Part 26 (1/2)

”IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD”. Alas!

The first line stops me: how shall I proceed?

”The word” cannot express the meaning here.

I must translate the pa.s.sage differently, If by the spirit I am rightly guided.

Once more,--”IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE THOUGHT”.-- Consider the first line attentively, Lest hurrying on too fast, you lose the meaning.

Was it then Thought that has created all things?

Can thought make matter? Let us try the line Once more,--”IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE POWER”-- This will not do--even while I write the phrase, I feel its faults--oh! help me, holy Spirit, I 'll weigh the pa.s.sage once again, and write Boldly,--”IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE ACT”.

Anster's ”Faustus”, Francfort ed., 1841, p. 63.

5. The same line of argument is worked out with wonderful subtlety of thought and beauty of poetical expression by Calderon, in one of the finest of his Autos Sacramentales, ”The Sacred Parna.s.sus”. Autos Sacramentales, tom. vi. p. 10.

6. The metre reverts here again to the asonante form, which is kept up for the remainder of this act. The vowels here used are e, e, or their equivalents.

7. ”This Clytie knew, and knew she was undone, Whose soul was fix'd, and doted on the sun”.

OVID, Metamorphoses, b. iv.

8. In the whole of this scene the asonante vowels are a-e, or their equivalents.

9. The asonante in e-e, recommences here, and continues until the entry of Chrysanthus.

10. The metre changes to the asonante in a-e for the remainder of this Act.

11. The asonante in this scene is generally in o-e, o-o, o-a, which are nearly all alike in sound. In the second scene the asonante is in a-e, as in ”scAttEr”, etc.

12. See note referring to the auto, ”The Sacred Parna.s.sus”, Act 1, p.

21.

13. The asonante changes here into five-lined stanzas in ordinary rhyme. Three lines rhyme one way and two the other. Poems in this metre are called in Spanish 'Versos de arte mayor,' from the greater skill supposed to be required for their composition.

14. The asonante is single here, consisting only of the long accented o, as in ”ROme”, ”glObe”, ”dOme”, etc.

15. Champion, or combater, the name generally given the Cid.

16. The metre changes to an irregular couplet in long and short lines.

17. The metre changes to the double asonante in e-e, which continues to the end of the drama.

18. Baptism by blood and fire through martyrdom. Calderon refers here evidently to the words of St. John the Baptist: ”He shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost and fire”--St. Matth., c. iii. v. ii. The following pa.s.sage in the Legend of St. Catherine must also have been present to his mind:

”Et c.u.m dolerent, quod sine baptismo decederent, virgo respondit: Ne timeatis, quia effusio vestri sanguinis vobis baptismus reputabitur et corona”. Legenda Aurea, c. 167.