ces. greater freedom and adaptation. No religious poetry abides in the memory so much like the prose translations of the Psalms, as portions of Milton and Thompson. Other forms of blank verse, whether in stanzas, like Collins's 'Ode to Evening, or in irregular paragraphs of unequal lines and varied measures, like Southey's Thalaba, would allow of fidelity to the inspired original along with appropriate movements and musical cadenWhere rhyme is added to this variety of measure in the same piece, there is an effect which all remember to have felt in some of the greatest lyric compositions, particularly Dryden's Alexander's Feast. The specimen given in the Psalmists of Britain, from Josiah Conder's versions, was intended by the author to carry out some such idea, and is more than respectably executed. Southey should have rendered Psalms 104-107 into unrhymed odes, on the principles of his preface to Thalaba; or the Hebrew bards should have been thus represented by their most rightful successor, Milton. 6 tunes adapted to them, was enough to preclude them from popular use. Another version that has been highly extolled, was by Sir John Denham, better, known as the author of Cooper's Hill,' who died in 1668; yet it is said to be now comparatively rare, and though fitted to the tunes used in churches,' does not appear to have been used with them. If the single version given in the notices before us, of the 145th Psalm, be a fair specimen of the whole, we can hardly account for the fact that it has not been used to some extent in public worship, as well as read and admired. Besides the occasional introduction of unsuitable or inconvenient measures, we are disposed to assign another reason which may have hindered the popular use of Denham's version, and still more of Sandys's. To use a significant, though not accurate phrase, they are perhaps 'too poetical,' at least in many pas sages, for the purposes of popular devotion. No quality is more essential, as we shall have occasion to observe again, in a good hymn, than simplicity of thought and style. Whatever is fanciful, or ornate, or gorgeous, is felt to be more out of place here than in any other poem. And this is even more true of versions of the Psalms than of original hymns, because they claim to represent the meaning of inspired authors. The point deserves more attention than we have room to give it here. The version by George Sandys, the traveler, published in 1638, was not only adapted to singing, but accompanied by new tunes for private devotion.' We have seen other specimens more favorable than that given by Mr. Holland. Some Some of them are found in recent compilations for worship, though altered; for example, the 3d version of the 92d Psalm in the Connecticut Collection. Sandys's Psalms, as a whole, have received high praise. They are pronounced by Montgomery 'incomparably the most poetical in the English language,' and Conder seconds the opinion. Baxter warmly admired his Paraphrases, especially of Job, but regretted that he had not turned the Psalms into metre fitted to the usual tunes.' The fact that his measures were uncommon, though accompanied by glory of verse.' With these versions we may class others which have appeared more recently, having acknowledged merit and quite readable, yet not adopted by congregations, so far as I resign to Sir John Denham,' says best poet, if he had given his genius but Watts in his preface, the honor of the a just liberty; yet his work will ever shine brightest among those that have confined themselves to a mere translation.' But,' he adds, 'that close confinement has often forbid the freedom and 6 we know, in public worship. They furnish materials, however, for many popular compilations. The best known is Merrick's version, published in 1765, and 'recast,' as Mr. Holland tells us, by Tattersall, in 1797, for parochial use.' 'He brought to the task,' it is said, 'in perhaps a greater degree than they had been combined in any previous versifier, the accomplishments of the scholar, the poet and the Chris tian.' Extracts from his work are to be found in many compilations, and among the four taken from it in the Connecticut collection, the fourth version of the 39th Psalm is deservedly popular. In most of the In most of the specimens we have seen, there is not however enough condensation and vivacity to make the original work a desirable substitute for others of the kind. Among the Psalms in the Connecticut collection, fifteen pieces are taken from the version by William Goode. In the account before us, he is said to be the present rector of St. Antholive's, the very first London church in which psalm singing began in connection with the Protestant worship.' In looking over his two considerable volumes, we were struck with his success in the things he chiefly aimed at in using plain language; in closely following the original Psalms, versifying every part of each, if we remember rightly; yet giving that evangelical or New Testament interpretation, which he had observed gave so much value to Watts's version; and employing occasionally metres, such as the trochaic 7s. which were not used by Watts, yet are popular. His work is probably, in most respects, the best of the kind that has appeared for many years, and is much resorted to by compilers. William Wrangham's version, published in * . Many have confounded this author with Archdeacon Francis Wrangham. Holland distinguishes them, and says the former died in 1832. 