Leafless made that branch to grow,- This, to spring, no verdure wanting.
II. Never could their sword procure them Conquest of the promis'd land : 1460 Never could their force assure them
When they did in danger stand. No, it was thy arm, thy hand ; No, it was thy favour's treasure Spent upon thy loved band : 14^5 Loved, wrhy .^ for thy wise pleasure.
III.
Unto thee stand I subjected, I that did of Jacob spring :
Bid then that I be protected,
Thou that art my God, my King :
PSALM XLIV. 151
1470 By that succour thou didst bring,
We their guide that us assailed,
Down did tread, and back did fling, In thy name confus'd and quailed.
IV. ■ For my trust was not reposed [475 In mine own, though strongest bow :
Nor my scabbard held enclosed
That, whence should my safety flow. Thou, O God, from every foe Didst us shield, our haters shaming : 1480 Thence thy daily praise we show,
Still thy name with honour naming.
V.
But aloof thou now dost hover,
Grieving us with all disgrace : Hast resign'd, and given over 1485 In our camp thy Captain's place.
Back we turn, that turned face. Fleeing them that erst we foiled :
See, our goods, (O changed case,) Spoil'd by them that late we spoil'd.
VI.
1490 Right as sheep to be devoured,
Helpless here we lie alone :
152 PSALM XLIV.
Scatt'ringly by thee outpoured,
Slaves to dwell with Lords unknown. Sold we are, — but silver none 1495 Told for us : — by thee so prized,
As for nought to be foregone ;
Graceless, worthless, vile, despised.
VII.
By them all that dwell about us, Toss'd we fly, as balls of scorn, I 5 00 All our neighbours laugh and flout us.
Men by thee in shame forlorn. Proverb-like, our name is worn. Oh, how fast ! in foreign places ; What head-shakings are forborne 1505 Wordless taunts and dumb disgraces
VIII.
So rebuke before me goeth. As my self doth daily go :
So confusion on me groweth, That my face I blush to show. I 5 10 I^y reviling, sland'ring foe
Inly wounded, thus I languish :
Watchful spite, with outward blow,
Anguish adds to inward anguish.
PSALM XLIV. 153
IX.
All, all this on us hath lighted, 1515 Yet to thee our love doth last :
As we were, — ^we are — delighted Still to hold thy cov'nant fast : Unto none our hearts have past ; • Unto none our feet have slidden ; 15-O Though us, down to dragons cast.
Thou in deadly shade hast hidden.
X.
If our God we had forsaken.
Or forgot what he assign'd. If ourselves we had betaken 1525 Gods to serve of other kind.
Should not he our doubling find, Though conceal'd and closely lurking ?
Since his eye of deepest mind Deeper sinks than deepest working.
XI.
1530 Surely, Lord, this daily murther
For thy sake we thus sustain : For thy sake esteem'd no further
Than as sheep that must be slain.
Up, O Lord, up once again, 1535 Sleep not ever, slack not ever :
154 PSALM XLIV.
Why dost thou forget our pain ? Wh}- to hide thy face persever ?
XII.
Heavy grief our soul abaseth, Prostrate it on dust doth lie : I 540 Earth our body fast embraceth,
Nothing can the clasp untie. Rise, and us with help supply ; Lord, in mercy so esteem us, That we may thy mercy try, 1545 Mercy may from thrall redeem us.
If this psalm in the original be David's at all, it is written by him for the people, not for himself ; nor do I understand at what time, unless just after the victory of the riiilistines over Saul. The verses 17 to 20 could not have been sung by the people in any of the later reigns of ruin.
1 47 1. ''Assailed" The metre throughout this psalm requires these participles to have their last syllable sounded. But it is thus quite spoiled for reading without music : I give it in the original form ; but all these words should be contracted in reading.
PSALM XLIV. 155
1473- " Quailed^ Nearly always used by Sidney in the sense of quelled. Both came from the Saxon, and become ' kill ' in later English.
1482. ''But aloof" This and the next stanza are very grand.
1545. This writer (Sidney, or whoever it may be) is apt to be strangely careless in his last lines, — totally reversing the modern practice of leading up to them. He seems to sing his best in the middle of the song, and to leave off tired.
Rhythm. — Trochaic. 43433433— ababbcbc.
I omit the following four paraphrases, in each of which some little grotesque or commonplace expression, too likely to catch the reader's memory, occurs ; — while the original psalms are more beau- tiful than any altered form of them could be. I have given the last stanza of the 48th in the preface, only as an example of the way in which such change of form, admittedly inferior, may sometimes be helpful.
156 PSALM XLIX.
PSALM XLIX.
AUDITE HJEC, OMNES. I.
World-dwellers all, give heed to what I say; To all I speak, to rich, poor, high, and low ; Knowledge the subject is my heart conceives, Wisdom the words shall from my mouth proceed, 1550 Which I will measure by melodious ear. And ridled speech to tuned harp accord.
11.
The times of evil, why should they me dismay ? When mischief shall my footsteps overflow .-• And first from him whom fickle wealth deceives, 1555 Which his too great vain confidence doth breed, Since no man can his brother's life outbear, Nor yield for him his ransom to the Lord.
IIL For dear the price that for a soul must pay. And death his prisoner never will forgo. 1560 Nay, tell me, whom, but longer time he leaves. Respited from the tomb for treasure's meed ? Sure, at his summons, wise and fools appear, And others spend the riches they did hoard. '
PSALM XLIX. 157
IV.
A second thinks his house shall not decay, 1565 Nor time his glorious buildings overthrow,
Nam'd proudly of his name, where folly reaves Exalted men, of sense ; and they indeed A brutish life and death, as beasts they were, Do- live and die ; of whom is no record.
V.
