PANGE
443
PANGE
Pange, lingua, gloriosi corporis mysterium,
Sanguinisque pretiosi quem in mundi pref ium
Fructus ventris generosi Rex effudit gentium.
Written in accentual rhythm, it imitates the triumphant
march of the hymn of Fortunatus, and like it is di-
vided in the Roman Breviary into stanzas of six lines
whose alternating triple rhyming is declared by Pi-
mont to be a new feature in medieval hymnody.
In the Roman Breviary the hymn is assigned to both
Vespers, but of old the Church of Salisbury placed it
in Matins, that of Toulouse in First Vespers only, that
of Saint-Germain-des-Pr<5s at Second Vespers only,
and that of Strasburg at Compline. It is sung in the
procession to the repository on Holy Thursday and
also in the procession of Corpus Christi and in that of
the Forty Hours' Adoration.
With respect to the metre, ISI. de Marcellus, quoted in Migne's "Litterature", remarks that the hymn is composed in the long trochaic verses such as are found in Catullus, Seneca, Sophocles, and Euripides. In addition to the felicitous rhythm chosen by St. Thomas, critics recognize its poetical and hymnodal values (thus Neale: "This hymn contests the second place among those of the Western Church with the Vexilla Regis, the Stabat Mater, the Jesu dulcis memo- ria, the Ad Regias Agni Dapes, the Ad Supernam, and one or two others . . .") and "its pecuUar qual- ities, its logical neatness, dogmatic precision, and force of almost argumentative statement" (Duffield, "Latin Hymns", 269), in which qualities "it excels all these mentioned" by Neale.
The translations have not been many nor felicitous. Generosi in the first stanza is not "generous" (as in Neale's version) but "noble" (as in Caswall's). But, as Neale truly says, "the great crux of the translator is the fourth verse" (i. e., "Verbum caro panem verum, etc."), so full is it of verbal and real antith- eses. To illustrate the question of translation we select from the specimen versions the fourth stanza, since its very peculiar condensation of thought and phrase, dogmatic precision and illuminating antith- eses, have made it "a bow of Ulysses to translators". Its text is:
Verbum caro panem verum
Verbo camera efficit; Fitque sanguis Christi merum;
Et si sensus deficit, Ad firmandum cor sincerum Sola fides sufiicit. A literal translation would be: "The Word-(made)- Flesh makes by (His) word true bread into flesh; and wine becomes Christ's blood; and if the (unassisted) intellect fails (to recognize all this), faith alone suffices to assure the pure heart". Sensus (singular) is taken here to indicate the inner sense, as distinguished from scnsinim (plural) of the following stanza, where the word directly refers to the external senses. Per- haps the word has the same implication in both stanzas. "Sincere" (in its modern meaning) may be a better word than "pure". Taking first the old versions found in books of Catholic devotion, we find in the "Primer" of 1604:
The word now being flesh become.
So very bread flesh by the word, And wine the blood of Christ is made,
Though our sense it not afford, But this in heart sincere to fix Faith sufficeth to accord. It is not in the rhj'thm of the Latin, and contains but three monosyllabic rhymes instead of the six double rhymes of the Latin. The "Primer" of 1619 makes an advance to six monosyllabic rhymes; and the "Primer" of 1685 arranges the rhymes in coup- lets. The "Primer" of 1706 retains the rhythm and the rhyrnic scheme, but is somewhat more flowing and less heavy:
The Word made flesh for love of man.
With words of bread made flesh again;
Turned wine to blood unseen of sense,
By virtue of omnipotence;
And here the faithful rest secure.
Whilst God can vouch and faith ensure.
A distinct advance in rhythmic and rhymic corre-
spondence was made in more recent times by Catho-
lic writers like Wackerbarth, Father Caswall, and
Judge D. J. Donahoe.
At the incarnate Word's high bidding
Bread to very flesh doth turn, Wine becoraeth Christ's blood-shedding;
And if sense cannot discern. Guileless spirits never dreading May from faith sufficient learn.
(Wackerbarth, 1842)
Word made flesh, the bread of nature
By his word to flesh he turns; Wine into his blood he changes: —
What though sense no change tliscerns? Only be the heart in earnest,
Faith her lesson quickly learns.
(Caswall, 1849)
Neale criticises the version of Wackerbarth: "Here the antithesis is utterly lost, by the substitution of Incarnate for made flesh, and bidding for word, to say nothing of Blood-shedding for Blood"; and de- clares that Caswall "has given, as from his freedom of rhyme might be expected, the best version". He remarks, however, that Caswall has not given the "panem verum" of St. Thomas.
By his word the bread he breaketh
To his very flesh he turns ; In the chalice which he takcth,
Man the cleansing blood discerns, — Faith to loving bosoms maketh Clear the mystic truth .she learns.
(D. J. Donahoe, 1908)
Some of the more recent translations take little account of the nice discriminations of antithesis pointed out by Dr. Neale, who when he aKcmptrd in his day a new version, modestly wrote tl 1.1 1 it 'iliiims no other merit than an attempt to unitr I lie licsl por- tions of the four best translations with which I am acquainted — Mr. Wackerbarth's, Dr. Pusey's, that of the Leeds book, and Mr. CaswaU's". His version is: Word made Flesh, by Word He maketh
Very bread his flesh to be; Man in wine Christ's Blood partaketh,
And if senses fail to see, Faith alone the true heart wakcth To behold the mystery. The present writer rendered the stanza in the " Ainer. Eccles. Review" (March, 1890), 208, as follows: Into Flesh the true bread turneth
By His word, the Word made Flesh; Wine to Blood: while sense discerneth
Nought beyond the sense's mesh,
Faith an awful mystery learneth.
And must teach the soul afresh.
Neale's version is given in the Marquess of Bute's
"Roman Breviary". The Anglican hymnal, "Hymns
Ancient and Modern", declares its version "based on
tr. from Latin by E. Caswall"; but, as Julian points
out, most of it is based on Neale, four of who.so stanzas
it rewrites, while a fifth is rewritten from Caswall
(i. e. the third stanza), and the fourth stanza is Ijy the
compilers. The arrangement found in the Anglican
hymnal is taken bodily into the (Baltimore) " Manual
of Prayers" — a rather infelicitous procedure, as the
fourth stanza is not faithful to the original (Neale,
"Medieval Hymns and Sequences," 181). The last
