Nec facta est tamen illa parens impune, quod almi Tam parcens uteri venerit ille puer. Una haec nascentis quodcunque pepercerit hora. Toto illum vitae tempore parturiit. Gaudia parturientis erat semel ille parenti; Quotidie gemitus parturientis erat.
_On the blessed Virgin's easy parturition._
Not lightly she escap'd a mother's doom, Although her Child dealt gently with her womb: Whate'er was spar'd at the one hour of birth, She travail'd with Him all His time on earth: The joy of childbirth quickly pass'd away; She felt the pangs of childbirth every day. R. WI.
Circulus hic similem quam par sibi pergit in orbem! Principiumque suum quam bene finis amat! Virgineo thalamo quam pulchre convenit ille, Quo nemo jacuit, virgineus tumulus! Undique ut haec aequo passu res iret; et ille Josepho desponsatus, et ille fuit.
_Upon our Saviour's tombe, wherein never man was laid._
How life and death in Thee Agree! Thou hadst a virgin wombe And tombe: A Joseph did betroth Them both. CR.
See how a circle tends, Beginning as it ends: Behold a virgin womb; Behold a virgin tomb; Behold, and wonder at the truth, A Joseph was espous'd to both! G.
_In Sanctum igneis linguis descendentem Spiritum._ Act. ii. 3.
Absint, qui ficto simulant pia pectora vultu, Ignea quos luteo pectore lingua beat. Hoc potius mea vota rogant, mea thura petessunt, Ut mihi sit mea mens ignea, lingua luti.
_On the Holy Spirit descending in fiery tongues._
Begone, who goodness feign with a false face, Whom fiery tongues in earthy bosom grace. This rather all my prayers and gifts desire, A tongue of earth, if but my heart be fire. R. WI.
_Whosoever will loose his life, &c._ Matt. xvi. 25.
Soe I may gaine Thy death, my life I'le giue,-- My life's Thy death, and in Thy death I liue; Or else, my life, I'le hide thee in His graue, By three daies losse æternally to saue. CR.
Æternall Loue! what 'tis to loue Thee well, None but himselfe who feeles it, none can tell. But oh, what to be lou'd of Thee as well, None, not himselfe who feeles it, none can tell. CR.
Whether intentionally, or with his usual carelessness, the two following important and characteristic Poems are not given in Turnbull's edition; and they seem entirely to have escaped the knowledge of even admirers of Crashaw. They appeared originally in the 'Steps of the Temple' of 1648 (pp. 103-105), and were naturally excluded from the Paris collection of 1652, and overlooked in the edition of 1670. See their biographic significance in our Essay in the present Volume. For the second translation (viz. of Baptismus &c.) I tender thanks to my good friend Rev. J.H. Clark, M.A., as before; the other and somewhat difficult one (Fides &c.) I have myself done. G.