1570 Yea these, whose race approves their peevish way, Death in the pit, his carrion food, doth stow : And lo, the first succeeding light perceives The just installed in the great man's stead ; Nay, — far his prince ; when once that lovely cheer,
1575 Lovely in house, in tomb becomes abhorred.
VI.
But God, my God, to intercept the prey Of my life from the grave will not foreslowe, For he it is, he only me receives : Then though one rich do grow, though glory's seed 1580 Spring with increase: yet stand thou free from fear; Of all his pomp, death shall him nought afford.
VII.
Please they themselves, and think at happiest stay Who please themselves: yet to their fathers go
158 PSALM XLIX.
Must they, to endless dark : for folly reaves 1585 Exalted men, of sense ; and they indeed
A brutish life and death, as beasts they were, Do live, and die ; of whom is none record.
As far as I understand this psalm, it declares again simply what the first did, that the ungodly shall have no part in the resurrection to judgment, but shall perish as the beasts. In both Septuagint and Vulgate the ' high ' and ' low ' of the second verse is * Sons of Earth ' and ' Sons of Men '; but I think the phrase ' Sons of Earth ' means here ' noble,' or of ancient race ; men such that their posterity approve their sayings, verse i 3 ; and they call their lands after their own names, verse 11, or themselves after the name of their lands. If the solemn " they shall never see light " of the 19th verse, does not pronounce death on the unjust, the entire psalm would be valueless ; whereas it is introduced by its grave prelude, as one of more than usual use, and more than ordinarily to be attended truth.
Rhythm. — Sixfold, sequent from beginning to end, with six rhymes — 5 ^^- a b c d c f — a b c d e f, etc.
155 I. '' Ridled" — 'sifted.' The word riddle, I sippose, first means a remnant of words with con-
PSALM XLIX. 159
centrated meaning, after all explanatory ones have been removed : " out of the Eater came forth meat," or the like.
1 5 60. Inversion too far forced ; the meaning, * which doth breed his confidence.'
1 5 60. " But longer." Tell me whom he has even so much as respited.
1566. "Reaves." For ' bereaves ' — i.e., of sense.
1 5 74. " Nay, far his prince." Getting far above, or before, the great man, when once that lovely face of his becomes abhorred.
15 77- " Foreslozue" — another rare word, for to delay, neglect, or omit.
l6o PSALM L.
PSALM L.
DEUS DEORUM. I.
The mighty God, the ever-Hving Lord, All nations from earth's uttermost confines
1590 Summoneth by his pursuivant, his word, And out of beauty's beauty Sion shines. God comes, he comes, with ear and tongue restor'd ; His guard huge storms, hot flames his ushers go : And, called, their apparance to record,
1595 Heav'n hasteth from above, ea,rth from below.
II.
He sits his people's judge, and thus commands : " Gather me hither that beloved line. Whom solemn sacrifice's holy bands Did in eternal league with mc combine. 1600 Then, when the heav'ns subsigned with their hands, That God in justice eminently reigns, Controlling so, as nothing countcrstands What once decree his sacred doom contains.
III. You then, my folk, to mc your God attend : 1605 Hark, Israel, and hoar my people's blame :
PSALM L. l6l
Not want of sacrifice doth me offend, Nor do I miss thy altar's daily flame. To me thy stall no fatted bull shall send ; Should I exact one he-goat from thy fold ? 1610 I, that as far as hills, woods, fields, extend,
All birds and beasts in known possession hold.
IV.
Suppose me hungry; — yet to beg thy meat, I would not tell thee that I hungry were : My self may take, what needs me then intreat ? 161 5 Since earth is mine, and all that earth doth bear. But do I long the brawny flesh to eat Of that dull beast that serves the ploughman's need? Or do I thirst to quench my thirsty heat, In what the throats of bearded cattle breed ?
V.
1620 O no ; bring God of praise a sacrifice : "^
Thy vowed heart unto the highest pay : Invoke my name, to me erect thy cries, Thy praying plaints, when sorrow stops thy way ; I will undo the knot that anguish ties,
1625 And thou at peace shalt glorify my name :" Mildly the good, God schooleth in this wise, But this sharp check doth to the wicked frame,
1 62 PSALM L.
VI. " How fits it tJicc my statutes to report, And of thy cov'nant in thy talk to prate ?
1630 Hating to live in right reformed sort, And leaving in neglect what I relate. See'st thou a thief ? thou grow'st of his consort : Dost with adult'rers to adult'ry go : Thy mouth is slander's ever-open port,
1635 And from thy tongue doth nought but treason flow,
VII.
Nay, ev'n thy brother thy rebukes disgrace. And thou in spite defam'st thy mother's son : And for I wink awhile, thy thoughts embrace, — * God is like me, and doth as I have done.' 1 640 But lo, thou see'st I march another pace.
And come with truth thy falsehood to disclose : Thy sin reviv'd upbraids thy blushing face. Which thou long dead in silence did suppose.
VIII.
O lay up this in marking memory, 1645 You that are wont God's judgments to forget In vain to others for release you fly, If once on you I griping fingers set.
PSALM L. 163
And know the rest : my dearest worship I In sweet perfume of off'red praise do place : 1650 And who directs his goings orderly,
By my conduct shall see God's saving grace."
Of the general tenor of the great lesson given in this psalm to all worshippers of God throughout the world, there is, fortunately, no doubt possible. But our acceptance of the construction and course of the psalm, with some of the weight of the lesson, depend on the interpretation we give to the fifth verse. The proper word for Saints, in Greek, is a7to9. But the word in the Septuagint here is 6crto<?. And I have no doubt, therefore, that the Septuagint translators took a view of the psalm which will make it entirely simple and direct from beginning to end. The first four verses, thus read, describe a solemn coming of God to pronounce true judgment, with all the witness of heaven and earth, upon * Jiis people ' — his nominal worshippers.
