Prudentius

“ In merely technical quality they are superior to any poetry of the time, Claudian alone excepted; in their fullness of life, in the exultant tone which kindles and sustains them, they make Claudian grow pale like a candle-flame at dawn.
With Prudentius, however, as with Claudian, we have almost passed beyond the strict limit of a history of ancient Latin literature: and any fuller discussion, either of these remarkable lyrical pieces, or of his more voluminous expository or controversial treatises in hexameter, properly belongs to a history of the Christian Church. ”

“ Symmachus had purposed to restore the idols, revive the revenues of the pagan temples, and generally to cast out Christianity from Rome. The poetry of Prudentius is again valuable here, for it plunges into the origin and baseness of idolatry, describing the conversion of Rome, and presenting a picture of the times which is invaluable to the historian. It is from the pages of Prudentius that we learn the cruelty of the purest of the Roman women, when
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“The modest vestal, with her down-turned thumb
Urges the gladiator to his stroke
Lest life may lurk in any vital place!” ”

“ PRUDENTIUS THE FIRST CHRISTIAN POET.
Aurelius Prudentius Clemens has received rather more than his due share of renown. His works have been edited by the most careful scholars. There is a beautiful little “Elzevir” upon which Heinsius expended his labor and which was printed at Amsterdam in 1667. There is an “Aldine,” 4to, Venice, 1501. But the most elegant is that of Parma (1788, 2 vols., 4to) , edited by Teoli; and the best is regarded as that of Faustinus Arevalus, the Spaniard, Rome 1788-89, also in 2 vols. ”

“ Surely no just historian would dare to speak slightingly of these splendid lives of utter sacrifice of self, when he reflects on the power which such lives have exercised over their fellow-men. The debt which Christianity owes to this stern school of Rigourists is simply measureless.
In the last half of the third century there arose a Christian poet—the first great songman who had appeared since the famous singers of the Augustan age had passed away. The popularity of Prudentius has been enduring ”

“ Venantius Fortunatus, whose life extended from 580 to 609, is the connecting link between the poetry of Sedulius and Prudentius, and that of the middle ages. The friend of S. Gregory of Tours and S. Radegund, he long wandered over the South of France, the fashionable poet of his day. The latter half of his life, however, raised him to a higher post, and to a holier character. He died Bishop of Poitiers. ”

“ Prudentius visited not only the more celebrated churches in Spain built over the bodies of the martyrs, he being a Spaniard by birth, but he also visited those of Italy and Rome on a journey made in 405. During his residence in the capital of Christianity, the poet frequented the catacombs; and he has bequeathed to us a valuable record of what he there saw. In his hymn in honour of S. Hippolytus, he tells us that he visited the sepulchral chapel in which were deposited the remains of the martyr ”

“ The poet Prudentius, for instance, supposes a friend to ask him the names of those who have shed their blood for the faith in Rome, and the epitaphs inscribed on their tombs. He replies that it would be very difficult to tell this, for that “the relics of the saints in Rome are innumerable, since as long as the city continued to worship their Pagan gods, their wicked rage slew vast multitudes of the just. ”

“ Prudentius describes it in Peristephanon (x., 1066 ff.) : the priest of the Mother, clad in a toga worn cinctu Gabino, with golden crown and fillets on his head, takes his place in a trench covered by a platform of planks pierced with fine holes, on which a bull, magnificent with flowers and gold, is slain. The blood rains through the platform on to the priest below, who receives it on his face, and even on his tongue and palate, and after the baptism presents himself before his fellow-worshippers purified and regenerated, and receives their salutations and reverence. ”

“ His poems, both epic and lyric, are religious and inspired by earnest faith and genuine enthusiasm. He excels in narrative and description, in wealth and brilliancy of language, but lacks the virtue of simplicity. His poetry was intended to appeal to educated readers, not to the people, and the cultured classes of the time were only too thoroughly accustomed to an artificial style. Yet, in spite of his faults of style, Prudentius is the most important Christian poet of the fourth century, and among the other poets of the time none equal him except Ausonius and Claudian. ”

