This Lament for martyr, soldier, and sage,
‘Him who had walked through the times of night,’
so apposite to these present times, is from verses in the MSS. of the British Museum, signed in her handwriting, ‘Unfinished. C. Brontë. 70 lines, Novbr. 28th, 1834.’ The lines bear no title. They were preserved by her in a collection of her writings for which she made a title-page, ‘The Scrap Book. A Mingling of Many Things, compiled by Lord C. A. F. Wellesley. C. Brontë, March 17th, 1835.’ The book contains ‘chips from her workshop’ during her nineteenth year, one of her happiest years at home. She was still using the pseudonym of her childhood days, associated with her idol, the Duke of Wellington. In this period she was celebrating heroes; compare her poems ‘Richard Cœur de Lion and Blondel’ and ‘Saul.’
The obvious allusion in the first twelve lines is to the protomartyr of Christianity. The stanza upon the ‘son of wisdom’ refers to Socrates, the protomartyr of Paganism. The lament for the soldier, ‘laid on the battle-plain,’ is set like a gem between these stanzas, and flashes out her conception of the true patriot and hero. She ranks the dying common soldier,
‘His thoughts all for his fatherland,’
with St. Stephen and Socrates, a trinity of martyrs of faith, of patriotism, and of philosophy.
I trust lovers of Charlotte Brontë will welcome, in this centennial year of her birth, the first publication of this poem.
George E. MacLean.
Lament for the Martyr who dies for his faith,
Who prays for his foes with his failing breath,