And the fifth verse calls these together to receive judgment, — all, namely, who have, in the sight of the world, made a covenant with God by sacrifice, and taken upon them the name of his people. Then the pronounced judgment is the separation of the
1 64 PSALM L.
< oaiOL ' — this visible Church, into sheep and goats, — to the first of whom, true-minded, yet trusting too much to their material sacrifice, the message comes, — 'thinkest thou,' etc., but to the wicked and false- minded God says. Why dost thou take my covenant in thy mouth, when thou hatest my teaching, and hast cast my words behind thee ?
Thus understood, the entire psalm is one of trenchant practical power for all time : and I am under a strong impression that the complete retri- butive system alleged throughout the Psalter is that those who have lived only godless, shall die like beasts ; but that those who have believed in God, and yet betrayed him, shall be cast into outer darkness — " there, shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
1592. " With ear and tongue rcstord." After seeming not to hear prayers, and keeping silence in judgment — at last to hear, to speak, again ! Com- pare verse 21, and lines 1643 — 1648.
1594. ''Apparancc!' From Latin 'Apparitor.'
1597. ''Tliat beloved line" Israel, including evil and good.
1 600. " Then, zuhen the heavens." I don't under-
PSALM L. 165
Stand Sidney's additional lines here. He probably means that the heavens subsigncd in the fire and hail on Egypt.
1 6 19. "■Bearded cattle" for goats.
1627. ''Wicked." I have replaced the original word, — Sidney, having missed the bearing ' of the passage had put ' godless,' which made the sequence unintelligible.
163 I. "Relate." In Latin sense, with full mean- ing of the constant reference and relation between God and man. •
1638. "Thy thoughts embrace." 'Hug the thought ' — hold it fast, and will not let it go.
1643. "Did." Again by euphony, for 'didst'
165 1. " Condiict" with accent on last syllable, short for conducting, — God ' marching another pace.'
Rhythm. — Octave. 5 — ababacac.
14
1 66 PSALM LIII.
PSALM LIII.
DIXIT INSIPIENS. I.
There is no God, the fool doth say, If not in word, in thought and will : This fancy rotten deeds bewray, 1655 And studies fix'd on loathesomc ill.
Not one doth good : from heavn'ly hill, Jehova's eye, one wiser mind Could not discern, that held the way, To understand, and God to find.
II.
1660 They all have stray 'd, arc cank'red all :
Not one I say, not one doth good. But senselessness, — what should I call Such carriage of this cursed brood ? My people are their bread, their food ;
1665 Upon my name they scorn to cry;
Whom vain affright doth yet appal. Where no just ground of fear doth lie.
III.
But on their bones shall wreaked be All thy invaders' force and guile,
PSALM LIII. 167
1670 The vile confusion cast by thee,
For God himself shall make them vile. Ah ! why delays that happy while, When Syon shall our saver bring ? The Lord his folk will one day free, i<j75 Then Jacob's house shall dance and sing.
N.'>.-\,^.-\.-S_-S.
1670. " The vile confusion cast by thccT
I do not know what account is given of this recurrence of the 14th Psalm ; but as an appoint- ment of Providence in the ordering of the collected books of Scripture, it is strangely significant ; twice over insisting on its plain lesson of the eternal separation of the malignant fool who sees no God, from the loving wise, who see God always ; and, twice over, laying the same pitfall before the unhappy sect who would fain hide their own sins and ignorances under the abuse of human nature ; this line, ' the vile confusion cast by thee,' is like a prophetic intimation by Sidney of the existing state of Protestantism, One of my friends, an actively benevolent and sensible woman, was complaining to a Low-Church clergyman the other day that he had not spoken in his sermon what had helped her, because ' he did not know what was in her mind.'
l68 PSALM LIIT.
' I know your mind perfectly well," (answered the poor puppy,) " / am a sinner, yon arc a sinner."
1654. " Beiv}-ay." The rotten deeds bewray, or betray, the fancy into darkness.
1662. " What should I calW There is no name for such folly. Have they no knowledge then?
Any wise man will have, constantly, this feeling of the unspeakable, in reading modern political literature.
1668. ''On their bo7ies!' The force and guile
of their enemies shall fall back on their (own)
bones, scattering them ; * as when one cuttcth and cleaveth wood.'
Rhythm. — Octave. 4 — - abab bcac.
The next following psalm is little more than the expansion of the last clause of this one.
PSALM LIV. 169
PSALM LIV.
DEUS, IN NOMINE.
Lord, let thy name my saving succour be, Defend my wronged cause by thy just might : Lord, let my crying voice be heard of thee, Let not my heavy words be counted light,
1680 For strangers I against me risen see.
Who hunt me hard, and sore my soul affright ; Possess'd with fear of God in no degree. But God, thou art my helper in my right. Thou succour send'st to such as succour me ;
1685 Then pay them home, who thus against me fight, And let thy truth cut down their treachery. So I with off'rings shall thy altars dight, Praising thy name which thus has set me free : Giving me scope to soar with happy flight
1690 Above my evils ; and on my enemy, Making me see what I to see delight.
These repeated cries of David against his enemies will always remain utterly unintelligible to a Church living in compromise with sin, and would instantly become terrifically intelligible to any body of Christians honestly endeavouring to do their duty
I/O PSALM LIV.
as God's servants. And the Devil continually uses a good man's neighbourliness and goodnature to betray him into this compromise. Wide worldly applause, and the pleasure he has in the visible good done by him to his own friends and in his own circle, blind him to his falling away from loyalty to the Justice of God. I could name clergy- men whose lives, floating, admired and beloved, in iridescent bubbles down the black current of their country's iniquity, will be strange signs of the times, in future history.
