Volume 1 — A HYMN TO THE NAME AND HONOR OF THE ADMIRABLE SAINTE TERESA:
Reading edition
Fovndresse of the Reformation of the discalced Carmelites, both men and women; a Woman for angelicall heigth of speculation, for masculine courage of performance more then a woman: who yet a child, out-ran maturity, and durst plott a Martyrdome;
Misericordias Domini in Æternvm cantabo.
Le Vray portraict de Ste Terese, Fondatrice des Religieuses et Religieux reformez de l'ordre de N. Dame du mont Carmel: Decedee le 4e Octo. 1582. Canonisee le 12e Mars. 1622.[48]
The Hymne.
Loue, thou art absolute, sole lord1 Of life and death. To proue the word Wee'l now appeal to none of all Those thy old souldiers, great and tall, Ripe men of martyrdom, that could reach down5 With strong armes, their triumphant crown; Such as could with lusty breath Speak lowd into the face of death, Their great Lord's glorious name, to none Of those whose spatious bosomes spread a throne10 For Love at large to fill; spare blood and sweat: And see him take a priuate seat, Making his mansion in the mild And milky soul of a soft child. Scarse has she learn't to lisp the name15 Of martyr; yet she thinks it shame Life should so long play with that breath Which spent can buy so braue a death. She neuer vndertook to know What Death with Loue should haue to doe;20 Nor has she e're yet vnderstood Why to show loue, she should shed blood, Yet though she cannot tell you why She can love, and she can dy. Scarse has she blood enough to make25 A guilty sword blush for her sake; Yet has she a heart dares hope to proue How much lesse strong is Death then Love. Be Loue but there; let poor six yeares Be pos'd with the maturest feares30 Man trembles at, you straight shall find Love knowes no nonage, nor the mind; 'Tis love, not yeares or limbs that can Make the martyr, or the man. Love touch't her heart, and lo it beates35 High, and burnes with such braue heates; Such thirsts to dy, as dares drink vp A thousand cold deaths in one cup. Good reason: for she breathes all fire; Her white brest heaues with strong desire40 Of what she may with fruitles wishes Seek for amongst her mother's kisses. Since 'tis not to be had at home She'l trauail to a martyrdom. No home for hers confesses she45 But where she may a martyr be. Moors She'l to the Moores; and trade with them For this vnualued diadem: She'l offer them her dearest breath, With Christ's name in't, in change for death:50 She'l bargain with them; and will giue Them God; teach them how to liue In Him: or, if they this deny, For Him she'l teach them how to dy: So shall she leaue amongst them sown55 least Her Lord's blood; or at lest her own. Farewel then, all the World! adieu! Teresa is no more for you. Farewell, all pleasures, sports, and ioyes (Never till now esteemèd toyes)60 Farewell, what ever deare may bee, Mother's armes or father's knee: Farewell house, and farewell home! She's for the Moores, and martyrdom. Sweet, not so fast! lo thy fair Spouse65 Whom thou seekst with so swift vowes; Calls thee back, and bidds thee come T'embrace a milder martyrdom. Blest powres forbid, thy tender life Should bleed vpon a barbarous knife:70 Or some base hand haue power to raze Thy brest's chast cabinet, and vncase A soul kept there so sweet: O no, Wise Heaun will neuer have it so. Thou art Love's victime; and must dy75 A death more mysticall and high: Into Loue's armes thou shalt let fall A still-suruiuing funerall. His is the dart must make the death Whose stroke shall tast thy hallow'd breath;80 A dart thrice dip't in that rich flame Which writes thy Spouse's radiant name Vpon the roof of Heau'n, where ay It shines; and with a soueraign ray Beates bright vpon the burning faces85 Of soules which in that Name's sweet graces Find euerlasting smiles: so rare, So spirituall, pure, and fair Must be th' immortall instrument Vpon whose choice point shall be sent90 A life so lou'd: and that there be Fitt executioners for thee, The fair'st and first-born sons of fire Blest seraphim, shall leaue their quire, And turn Loue's souldiers, vpon thee95 To exercise their archerie. O how oft shalt thou complain Of a sweet and subtle pain: Of intolerable ioyes: Of a death, in which who dyes100 Loues his death, and dyes again And would for euer so be slain. And liues, and dyes; and knowes not why To liue, but that he thus may neuer leaue to dy. How kindly will thy gentle heart105 Kisse the sweetly-killing dart! And close in his embraces keep Those delicious wounds, that weep Balsom to heal themselves with: thus When these thy deaths, so numerous110 Shall all at last dy into one, And melt thy soul's sweet mansion; Like a soft lump of incense, hasted By too hott a fire, and wasted Into perfuming clouds, so fast115 Shalt thou exhale to Heaun at last In a resoluing sigh, and then O what? Ask not the tongues of men; Angells cannot tell; suffice Thy selfe shall feel thine own full ioyes,120 And hold them fast for euer there. So soon as thou shalt first appear, The moon of maiden starrs, thy white Mistresse, attended by such bright Soules as thy shining self, shall come125 And in her first rankes make thee room; Where 'mongst her snowy family