Flecte ramos.
Flecte ramos, arbor alta, tensa laxa viscera,
et rigor lentescat ille quem dedit nativitas,
ut superni membra regis mite tendas stipite.
Neale:
Bend thy boughs, O tree of glory!
Thy relaxing sinews bend;
For awhile the ancient rigour
That thy birth bestowed, suspend;
And the King of heavenly beauty
On thy bosom gently tend.
An astonishing stanza. The governing conceit is the personification of the
cross, as a woman, and specifically as Mary, the mother of Jesus. We had a
hint of this in the previous stanza with 'germine'. Neale renders 'viscera'
perfectly correctly as 'sinews', but it can also mean 'womb'. Neale can't
bring in that nuance, but compensates, I think with justice, by bringing in
'bosom' in the last line, which reads literally,
that you may tend the limbs of the heavenly king on the gentle tree.
Neale was an excellent medievalist - well, I think so - and is good at
spotting an allusion which is only hinted at in the Latin and spelling it
out, as one has to, in English.
Notice 'nativitas' in the second line - this tree has been 'born' -
reinforcing the personification (prosopopoeia?) and by bringing in the idea
of birth, subtly suggesting Mary giving birth to Jesus.
The connexion of Mary with the cross derives from the belief that the
crucifixion, the first Good Friday, occurred on 25th March, the date of the
Annunciation, that is, when Christ became incarnate in the womb of Mary.
This has been the subject of a fine article by Eamonn O Carragain,
"Liturgical innovations associated with Pope Sergius and the iconography of
the Ruthwell and Bewcastle Crosses" in "Bede and Anglo-Saxon England:
Papers in honour of the 1300th anniversary of the birth of Bede, given at
Cornell University in 1973 and 1974", edited by Robert T. Farrell, British
Archaeological Reports 46 (1978), pages 131-147.
I quote:
"Christ's nativity was liturgically celebrated on the winter solstice of the
Julian calendar, 25 December. It followed that his conception took place
exactly nine months previously, at the spring equinox, and Christ was
believed to have died on the thirty-third anniversary of his conception,
exactly thirty-two years and three months after his nativity.
"From the eighth century onwards, this tradition was to be overshadowed by
the celebration of the annunciation on 25 March; but throughout the
Anglo-Saxon period the idea that the annunciation coincided with the
anniversary of the crucifixion was a perfectly familiar one."
I do encourage punters to read this fascinating article for themselves.
The Annunciation and Crucifixion were linked in the post-communion collect
for the feast of the Annunciation:
Gratiam tuam, quesumus, Domine, mentibus nostris infunde: ut qui angelo
nuntiante Christi Filii tui INCARNATIONEM cognovimus, per PASSIONEM ejus et
CRUCEM ad resurrectionis gloriam perducamur. Per eundem. [Gregorian
Sacramentary]
Cranmer, in the Book of Common Prayer, made this the principal collect
("opening prayer") for the Annunciation, as he objected to the existing one,
and translated it rather happily:
We beseech thee, O Lord, pour thy grace into our hearts; that, as we have
known the INCARNATION of thy Son Jesus Christ by the message of an angel, so
by his CROSS and PASSION we may be brought unto the glory of his
resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.
The prayer (unfortunately, I feel) has no place in the modern Roman Mass for
the Annunciation, but is still used at the end of the devotion known as the
Angelus.
Anyway, Fortunatus makes of all this the brilliant image of the cross
bearing Jesus out of the world, corresponding to Mary bearing him into the
world.
We shall look at the equally fine last stanza tomorrow.
Doctor Elasticus.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|