Rhythm. — Couplet. 4 --— and a b, a b, sequent
throughout.
PSALM LV. 171
PSALM LV.
EXAUDI, DEUS. I.
My God, most glad to look, most prone to hear,
An open ear O let my prayer find.
And from my plaint turn not thy face away;
1695 Behold my gestures, hearken what I say
While uttering moans with most tormented mind ; My body I no less torment and tear. For lo, their fearful threat'nings wound mine ear. Who griefs on griefs on me still heaping lay,
1700 A mark to wrath, and hate, and wrong assign 'd. Therefore my heart hath all his force resign'd To trembling paths ; death-terrors on me prey, I fear, — nay, shake, — nay, quiv'ring, quake with fear.
II.
Then say I, ' O might I but cut the wind 1705 Borne on the wings the fearful dove doth bear,
Stay would I not, till I in rest might stay;
Far hence, O far, then would I take my way
Unto the desert, and repose me there,
These storms of woe, these tempests left behind ! ' 1 7 10 But swallow them, O Lord, in darkness blind.
Confound their counsels, lead their tongues astray.
172 PSALM LV.
That what they mean by words may not appear, For mother Wrong within their towns each where, And daughter Strife their ensigns so display, I 7 I 5 As if they only thither were confin'd.
III.
These walk their city walls both night and day, Oppressions, tumults, guiles of every kind Are burgesses, and dwell the middle near: About their streets his masking robe doth wear
1720 Mischief, cloth 'd in deceit, with treason lin'd, Where only he, he only beares the sway. But not my foe with me this prank did play. For then I would have borne with patient cheer An unkind part from whom I know unkind, —
1725 Nor he whose forehead envy's mark had sign'd, His trophies on my ruins sought to rear, From whom to fly I might have made essay, —
IV. Ikit this to ihcc^ — to thee — impute I may, My fellow, my companion, held most dear,
1730 My soul, my other self, my inward friend.
Whom unto me, — me unto whom, — did bind Exchanged secrets ; who together were God's temple wont to visit, there to pray ! — O let a sudden death work their decay,
1735 Who speaking fair, such cank'red malice mind, —
PSALM LV. 173
Let them be buried breathing in their bier. But purple morn, black ev'n, and midday clear, Shall see my praying voice to God inclin'd, Rousing him up ; and nought shall me dismay.
V.
1 740 He ransom'd me, for he my safety fin'd,
In fight, where many sought my soul to slay. He still, himself, (to no succeeding heir Leaving his empire) shall no more forbear : But, at my motion, all these Atheists pay,
^745 By whom (still one) such mischiefs are design'd. Who but such caitiffs would have undermin'd, Nay, overthrown, from whom but kindness mere They never found ? who would such trust betray.? What butter'd words ! Yet wars their hearts
bewra}-,
1750 Their speech more sharp than sharpest sword or
spear, Yet softer flows than balm from wounded rind.
VI.
But, my o'er-loaden soul, thy self upcheer ; Cast on God's shoulders what thee down doth weigh, Long borne by thee with bearing pain'd and pin'd. 1755 To care for thee he shall be ever kind,
174 PSALM LV.
By him the just, in safety held alvvay, Changeless shall enter, live, and leave the year ; But, Lord, how long shall these men tarry here ? Fling them in pit of death where never shin'd 1760 The light of life ; and while I make my stay On thee, let who their thirst with blood allay Have their life-holding thread so weakly twin'd That it, half spun, death may in sunder shear.
This entirely beautiful psalm has been made the
subject by Sidney of his best art of verse ; and
the paraphrase is one of the notablest pieces of rhythmic English in existence.
17 1 3. " Mother, Wrong" (Violence,) and daughter, Strife, set up their standards on the walls, as if the entire life of the city were expressed and confined in them. Oppressions, tumults, and guile are the inhabitants. Mischief, (destruction, masked, instead of benefit,) is the ruler of all ; clothed in falsehood, and the cloak of falsehood lined with ermine of treachery. A man may dissimulate, yet not betray ; and deceive hostility, without being un- faithful in alliance. But here, the Falsehood is quilted thick with black-spotted treason.
PSALM LV. 175
1728. " Tins to thcc" etc. Only a very perfect and powerful reader can do justice to this verse ; but at any rate read it aloud, and again, and again.
1 740. "Fined" ' Foined,' ' fenced.' " Come, no matter vor you foins." Edgar, assuming peasant's dialect in ' King Lear.'
1745. ''Still oner Acting all with one mind; to explain the change in pronoun from ' they ' to ' he.'
1753. ''Cast on God's shoulders^ In quoting this verse by itself, we seldom recollect that the particular burden meant is the oppression of the wicked, not our own sorrow.
1756, 1757. Two noble lines, which should be learned by heart. Note the active use of ' live ' in the second, (' to live a day,' ' to live a year — a life,' etc.), so that enter, live, and leave, have all the same transitive force.
Rhythm. — Twelvefold, sequent from beginning to end, with only three rhymes ; Abccbaacbbca; B a c c, etc., changing at fourth stanza, so that the six verses shall answer, three to three, in reversed order of rhythm, the beginning rhj^mes being in order A B C — C B A, and the last word rhyming to the first.
1/6 PSALM LVIIL
PSALM LVIII.
SI VERE UTIQUE. I.
And call ye this to utter what is just, 1765 You that of justice hold the sovVeign throne ? And call ye this to yield, O sons of dust, To wronged brethren ev'ry one his own ? O no : it is your long malicious will Now to the world to make by practice known, 1770 With whose oppression you the balance fill, Just to yourselves, indiff'rent else to none.
II. But what could they, who ev'n in birth declin'd, From truth and right to lies and injuries ? To show the venom of their cank'red mind 1775 The adder's image scarcely can suffice.
