BOOK
IX.

His declaration on avarice is in these phrases :

Next avarice leads the war, and heads a band
Of dense array, conductress of the fight;
She not alone the public streets pervades
With blood-stain'd arms, and shafts in poison dipp'd.
Her base companions follow — frauds and thefts,
A thousand lies, and actions false and vile ;
Base appetites of gain, and perjuries throng:
The hosts of rapine, stain'd with every crime,

Heedless of oaths, joined in an ardent band. 18
His first verses on anger are :

Ferocious wrath the fourth battalion calls,
And, always raging, hurries to the fight;
He breaks the pious peace of brothers' love,
And goads their jarring minds to mutual war ;
Hence impious slaughters

hence the shouts of rage –
And gnashing indignation clamours loud. 19
On vain-glory he exclaims20:-

Qui dominam sprevit nectentem retia luxus,
Et stuprum fugiens pepli velamina liquit:
Idcirco felix meruit Memphitica sceptra.

Maxima Bib. Vetr. Patr, tom. xiii, p. 20.
Post Philargyria producit tertia bellum,
Hæc ductrix pugnæ stipatur milite denso.
Non sola graditur per publica strata pedestris,
Arma cruenta ferens et spicula lita veneno.
Hæc comites pravos, itidem mendacia mille,
Fraudes et fures, ac falsis frivola gestis,
Appetitus turpis lucri et perjuria inepta,
Atque rapinarum maculatos crimine questus,
Conglobat in cuneum cum falsis testibus ardens, Ibid.

Ast vero quartam trux congregat ira catervam,
Quæ semper furibunda cupit discrimina belli :
Et ciet ad pugnam mentes discordia fratrum,
Dum copulata piæ disrumpit fædera pacis,
Ex hoc nascuntur cædes cum strage nefandæ
Et clamor vocis, simul indignatio frendens,

Ibid.
O quam falsa latro spondebat frivola mendax,
Ut concessa rudis fuscaret munera vitæ,
Nonne satis foret, ut quadro cum cardine mundus,

CHAP.

V.

How the false thief his lying promise pours, To darken all the solid bliss of life! And can it not suffice that this fair world, Which round the pole in devious motion glides, Exists to gratify all human needs ? Must heav'nly honours earth's frail children grasp? What crimes, what wrong, to wretched mortals spring From the vain passion of transcendent fame! His Ænigmata may be next considered. Its poetical prologue presents to us a curious instance of that fantastic and difficult versification which some men in former times pursued. Both the beginning and the final letters of the thirty-six hexameters which compose it, present to us, in succession, one of this sentence : « Aldhelmus cecinit inillenis versibus odas.”

Arbiter, ætherio Jupiter qui regmine sceptr A
L ucifluum que simul cæli regale tribuna L
Disponis, moderans æternis legibus illu D
H orrida nam multans torsisti membra Behemot H
E x alto quondam rueret dum luridus arc E
L impida dictanti metrorum carmina præsu L
Munera nunc largire : rudis quo pandere reru M
V ersibus ænigmata queam clandestina fat U.
S i Deus indignis tua gratis dona rependi S
C astalidas nymphas non clamo cantibus istu C
E xamen neque spargebat mihi nectar in or E,
Cinthi sic nunquam perlustro cacumina, sed ne C
I n Parnasso procubui, nec somnia vid I.
N am mihi versificum poterit Deus addere carme N
I nspirans stolidæ pia gratis munera ment I.
T angit si mentem, mox laudem corda rependun T
M etrica : nam Moysen declarant carmina vate M

Quem vertigo poli longis anfractibus ambit,
Usibus humanis serviret rite per ævum,
Infula terrenos ui cæli comat aulumnos ?
Heu scelus, heu facinus, miseris mortalibus ortum !
Et hoc ex vana presertim gloria fretus !

Maxima Bib. Vet. Patr. tom. xiii. p. 21.

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BOOK
IX.

