Poems, Volume 1

1. A HYMN FOR COCK-CROW

1. A HYMN FOR COCK-CROWl The winged messenger of day Sings loud, foretelling dawn's approach,2 And Christ in stirring accents calls Our slumbering souls to life with Him. 'Away,' He cries, 'with dull repose, The sleep of death and sinful sloth; With hearts now sober, just and pure, Keep watch, for I am very near.'s 5 1. Some commentators think that in this Hymn Prudentius refers to the crowing of the cock shortly before dawn. Isidore of Seville (Origenes 5.80) defines the time of cock-crow as midnight. The Hymn undoubtedly has reference to the night office, or vigils, observed by ascetics and the more fervent of the laity during the fourth century. The nocturnal vigils, from which the canonical Hour of Matins later developed, began about midnight after the first crowing of the cock and terminated at dawn with the hymni matutini, which Prudentius celebrates in Hymn 2. Frequent mention of these prayers at midnight and at dawn, media nocte et mane, are found in the ecclesiastical writings of the third and fourth centuries. Cf. Tertullian, De Oratione 29; Cyprian, De Oratione Dominica 86; Basil, Regulae fusius tractatae, 87.5; Jerome, Epistles 180.15; S. Silviae peregrinatio 24.1-2 (CSEL 89.71) and 24.8-10 (CSEL 39.78). 2. Cf. Vergil, Moretum 2; Ambrose, Hymn 1.5-6. 8. Cf. Mark 18.85; Rom. 18.11; 1 Thess. 5.6; 1 Peter 5.8. 3 4 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS Mter the sunlight floods the sky, It is too late to spurn your bed,· 10 Unless in watching and in prayerll You spend a portion of the night. The cock's loud voice, which ere the dawn Awakes the song of noisy birds That perch beneath the sheltering eaves,8 15 A symbol is of our high Judge. As hid in shadows dark we lie, Deep buried in the shrouds of night, He bids us leave our dull repose, For day's first gleam will soon appear, 20 That when the radiant dawn bestrews The heavens with her shining breath," All men worn out by arduous toil May find new strength in hope of light.s - - 4 . Cf. Ambrose, Hymn 9.2. 5. Labori. This is the evident meaning here, as in II. 28 and 80. Cf. Jerome, Epistles 107.9: et assuescat e"emplo ad orationes et psalmos nocte consurgere, mane hymnos canere, tertia, se"ta, nona hora ... stare in acie ... sic dies transeat, sic no" inveniat laborantem; Cassian, De coenobiorum institutis 8.9 (PL 49.145): post vigiliarum laborem; S. Silviae peregrinatio 85.1 (CSEL 89.85): Hora prima noctis omnes in ecclesia, quae est in Eleona, conveniamus, quoniam ma"imus labor nobis instat hodie nocte ista. See also Niceta of Remesiana, De vigiliis servorum Dei 5 (Trans. in Vol. 7 of this series, p. 55). 6. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 8.456; Ausonius, Ephemeris 1.2. 7. Coruscis flatibus. Though all the MSS read thus, Chamillard (Delphin ed. 57) thinks that coruscis fletibus, 'shining tears,' should be read. Arevalus (PL 59.778) shows that flatibus is doubtless the correct reading. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 4.584-585. 8. Cf. S. Silviae peregrinatio 86.5 (CSEL 89.87): Postmodum (the previous vigil) autem alloquitur episcopus populum con/ortans HYMNS 5 God gives us in the time of sleep 25 An image of eternal death:9 In night of sin's vile durance held, We lie and groan for light divine. But out of Heaven's high citadel The voice of Christ a warning sounds, 30 That dawn is near to free our souls From bondage to the sleep of sin, Lest to the very end of life This leaden torpor may oppress Our hearts submerged in depths of crime, 35 Oblivious of the heavenly light. In night's dark shadows, it is said, The evil spirits in joy may roam, But at the crowing of the cock In sudden fear they take to flight. 40 Hateful to them is the near approach Of light divine, God's saving grace, Which, breaking through the murky clouds, Drives far away night's vassal crew. Forewarned, the fiends know this to be 45 The symbol of our promised hope, When free from sleep's enthralling chains We wait the coming of our God. eos, quoniam et tota nocte laboraverint et adhuc laboraturi sint ipsa die, ut non lassentur, sed habeant spem in Deo, qui...