Nay, scarce the aspick may with them contend. On whom the charmer all in vain applies His skilful'st spells : aye missing of his end, While she, self-deaf, and unaffected lies.
TIT.
I7<^0 Lord, crack their teeth ; Lord, crush these lion jaws ; So let them sink as water in the sand :
PSALM LVIII. 177
When deadly bow their aiming fury draws, Shiver the shaft ere past the shooter's hand. So make them melt as the dishoused snail, I 7 S 5 Or as the embryo, whose vital band
Breaks ere it holds, and formless eyes do fail To see the sun, though brought to lightful land.
IV. O let their brood, a brood of springing thorns, Be by untimely rooting overthrown
1790 Ere, bushes wax'd, they push with pricking horns ; As fruits yet green are oft by tempest blown. The good with gladness this revenge shall see, And bathe his feet in blood of wicked one : While all shall say, the just rewarded be,
1795 There is a God that shares to each his own.
Another of the great psalms teaching the eternal separation between the sinner and the just man ; farther notable for its assertion of the sinner's being born such, irredeemably. The sinners have been ' made strangers of,' made of another race, made ' heathen ' from the womb ; as soon as they were born, they wandered.
1 77 1. '' Indijferetitl' for 'equal,' or 'equitable.
178 PSALM LVIII.
The word does not elsewhere, so far as I re- member, occur in these psalms.
1779. ''Self-deaf^' herself causing her deafness — " None so deaf as those who won't hear ! "
1790, "Ere, bushes luaxd." I suppose this to be the real meaning. There is none in our " or ever your pots be made hot with thorns."
1794. " Reivardedr In the Septuagint, the just shall "have his fruit," in direct opposition to the destro}'cd thorn trees. As in the first psalm.
Rhythm. — Octave. 5 -— ababcbcb.
PSALM LXII. 179
PSALM LXII.
NONNE DEO.
I.
Yet shall my soul in silence still On God, my help, attentive stay : Yet he my fort, my health, my hill. Remove I may not, — move, I may. 1800 How long then shall your fruitless will
An enemy so far from thrall, With weak endeavour strive to kill,- — You rotten hedge, you broken wall .''
II.
Forsooth that he no more may rise, 1805 Advanced oft to throne and crown :
To headlong him their thoughts devise, And past relief, to tread him down. Their love is only love of lies : Their words and deeds dissenting so, 1 8 1 o When from their lips most blessing flies,
Then deepest curse in heart doth grow.
III. Yet shall my soul in silence still On God, my hope, attentive stay ;
l80 PSALM LXII.
Yet he my fort, my health, my hill, 1 8 1 5 Remove I may not, move I may.
My God doth me with glory fill. Not only shield me safe from harm : To shun distress, to conquer ill. To him I climb, in him I arm.
IV.
1820 O then, on God, our certain stay.
All people in all times rely : Your hearts before him naked lay, To Adam's sons 'tis vain to fly. So vain, so false, so frail are they,
1825 Ev'n he that seemeth most of might
With lightness' self if him you weigh. Then lightness' self will weigh more light.
V.
In fraud and force no trust repose : Such idle hopes from thought expel ;
1830 And take good heed, when treasure grows,
Let not your heart on treasure dwell. All power is God's, his own word shows, Once said by him, twice heard by me ; Yet from thee. Lord, all mercy flows,
1835 And each man's work is paid by thee.
PSALM LXV. • l8l
This is written more against trust in men that in absolute dread of them : the tenth verse imply- ing that even the just may be tempted to trust in oppression, and become vain in robbery.
Sidney's version is almost typical, in the whole series, of his fearlessly Latin construction, as in " To headlong him their thoughts devise," trusting to disentangle all if the reader will have patience for the next line. The melody and beat of it are very beautiful.
1798. " Yet he my fort" — * He yet being my fort,' — I cannot be removed, though I may waver.
1 80 1. " Tliraliy Captivity, rarely used.
1830. " Treasure." I have substituted this for Sidney's word ' riches,' awkwardly used as a singular noun.
1833. "Once said, tivice heard!' I believe the meaning is, that God speaks once, and the thing is said for ever ; but that we take many times telling before we believe.
Rhythm. — Octave. 4 ~^ — ababacac.
J5
1 82 PSALM LXV.
PSALM LXV.
TE DECET HYMNUS. I.
Syon it is where thou art praised,
Syon, O God, where vows they pay thee :
There all men prayers to thee raised
Return possess'd of what they pray thee. I 840 There thou my sins prevailing to my shame.
Dost turn to smoke of sacrificing flame.
II.
O, he of bliss is not deceived,
Whom chosen thou unto thee takest : And whom into thy court received, 1845 Thou of thy check-roll number makest. The dainty viands of thy sacred store Shall feed him so, he shall not hunger more.
III.
From thence it is, thy thrcat'ning thunder,
(Lest we by wrong should be disgraced,)
1850 Doth strike our foes with fear and wonder :
O thou, on whom their hopes are placed,
Whom cither earth dost steadfastly sustain,
Or cradle rocks the restless wavy plain.
PSALM LXV. 183
IV.
Thy virtue stays the mighty mountains, .1855 Girded with pow'r, with strength abounding : The roaring damm of wat'ry fountains
Thy beck doth make surcease her sounding, When stormy uproars toss the people's brain, That civil sea to calm thou bring'st again.
V.
i860 Where earth doth end with endless ending,
All such as dwell, thy signs affright them : And in thy praise their voices spending. Both houses of the sun delight them ; Both whence he comes, when early he awakes, I 86 5 And where he goes, when ev'ning rest he takes.
VI.
Thy eye from heav'n this land beholdeth, Such fruitful dews down on it raining.
That storehouse-like her lap enfoldcth Assured hope of ploughman's gaining, 1870 Thy flowing streams her drought doth temper so,
That buried seed through yielding grave doth grow.
