Part 18

These psalms of Marot's are written in a great variety of song-measures, which seem scarcely as solemn and religious as the more dignified and even metres used by the early English writers. Some are graceful and smooth, however, and are canorous though never sonorous. They are pleasing to read with their quaint old spelling and lettering.

In the old Sigourney psalm-book the nineteenth psalm was thus rendered:--

"Les cieux en chaque lieu La puissance de Dieu Racourent aux humains Ce grand entour espars Publie en toutes parts L'ouvrage de ses mains.

"Iour apres iour coulant Du Saigneur va parlant Par longue experience. La nuict suivant la nuict, Nous presche et nous instruicst De sa grád sapience"

Another much-employed metre was this, of the hundred and thirty-third psalm:--

"Asais aux bors do ce superbe fleuve Que de Babel les campagnes abreuve, Nos tristes coeurs ne pensoient qu' à Sion. Chacun, helas, dans cette affliction Les yeux en pleurs la morte peinte au visage Pendit sa harpe aux saules du rivage."

A third and favorite metre was this:--

"Mais sa montagne est un sainct lieu: Qui viendra done au mont de Dieu? Qui est-ce qui là tiendra place? Le homine de mains et coeur lavé, En vanité non éslevé Et qui n'a juré en fallace."

Marot wrote in his preface to the psalms:--

"Thrice happy they who shall behold And listen in that age of gold As by the plough the laborer strays And carman 'mid the public ways And tradesman in his shop shall swell The voice in psalm and canticle, Sing to solace toil; again From woods shall come a sweeter strain, Shepherd and shepherdess shall vie In many a tender Psalmody, And the Creator's name prolong As rock and stream return their song."

Though these words seem prophetic, the gay and volatile Marot could never have foreseen what has proved one of the most curious facts in religious history,--that from the airy and unsubstantial seed sown by the French courtier in such a careless, thoughtless manner, would spring the great-spreading and deep-rooted tree of sacred song.

Little volumes of the metrical rendering of the Psalms, known as "Tate and Brady's Version," are frequently found in New England. It was the first English collection of psalms containing any smoothly flowing verses. Many of the descendants of the Puritans clung with affection to the more literal renderings of the "New England Psalm-Book," and thought the new verses were "tasteless, bombastic, and irreverent." The authors of the new book were certainly not great poets, though Nahum Tate was an English Poet-Laureate. It is said of him that he was so extremely modest that he was never able to make his fortune or to raise himself above necessity. He was not too modest, however, to dare to make a metrical version of the Psalms, to write an improvement of King Lear, and a continuation of Absalom and Achitophel. Brady--equally modest--translated the Aeneid in rivalry of Dryden. "This translation," says Johnson, "when dragged into the world did not live long enough to cry."

Such commonplace authors could hardly compose a version that would have a stable foundation or promise of long existence. But few of Tate and Brady's hymns are now seen in our church-collections of Hymns and Psalms. To them we owe, however, these noble lines, which were written thus:--

"Be thou, O God, exalted High, And as thy glory fills the Skie So let it be on Earth displaid Till thou art here as There obeyed."

The hymn commencing,--

"My soul for help on God relies, From him alone my safety flows,"

is also of their composition.

The first edition of these psalms was printed in 1696, and bore this title, "The Book of Psalms, a new version in metre fitted to the tunes used in Churches. By N. Tate and N. Brady." It was dedicated to King William, and though its use was permitted in English churches, it never supplanted Sternhold and Hopkins' Version. In New England Tate and Brady's Psalms became more universally popular,--not, however, without fierce opposing struggles from the older church-members at giving up the venerated "Bay Psalm-Book."

Another version of Psalms which is occasionally found in New England is known as "Patrick's Version." The title is "The Psalms of David in Metre Fitted to the Tunes used in Parish Churches by John Patrick, D.D. Precentor to the Charter House London." A curious feature of this octavo edition of 1701, which I have, is, "An Explication of Some Words of less Common Use For the Benefit of the Common People." Here are a few of the "explications:"--

"Celebrate--Make renown'd. Climes--Countries differing in length of days. Detracting--Lessening one's credit. Fluid--Yielding. Infest--Annoy. Theam--Matter of Discourse. Uncessant--Never ceasing. Stupemlious--Astonishing."

Baxter said of Patrick, "His holy affection and harmony hath so far reconciled the Nonconformists that diverse of them use his Psalms in their congregation." I doubt if the version were used in New England Nonconformist congregations. Some of his verses read thus:--

"Lord hear the pray'rs and mournfull cries Of mine afflicted estate, And with thy Comforts chear my soul, Before it is too late.

"My days consume away like Smoak Mine anguish is so great, My bones are not unlike a hearth Parched & dry with heat.

"Such is my grief I little else Can do but sigh and groan. So wasted is my flesh I'm left Nothing but skin and bone.

"Like th' Owl and Pelican that dwell In desarts out of sight, I sadly do bemoan myself, In solitude delight.

"The wakeful bird that on Housetops Sits without company And spends the night in mournful cries Leads such a life as I.

"The Ashes I rowl in when I eat Are tasted with my bread, And with my Drink are mixed the tears I plentifully shed."

A version of the Psalms which seems to have demanded and deserved more attention than it received was written by Cotton Mather. He was doomed to disappointment in seeing his version adopted by the New England churches just as his ambitions and hopes were disappointed in many other ways. This book was published in 1718. It was called "Psalterium Americanum. A Book of Psalms in a translation exactly conformed unto the Original; but all in blank verse. Fitted unto the tunes commonly used in the Church." By a curious arrangement of brackets and the use of two kinds of print these psalms could be divided into two separate metres and could be sung to tunes of either long or short metre. After each psalm were introduced explanations written in Mather's characteristic manner,--a manner both scholarly and bombastic. I have read the "Psalterium Americanum" with care, and am impressed with its elegance, finish, and dignity. It is so popular, however, even now-a-days, to jibe at poor Cotton Mather, that his Psalter does not escape the thrusts of laughing critics. Mr. Glass, the English critic, holds up these lines as "one of the rich things:"--