Immortall wellcomes wait for thee. O what delight, when reueal'd Life shall stand, And teach thy lipps Heaun with His hand;130 On which thou now maist to thy wishes Heap vp thy consecrated kisses. What ioyes shall seize thy soul, when she, Bending her blessed eyes on Thee, (Those second smiles of Heau'n,) shall dart135 Her mild rayes through Thy melting heart. Angels, thy old friends, there shall greet thee Glad at their own home now to meet thee. All thy good workes which went before And waited for thee, at the door,140 Shall own thee there; and all in one Weaue a constellation Of crowns, with which the King thy Spouse Shall build vp thy triumphant browes. All thy old woes shall now smile on thee,145 And thy paines sitt bright vpon thee, All thy sorrows here shall shine, All thy svfferings be diuine: Teares shall take comfort, and turn gemms And wrongs repent to diademms.150 Eu'n thy death shall liue; and new- Dresse the soul that erst he slew. Thy wounds shall blush to such bright scarres As keep account of the Lamb's warres. Those rare workes where thou shalt leaue writt155 Loue's noble history, with witt Taught thee by none but Him, while here They feed our soules, shall clothe thine there. Each heaunly word, by whose hid flame Our hard hearts shall strike fire, the same160 Shall flourish on thy browes, and be Both fire to vs and flame to thee; Whose light shall liue bright in thy face By glory, in our hearts by grace. Thou shalt look round about, and see165 Thousands of crown'd soules throng to be Themselues thy crown: sons of thy vowes The virgin-births with which thy soueraign Spouse Made fruitfull thy fair soul. Goe now And with them all about thee, bow170 To Him; put on (Hee'l say) put on (My rosy loue) that thy rich zone Sparkling with the sacred flames Of thousand soules, whose happy names Heau'n keep vpon thy score: (Thy bright175 Life brought them first to kisse the light, That kindled them to starrs,) and so Thou with the Lamb, thy Lord, shalt goe, And whereso'ere He setts His white Stepps, walk with Him those wayes of light,180 Which who in death would liue to see, Must learn in life to dy like thee.
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
The original edition (1646) has this title, 'In memory of the Vertuous and Learned Lady Madre de Teresa, that sought an early Martyrdome;' and so also in 1648. 1670 agrees with 1652; only the Latin line above the portrait and the French verses are omitted.
The text of 1646 furnishes a number of variations corrective in part of all the subsequent editions. These are recorded below. 1648 agrees substantially with 1652: but a few unimportant readings peculiar to it are also given in these Notes.
Various readings from 1646 edition.
Line 3, 'Wee need to goe to none of all.' " 4, 'stout' for 'great.' " 5, 'ripe and full growne.' " 8, 'unto' for 'into;' the latter preferable. " 10, 'Of those whose large breasts built a throne.' " 11-13,
'For Love their Lord, glorious and great Weel see Him take a private seat, And make ...'
I have hesitated whether this ought not to have been adopted as our text; but it is a characteristic of Crashaw to introduce abruptly long and short lines as in our text, and to carry a thought or metaphor through a number of lines.
Line 15, 'had' for 'has,' and 'a' for 'the.' " 21, 'hath,' and so in 1648 edition. " 23, our text (1652) misprints 'enough:' I correct from 1648. " 25, 'had,' 1648 'hath.' " 27, 1648, 'hath.' " 31, 'wee' for 'you.' Line 37, 'thirst' for 'thirsts,' and 'dare' for 'dares.' " 38 spells 'coled.' " 40, 'weake' for 'white;' the latter a favourite epithet with Crashaw: 1648 'weake.' Line 43, 1648 drops 'at' inadvertently. " 44 spells 'travell:' 1648 has 'for' instead of 'to.' " 45, 'her,' by misprint for 'her's.' " 47, 1648 has 'try' for 'trade.' " 49, 'Shee offers.' 57 spells 'adeiu.' " 61, this line is by oversight dropped from our text (1652). Line 70, spelled 'barborous' in our text, but I have adopted 'a' from 1646 and 1648. Line 71, 'race' for 'raze;' a common contemporary spelling. " 77, 'hand' for 'armes.' " 93, 'The fairest, and the first borne Loves of fire.' " 94, 'Seraphims,' the usual misspelling of the plural of seraph in our English Bible. Line 104, 'To live, but that he still may dy.' " 106, our text (1652) misreads 'sweetly-kissing.' I have adopted 'sweetly-killing' from 1646, 1648 and 1670. Line 108, 1648 has 'thine' for 'his.' " 118, 'disolving.' " 123, our text (1652) inadvertently drops 'shalt,' and misreads 'you' for 'thou.' I accept the text of 1646, 1648 and 1670. Line 129, 'on.' " 130, 'shee' for 'reueal'd Life;' and in next line 'her' for 'His.' Our text (1652) is preferable, as pointing to Christ the Life, our Life. See under lines 11-13. Line 133, 'joy.' " 146, 'set;' a common contemporary spelling. " 147, this line, dropped inadvertently from our text (1652), is restored from 1646, 1648 and 1670. Line 148, 'And' for 'All.' " 151, 'Even thy deaths.' " 152, 'Dresse the soul that late they slew.' " 167 misprints 'nowes;' corrected in 1648, but not in 1670. " 168 drops 'soueraign.' See under lines 11-13. " 175, 'keeps.' " 178, 'shall.' Cf. Rev. xiv. 5, as before. G.