VII.
Drunk is each ridge, of thy cup drinking, Each clod relenteth at thy dressing :
1875
i88o
184 PSALM LXV.
Thy cloud-borne waters inly sinking,
Fair spring sprouts forth, blest with thy blessing. The fertile year is with thy bounty crown'd ; And where thou go'st, thy goings fat the ground.
VIII.
Plenty bedews the desert places :
A hedge of mirth the hills encloseth :
The fields with flocks have hid their faces : A robe of corn the valleys clotheth.
Deserts, and hills, and fields, and valleys all.
Rejoice, shout, sing, and on thy name do call.
There are few of the psalms whose prophecy, at this day, remains so hopelessly unfulfilled or contra- dicted ; its ' unto thee shall all flesh come,' changed into, ' from thee shall all flesh shrink ; ' and ' who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth,' changed into, 'who art a feeble terror in a little spot of it.'
The beauty of the ordinary version cannot be mended, but Sidney's has another beauty of its own.
1 84 1. ''Dost turn to smoke." An unusual meta- phor for the propitiation. Our English sins arc turned into smoke in another manner ; darken the sky, and fall back in soot.
PSALM LXV. 185
1845. "Check-roll." Compare the 'heavenly score,' hue 336.
1853. "Cradle rocks." Whom the sea rocks, as a cradle. A little forced in construction.
1856. " The roaring daimn!' Dominion, or power. The ' dam,' in its present sense, is the thing that has ' dominion ' over the stream itself.
i860. " With endless ending!' Rounding itself for ever to new horizon.
The last line, after four exquisite verses, seems to labour and droop, nor is Sidney, as before noticed, at all distinguished for skill in his closing. But the steady assertion, ' on thy name do call,' has more real power in it than the glibly current * call upon thy name,' familiar to the ear, with which a common writer would probably have con- trived to end.
Rhythm. — Sixfold. 44445 5 — ^ a b a b c c.
1 86 PSALM LXIX.
PSALM LXIX.
SALVUxM ME FAC. I.
T]<OUBLOUS seas my soul surround 1885 Save, O God, my sinking soul,
Sinking, where it feels no ground, In this gulf, this whirling hole.
Waiting aid, with earnest eying.
Calling God with bootless crying : 1890 Dim and dry in me are found.
Eye to see, and throat to sound.
II. Wrongly set to work my woe.
Haters have I, more than hairs : Force, in my afflicting foe 1895 Bett'ring still, in me impairs.
Thus to pay and lose constrained, What I never ought or gained, Yet say I, thou God dost know How my faults and lollies go.
HI. 1000 Mighty Lord, let not my case
Blank the rest that hope in thee Let not Jacob's God deface All his friends in blush of me.
• PSALM LXIX. 187
Thine it is, thine only quarrel 1905 Dights me thus in shame's apparel :
Mote, nor spot, nor least disgrace, But for thee, could taint my face.
IV. To my kin a stranger quite, Ouite an alien I am grown : 1 9 1 o In my very brethren's sight
Most uncar'd for, most unknown. With thy temple's zeal out-eaten, With thy slander's scourges beaten, While the shot of piercing spite 1 9 1 5 Bent at thee, on me doth light.
V. If I weep, and weeping fast,
If in sackcloth sad I mourn, In my teeth the first they cast, All to feast the last they turn. 1920 Now in streets, with public prating.
Pouring out their inward hating : Private now at banquets plac'd, Singing songs of winey taste.
VI.
As for me, to thee I pray, 1925 Lord, in time of grace assign'd :
1 88 rSALM LXIX.
Gracious God, my kindest stay,
111 my aid be truly kind. Keep me safe unsunk, unmired. Safe from flowing foes retired : 1930 Calm these waves, these waters lay,
Leave me not this whirlpool's prey.
VII. In the goodness of thy grace.
Lord, make answer to my moan : Eye my ill, and rue my case, 1035 In those mercies told by none.
Let not by thy absence languish Thy true server drown'd in anguish. Haste, and hear ; come, come apace. Free my soul from foemcn's chase.
VIII.
1940 Unto thee what needs be told
My reproach, my blot, my blame .'' Sith both these thou didst behold, And canst all my haters name. Whiles afflicted, whiles heart-broken, J 945 Waiting yet some friendship's token,
Some I look'd would me uphold, Look'd, but found all comfort cold.
PSALM LXIX. 189
IX.
Comfort ? nay (not seen before) Needing food they set me gall : 1950 Vinegar they fill'd me store,
When for drink my thirst did call. O then snare them in their pleasures, Make them trap'd even in their treasures, Gladly sad, and richly poor, 1955 Sightless most, yet mightless more.
X.
Down upon them fury rain,
Lighten indignation down : Turn to waste, and desert plain.
House and palace, field and town. i960 Let not one be left abiding
Where such rancour had residing. Whom thou painest, more they pain : Hurt by thee, by them is slain.
XI. Causing sin on sin to grow, 1965 Add still ciphers to their sum,
Righter let them never go.
Never to thy justice come. But from out the book be crossed, Where the good men live engrossed :
1 90 PSALM LXIX,
1970 While my God, me poor and low,
High shall mount from need and woe.
XII.
Then by me his name with praise,
Gladsome praise, shall be upborne. That shall more Jehovah please 1975 Than the beast with hoof and horn.
With what joy, ye godly grieved, Shall your hearts be then relieved .'' When Jehovah takes such ways Bound to loose, and fallen to raise.
XIII.
1980 Laud him then, O heav'nly skies.
Earth with thine, and seas with yours For by him shall Sion rise.
He shall build up Juda's towers. There his servants and their races, 1985 Shall in fee possess the places :
There his name who love and prize, Stable stay shall eternize.