“ Mr. Beugnot has made it doubtful whether Symmachus was more than Pontifex Major. Destruction du Paganisme, vol. i. p. 459.—M.]
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[ As if any one, says Prudentius (in Symmach. i. 639) should dig in the mud with an instrument of gold and ivory. Even saints, and polemic saints, treat this adversary with respect and civility.] ”

“ This book, with the Cathemerinon liber and the Psychomachia, was among the most widely read books of the middle ages. Its influence on the iconography of medieval art was great. The Psychomachia is aesthetically inferior, but had the greatest influence of all of Prudentius's writings. In it he depicts the struggle of Christendom with paganism under the allegory of a struggle between the Christian virtues and the pagan vices. The Dittochaeon is a series of quatrains, probably intended to explain forty-nine pictures of a basilica. The work is more interesting for archaeology than for literature. ”

“ The writings of men familiar with Roman civilization and trained in classical culture would naturally be presumed to retain the flavor of a non-Christian literature. Christianity had already appropriated from the pagan philosophers those teachings which were congenial to its own. Ambrose reveals both in his poetic and prose writings his acquaintance with classical 8 thought and literary models. Prudentius mingles the classical and the Christian. Fortunatus was inspired by classical poetry to a Christian expression of beauty in form and content. ”

“ Prudentius, I find, has also mentioned the same festival in his Roman Martyr: ‘What is the meaning (says he) of this shameful ceremony? By thus running about the streets under the shape of Luperci, you show that you are persons of low condition. Would you not deem a Man to be the meanest of Slaves, who would run naked about the public streets, and amuse himself with striking the young Women [36] ?’
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All the Flagellations we have abovementioned were performed in public Solemnities, or with religious views of some kind or other ”

“ Of Christ's culprit Prudentius.
Ours are those highly-blest maids, Cecily, Agatha, Anastasia, Barbara, Agnes, Lucy, Dorothy, Catherine, who held fast against the violent assault of men and devils the virginity they had resolved upon. ”

“ In his arguments he appeals not only to the authority of Scripture and the Fathers, but also to that of Plato and other Greek philosophers, and shows himself not unacquainted with the systems of Zoroaster and the Brahmins. To him we owe the arrangement of a great part of the Breviary office, and the beautiful hymn for Passion Sunday, Pange lingua gloriosi prœlium certamina. For poetry, no less than philosophy, found votaries in the Gallican schools. The lyre, which had fallen from the hands of Prudentius, was still touched by St. Prosper of Aquitaine and St. ”

“ Prudentius, in his description of the martyrdom, adheres rather to the account of St. Ambrose, but adds a new episode: "The judge threatened to give over her virginity to a house of prostitution, and even executed this final threat; but when a young man turned a lascivious look upon the virgin, he fell to the ground stricken with blindness, and lay as one dead." Possibly this is what Damasus and Ambrose refer to, in saying that the purity of St. ”

“ If Prudence loves, what other boon need I?
"Splendid!" he cried, puffing at his empty pipe.
Unless a bishop's palace by-and-by?
This audacious departure from the original affected him powerfully. He laid a hand like a pair of tweezers on my wrist and cried excitedly——
"You've been talking to her!"
"So have you," said I, "and to better purpose."
By a subtle and rapid movement he was, in a moment, outside the door and stood facing me in the little front garden of the post-office.
"I shouldn't wonder if they began tennis before tea," he remarked.
"You'll find somebody to play a single. ”

“ Prudence answered after a moment for reflection. “I don’t know that I should confide in you if I had.”
He smiled at that, and stopped and lighted himself a cigarette.
“I don’t care what you do,” he said, and added cheerfully: “I only hope you will have a good time. You know you’re awfully pretty, Prue, and—and interesting, and all that.”
“Am I?” Prudence laughed again, and there was a note of satisfaction in her mirth. “I thank Providence that I am pretty; it makes things easier. But if I were plain I should still insist on my good time. It doesn’t necessarily include the homage of man. ”

“ Surely she must understand so much, Prudence! You will tell her, will you not? and ask her if she sees him standing before her?"
"I know not—I am afraid," said Prudence, anxiously. "Perchance it may frighten her the more; forever she says that she sees him, and always with an angry face toward her; and she is for hiding herself away from him—and even talking of the river! Good lack, 'tis pitiful that she should be so struck down—and almost at death's door—and all we can do of so little avail." ”

