Older essays on Hebrew poetry and music by Ebert, Gomarus, Schramm, Fleury, Dannhauer, Pfeiffer, Leyser, Le Clerc, Hare, and others may be found in the XXXIst and XXXIId vols. of Ugolino's Thesaurus Antiquitatum Sacrarum (Venet. 1744-'69, 34 vols.).

II. ESSAYS AND ARTICLES IN BOOKS, CYCLOPÆDIAS, AND REVIEWS. G. B. Winer: Poesie, hebräische, in his Bibl. Realwörterbuch, Vol. II., 264-268 (3d ed., 1849).

Ed. Reuss: Hebräische Poesie, in Herzog's Real-Encyclopædie, Vol. V., 598-608; revised ed., V., 671–681. Abridged translation with bibliographical additions in Schaff-Herzog, II. 953 sqq.

W. A. Wright: Hebrew Poetry, in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible (enlarged Am. ed.), Vol. III., pp. 2549-2561.

Ludwig von Diestel (d. 1879): Dichtkunst der Hebräer, in Schenkel's Bibellexicon, I., 607–615.

Gust. Baur: Dichtkunst, in Riehm's Handwörterbuch des bibl. Alterthums, 274-280.

A. S. Aglen: The Poetry of the Bible. Several Art. in The Bible Educator. Ed. by E. H. Plumptre. Vols. I.-IV. Lond., 1875. Wm. Robertson Smith: The Poetry of the Old Testament, in "The British Quarterly Review" for Jan., 1877, pp. 26-70.

Richard Holt Hutton: The Poetry of the Old Testament, in his "Lit. Essays." London, 1880. Pp. 201-237.

C. A. Briggs (Prof. in the Union Theol. Seminary, New York): Hebrew Poetry, in the "Homiletical Quarterly," ed. by Caldwell and Exell. London, 1881. By the same: Biblical Study. New York and Edinb., 1883. Ch. IX., pp. 248-295.

III. COMMENTARIES AND ISAGOGICAL WORKS.

* H. Ewald: Die Dichter des Alten Bundes, in 3 Parts. Göttingen, 1835-37; 2d ed., 1865 sqq.; 3d ed., 1868. English translation, London, 1880 sqq. Full of genius and independent research. Engl. translation, London, 1880 sqq. See also his Propheten des Alten Bundes, 1840; 3d ed. 1868, 3 vols. Engl. translation, Lond., 1876-81, 5 vols.

R. Weber: Die poet. Bücher des A. Bundes. Stuttg., 1853-'60. Ph. Schaff: Introduction to the Poetical Books of the O. T. In Lange's Com. on Job, Am. ed. New York, 1874.

E. Meier: Die poet. Bücher des A. T. Stuttgart, 1864.

Tayler Lewis: Metrical Version of Koheleth, with an introduction (in an Appendix to his translation of Zöckler on Koheleth in Lange's Commentary). New York, 1870.

The relevant sections in the Critical Introductions to the Old Testament by DE WETTE, HAEVERNICK, KEIL, BLEEK, REUSS (?? 122–129, p. 141 sqq.), and the numerous Commentaries on the Psalms, the Book of Job, the Proverbs, and the Song of Songs.

THE DIES IRE.

This is the famous DIES IRA after the received text of the Roman Missal. Mohnike and Daniel give also the various readings and the text of Hämmerlin, which differs considerably

and has six additional stanzas. Of this and the text from the marble slab at Mantua I shall speak below. I have put the last six lines in brackets because they depart from the triplet and triple rhyme, and are no part of the original poem, but were added for liturgical purposes.

THE NAME AND USE OF THE POEM.

The poem is variously called "Prosa de Mortuis;" "De Die Judicii;" "In Commemoratione Defunctorum;" but usually, from its opening words, "Dies Ira." It is used in the Latin Church, regularly, on the Day of All Souls (November 2), and, at the discretion of the priest, in masses for the dead and on other funeral solemnities. It is frequently accompanied with music, which doubles the effect of the poem, especially Mozart's Requiem, his last masterpiece, which is itself like a wondrous trumpet spreading wondrous sounds.

CONTENTS.

The DIES IRE is a judgment hymn written for private devotion. It is an act of humiliation and prayer in contemplation of the impending day of retribution, when all secrets shall be revealed and all men be judged according to their deeds done in this life. It is a soliloquy cast in the mould of Augustinian theology. It vibrates between a profound sense of man's guilt and a humble trust in Christ's mercy. The poet is the single actor, and prays for himself. Without a prelude he brings before us the awful theme with a few startling words from the Holy Scriptures. He first describes the general judgment as a future fact, with its accompanying terrors; then he gives expression to the sense of guilt and dismay, and ends with a prayer for the mercy of the Saviour, which prompted Him to die for poor sinners, to forgive Mary Magdalene, and to promise the penitent robber, in his dying hour, a seat in Paradise.

