THE STABAT MATER SPECIOSA.

See the Literature in the preceding essay, p. 216, especially Ozanam.

THE LATIN TEXT.

To facilitate the comparison we put the corresponding stanzas of the MATER DOLOROSA and MATER SPECIOSA in parallel columns. The latter has twelve stanzas, as given by Ozanam (l. c. p. 170 sq.).

1Ozanam reads: "Fac ut portem pulchrum fantem." But "fantem" does not rhyme with "mortem."

2 I suggest this as an emendation for the obvious mistake of the original, as given by Ozanam

"Stans inter tripudia."

THE DISCOVERY OF THE MATER SPECIOSA.

The discovery of a companion hymn to the MATER DOLOROSA from the same age, if not by the same author, created not a little sensation among hymnologists and lovers of poetry.

The MATER SPECIOSA is contained in the same edition of the Italian poems of Jacopone, published at Brescia in 1495, which contains the MATER DOLOROSA,2 but it was buried in obscurity until 1852, when a French scholar, A. F. Ozanam, brought it to light in a work on the Franciscan poets. An improved German edition of this work, by Julius, 1853, contained an admi

1 Ozanam and Diepenbrock give this as the concluding stanza, and regard the twelfth as an addition by another hand. Ozanam, Les poëtes Franciscains, p. 170 sq., gives the Latin text in 23 (25) stanzas of three lines each.

2 Le laude del Beato frate Jacopon del sacro ordine de'frati minori de observantia. Stampate in la magnifica cita de Bresca. 1495. I copy the title from Brunet's Manuel du Libraire, Tom. III., 484 (5th ed., Paris, 1862), who describes the contents, and says::-"Le n° 107 contient le STABAT MATER, que Wadding a restitué à Jacopone, et le no 123 une sorte de parodie du STABAT, qui commence ainsi : STABAT MATER SPECIOSA-JUSTA FENUM GAUDIOSA." Mohnike (1. c. p. 375), and Lisco (p. 24) mention the existence of the MATER SPECIOSA, but they never saw it.

Les poëtes Franciscains en Italie au XIIIe siècle, avec un choix de petites Fleurs de Saint-François, trad. de l'Italien. Paris, 1852, third ed. 1859. Oza nam gives a good account of St. Francis and Jacopone, and thus characterizes

rable German translation of the newly-discovered poem, by Cardinal Melchior Diepenbrock, then prince-bishop (Fürstbischof) of Breslau, a very pious and accomplished prelate of the evangelical school of Sailer.1

Dr. John Mason Neale, the distinguished Anglican divine of the Anglo-Catholic school, and reproducer of the choicest Greek and Latin hymns, introduced the MATER SPECIOSA, with a translation, to the English public a few days before his death (August 6, 1866), and thus closed his brilliant and useful hymnological labors.2 The poem is now as well known as the MATER DOLOROSA, and will always be mentioned as its companion.

the two STABAT MATERS (p. 169): "Jacopone fit gémir la Vierge désolée, et composa le STABAT MATER DOLOROSA. La liturgie catholique n'a rien de plus touchant que cette complainte si triste, dont les strophes monotones tombent comme des larmes ; si douce, qu'on y reconnaît bien une douleur toute divine et consolée par les anges; si simple enfin dans son latin populaire, que les femmes et les enfants en comprennent la moitié par les mots, l'autre moitié par le chant et par le cœur. Cette œuvre incomparable suffirait à la gloire de Jacopone: mais en même temps que le STABAT du Calvaire, il avait voulu composer le STABAT de la crèche, ou paraissait la Vierge mère dans toute la joie de l'enfantement. Il l'écrivit sur les mêmes mesures et sur les mêmes rimes; tellement qu'on pourrait douter un moment lequel fut le premier, du chant de douleur ou du chant d'allégresse. Cependant, la postérité a fait un choix entre ces deux perles semblables; et tendis qu'elle conservait l'une avec amour, elle laissait l'autre enfouie. Je crois le STABAT MATER SPECIOSA encore inédit." He then gives a prose translation of a part of the MATER SPECIOSA, and the Latin text from MS. no 7785, f. 109, of the National Library of Paris.

1 He published the Life of Suso, the poetic mystic (1829), an Anthology of German and Spanish mystic poetry (4th ed., 1862), sermons, pastoral charges, etc. He was born 1798, and died 1853. See his correspondence with Sailer and Passavant, 1860. His life was written by his successor, Bishop Förster, Breslau, 1859, 3d ed., Regensburg, 1878.

2 Stabat Mater Speciosa: Full of beauty stood the Mother. (By J. M. N.) London, 1867. I first directed the attention of the American public to this little book, by an article in "Hours at Home," published by Charles Scribner, New York, May 1867, p. 50-58, but expressed dissent from his view of the authorship; and this article suggested several American translations by Dr. Coles, Mr. Benedict, Dr. Johnson, Dr. McKenzie. Dr. Neale was an eccentric genius, who in the Middle Ages might have been another Jacopone. See an interesting biographical sketch by Bird, in the Schaff-Herzog "Encyclopædia," II., 1610–12.

AUTHORSHIP.

The authorship is uncertain. Ozanam and Neale ascribe both poems to Jacopone. This is improbable. A poet would hardly write a parody on a poem of his own. That man must be exceedingly vain who would make himself a model for imitation; and Jacopone was so humble that he forgot himself and went to the extreme of ascetic self-abnegation. Ozanam seems to assign the priority of composition to the passion hymn.

But Dr. Neale infers, from the want of finish and the number of imperfect rhymes, that Jacopone wrote the MATER SPECIOSA first. In this case the MATER DOLOROSA would be an imitation or parody; but this is absolutely impossible. The MATER DOLOROSA is far superior, and served as a model for the other. The opening of the STABAT MATER was borrowed from the Latin Bible (John xix., 25), with reference to Mary at the Cross, but not at the Cradle. The sixth line, "pertransibit gladius," may have suggested "pertransibit jubilus," but not vice versa. former was prophesied by Simeon (Luke ii. 35); the latter has no Scripture foundation. The passion hymn soon became popular and passed into public worship; but the Christmas hymn had no such good luck. It is the fame of an original which invites imitation.

The

We conclude then that the author of the MATER SPECIOSA belonged probably to the Franciscan Order, but lived and wrote after Jacopone, when the MATER DOLOROSA was already well known and widely used. This fact best explains also the enlargement and the supernumerary lines of the eighth stanza. The MATER SPECIOSA wants the last finish, while the MATER DOLOROSA is perfect. The very reason which Dr. Neale urges for the priority of the former, proves its posteriority.

MERITS.

Admitting the inferiority of the imitation, it is very well done. The correspondence runs through the two poems, except the fifth and eleventh stanzas of the MATER SPECIOSA, which are an expansion. They breathe the same love to Christ and his Mother, and the same burning desire to become identified with