The literal fulfilment of the twenty-first verse of this psalm, in the Crucifixion, has always caused the Christian to read the entire psalm as if prophetic ;
PSALM LXIX. 191
whereas there is not another syllable of it which, could, by any straining, be intelligibly applied to Christ ; — the fifth verse, " O God, thou knowest my foolishness ; and my sins are not hid from thee," being, in truth, the key to the whole : nor can any good be got of the reading of it, unless taken as a simple expression of David's own feelings, in which the verse about the gall and vinegar is an ordinary metaphor for the unkindness of men in his distress. So Sidney translates it throughout ; and though the words 'mote nor spot,' etc., (1906,) seem too brave for any mere man to use, the meaning of the entire song is not, as it would have been if spoken in Christ's person, that the speaker of it became shameful before God, for Man's sake ; but that the speaker becomes shameful before Man, for God's sake, which is the ordinary condition of the active service of God in this world.
1896. ^^ Thus to pay, and lose." There is more quaint Elizabethan opposition of terms in this psalm than in most. The measure of it is so good, and this quaintness so like Sidney, that I should now hold it quite characteristically his, if reading without prejudice. Compare lines 1954, 1955, 1962, 1963, 1981.
1935. ^^ Told by Jioiic," — counted by none, — 'in the multitude of thy mercies.'
192 PSALM LXIX.
1955. '^Sightless most, yet miglitless more." Sec note above, on Sidney's degrees of comparison,
1963. "■Hurt by theer Who is wounded by thee, is slain by them.
1966. " RigJiter let them never go^ Under what- ever interpretation we receive, or whatever example we take from, these repeated cursings by David of his enemies, it is entirely hopeless to narrow their sweeping malediction into the one prophetic male- diction of Judas, ' his bishopric let another take.' We may, perhaps, be more advanced than David in wisdom and charity ; but if w-e are not prepared very decidedly to invoke mischief on considerable numbers of persons, we need not pretend to use the Psalter.
PSALM LXXI.
PSALM LXXI.
IN TE, DOMINE, SPERAVI. I.
Lord, on thee my trust is grounded : Leave me not with shame confounded ; 1990 But in justice bring me aid.
Let thine ear to me be bended : Let my life, from death defended, Be by thee in safety staid.
II.
Be my rock, my refuge-tower, 1995 Show thy unresisted power,
Working now thy wonted will : Thou, I say, that never feignest In thy biddings, but remainest
Still my rock, my refuge still.
III.
2000 O my God, my sole help-giver,
From the wicked me deliver.
From this wrongful, spiteful man : In thee trusting, on thee standing, With my childish understanding,
2005 ■ ^^y> ^^^^^ ^^^^> ^y hopes began,
J93
194 PSALM LXXI.
IV.
Since imprison'd in my mother Thou me frced'st, \vhom have I other
Held my stay, or made my song ? Yea, when all me so misdeemed, 20 1 o I to most a monster seemed,
Yet in thee my hope was strong.
V.
Yet of thee, the thankful story Fill'd my mouth, thy gracious glory Was my ditty long the day. 201 5 Do not then, now age assaileth.
Courage, verdure, virtue, faileth. Do not leave me cast away.
VI.
They by whom my life is hated. With their spies have now debated : 2020 Of their talk, and lo, the sum :
God, say they, hath him forsaken ; Now pursue, he must be taken ; None will to his rescue come.
VII.
O my God, be not absented : 2025 O my God, now, now presented,
PSALM LXXI. 195
Let in haste, thy succours be : Make them fall disgraced, shamed, All dismighted, all defamed.
Who this ill intend to me.
VIII. 2030 As for me, resolv'd to tarry
In my trust, and not to vary,
I will heap thy praise with praise : Still with mouth thy truths recounting. Still thy aids, though much surmounting, 2035 Greatest sum that number laies.
IX.
Nay, my God, by thee secured, Where will I not march assured ? In my talk, who just but thou ? Who by thee from infant cradle 2400 Taught still more, as still more able.
Have thy wonders spread till now.
X. .
Now that age hath me attainted. Age's snow my head hath painted,
Leave me not, my God, forlorn. 2045 Let me make thy might's relation
To the coming generation.
To the age as yet unborn.
196 PSALM LXXL
XL God, thy justice, highest raised, Thy great works, as highly praised : 2050 Who thy peer, O God, doth reign ?
Thou into these woes dost drive me : Thou again shalt thence revive me : Lift me from this deep again.
XII. Thou shalt make my greatness greater, 2055 Make my good with comfort better.
Thee my lute, my harp, shall sing : Thee my God, that never slidest From thy word, but constant bidest, Jacob's holy, heav'nly King.
XIIL 2060 So my lips all joy declaring,
So my soul no honour sparing.
Shall thee sing, by thee secure. So my tongue, all times, all places, Tell thy wreakes and their disgraces, 2065 Who this ill to me procure.
As written in David's old age, and as introductory to the next one, which ends the prayers of the son of Jesse, this psalm is of peculiar interest.
PSALM LXXI.
197
Sidney's version is very sweet and passionate ; too gay in the measure of it for its meaning, accord- ing to our modern feeling ; but I perceive more and more, daily, that men of true heart arc grave through all gaiety, and bright through all earnest- ness.
2035. " That number laies." Tells of, or re- counts.
2039. " Who," following somewhat stiffly on 'my' in the previous line. 'Who shall be just but thou in the talk of me .^ who,' etc.
2064. " JVreakes." For 'justice,' or 'revenges. A most beautiful occurrence of it is quoted by Johnson from 'Henry VI.' " So flies the wreakless shepherd from the wolf," — incapable of revenge on him.
16
198 PSALM LXXII.
PSALM LXXII.