The poem is based upon the prophetic description of the great Day of Jehovah as described in Zephaniah i. 15, 16:—

"That day is the day of wrath,

A day of trouble and distress,
A day of wasteness and desolation,
A day of darkness and gloom,

A day of clouds and thick darkness,
A day of the trumpet and alarm
Against the fenced cities,

And against high battlements." 1

The first words of this prophecy, according to the Latin translation, "Dies ira, dies illa," furnished the beginning and the key-note of the poem. In like manner the STABAT MATER derived its theme and inspiration from a few words of the Bible in the Vulgate (John xix. 25). The author of DIES IRE had also in view the Lord's description of His coming and of the general judgment, Matt. xxiv. and xxv., and several passages of the New Testament, especially 2 Pet. iii. 7-12: "The day of the Lord will come as a thief, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up." The "tuba mirum spargens sonum,” in verse 3, is an allusion to 1 Cor. xv. 52: "The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised," and 1 Thess. iv. 16: "The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God." The "liber scriptus," in verse 5, is the record of all human actions, which will be opened on the judgment day, Dan. vii. 10; Rev. xx. 12. The reference to it calls to mind the sinful deeds and deepens the sense of guilt and awe. In verse 7 the writer had undoubtedly in mind Job iv. 18; xv. 15, and especially 1 Pet. iv. 18: "If the righteous is scarcely saved (si justus vix salvabitur), where shall the ungodly and sinner appear?" The second line in verse 8 expresses the idea of salvation by free grace as taught in Rom. iii. 24 (“being justified freely by his grace,” justificati gratis per gratiam ipsius); Eph. ii. 8; 2 Tim. i. 9, etc. The first line in verse 10: "Quærens me sedisti (not, venisti) lassus,” is a touching allusion to the incident related John iv. 6: "Jesus FATIGATUS ex itinere, SEDEBAT sic supra fontem," unless it be

1 According to the translation of the Vulgate, "DIES IRE, DIES ILLA, dies tribulationis et angustiæ, dies calamitatis et miseriæ, dies tenebrarum et caliginis, dies nebulæ et turbinis, dies tubæ et clangoris super civitates munitas et super angelos excelsos."

2 A writer in the London "Spectator" for March 7, 1868, mistakes this book for the Bible.

referred to the whole state of humiliation.

Mary, in verse 13,

is Mary Magdalene, or the sinful woman to whom Christ said: "Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace," Luke vii. 50. Verses 15 and 16 are suggested by the description of the judgment, Matt. xxv. 33 sqq.

David is mentioned in the first stanza as the representative of the Old Testament prophets, with reference probably to several Psalms in which the judgment of the world is foretold, as Ps. xcvi. 13 ("He cometh, He cometh to judge the earth; He shall judge the world with righteousness"); cii. 26 ("The heavens shall perish"). In some copies and translations, however, Peter is substituted for David, on account of 2 Pet. iii. 7-12.

With David is joined the Sibyl as the representative of the unconscious prophecies of heathenism, with allusion to the Sibylline Oracles of the destruction of the world. The writer no doubt had in view chiefly those lines of Sibylla Erythræa, which form an acrostic on the words ΙΗΣΟΥΣ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΘΕΟΥ ΥΙΟΣ EQTHP, i. e. "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour," and which are quoted by Eusebius in Greek, and by St. Augustin in a Latin metrical version, retaining the acrostic form.1 This apocryphal feature is somewhat repugnant to modern taste, and hence omitted or altered in many Protestant versions of the poem.2 But it is in perfect keeping with the patristic and scholastic use of the Sibylline Oracles, the 4th Eclogue of Virgil, and other heathen testimonies of the same kind, for apologetic purposes. It gives to the idea of the judgment of the world a universal character, as being founded in the expectations of Gentiles, Jews, and Christians, and indicated by the light of reason as well as by the voice of revelation. The medieval painters and Michael Angelo likewise placed the Sibyl alongside of the prophets of Israel.

1 Augustin, De Civitate Dei, lib. xviii., cap. 23 (translated in Schaff's ed. of "The City of God," p. 572 sq.). The oracle consists of 27 lines, and com

mences:

“Iudicii signum tellus sudore madescet ;

Ec Rex adveniet per sæcla futurus:

Scilicet in carne præsens ut judicet orbem."

2 Some Roman Catholic Missals, as those of Paris and Metz (1778), substitute from Matt. xxiv. 30, for David cum Sibylla :

"Crucis expandens vexilla."