Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan Part 2

And laid in a manger because He had no room in the inn.

Glory to G.o.d in the highest: and on earth peace to men of good will."{11}

[Ill.u.s.tration:

JACOPONE IN ECSTASY BEFORE THE VIRGIN.

From "Laude di Frate Jacopone da Todi"

(Florence, 1490).]

It is in the poetry of Jacopone da Todi, born shortly after the death of St. Francis, that the Franciscan Christmas spirit finds its most intense expression. A wild, wandering ascetic, an impa.s.sioned poet, and a soaring mystic, Jacopone is one of the greatest of Christian singers, unpolished as his verses are. n.o.ble by birth, he made himself utterly as the common people for whom he piped his rustic notes. "Dio fatto piccino" ("G.o.d made a little thing") is the keynote of his music; the Christ Child is for him "our sweet little brother"; with tender affection he rejoices in endearing diminutives--"Bambolino," "Piccolino," "Jesulino." He sings of the Nativity with extraordinary realism.[13] Here, in words, is a picture of the Madonna and her Child that might well have inspired an early Tuscan artist:--

"Veggiamo il s...o...b..mbino Gammettare nel fieno, E le braccia scoperte Porgere ad ella in seno, 40 Ed essa lo ricopre El meglio che pu almeno, Mettendoli la poppa Entro la sua bocchina.

A la sua man manca, Cullava lo Bambino, E con sante carole Nenciava il suo amor fino....

Gli Angioletti d' intorno Se ne gian danzando, Facendo dolci versi E d' amor favellando."[14]{12}

But there is an intense sense of the divine, as well as the human, in the Holy Babe; no one has felt more vividly the paradox of the Incarnation:--

"Ne la degna stalla del dolce Bambino Gli Angeli cantano d' intorno al piccolino; Cantano e gridano gli Angeli diletti, Tutti riverenti timidi e subietti, 41 Al Bambolino principe de gli eletti, Che nudo giace nel pungente spino.

Il Verbo divino, che e sommo sapiente, In questo d par che non sappia niente, Guardal su' l fieno, che gambetta piangente, Como elli non fusse huomo divino."[15]{13}

Here, again, are some sweet and homely lines about preparation for the Infant Saviour:--

"Andiamo a lavare La casa a nettare, Che non trovi bruttura.

Poi el menaremo, Et gli daremo Ben da ber' e mangiare.

Un cibo espiato, Et d' or li sia dato Senza alcuna dimura.

Lo cor adempito Dagiamoli fornito Senza odio ne rancura."[16]{14}

42 There have been few more rapturous poets than Jacopone; men deemed him mad; but, "if he is mad," says a modern Italian writer, "he is mad as the lark"--"Nessun poeta canta a tutta gola come questo frate minore. S'

e pazzo, e pazzo come l' allodola."

To him is attributed that most poignant of Latin hymns, the "Stabat Mater dolorosa"; he wrote also a joyous Christmas pendant to it:--

"Stabat Mater speciosa, Juxta foenum gaudiosa, Dum jacebat parvulus.

Cujus animam gaudentem, Laetabundam ac ferventem, Pertransivit jubilus."[17]{15}

In the fourteenth century we find a blossoming forth of Christmas poetry in another land, Germany.{16} There are indeed Christmas and Epiphany pa.s.sages in a poetical Life of Christ by Otfrid of Weissenburg in the ninth century, and a twelfth-century poem by Spervogel, "Er ist gewaltic unde starc," opens with a mention of Christmas, but these are of little importance for us. The fourteenth century shows the first real outburst, and that is traceable, in part at least, to the mystical movement in the Rhineland caused by the preaching of the great Dominican, Eckhart of Strasburg, and his followers. It was a movement towards inward piety as distinguished from, though not excluding, external observances, which made its way largely by sermons listened to by great congregations in the towns. Its impulse came not from the monasteries proper, but from the convents of Dominican friars, and it was for Germany in the fourteenth century something like what Franciscanism had been for Italy in the thirteenth. One of the central doctrines of the school 43 was that of the Divine Birth in the soul of the believer; according to Eckhart the soul comes into immediate union with G.o.d by "bringing forth the Son"

within itself; the historic Christ is the symbol of the divine humanity to which the soul should rise: "when the soul bringeth forth the Son," he says, "it is happier than Mary."{17} Several Christmas sermons by Eckhart have been preserved; one of them ends with the prayer, "To this Birth may that G.o.d, who to-day is new born as man, bring us, that we, poor children of earth, may be born in Him as G.o.d; to this may He bring us eternally! Amen."{18} With this profound doctrine of the Divine Birth, it was natural that the German mystics should enter deeply into the festival of Christmas, and one of the earliest of German Christmas carols, "Es komt ein schif geladen," is the work of Eckhart's disciple, John Tauler (d. 1361). It is perhaps an adaptation of a secular song:--

"A s.h.i.+p comes sailing onwards With a precious freight on board; It bears the only Son of G.o.d, It bears the Eternal Word."