1829, has added several pieces to some of the collections now in use, and his name has been made familiar to many readers in the Church Psalmody, published in Boston, which borrowed from it largely. It has many respectable stanzas, and is free from the prevailing faults of similar works, yet without attaining great positive excellence. The Spirit of the Psalms,' by H. F. Lyte, affords twelve of the versions adopted in the Connecticut collection, and more of those in the Church Psalmody. The extracts we have seen correspond to the title of the book, and are rather poems founded on the Psalms, than versions. Some of them, however, are spirited paraphrases or imitations, and of more service in public worship at this day than most of the literal versions. A pleasant specimen will be found in the two collections just mentioned, on the 92d Psalm, beginning 'Sweet is the work, O Lord.' With these works of Merrick, Goode, Wrangham and Lyte, we class that which we have already referred to, by Mr. Burgess, as to its use in public worship. We are not aware that even Merrick's, though the oldest and best known of these, has been adopted as a whole in any congregation, nor will any of them have this kind of success, if indeed their authors expected it. We may claim for the American version, that if occasionally less smooth or flowing, it is yet more strictly a version than either of the others. Great care is used too in the structure of the verse, which is fully and accurately rhymed,—a point in which the English psalmists have generally been deficient. Besides lending some aid to devout reading, these versions may be classed together as having a value in furnishing materials for many of the books that are used, and others that will yet be used, by Christian assemblies. We have not seen Keble's version, but the specimen before us and the compiler's judgment lead us to think that notwithstanding the author's previous reputation, and though even here we find gleams of his characteristic refinement, he has added little or nothing to the stock of materials to which future compilers will resort. Other new versions will be made, but no one of them can become the exclusive language of a congregation in praising God, as some of their predecessors have been. Every new metrical Psalter thus honored, must avail itself of the labors of many competitors in this department, and construct from the choicest fragments of translation, paraphrase and imitation, to be found among them all, a diversified yet harmonious whole. There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without significa tion; and if wisely blended, they may frame the happiest utterance of the inspired sentiment of the Psalms. It would be well, therefore, for sacred poets who would enrich our metrical psalmody, to apply them selves to portions of the Psalter, if only to detached fragments, rather than to the whole book. Montgomery, in his 'Songs of Zion,' has versified only a few Psalms; and these are not so much translations as paraphrases and imitations; but he has thus added more to the treasures of lyric devotion, obtained from the whole inspired book, than any other writer since the time of Dr. Watts. We shall have occasion to speak of him more particularly in another place. The important aid he has given to the offices of public devotion, in attempting only a part, compared with what has been done by many who have attempted the whole, is an instructive example. The numerous versions which with various degrees of merit have failed of any considerable or per manent hold of the public mind, belong to the literature of English Psalms; but they make no part of the history of psalmody, if we use this word in its common reference to the matter of public worship. Of all the entire versions, about seventy in number, described in the work under review, it is surprising to see how few have been at any time adopted, to any extent, among all the congregations of every name, whose wants were to be supplied. The history of seven Psalm-books, or rather we might say of five, is the history of metrical psalmody, in nearly all the churches that use the English language, down to the present day. Before briefly noticing these versions, we will glance at certain earlier facts which have to do with their introduction and char acter. The Psalms have ever been a favorite part of the inspired writings for all devotional uses; but their distinguishing use, from the time of their original composition, has been in the public or social worship of God, as forms of praise adopted by his people, and sung with or without instrumental accompaniments. Their Hebrew name signifies 'praises,' and the Greek title in the Septuagint, from which our English word psalm is derived, signifies a touch or twang of a string, and hence music, as of a stringed instrument, and hence again in later usage, song, as accompanying' the instrument.* So the English word Psalter, applied to the book of Psalms, is made from a Greek word which signifies a stringed instrument. The book has been called the poetical anthology of the Hebrew nation,' being the work of several authors, though bearing the name of the most distinguished, and of more than one age. The structure of the Psalms has been a subject of much investigation and perplexity. Their pe Robinson's Lex. culiar feature which we call parallelism, is of comparatively modern discovery. It is generally conceded that they are unrhymed, and without any such exact metres as are found in classical poetry; yet that they had to Hebrew ears, a certain rhythmical character, at least a slightly measured movement, which fitted them to be sung more easily than mere prose, and that they were sung in various methods adapted to their structure, though not now very clearly ascertained. Some of them were probably used in the first temple, and in the tabernacle before it. For centuries before the birth of our Savior, they constituted, in the form preserved to us, the hymnbook of the church of God. In the Hebrew original, or in the Greek translation, they were still without the form of our lyric compositions. We know of no other sacred odes used in the earliest Christian assemblies. Our Lord and his disciples are said to have sung a hymn, or to have hymned, after the last supper,* when they probably used one or more of the Psalms which the Jews were accustomed to use after the passover. At midnight, in prison, Paul and Silas sang praises,' or sang praises,' or hymned unto God.' In two places in Paul's epistles, we read of 'psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs;'t terms which can not be now accurately distinguished, except that the first belonged to the inspired book thus entitled, and the others may have been applied to