Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/397

 9*s. viii. NOV. 9, loci.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

389

Throughout the discussion, original hymns and translations have been measured by the same tests. This not a little confuses the issue. I submit that in the case of original compositions many a phrase which has been disallowed, for use in public worship would be tolerated admired even as a poetical flight. Two allied examples occur to me : (1) Charles Wesley's "Jesu, lover of my soul ! : Borrowed probably from the Apo- cryphal Wisdom of Solomon, xi. 26 : " Thou sparest all, for they are Thine, O Lord, Thou lover of souls." (2) F. W. Faber's "Jesus, our Love, is crucified." The phrase is from St. Ignatius's 6 e/*os epoos ecrravpcorou. One of John Mason's * Spiritual Songs ' (1683) begins : " My Lord, my Love, was crucified " ; and the refrain to each stanza of 0. Wesley's "O Love Divine, what hast Thou done ? " is "My Lord, my Love, is crucified."

Some alterations (e.g., in 'Rock of Ages,' " When my eye-strings crack ") may surely be permitted. But the licence ought not to be used " at the pleasure " (as James Montgomery pathetically complains) of any one, " however incompetent or little qualified to amend what he may deem amiss in one of the most delicate and difficult exercises of a tender heart and an enlightened under- standing."
 * When mine eyelids close in death " for

A striking instance of an alteration not beyond criticism, yet universally accepted is found in the opening lines of 0. Wesley ; s 'Hymn for Christmas Day' (1739): "Hark how all the welkin rings, * Glory to the King of kings.'" Already in 1753, in G. White- field's k Collection,' the modern form appears : " Hark, the herald angels sing, Glory to the new-born King ! " Here the original plainly agrees with while the correction varies from the Gospel statement : " praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest ! " The word " welkin " could scarcely have become obsolete if that was the motive for the change in ten years.

Since Sir Roundell Palmer's (Lord Sel- borne's) vigorous protest at the Church Congress at York, purity of text in hymns has become an article of faith with most compilers. If a change is thought necessary it is avowed. Thus, in Bishop Bickers teth's third edition, 1890, of 'The Hymnal Com- panion' the index reads: "Nearer, my God, to Thee, var. Sarah Adams." One ex- tensive alteration ("Though night steal over me, My rest a stone, As o'er the patriarch Weary and lone") has been ventured on "for grammar's sake." "Stony rock" is read for "stony griefs." "And the last

verse has been recast to bring the whole

iymn within the perspective of Jacob's vow, Genesis xxxviii." The "thoroughness" of this proceeding is naive, indeed.

Three of C. C. B.'s examples are transla- tions : "Oh, what the joy " (235), from Peter Abelard's " O quanta qualia " ; " To the Name " 179), from the anonymous ' Gloriosi Salva- toris ' ; and " Sing, my tongue " (97), from ' Pange lingua gloriosi prcelii certarnina," by V. H. C. Fortunatus. Here the critic's task is much simplified. CHAS. P. PHINN.

Watford.

Should not the impugned verse of the hymn 1 Nearer, my God, to Thee,' read : Though like the wanderer The sun gone down, Darkness come over me, My rest a stone- Yet in my dreams I 'd be, &c. ?

The " nominative absolute " in the third line seems to clear up the difficulty, and iny impression is that it is the original reading.

MARSHALSEA AND KING'S BENCH PRISONERS (9 th S. viii. 164). The under-mentioned works, which are in the Corporation Library, Guildhall, E.C., may be of assistance to your correspondent :

' A list of all the prisoners in the upper Bench prison remaining in custody the third of May. London, 1653."

"A list of the prisoners of the upper Bench prison who have taken the benefit of the Act of Parliament for the relief of poor prisoners. London, 1653."

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

SILVERSMITH'S SIGNATURE (9 tl ? S. viii. 284). According to Cripps's 'Old English Plate' (1899), the silversmith whose signature was S. O. flourished very early in the seventeenth century. Some straight-sided tankard-flagons, dated 1608, and so marked, are preserved in the chapel of Brasenose College, Oxford. At Eton College are a ewer and salver, repousse with marine monsters in oval cartouches, the work of the same master of his craft, and dated 1610. They appear to have been presented to the College three years later.

HARRY HEMS.

Fair Park, Exeter.

"OBELISK" (9 th S. viii. 285). The word for obelisk in ancient Egyptian was benben. It was held to be a symbol or embodiment of Ra, the sun god. His shrine or temple, of which there were many, was called Hat- benben, "House of the Obelisk," the hiero- glyphic determination of the word being an