Mater Specioſa, with its tranſlation, the laſt work of Dr. John Maſon Neale. This long-loſt lyric has recently been introduced to American readers by Dr. Schaff, who has briefly told its ſtory, and thus admirably analyzed its relation to the Stabat Mater:—
"While the latter has been known and admired for nearly five centuries, the former, though probably as old, was buried in obſcurity, until it was brought to light in our day by A. F. Ozanam in his work on the Franciſcan Poets, and in the improved German edition of this work by Julius, with an admirable tranſlation of the hymn by Cardinal Diepenbrock, then biſhop of Breſlau. The poem has alſo attracted the attention of Engliſh hymnologiſts, and been tranſlated for the firſt time into Engliſh by the late Dr. John Maſon Neale, who published the original Latin with the tranſlation a few days before his death, in Auguſt, 1866, thus cloſing his uſeful and brilliant hymnological labors.
The Mater Specioſa and the Mater Doloroſa are, apparently, the product of the ſame genius. They are companion-hymns, and reſemble each other like twin ſiſters. The Mater Doloroſa was evidently ſuggeſted by the Scripture ſcene, as briefly ſtated by St. John, Stabat juxta crucem mater ejus; and this again, ſuggeſted the cradle-hymn as a counterpart. It is a paralleliſm of contraſt which runs from beginning to end. The Mater Specioſa is a Chriſtmas hymn, and ſings the overflowing joy of Mary at the cradle of the new-born Saviour. The Mater Doloroſa is a Good Friday hymn, and ſings the piercing agony of Mary at the croſs of her