The Dream of Gerontius

by John Henry Newman

NOTES:

[[1]] From Merlin's song in Tennyson's "Coming of Arthur."

[[2]] Coventry Patmore's "Ode to the Body."

[[3]] From the Psalm, "De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine."—"Out of the depths have I cried to Thee, O Lord."

[[4]] "Come to his assistance, ye saints of God; come forth to meet him, ye angels of the Lord: Receiving his soul: Offering it in the sight of the Most High."

[[5]] This passage in "The Dream of Gerontius" calls to mind Tennyson's lines in "The Princess":

"Ah, sad and strange, as in dark summer dawns

The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds

To dying ears, when unto dying eyes

The casement slowly grows a glimmering square."

[[6]] La Psychologie du Purgatoire (The Psychology of Purgatory): Abbé Chollet, Doctor of Theology at Lille.

[[7]] The Holy Father "creates" Cardinals, he does not appoint them.

[[8]] Catholic Life and Letters by Cardinal Newman; with Notes on the Oxford Movement and its Men:—John Oldcastle (Mr. Wilfred Meynell). To which work the editor is under obligation for important parts of the appended chronology.

[[9]] γερων—οντος.

[[10]] The word "refrigerium" was used for "refreshment," "rest" in the epitaphs of the early Latin Christians.

[[B]] Textual representation of the first image on page 19:

Jesu, Maria, I am near to death,

And Thou art calling me.

[[C]] Textual representation of the image on page 20:

Low-born clods

Of brute earth,

They aspire,—

[[11]] As suggested in the Introduction, the musical character of the verse of "The Dream of Gerontius" is brought out more and more by careful study of the changes of the meaning of the poem and their expression. "The Dream" is a series of lyrics,—each lyric voicing its own feeling and sensitively tuned to that feeling. According to the scansion most in use in English, the first supplicating lyric may be classed as in pentameter iambic. Gerontius is yet in the body, and the rime, used solemnly, marks a difference—which has a delicate symbolism—between his utterances in the body and his utterances when his soul has left the body. What we call blank verse is used by the Spirit—rime disappears, but the rhythm remains the same. Using verse-notation, we find five accented notes in each line, if we consider the lines at all. There are two quarter-notes in each bar, which may be written as

[[12]] (p. 25.) Gerontius dreams that he is dying. He has not strength to pray. He hears the persons near his bed praying for him, in the language prescribed by the Church, "The Litany for the Dying." The three opening invocations are in Greek, "Kyrie Eleison" ("Lord, have mercy"), "Christe Eleison" ("Christ, have mercy"), "Kyrie Eleison" ("Lord, have mercy"). The next invocation in the Litany is "Sancta Maria, Ora pro eo," which Cardinal Newman translates into English. With the exception of the first three and the last two invocations, the Litany is in Latin. The Litany is too long for the purpose of the poem, and the author has translated into English some of the invocations that would naturally strike the "fainting soul." "Be merciful" ("Propitius esto"), the assistants continue, still using parts of the Litany as versified by Cardinal Newman.

[[13]] "Kyrie Eleïson," etc. The poet has retained the sound-form used in the Prayer-books, and he shows his musical taste by not changing it.

[[14]] "Rouse thee," etc. Gerontius concentrates all his vitality. The effect is of nervous energy. The time is quickened and alternately slowed.

[[15]] "Be merciful," etc. The Assistants begin with the solemn chant of the Church, and change to the supplication of anxious human hearts:

or

[[16]] "Sanctus fortis, Sanctus Deus," etc. This is the ecstasy of faith, hope, and love. It is three Acts in one, rapidly and forcibly expressed. The energy and strength of self-forgetfulness fail when he, still in the body, sighs:

"I can no more; for now it comes again,"—

Note the musical effect of

"And, crueller still,

A fierce and restless fright begins to fill

The mansion of my soul. And, worse and worse,

Some bodily form of ill."

The pauses after "ill" express horror and weakness,—

[[17]] (p. 29.)

Holy Strong One, Holy God,
From the depth I pray to Thee.
Mercy, O my Judge, for me;
Spare me, Lord.

In the Proper for the season of Good Friday the passage which suggested this reads, in Greek and Latin:

1st choir. Agios O Theos (O Holy God).
2d choir. Sanctus Deus (O Holy God).
1st choir. Agios Ischyros (O Holy Strong One).
2d choir. Sanctus Fortis (O Holy Strong One).

