Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/290

272 or verse is quick and spirited, as the epic metre is dignified and noble. The iambic dimeter of the hymns to Laurence and Vincent is not unlike the verse form of English ballads. The hymns of the Peristephanoncarry the feeling of the occurrence, and sometimes seem to herald the emotional fulness of late mediaeval verse:—

these lines truly sum up the feeling of the hymn to St. Agnes. One notices that they rhyme, and that the rhyme adds to the surge of feeling.

St. Paulinus Nolanus was born at Bordeaux in 353, and died in 431, at Nola in Campania, where he had taken up his abode through devotion to the blessed Felix, martyr and patron saint. He was an affectionate and gentle person. Nobly born, rich, and wedded to a noble wife, he gave up the world and turned to a life of gentle Christian asceticism. His wife remained his companion; and a sweet affection lasted to the end between this husband and wife, who had become brother and sister in Christ. Many of his letters are in their joint names: Paulinus et Therasia peccatores.

Paulinus had a heart lovingly turned toward Christ and his saints. But he was the pupil of the clever rhetorician and littérateur, Ausonius, whose nominal Christianity did not affect his pagan tastes. The pupil lacked originality to strike out new literary paths. The form of his poems is given by his education, and appears to limit their emotional contents. In a poetic epistle to Ausonius he turns a grateful compliment to his former teacher, which contained