The Abraham Cowley Text and Image Archive

In Messiæ Cruciationem Carmen*
Scolion.
[translated by Henry Jacobs sometime
fellow of Merton College, Oxford, from
Thomas Masters' Greek (April, 1633)

Satis [fuit] inspirationis nugatoriæ.
Musa permuta chordas,
Et Barbito arrepto,
Augustum insona hymnum
Crucifixo Regi.
O miraculorum vaste
Thesaure, atque immense!
Quid tuum, quid primum dixero?
Vellem dicere inenarrabile hominibus
Beatisque Angelis ænigma,
Quî deus-immortalis mortuus es?
Vellemdicere imperscrutandas profunditates
Misericordiæ, quia lytrum pro hostibus
Filium præbuit Pater.
Vellem sublimiter eloqui
Mysticum Triumphum
Triduani Cadaveris,
Et Captivum Orcum,
Mortemque morte profligatam.
Nisi quod mihi circumfremit Calvariorum mons,
Et fragoso strepitu gravantur aures
Perdentium, Pereuntiumque.
Exsilite ad Collem Oculi;
Quis medius trium pendet
(Quam nil duobus ille similis?)
Extensus quadrijugo stipite?
Mansuetum caput
Amoenè inclinans,
Et brachiorum sacrum robur
Transversum expandens,
Immitibus clavis
Perfossum hîc et Illîc.
Homo miselle, hæccine immotus aspicis?
Plora Ubertim,
Vestem Conscinde,
Et tunde pectus,
Ac vellica crinem,
Medullitusque perturbare.
Nonne cernis totum-purpuratum?
Sed haud fulgentem flammâ
Tyrri Maris, verùm
Sanguine stillante
Partim à temporibus
Cinctis spinarum
Acriter-mordente incisurâ;
Partim ex artubus
Insignitis flagellis
Amaro amplexu.
Aperi, Aperi
Portos oculorum;
Et fontes Palpebrarum
Salve: irrora, madefac terram
Cum illo prodigenter
Proprium Cruorem effundente.
Pauculas quasdam distillare lachrymas
Quænam invidia [sit] ô Homo?   H. I.

From the British Library copy of D. Henrici Savilii . . . Oratio etc. Oxford, 1658), the first edition (never very much revised) of a rendering, "Christ's Passion," by Abraham Cowley (described in the table of contents as "Poetarum huius seculi Princ[eps]," "the greatest poet of our age"), and the sole printed source for both Henry Jacobs' Latin and Thomas Masters' Greek.