Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences/Ecce tempus est vernale

by Anonymous

Ecce tempus est vernale.^[1]

An Easter sequence, published by Du Méril from a manuscript of the thirteenth century. The poet borrows one line from the Pange Lingua of Fortunatus, and seems, in another place, to copy Adam of S. Victor. The metre is very rare.

Spring returns with jubilation,
When the Tree of our salvation,
Chiefest of the forest nation,
Wrought the work of reparation,
Fallen man redeeming.
Through Judæa's rage infernal
From the nut breaks forth the kernel:^[2]
Hangs upon the Cross the Eternal:
Trembles earth: the sun supernal
Hides in shades his beaming.
Accusation, condemnation,
Pillar, thongs, and flagellation,
Gall and bitter coronation,
This He bore, and reprobation,
Railing and blaspheming.
Jewish people, crucify Him!
Torture, scourge, and mock, and try Him!
In that precious Blood bedye Him:
That our race is ransomed by Him
Oh, how little deeming!
Theme of Israelite rejection,
Now, with joyful recollection,
Christians! hail the Resurrection;
With good deeds and hearts' affection
To the Victor teeming!

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1. In Du Méril's copy, three lines precede this. But, as they disturb the metre where they stand, and are presently repeated in other words, I take them to be merely a various reading of the third, fourth, and fifth in the finished poem.
2. Thus Adam of S. Victor compares our Lord's Humanity to the shell; His Divinity to the kernel.

   Christ the nut; the skin surrounding
   Passion's bitterness expounding,
   And the shell His human frame.
   But in Flesh lay hid the Eternal
   And His Sweetness: and the kernel
   Rightly signifies the same.