The Christ-Child in Old England
Benardete, Dolores
I76 THE COMMONWEAL December 22, I926 Frenchmen who in I889 were twenty years old and had a distinct vocation, were marked, if I dare say so, with a fatidical sign. They were born in mourn-ing,...
...Summing up Clau...
...My dear mother, when the time comes, take Me up on high, And set Me upon thy knee, and handle Me carefully...
...I78 THE COMMONWEAL December 22, I926 I will thee teach, if thou wilt hear: A is llke to the Deity: The Deity is, thou mayst be sure, Three Persons and One in majesty, Evermore, hereafter, They shall endure Inseparable all three...
...Mary answers her Son's remark "wyth wordus mylde, plat and pleyn" (with words mild, quiet, and plain) that for the sake of His friend, His enemy should be forgiven...
...One day, the little play-mates of Jesus decide to run a race to the well...
...Then He proposes a pretty game : "Wyl we pleyn be the lake...
...I76 THE COMMONWEAL December 22, I926 Frenchmen who in I889 were twenty years old and had a distinct vocation, were marked, if I dare say so, with a fatidical sign...
...Jesus, unperturbed, "hol Hys pot gan make...
...It is in the great bulk of generally read- able writings that one finds children of all kinds, figu- ratively running and playing through the pages...
...In my career as dramatic author and critic, two memorable Paris premieres stand out --Cyrano, and L'Annonce Faite/~ Marie...
...That he should have a world of interests separated from the world of his parents was inconceivable...
...Broadly speaking, there are two general types of children in middle-English literature--the lay or ordi- nary children, and the holy children...
...For angels bright Make Me light, Thou knowest it is no nay...
...On a sunbeam they hung them...
...in his native village, Villeneuve-sur- F~re, in Tardenois...
...And perhaps THE CHRIST-CHILD By DOLORES were it not for this Catholicism which illumined and reassembled his dispersions, his too rich nature would have been lost in its own opulence...
...The Chyld than spak in Hys talkyng, and to His moder sayd: "I bekydde am Kyng in erybbe thar I be lay& For aungeiles brygt Done to Me lygt, "l~hou knowest it ys no nay...
...They all looked, I tell you, To see which of them was quickest . . . Jesus reached the water first...
...The fragment, La Estorie del Evangelic, gives a report of the birth of Jesus: Whorl that Child was forth brouht, Luytel heo hedde othur riht nouht fforte leggen inne that Bern, But a luyte hei othur vern...
...Mary seyd: "this bestes xuUyn us slon...
...The ballad Saint Stephen and Herod celebrates the birth of Christ in the refrain: "Ther is a Chyld in Bedlem born is beret than we alle...
...New-comers, sometimes they were not of least importance, joined the army of veterans...
...Let our vessels hang on a sunbeam...
...Thus Psichari, the "lily of the trenches," died like his elder comrade Prguy, with the name of Christ on his lips...
...The child-hood of the saints is invariably idealized to correspond to the mediaeval vagary of what saints ought to be as children...
...But A begynnyt the letterure, For A is lyk to the Trinite . . I wyl the lere, yyf thou wylt dure: A is lyk to the Deyte: the Deyte is, thou myth be sure, III personys & on in mageste, Evermore hereafter he xullyn endure Indepartable alle III...
...He repudiates the divorce be- tween the flesh and the spirit, which is called jan- s~nisme in Europe and puritanism in America...
...He likes to play with His friends, and is at the same time a comfort and a problem to His mother...
...by the other, which is an equally en-thusiastic homage to France, our patriotism was trans- figured into a religious rapture...
...Among the boys is Arka, who breaks the Leader's vessel spitefully...
...He is described...
...This mystic is sound, robust, well-rooted in his French province, l'Aisne...
...But so he climbed to spirituality, though keeping his feet on the ground...
...Although He is gifted with supernatural powers, He talks and behaves like any other boy...
...But nevertheless I will not cease To sing, by by, lullay...
...Alas, the day grows so darkl" Jesus blessed the beasts every one...
...Like other boys, He is sent to school, and proceeds to give His teacher a lesson in metaphysics, asking him why "a" comes before "b...
...He proclaims jubilantly: "I am a thousand times more certain of the existence of God than of the sun which shines upon us...
...That his per- sonality should require special care and study to insure its unblemished blossoming was a dream not yet dreamed...
...The teacher is unable to answer, and Jesus informs him, "wtoutyn lecyng" (without lying) : "A is letter wtoutyn pere, A is III & but o thyng, III partys he hat knyth in fere...