passages recited from any sacred Scriptures, or to hymns that have not come down to us, if there were such, or to extemporaneous expressions, which however could not be uttered at once by several worshipers without confusion, like the jarring of tongues when every one had a psalm.' It was no doubt common for individuals to praise God, as did Mary, 6 6 6 Zacharias, and others, in extempo. raneous language, which yet was naturally drawn in part from kindred strains recalled from various passages in the Old Testament. Still the Psalms were the forms of public praise. Translated into various languages, they continued to be such exclusively, so far as we know, in all the Christian churches, till prose-hymns or anthems composed for the purpose began to be used also. Some of these, if not as old as is sometimes pretended, are yet of very ancient date; as for example the Te Deum, made familiar in our language by the book of Common Prayer, under a title taken, as are the titles of the accompanying Psalms, from the initial words of the Latin version retained in the service of the church of Rome.* It has been shown,' says Mr. Holland, that the precedent for metrical and even for rhymed hymns, existed in the church before the time of Luther,' and he instances among hymns to the virgin the one so often quoted, beginning, 'Stabat mater,' &c. But these he allows to have been exceptions. It is said that in Protestant countries the Romish church sometimes humors the people so far as to allow of a metrical hymn, even in their own language, and even one from Dr. Watts,-a measure of necessity rather than choice. But until the Reformation, with scarcely an exception, singing in the public service of that church, and for aught we know of the Greek and other oriental churches, was confined to prose pieces, as well as to a language which the people did not un derstand. The Psalms retained the chief place. In the assemblies of the early Christians probably they were often recited rather than sung. When the voices of a congregation joined in singing prose Psalms, as *For an ancient Latin and still older Greek hymn, the reader is referred to Coleman's Christ. Ant., pp. 225, 226. they did in some places, or when two sets of voices sung alternately, or when one or more conducted the exercise, with a chorus from the whole, the music, rude as the art itself then was, could only be of the simplest sort, the plainest cantillation or mere musical utterance of the words. The style of chanting was modified at successive periods, Ambrose introducing into the western church in the latter part of the fourth century, a more regular system, after the example of the east ern, and Pope Gregory making other and more permanent changes near the close of the seventh century, with a view to greater simplicity.* New refinements in the science of vocal and instrumental music, and especially of harmony, made this part of worship in later times often too artificial and difficult to be at tempted except by professional performers. Still however in the ordinary service of the church of Rome, and in the cathedral service of the English church, the Psalms are often chanted in a simple manner. The use in public worship of the Psalms, in a metrical form and in the language of the people, is properly dated from the Reformation. Luther is shown to have contempla ted such a practice soon after he began his career, and before the requisite compositions could be had. But a popular French poet, Marot, taking a devout turn, at least as an author, and inclining also to Lutheranism, 'about the year 1540, attempted with the assistance of his friend Theodore Beza, and by the encouragement of the professor of Hebrew in the University of Paris, a version of Da * What are called the Gregorian chants, were compiled partly from melodies that were even then among the most ancient; and hence Lowell Mason somewhere suggests that possibly some of those strains may have been sung by Paul and Silas in their prison. The supposition is not incredible and certainly is pleasant. Mr. Mason has drawn several of his hymntunes from the chants referred to. VOL. IV. 11 vid's Psalms into French rhymes.** These versions struck a fresh vein, and became not only popular but fashionable even at the French court. The poet anticipated for them popularity, predicting their common use in almost the same terms in which an old Romish writer describes the use anciently made of the Psalms in another language; but he does not appear to have expected for them the place they afterwards obtained in public wor ship. At first the Catholics themselves' are said to have adopted these sacred songs as serious ballads.' But the reformers on the continent found in them an opportunity too favorable to be neglected. They desired to make the Psalms, as well as other Scriptures, essentially popu lar, and hence to have them not only in a language which the people could understand, but in a form in which they could be generally sung with out the aid of instruments or choirs. Tunes having been adapted to them, Marot's Psalms were introduced by Calvin into his congregation at Geneva, and 'presently established as a conspicuous and popular branch of the reformed worship.' They were popular too, as they have been since, on less sacred occasions, taking hold of the common mind with the combined attractions of simple music and intelligible religious sentiment. Yet they did not, as one might infer from Mr. Holland's account, entirely supplant other forms of praise in all the continental churches. Long since We quote from Holland, who quotes partly from Warton, and whose historical introduction is of much interest. "With a characteristic liveliness of fancy, by each of the royal family and the principal nobility of the court, a Psalm was chosen and fitted to the ballad tune which each liked best. Prince Henry who delighted in hunting, was fond of 'Like as the hart desireth the water brooks,' which he constantly sung in going out to the chace." A lady "between whom and himself there was an attachment, took From the depth of my heart, O Lord.'"-See Vol. 1, p. 47. |