Manzoni Letteratura Opera Omnia

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Alessandro Manzoni - Opera Omnia >> The name of Mary

Complete text

ilmanzoni text integral passage complete quotation of the sources works historical five may poetry ode napoleon the fifth may in verses prologue

INTRODUCTION TO THE RESURRECTION

Written by Rev. J.F. Bingham

Treating of a mortal, however sacred, however exalted among human beings, in a comparison with the foregoing Hymns which had direct relations with the God-man Himself, this Hymn must by the nature of things be pitched in a certain manner upon a lower key. This circumstance, or necessity, has opened the way for much conflicting criticism and much faint praise, particularly over certain stanzas which lack, it is claimed, the needed lyric fire; while on the contrary it is also claimed by other and equal critics that just herein lies its propriety, its naturalness, its unaffected excellence. Certainly it is of all the most peaceful, simple, soft in tone and to those who embrace her cult, tender, touching, inspiring.

"The Poet," says a devoted commentator, "completes his role here with fine zeal, with a wonderful arrangement and fusion of conceits. In the images used here and clothed with forms which seem so unstudied and in some places humble almost to contempt, you feel a breeziness that refreshes you and implants in your soul virtuous affections and a reverent trust; you feel not that which MANZONI himself has called 'the dancing of a passionate hurricane,' but the soft voice of a word1 which the heart is glad to learn and repeat, a zephyr of virginal purity, a new understanding of love."

The term Name is taken here in its most pregnant and wide-reaching sense. It includes the whole ecclesiastical doctrine of Her nature, character, elevation, work, power, distinction, glory, renown. It involves, of course, Her especial relations to each member of humanity with the corresponding sentiments and emotions which are the fruit of these relations in individual hearts and which are voiced in the worship of the Church universal.

ARGUMENT. -- After the pastoral exordium describing the visit of the allotted Mother of the Messiah to the coming mother of the Forerunner, who, informed by prophetic vision, bowed in reverence before that exalted vessel of Divine Motherhood, the Poet proceeds to emphasize the solemn loveliness of that sacred dignity and to exult in the actual universality of its adoration. Then, more at large, he dwells on the affection and faith, on the confidence and comfort which She awakens -- of the child frightened by the dark, of the sailor in the terrors of the storm, of the despised young girl overwhelmed in her griefs -- taken as symbols of the sources and series, of the occasions and consolations which are attached to Her offices of power and love. These sorrows and their relief through Her sympathy suggest the sorrows of MARY herself and succeeding them Her joys, Her praises, Her everlasting renown. The Hymn closes with a touching call on faithful Israelites to recognize the Princess of their own ancient royalty so exalted now while they have been so crushed, so debased, inviting them to return to Her and in company with all the nations of the world take part in the paean which earth and heaven are sounding, as they salute Her in the words of the Church and of the tremendous address which the Church refers to Her in the SONG OF SONGS.

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