...The Child then spoke in His talking, and to His mother said : "I am announced King in the crib where I am laid...
...Similar dialogues between mother and Child occur in ballads, but their sweetness and charm are not so apparent as in the little lyrics...
...When that Child was brought forth She had little or almost nothing Wherein to lay that Bairn, But a little green hay...
...One thing stands out in this material: the Christ-child is human, He is alive...
...Heo leyden Him in bestes stalles, I-loke bi-twene two olde walles...
...then began her sorrow anew...
...Father of grace, why hast Thou Forgotten Thy little Son...
...There have been converts who had already behind them an important literary achievement...
...a11e thel brokyn, he were not stronge...
...on the contrary, knowing that "the spirit bloweth where it listeth," they taught the youth who came to them, not to imitate them, but to find them- selves, to be themselves...
...The Holy Child's superiority over other children is manifested in many ways...
...To the man of the middle-ages, his child was only a reduced facsimile of himself--nothing more than an homunculus...
...While praying for the hermit, she imagine s she overhears a oonversation between Jesus and Mary...
...Thus, from the human point of view, that rebirth of mysticism, that return to religion, that blazing forth of Catholicism in the art, literature and thought of France is explained...
...And at that sight You may be light To sing, by by, lullay...
...Jesus says: "Moder, seostou hou yond neih bend Myn enemy preyeth for My frend...
...Heo wounden Him with that heo mihten gete, And leyden Him, there bestes etc...
...He is the central figure in many a tale...
...The harlot enters a chapel of Our Lady where stands an image of the Virgin and Child...
...If I weep, And cannot sleep, Sing, by by, lullay...
...Not only can Jesus mend broken jars and rest His own vessel safely on a sunbeam, but He excels His fellows in brilliance...
...But he believes also in the sun...
...Regarded by his elders as a potential, if as yet inactive, adult, he seemed to differ but slightly from his mother and father, uncles and aunts...
...They all broke, they were not strong...
...Most of the child charac- ters in the literature of the period are therefore inane...
...This movement of heroic Christianity has nothing of the superficial or pedantic...
...It is utterly spontaneous...
...grimage toward God, yet treading through the road- ways of the earth...
...There are many alleged experiences of the child-hood of Jesus in middle-English literature...
...That word was not so sone seyd, that word in that halle, The capoun crew "Cristus natus est...
...A is letter without peer, A is three and but one thing, Three parts it hath knit together...
...Therein was found a prin-ciple of energy when everything else crumbled...
...Neither P~gny with his Jeanne flare, nor Claudel with his L'Annonce Faite ~ Marie, has sought to gain disciples...
...I cannot sleep, but I may weep, I am so woe begone...
...Nevertheless, one quickly distinguishes a poet wholly intellectual like Rostand, from a poet aflame with the divine, like Claudel...
...It was Catholicism that revealed his genius to him, as he acknowledges in Ma Conversion...
...Mother, seest thou how near at hand My enemy prayeth for My friend...
...His un-canny control over wild beasts is narrated in The Childhood of Jesus...
...All his work is, as M. Georges Duhamel has said, a pil...
...And in thy arm Hold Me warm, And keep Me night and day...
...There is a tendency to explain exceptional qualities in the lives of the saints by extending them retroactively to their childhood days, so that the child saints are very often immature only in years, having fully developed faculties and powers to perform all sorts of astonishing feats...
...That is all as true, Stephen, all as true, certainly, As if this capon should crow that lies here in my dish...
...But history amply supports the view that the child was a very insignificant member of pre-renaissance society...
...Sleep I would, but I am cold, And clothes have I none . . . A spear so sharp shall pierce My heart, For deeds that I have done...
...In the lullabies, they take on the softness of a crooning voice and therefore seem less dogmatic...
...and He lay wrapped in poor clothes in His mother's lap...
...and of all the holy children written of at this period, it is He who offers the greatest variety of material...
...del's teaching, we may say that reason beguiles, that chimerical fancy dazzles in vain, but the spirit urges us to peace...
...In another lyric, the Baby has the greater part: "I may not slep, but I may wepe, I am so wo begone...
...Indeed, many people are under the im- pression that the only manuscripts of the period (that is, between about I ioo and i5oo) in which children are even mentioned or referred to, are frankly peda- gogical or didactic, like The Babees Book...
...By the one, we were exalted by the heroic ardor of affection for the homeland...
...Most of the holy children are destined to sainthood...
...No sooner was that word spoken, that word in that hall, Than the capon crowed "Christ is born...