“ That didn't matter; one can always look at the view.
"Is my hat crooked?" asked Miss Prudence with affected anxiety.
"I should say you'd get him, if you really want him," I remarked.
My thoughts were switched off in another direction by Miss Prudence's next utterance. I don't complain of that; it was probably rightly ordained, as the vicar would have said; there's something in a meadow and a river that resists middle age—and I don't know that a blue frock, with eyes to match, and hair that——
"Do you happen to know how much a bishop gets?" asked Prudence.
"Not precisely. Miss Prudence. ”

“ Prudence was taller than he; he was obliged to look up from under the wide brim of his hat when regarding her, a reversal of the usual order which occasioned him secret vexation.
“One so seldom gets a chance of seeing you alone,” he said. “I suppose it is because you are so much younger that your sisters make so much of you. They care for you tremendously. It is beautiful to observe their devotion.”
This view of her family’s watchful mistrust as a manifest sign of their devotion was new to Prudence and afforded her amusement. ”

“ The other girls resemble their mother, and the vicar's type, reproduced in Miss Prudence, is immeasurably the more refined—not to say picturesque.
"Oh if you won't be serious!" sighed Prudence—though, as has been seen, I had said nothing.
"It certainly is not a laughing matter," I admitted.
"How difficult the world is! ”

“ Prudence looked very doubtful, but a warning movement of Fairy's left eyelash—the side removed from the twins—comforted her.
"Well—" she said.
"Of course, Prudence, we know it would nearly break father's heart for us to go back on our own church,—but don't you think if folks become truly convinced that Christian Science is the true and good religion, they ought to stand by it and suffer,—just like the martyrs of old?" suggested Lark,—and the suggestion brought the doubt-clouds thick about Prudence's head once more. ”

“ It was the girl of his heart, Miss Prudence Worthy.
“This is thy other blessing,” exclaimed the mountain nymph, the sight of whom made Miss Prudence a little jealous; “a richer reward for noble exertions than a virtuous woman I know not of. Live free, live virtuous, and then thou wilt be happy. I shall be with thee an invisible witness, an invisible protector; but, in the mean while, should the spirit of the people ever flag, and their hearts fail them in time of peril, go forth among them as thou didst before, and rouse them with thy pipe and thy music. ”

“ My tone indicated great surprise: her mother is the vicar's wife, and the alleged counsel seemed unpastoral.
"Yes—and it's quite right too," Prudence maintained. "You know how poor we are. And there are eight of us!"
"Five and three?"
"Yes: Johnny at Oxford, Dick at school, and Clarence to go soon! And the girls—you know what girls cost, anyhow!" ”

“ But no sooner did he feel the flat surface, than, uttering a cry of astonishment, he leaped backward, almost overturning Prudence in his haste, keeping his eyes on the picture, and ejaculating twice or thrice the expression, "Ugh!"
"What a simple savage thou art," exclaimed Prudence, "I tell thee it cannot bite. It can neither hear nor see, and thou art a man to be scared by it!" ”

“ Fly declared "Santa Claus is a darlin'," when she received the King Charles spaniel, which, by the way, had not been purchased without the full consent of Horace, who was even willing, for his little sister's sake, to take him home in the cars.
The youth, in his turn, was made happy by the gift of a silver-mounted rifle; while Prudy rejoiced in a rosewood writing desk, and Dotty in a gold pen.
"All's well that ends well." Uncle Augustus was at home, and that in itself was as good as most fairy stories. ”

“ Davenport. As he spoke he approached the window: I sat down on the sill outside and lit a cigar.
"Curiously enough indeed!" said I. "May I be privileged to hear it?"
He threw out one arm and recited——
All Heaven's with us, so we Prudence win:
If Fortune's hailed a goddess ours the sin!
"Pretty well for the spirit, but none too faithful to the letter," I remarked critically. "However, Dr. Johnson is open to the same objection. You remember——
Celestial Wisdom calms the mind, And makes the happiness she does not find. ”