[[18]] (p. 30.) Death dissolves me.

[[19]] "Rescue him, O Lord," etc. The solemn chant again. Note the difference in metre between this and the "Novissima hora est; and I fain would sleep. The pain has wearied me." Note the ardor of the Priest's "Proficiscere, anima Christiana," etc.

[[20]] (p. 32.) The final hour is here. "Into Thy hands." The whole of this prayer for the dying is: "Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit. O Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Holy Mary, pray for me. O Mary, Mother of grace, Mother of mercy, do thou protect me from the enemy and receive me at the hour of death."

[[21]] (p. 32.) "Go forth, O Christian soul, from this world." These words begin the prayer of the priest, recited while the soul is departing from the body. It is paraphrased in English by the Cardinal.

[[22]] "I went to sleep," etc. The soul of Gerontius has left the body:

[[23]] (p. 35.) "Another marvel." According to the teaching of the Catholic Church, each soul is given at its birth in charge of a Guardian Angel. It is this angel that sings, "My work is done." "Alleluia" is from two Hebrew words united by a hyphen. It means "Praise the Lord." St. John in the Apocalypse says that he heard the angels singing it in heaven. It occurs in the last five Psalms and in Tobias.

[[24]]

"My work is done,

My task is o'er,"

is expressed with a joyous movement,—

[[26]] Compare the thought in "Hamlet"—Act II, Scene II.—"What a piece of work is man!"

[[26]] (p. 41.) When the soul has departed, the priest says the prayer beginning "Subvenite, Sancti Dei; occurrite Angeli Domini," etc. ("Come to his assistance, ye saints of God," etc.).

[[27]] "Low-born clods," etc. The most marked change comes here. The solemnity and sweetness of the soul and the angel's music—their leit-motif—is easily discernible. Now come dissonances and discords,—the rapidity of jangled cymbals struck in scorn. The phrase "chucked down" has been censured as "inelegant." Its meaning and sound accord exactly with the spirit of the demoniac chorus.

[[28]] (p. 49.) "Extension," "the position of parts outside parts." See p. 366, General Metaphysics, by John Rickaby, S.J., Manuals of Catholic Philosophy.

[[29]] (p. 51.) St. Francis d'Assisi. In 1224, while on Mount Alvernus, keeping a fast of forty days in honor of St. Michael, a seraph appeared and marked the hands, feet, and right side of St. Francis with the five wounds of Our Lord's Passion.

[[30]] "Praise to the Holiest in the height." A movement associated by English readers with the hymn particularly:

or

[[31]] (p. 54.) "Dreed," from the old English verb "dreogan," to suffer.

[[32]] "Angel of the Agony." Note the solemn and pathetic rhythm effect.

[[33]]

"Take me away, and in the lowest deep,

There let me be," etc.

The catalexis—pause—is finely used here:

[[34]] (p. 64.) This appeal is paraphrased by the author from the Psalms. The words at the end are translated from the Lesser Doxology: "Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut erat in principio et nunc, et in sæcula sæculorum. Amen." The Greater Doxology begins: "Gloria in excelsis Deo." "Doxology" is from two Greek words meaning "praise" and a "discourse."

[[35]]

"Softly and gently, dearly ransomed soul,

In my most loving arms I now enfold thee," etc.

[[36]] (p. 66.) In Dante's Vision of Purgatory (Canto I.) hell is spoken of as a "cruel sea," and the water surrounding the Island of Purgatory as the "better waves." The spirit of Gerontius is dropped into these "better waves"—"miglior acqua."

"Per correr miglior acqua alza le vele

Omai la navicella del mio ingegno

Che lascia dietro a se mar si crudele."

"O'er better waves to speed her rapid course,

The light bark of my genius lifts her sail,

Well pleased to leave so cruel sea behind."

—Cary's Translation.

[[37]] "It appears that Newman thinks so highly of that poem ["The Eternal Years">[ that he asked to have it sung to him during his recent illness, and remarked: '"Lead, Kindly Light" are the words of one seeking the truth. "The Eternal Years" are those of one who has found it.'"—May, 1889, Grant Duff's Notes from a Diary.