DEUS, JUDICIUM. I.
Teach the king's son, who king himself shall be, Thy judgments, Lord; thy justice make him learn : To rule thy realms as justice shall decree, And poor men's right in judgment to discern. 20 70 Then fearless peace
With rich increase The mountains proud shall fill : And justice shall Make plenty fall 2075 On cvVy humble hill.
II.
Make him the weak support, th' oppress'd relieve. Supply the poor, the quarrel-pickers quail : So ageless ages shall thee reverence give, Till eyes of hcav'n, the sun and moon, shall fail. 2080 And thou again
Shall blessings rain, Which down shall mildly flow, As showors thrown On meads new mown, 2085 Whereby they freshly grow.
PSALM LXXII. 199
III.
During his rule the just shall aye be green, And peaceful plenty join with plenteous peace : While of sad night the many-formed queen Decreas'd shall grow, and grown, again decrease. 2090 From sea to sea
He shall survey All kingdoms as his own : And from the trace Of Perah's race, 2095 As far as land is known.
IV.
The desert-dwellers at his beck shall bend. His foes them suppliant at his feet shall fling. The kings of Tharsis homage-gifts shall send ; So Seba, Saba, ev'ry island king. 2100 Nay all, ev'n all
Shall prostrate fall, That crowns and sceptres wear : And all that stand At their command, 2105 That crowns and sceptres bear.
V.
For he shall hear the poor when they complain, And lend them help, who helpless are oppress'd :
200 PSALM LXXII.
His mercy shall the needy sort sustain ; His force shall free their lives that live distress'd. 2 1 1 o From hidden sleight,
From open might, He shall their souls redeem : His tender eyes Shall highly prize, 211 S And dear their blood esteem,
VI.
So shall he long, so shall he happy live ; Health shall abound, and wealth shall never want : They gold to him, Arabia gold, shall give, Which scantness dear, and dearness maketh scant. 2120 They still shall pray
That still he may So live, and flourish so : Without his praise, No nights, no days, 2125 Shall passport have to go.
VII. Look how the woods, whose interlaced trees • Spread friendly arms each other to embrace. Join at the head, though distant at the knees, Waving with wind, and lording on the place ;
PSALM LXXII. 201
2i id So woods of corn
By mountains borne Shall on their shoulders wave :
And men shall pass
The numerous grass, 2135 Such store each town shall have.
\"IIL Look how the sun, so shall his name remain ; As that in light, so this in glory one : All glories this, as that all lights shall stain : Nor that shall fail, nor this be overthrown. 2140 The dwellers all
Of earthly ball In him shall hold them blest : As one that is Of perfect bliss, 21 A ^ ^ pattern to the rest.
IX.
O God who art, — from \\ hom all beings be ; — Eternal Lord, whom Jacob's stock adore, And wondrous works are done by only thee, Blessed be thou, most blessed evermore. 2150 -^"d let thy name.
Thy glorious fame.
2155
202 PSALM LXXII.
No end of blessinc^ know :
Let all this round
Thy honour sound, So Lord, O be it so.
This prayer and prophecy for his son is not only — as it must needs be — the most touching and precious of all the psalms of David, but it is the most important passage in the Bible relating to the laws and happiness of earthly life. " His name shall be continued as long as the sun;" (not longer ; — it is earthly and sun-lighted life only of which this psalm tells). " He shall come down as showers that water tJie cartJi ;'' (not as manna of heaven;) "and his dominion shall be from sea to sea;'' (not where ' there shall be no more sea.')
And it is literally true that in all prosperous nations this King shall be called blessed. The wisdom of the Proverbs, and the story of his reign, can never be superseded or surpassed, — every nation that is to become great, must read and learn from these. " So ageless ages shall thee reverence give
Till eyes of heaven, the sun, and moon, shall fail."
2066 — 2069. Sidney's version is throughout magnificent and clear beyond praise. He has put
PSALM LXXII.
203
his full strength upon it. We get in this first clause, for the first time, the due opposition of justice and judgment. The one means simply the keeping of equal law between persons whose rights are known. The other means the examination into right itself, the discernment of character and claim. " He shall judge all men with equity ; but the poor with loving insight ; — precious shall their blood be in his sight," is the full meaning.
'£->•
2072. " TJie motintaijisy The pre-eminent forces of intellect and wealth in the nation, however, accu- mulated ; all becoming to it in their proportionate height, and strength, the sources of streams of blessing.
2094. I can't think where Sidney got this ' race of Perah ' from, unless it is merely wilful or playful changing into a name, of the Septuagint's, Trepdrwv
2 I I o, 2 1 1 1 . " From Jiidden sleight, from open might!' " He shall redeem their soul from deceit, and violence."
The entire duty of kingship is founded on this verse. ' Let him prevent the poor from being either deceived or afflicted, and all his kingdom will be in prosperity and limitless power.'
204 PSALM LXXII.
2 1 19. A little bit of Sidney's own wisdom thrown in. Entirely right. Singularly enough, in an excellent article on the depreciation of silver in the Monetary Gazette, which I chanced to see about a fortnight ago, (I am writing at Brantwood, July 23rd,) there occurred an admirable imaginary examination of a witness, on some commercial catastrophe in which the said ' depreciation ' had been one element, with the following sentences in it, or, at least, sentences to the following purpose, I quote from memory : —
"What depreciation of the value of silver occurred in the days of Solomon ? "
" It was ' nothing accounted of."
" What was its market value ? "
" The value of pebbles. He ' made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones'."
" Was this considered a misfortune by him ? "
" Certainly not. Solomon was no fool."
2128. ''■Join at t/ic heady Sidney thinks over the words, " shall shake like Libanus," till he imagines the ears of corn so large that they shall touch, and close up together as the heads of trees do.
END OF PART I.
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