A Polish Patriotic Hymn [pp. 548-550]

548 A Polisk Patriotic Hymn.
A POLISH PATRIOTIC HYMN.
IN an obscure comer of the Maza- They kneel before the infant Jesus in
rine Library, at Paris, was lately dis- his mother's arms. Peasants in their
covered by its director or librarian in national costume -a long, white
chief, Mr. Philarete Chasles, a small blouse reaching to the knee, the
black prayer-book; an oblong duo- curved sabre in the belt-children,
decimo, gilt-edged, although printed soldiers, women, young girls. They
on poor gray paper. It was in the chant one of those peculiarly wild
Polish tongue, with the exception of Slavonic rhythms in ~ or ~. There,
the vesperTh~mns and some canticles prostrate, with clasped hands, their
of the church in Latin. No cata- weeping eyes on the infant Saviour,
logue chronicled its existence, and it the child Liberator, they intone these
was, evidently, a despised wai~ reject- beautiful Latin strophes, a rare speed as of too little importance to be cimen of spontaneous and popular
entitled to a place in the dignified poetry:
alcoves.
On examination, it was found to AD PAR~ULUM CHRTSTUM CONTRA
contain the following original Latin HOSTES PATRI~.
ode-a remarkable composition in 1.
many respects, touchingly beautiful Eenevolus audi
in a simplicity at once tender and Qu~ tu,e sunt laudi,
vigorous, and an exquisite combina- 0 Parvule delicate!
tion of piety and patriotism. Patriam defende!
~u solus es agnus
It was doubtless sung in the Et fortis et magnus!
churches of Poland about the year Qui perfidum Turcam
1740, when Europe stood aloof in Compellis ad furcam!
silent ingratitude to those who, fol- Patriam! patriam! patriam
lowing Sobieski's sword, had saved Defende!
her from the Turk; when England Mercifully listen to those who praise and
was of course indifferent to the fate implore thee, 0 tender Infant! Defend our
of a Catholic nation; when France country. Thou alone art the Lamb, alone
was without sympathy for the faith- powerful~! alone great! Exterminator of
ful, and her kings proved then, more the treacherous Turk. Our country, our
country, ah! defend our country.
than ever, that Catholicity would
have been better off without their Barbarous and artificial strophes,
aid; when Catharine of Russia gilded peri~aps you think? Yee, measured
her cupidity with philosophical max- by Lucretius and Virgil, they may be;
ims, and Frederick of Prussia, called poor, thin, leonine verses like those of
the Great, calumniated those he rob- the twelfth century Benedictine monk
bed. who wrote,
As we read the hymn, we can well Gloria factorum temere conceditur horum,
imagine the crowd in front of the
altar, covered with flowers, in some singing verses without prosodial mearude, white-walled village church. sure, their vehement and rapid rhyme