...Her gentle remonstrance inspires the Child to say: "Mi swete modur, Mi noriee dere, thi bone mot nedes I-graunted be, Wot thou wolt wol I not weme the...
...In the legend of "how an holy hermyt prayde a synful woman pray God for hym" (how a holy hermit begged a sinful woman to pray to God for him) the Babe is used to set off His mother's kindness of heart...
...among the lordes alle...
...On the contrary, the life of the Christ-child as de- picted in mediaeval literature, is vitalized and elevated December 22, I926 THE COMMONWEAL I77 far beyond the vapidity of the child saint...
...They were born in mourn-ing, later witnessed a smiling period of civilization, and finally suffered from frightful upheavals, as much in the life of the spirit as in that of society...
...In one of these, the mother tells her Child He will be King...
...Our Lord Jesus Christ was at that time in His man- hood a little child of thirteen days of age, and He was somewhat fat...
...Christ's hung still, theirs fell down...
...Slep I old, butt I am colde, And dothys have I none . . . A spere so scharp shaU perse My herte, For dedys that I have done...
...Fader of grace, whet Thou hase Forgetyn Thy lytyll Sonne...
...In Three Kings of Cologne appears a prosaic ac-count of what the Holy Babe looked like to the Magi: Oure Lord Ihesu Crist was that tyme in His manhede a litil childe of xiii dayes age, and He was sumdele fatte...
...This aspect of the young Christ preaching the Gos- pel is common to many of the loveliest lyrics...
...The method is usually that of the debate, a popular form in the middle-ages...
...My sweet mother, My nurse dear, Thy boon must needs granted be, What thou wilt, I will not hold from thee...
...IN OLD ENGLAND BENARDETE T HE idea that there are no child characters in middle-English literature may possibly occur to those not steeped in the study and spirit of the middle-ages...
...And in thi arme Thou hyl Me warme, And kepe nygt and day...
...On the sunebem xul our pottes gon ?" On the sunebem thei hem honge...
...Mary is frightened as she and her Son go through unfamiliar paths: .9 . . than began here soryn newe...
...Tramping our pride in the dust, even our intellectual pride, we endeavor to rise to humility, and to understand why, in a letter to Jacques Rivi~re, the Christian poet has formulated this avowal : "Art is only a pale counterfeit of sanctity...
...A portent of His advent follows the challenge of sceptical Herod: "That is al so soth, Stevyn, al so soth, iwys, As this capoun crowe xal that lyth here in myn dysh...
...Such is not the ease of Claudel...
...She wrapped Him with whatever she could get, And laid Him where beasts ate...
...Jhesu blyssyd tho bestes ichon: Mary blyssyd here Sone anone, She dred no best in the way, She seyde here kar was al gon...
...Alas, the day waxlt so dim...
...He is allegorized...
...In the cosmic cataclysm compelling them to question everything anew, they have turned their eyes and hearts toward Christ and His kingdom...
...among the lords all...
...It may be argued that the soul of Christ is hidden under a mass of mortal weakness, but no one can deny that the very vitality and alertness of the Holy Child as a literary creation places Him far above the marionettedike children who parade through the rest of the literature of the middle-ages...
...Is it astonishing then, if, beset by doubt, sorrow, disillusion- ment, they sought to cling to something stable...
...Mary said: "These beasts will shy us...
...Shall we play by the lake...
...Cristes heng stylle, here gan don falle...
...But nevertheles I wyl not ses To syng, by by, lullay...
...He is a part of the background of the stories of His mother Mary...
...And of that sygt Thou mayst be lygt To syng, by by, lullay...
...She laid Him in the beasts' stalls, Locked between two old walls...
...Mary blessed her Son anon, She feared no beast in the way, She said her care was all gone...
...Middle-English literature is rich in accounts of Christ...
...If I we~, And may not siepe, Thou syng, by by, lullay...
...But works of this nature are few in comparison with the mass of material left us in the English vernacular of the middle-ages...
...And how He should be taken care of and made happy, He says, as many infants must long to say: "My der moder, whan tyro it be, thou take Me up on loft, And set Me upon thi kne, and handyU Me full soft...
...and He laye wrapped in poure clothis and in His modir lappe...
...Alle hee lokyddyn, I you say, qvych of hem wasi most snelle . Jhesu fyrst the water hent...
...Then we perceive that beauty is only a path to lead higher...
...But A begins the alphabet, For A is like to the Trinity...
Vol. 5 • December 1926 • No. 7
