Part 16

6. They all consent themselves to hide close watch for me to lay: They spie my pathes, and snares have layd to take my life away.

7. Shall they thus scape on mischief set, thou God on them wilt frowne: For in his wrath he will not let to throw whole kingdomes downe.

It would perhaps be neither just nor conducive to proper judgment to gather only a florilege of noble verses from Sternhold and Hopkins' Version and point out none of the "weedy-trophies," the quaint and even uncouth lines which disfigure the work. We must, however, in considering and judging them, remember that many words and even phrases which at present seem rather ludicrous or undignified had, in the sixteenth century, significations which have now become obsolete, and which were then neither vulgar nor unpoetical. I also have been forced to take my selections from a copy of Sternhold and Hopkins printed in 1599, and bound up with a "Breeches Bible;" for I have access to no earlier edition. Sternhold and Hopkins themselves may not be in truth responsible for many of the crudities. Hopkins, in his rendition of the 12th verse of the seventy-fourth Psalm, thus addresses the Deity:--

"Why doost withdraw thy hand abacke and hide it in thy lappe? O pluck it out and bee not slacke to give thy foes a rap."

"Rap" may have meant a heavier, a mightier blow then than it does now-a-days.

Here is another curious verse from the seventieth psalm,--

"Confounde them that apply and seeke to make my shame And at my harme doe laugh & crye So So there goeth the game."

The sixth verse of the fifty-eighth psalm is rendered thus:--

"O God breake thou thier teeth at once within thier mouthes throughout; The tuskes that in thier great jawbones like Lions whelpes hang out."

Another verse reads thus:--

"The earth did quake, the raine pourde down Heard men great claps of thunder And Mount Sinai shooke in such state As it would cleeve in sunder."

One verse of the thirty-fifth psalm reads thus:--

"The belly-gods and flattering traine that all good things deride At me doe grin with greate disdaine and pluck thier mouths aside. Lord when wilt thou amend this geare why dost thou stay & pause? O rid my soul, my onely deare, out of these Lions clawes."

The word tush occurs frequently and quaintly: "Tush I an sure to fail;" "Tush God forgetteth this."

"And with a blast doth puff against such as would him correct Tush Tush saith he I have no dread."

Here are some of the curious expressions used:--

"Though gripes of grief and pangs full sore shall lodge with us all night."

"For why their hearts were nothing lent to Him nor to His trade."

"Our soul in God hath joy and game."

"They are so fed that even for fat thier eyes oft-times out start."

"They grin they mow they nod thier heads."

"While they have war within thier hearts." as butter are thier words."

"Divide them Lord & from them pul thier devilish double-tongue."

"My silly soul uptake."

"And rained down Manna for them to eat a food of mickle-wonder."

"For joy I have both gaped & breathed."

But it is useless to multiply these selections, which, viewed individually, are certainly absurd and inelegant. They often indicate, however, the exact thought of the Psalmist, and are as well expressed as the desire to be literal as well as poetic will permit them to be. Sternhold's verses compare quite favorably, when looked at either as a whole or with regard to individual lines, with those of other poets of his day, for Chaucer was the only great poet who preceded him.

I must acknowledge quite frankly in the face of critics of both this and the past century that I always read Sternhold and Hopkins' Psalms with a delight, a satisfaction that I can hardly give reasons for. Many of the renderings, though unmelodious and uneven, have a rough vigor and a sweeping swing that is to me wonderfully impressive, far more so than many of the elegant and polished methods of modern versifiers. And they are so thoroughly antique, so devoid of any resemblance to modern poems, that I love them for their penetrating savor of the olden times; and they seem no more to be compared and contrasted with modern verses than should an old castle tower be compared with a fine new city house. We prefer the latter for a habitation, it is infinitely better in every way, but we can admire also the rough grandeur of the old ruin.