J am dudum cecinisse celebris vexilla tropæ I
L ate per populos inlustria, qua nitidus So L
L ustrat ab Oceani jam tollens gurgite... L
E t Psalmista canens metrorum carmina voc E
Natum divino promit generamine nume N
I n cælis prius exortum, quam Lucifer orb I
Splendida formatis fudisset lumina sæcli S.
V erum si fuerint bene hæc ænigmata vers U
E xplosis penitus nevis et rusticitat E
R itu dactilico recte decursa nec erro R
S eduxit vana specie molimina menti S;
I ncipiam potiora ; seu Deus arida serv I,
B elligero quondam qui vires tradidit Jo B,
Viscera perpetui roris si repleat haust U.
Siccis nam laticis duxisti cautibus amne S
O lim, cum cuneus transgresso marmore rubr 0
D esertum penetrat: cecinit quod carmine Davi D
A rce poli genitor servas qui secula cunct A
Solvere jam scelerum noxas dignare nefanda S.21

These ænigmata consist of twenty tetrastica, or stanzas of four lines, on various subjects; as the earth, the wind, clouds, nature, the rainbow, the moon, fortune, salt, the nettle, and such like-of fourteen pentasticha of five lines, of thirteen hexasticha of six lines each, nineteen stanzas of seven lines, ten of eight lines, eleven of nine lines, and thirteen of ten lines each.

In the collection of Boniface's letters, there is a singular Latin poem in rime, entitled the poem of Aldhelm, Carmen Aldhelmi.

As the rimes of this composition are more remarkable than its poetry, I will cite the first few lines, with a prose translation in the notes :

Tuis pulsatus precibus
Obnixe flagitantibus

CHAP.

V.

Hymnista carmen cecini Dum tremit mundi machina
Atque responsa reddidi Sub ventorum monarchia.
Sicut pridem pepigeram

Ecce nocturno tempore
Quando profectus fueram Orto brumali turbine
Usque diram Domnoniam Quatiens terram tempestas
Per carentem Cornubiam Turbabat atque vastitas
Florulentis cespitibus

Cum fracti venti fædere Et fæcundis graminibus Baccharentur in æthere Elementa inormia

Et rupto retinaculo
Atque facta informia

Desævirent in sæculo. 22
Quassantur sub ætherea
Convexa cæli camera
This poem contains two hundred and four lines in
this measure.

But Aldhelm is also remarkable for having given us a direct testimony of the use of rime in England before the year 700. In his treatise “ De Laudibus Virginitatis,” he says --

“ It may be expressed not unsuitably in rhimed verse (Carmine rythmico):

Christus passus patibulo,
Atque læti latibulo;
Virginem virgo virgini 23

Commendabat tutamini.
This clear and decisive testimony destroys the
favourite system of our men of letters, that the
use of rime in Europe came from the Arabs

22 “ Chaste catholic reader, and strenuous friend; urged by your prayers, earnestly intreating me, I have composed a poem, and returned an answer, as I formerly agreed to do, when I went to dismal Devonshire, through Cornwall, void of flowering turfs and fruitful grass. The vast elements are shaken under the æthereal convex chamber of the sky, while the machine of the world trembles under the monarchy of the winds. Lo! in the night, when the wintry whirlwind has risen, the tempest shakes the earth, and desolation terrifies; when the burst. ing winds rage in the air, and, having broken through their confinement, madden on the earth.”

23 Aldhelm De Laud. s. 7. p. 297. Whart. ed. 1693. See further on this subject the Essays on Rhime in the Archeologia, vol. xiv. p. 168–204.

in Spain. Aldhelm used it before they entered Spain; and the ancient Welsh bards long before Aldhelm.

Our venerable Beds attempted Latin poetry, but the Muses did not smile upon his efforts. His compositions comprise some hymns, some elegiac poetry, and the life of St. Cuthbert in hexameter verse.

This Life consists of a preface and forty-six
chapters, which include nine hundred and seventy-
nine lines. It has little other merit than that
of an Anglo-Saxon labouring at Latin prosody in
the dark period of the seventh century. It has not
the vigour or the fancy which occasionally appear
in Aldhelm's versification ; and therefore a few
passages only will be quoted.
He begins in this humble style :

That many lights should shine in every age
Tillume the loathsome shades of human night
With his celestial flame, the Lord permits :
And tho' our light supreme is Christ divine,
Yet God has sent his saints with humbler rays
To burn within his church. With sacred fire,
Love fills their minds, and Zeal inflames their speech.
He spreads his numerous torches thro' the world,
That the new rays of burning faith, diffused
With starry virtues, every land may fill. 24
His invocation is much inferior to Aldhelm's:-

24

Multa suis Dominus fulgescere lumina seclis
Donavit, tetricas humanæ noctis ut umbras
Lustraret divina poli de culmine flamma.
Et licet ipse deo natus de lumine Christus
Lux sit summa, Deus sanctos quoque jure lucernæ
Ecclesiæ rutilare dedit, quibus igne magistro
Sensibus instet amor, sermonibus æstuat ardor,
Multifidos varium lychnos qui sparsit in orbem.
Ut cunctum nova lux fidei face fusa sub axem
Omnia sideris virtutibus arva repleret. Smith's Bede, p. 268.