The doctrine of the mystics, "Die in order to live," fills the last verses:--

"Whoe'er would hope in gladness To kiss this Holy Child, Must suffer many a pain and woe, Patient like Him and mild;

Must die with Him to evil And rise to righteousness, That so with Christ he too may share Eternal life and bliss."{19}

To the fourteenth century may perhaps belong an allegorical carol still sung in both Catholic and Protestant Germany:--

"Es ist ein Ros entsprungen Aus einer Wurzel zart, 44 Als uns die Alten sungen, Von Jesse kam die Art, Und hat ein Blumlein bracht, Mitten im kalten Winter, Wohl zu der halben Nacht.

Das Roslein, das ich meine, Davon Jesajas sagt, Hat uns gebracht alleine Marie, die reine Magd.

Aus Gottes ew'gem Rat Hat sie ein Kind geboren Wohl zu der halben Nacht."[18]{20}

In a fourteenth-century Life of the mystic Heinrich Suso it is told how one day angels came to him to comfort him in his sufferings, how they took him by the hand and led him to dance, while one began a glad song of the child Jesus, "In dulci jubilo." To the fourteenth century, then, dates back that most delightful of German carols, with its interwoven lines of Latin. I may quote the fine Scots translation in the "G.o.dlie and Spirituall Sangis" of 1567:--

"_In dulci Jubilo_, Now lat us sing with myrth and jo Our hartis consolatioun lyis _in praesepio_, And schynis as the Sone, _Matris in gremio_, _Alpha es et O, Alpha es et O._ _O Jesu parvule!_ I thrist sore efter the, 45 Confort my hart and mynde, _O puer optime_, G.o.d of all grace sa kynde, _et princeps gloriae_ _Trahe me post te, Trahe me post te_.

_Ubi sunt gaudia_, in ony place bot thair, Quhair that the Angellis sing _Nova cantica_, Bot and the bellis ring _in regis curia_, G.o.d gif I war thair, G.o.d gif I war thair."{21}

The music of "In dulci jubilo"[19] has, with all its religious feeling, something of the nature of a dance, and unites in a strange fas.h.i.+on solemnity, playfulness, and ecstatic delight. No other air, perhaps, shows so perfectly the reverent gaiety of the carol spirit.

The fifteenth century produced a realistic type of German carol. Here is the beginning of one such:--

"Da Jesu Krist geboren wart, do was es kalt; in ain klaines kripplein er geleget wart.

Da stunt ain esel und ain rint, die atmizten uber das hailig kint gar unverborgen.

Der ain raines herze hat, der darf nit sorgen."[20]{22}

It goes on to tell in nave language the story of the wanderings of the Holy Family during the Flight into Egypt.

This carol type lasted, and continued to develop, in Austria and the Catholic parts of Germany through the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, and even in the nineteenth. In Carinthia in the early nineteenth century, almost every parish had its local poet, who added new songs to the old treasury.{23} Particularly popular were the _Hirtenlieder_ or shepherd songs, in which the peasant wors.h.i.+ppers joined themselves to the shepherds of Bethlehem, and sought to share their devout 46 emotions. Often these carols are of the most rustic character and in the broadest dialect. They breathe forth a great kindliness and homeliness, and one could fill pages with quotations. Two more short extracts must, however, suffice to show their quality.

How warm and hearty is their feeling for the Child:--

"Du herzliabste Muater, gib Acht auf dos Kind, Es is ja gar frostig, thuas einfatschen gschwind.

Und du alter Voda, decks Kindlein schen zua, Sonst hats von der Kolden und Winden kan Ruah.

Hiazt nemen mir Urlaub, o gettliches Kind, Thua unser gedenken, verzeich unser Sund.

Es freut uns von Herzen da.s.s d'ankomen bist; Es hatt uns ja niemand zu helfen gewist."[21]{24}

And what fatherly affection is here:--

"Das Kind is in der Krippen glogn, So herzig und so rar!

Mei klaner Hansl war nix dgogn, Wenn a glei schener war.

Kolschwarz wie d'Kirchen d'Augen sein, Sunst aber kreidenweiss; Die Hand so hubsch recht zart und fein, I hans angrurt mit Fleiss.

Aft hats auf mi an Schmutza gmacht, An Hoscheza darzue; O warst du mein, hoan i gedacht, Werst wol a munter Bue.

Dahoam in meiner Kachelstub Liess i brav hoazen ein, Do in den Stal kimt uberal Der kalte Wind herein."[22]{25}

47 We have been following on German ground a mediaeval tradition that has continued unbroken down to modern days; but we must now take a leap backward in time, and consider the beginnings of the Christmas carol in England.

Not till the fifteenth century is there any outburst of Christmas poetry in English, though other forms of religious lyrics were produced in considerable numbers in the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries.

When the carols come at last, they appear in the least likely of all places, at the end of a versifying of the whole duty of man, by John Awdlay, a blind chaplain of Haghmon, in Shrops.h.i.+re. In red letters he writes:--

"I pray you, sirus, boothe moore and lase, Sing these caroles in Cristemas,"