As an Easter greeting to the Mantovani, I present an extract from the
"Christiad" ("Virgilii evangelisantis Christiados libri XIII. In quibus
omnia quæ de Domino nostro Iesu Christo in Utroque Testamento, vel dicta
vel prædicta sunt, altisona Divina Maronis tuba suavissime
decantantur"London 1638) of Alexander Ross (1591-1654). This poem of
11,000 hexameters is a cento drawn from Virgil's works.
From"The Christiad".XI.
[In the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ looks sorrowfully at the scenes
engraved on a gold cup, which had been specially commissioned
by God the Father from the angels("alati iuvenes")Brontes,Steropes and
Pyracmon who make the divine lightning.The cup is the metaphorical cup
of suffering mentioned at St Mark XIV.36 (Cf.St LukeXXII.42;St Matthew
XXVI.39).]
At Christus, tristes oculos per singula volvens,
miraturque interque manus et brachia versat
fatiferam ex auro calicem longeque micantem.
hic vatum gnari aligeri[i.e.angeli] sortisque futuræ
annales venturorum finxere laborum:
namque oras circum calicis cælantur in auro
fortia Christiadum facta et de morte triumphi.
hic sese in ligno pendentem agnovit Iesus.
tendentemque manum, et Genitorem voce vocantem.
stant mæstæ circum matres, crinemque solutæ
pectora percutiunt,oculis argentea manant
flumina; tum Mariam pallentem morte futura
insontis nati cælavit spiritus ales[i.e.faber angelicus].
conspicit haud procul hinc excisum in rupe sepulchrum,
et matres sibi defuncto suprema ferentes.
tum descendentem manes se cernit ad imos,
atque reportantem de Dite et morte trophæa,
moxque resurgentem, et super omnia sidera cæli
evectum, et patria sublimem in sede locatum"
Happy Easter.
In diem festum Paschæ optima vobis, o Mantovani,ominor.
Peter JVD Bryant
Perth
Western Australia
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