Page:The Mediaeval Mind Vol 2.djvu/106

94 greatest of Latin mediaeval hymn-writers, Alanus has good claim to be called the greatest of mediaeval Latin poets in the field of didactic and narrative poetry.

The many works ascribed to Alanus include an allegorical Commentary on Canticles, a treatise on the art of preaching, a book of sententiae, another of theologicae regulae, sundry sermons, and a lengthy work "contra haereticos"; also a large dictionary of Biblical allegorical interpretations, entitled Liber in distinctionibus dictionum theologicalium. All these are prose. He composed besides his Liber de planctu naturae, and his Anticlaudianus, a learned and profound, and likewise highly imaginative allegorical poem upon man. Its Preface in prose casts a curious light upon the author's enigmatical personality, which combined the wonted or conventional humility of a monk with the towering self-consciousness of a man of genius.

"The lightning scorns to spend its force on twigs, but breaks the proud tops of exalted trees. The wind's imperious rage passes over the reed and drives the assaults of its wild blasts against the highest summits. Wherefore let not envy's flame strike the pinched humility of my work, nor detraction's breath overwhelm the driven poverty of my little book, where misery's wreck demands a port of pity, far more than felicity provokes the sting of spite."

More sentences of turgid deprecation follow, and the author begs the reader not to approach his book with disgust and irritation, but with pleasant anticipations of novelty (not all a monk speaks here!).

"For although the book may not bloom with the purple vestment of flowering speech, nor shine with the constellated light of the flashing period, still in the tenuity of the fragile reed the honey's sweetness may be found, and parched thirst can be tempered with