Part 33 (1/2)
I conjure thee by all the woe Which grieved thy soul so long ago!
And pain, when thy _Auradice_ From the dark realm thou couldst not free, To grant me of thy mighty will That I may play this pipe with skill, Even as thou hast played before; For, as the story runs, of yore, Whenever thou didst wake its sound, The forest beasts came raptured round.
Orpheus! Orpheus! I pray, Orpheus! teach me how to play!
And when sweet music forth I bring, On every chord thy name shall ring, And every air which charms shall be A hymn of thanks, great lord, to thee!
And unto all I'll make it known, I owe it all to thee alone, And of the wondrous skill I'll tell, Which mighty Orpheus won from h.e.l.l.
And by the music, and the power, Of pa.s.sion in me, from this hour Henceforth in this sweet instrument I shall be ever well content; For now, I do remember well, What 'twas my father oft would tell, That all who would learn music thus Must conjure mighty Orpheus, Even as I have done to-day, So I to him will ever pray.”
To which the ma.n.u.script adds in prose:
”Thus the peasants do when they do not succeed in playing the shepherd's pipe, which they esteem beyond any other instrument.”
To any one who fully feels and understands what is meant to be conveyed by this incantation-and a great deal is expressed by pa.s.sionate singing and a deep thrilling intonation which the text does not give-my translation will appear to be quite accurate. But, in any case, no scholar or poet can deny that there is in it a strange depth of cla.s.sic feeling, or of old Roman romance, not strained at second-hand through books, but evidently drawn from rude antiquity, which is as fresh in its ring as it is marvellous.
It may be observed as exquisitely curious that in this incantation the peasant who wishes to become a skilled performer on the flageolet _buries it for three days in the ground_, invoking Orpheus by what the spirit suffered in losing Eurydice, and subsequently distinctly declaring that he won or conjured his great musical power from Hades, which means that by the penance and loss, and his braving the terrors of the Inferno, he gained _skill_. This is a mighty element of the myth in all its forms, in all ages, in every country. The burying the instrument for three days probably typifies the three days during which Orpheus was in h.e.l.l.
It may be observed that Eurydice has become _Auradice_ in the incantation, in which there is probably an intimation of _Aura_, a light wind or zephyr. Air is so naturally a.s.sociated with music. This, by a very singular coincidence, yet certainly due to mere chance, recalls the invocation to the Spirit of the Air, given by Bulwer in ”The Last Days of Pompeii”:
”Spectre of the viewless air, Hear the blind Thessalian's prayer, By Erichtho's art that shed Dews of life when life was fled, By lone Ithaca's wise king, Who could wake the crystal spring To the voice of prophecy _By the lost Eurydice_!
Summoned from the shadowy throng, At the muse-son's magic song: Come, wild Demon of the Air, Answer to thy votary's prayer.”
It is indeed very remarkable that in the call to the G.o.d of Music, who is in certain wise a spirit of the air, as in that to the Spirit of the Air himself, both are invoked:
”By the lost Eurydice!”
If it could be shown that Bulwer owed this poem and allusion to any ancient work or tradition, I should be tempted to believe that the popular invocation was derived from some source in common with the latter. There is indeed a quaint nave drollery in the word _Aura_dice-”Air-tell!” or ”Air-declare!” which adapts it better to the spirit of Bulwer's poem, in which the air is begged to tell something, than to the Orphean or Orphic spell. It may be that the Orphic oracles were heard in the voice of the wind, apropos of which latter there is a strange Italian legend and an incantation to be addressed to all such mystic voices of the night, which almost seems re-echoed in ”Lucia”:
”Verrano a te sull' aure, I miei sospiri ardenti, Udrai nell mar che mormora L'eco de miei lamenti!”
It is worth observing that this tradition, though derived from the Romagna, was given to me in Florence, and that one of the sculptures on the Campanile represents Orpheus playing the pipe to wild beasts. It is said that in the Middle Ages the walls of churches were the picture-books of the people, where they learned all they knew of Bible legends, but not unfrequently gathered many strange tales from other sources. The sculptors frequently chose of their own will scenes or subjects which were well known to the mult.i.tude, who would naturally be pleased with the picturing what they liked, and it may be that Orpheus was familiar then to all. In any case, the finding him in a witch incantation is singularly in accordance with the bas-relief of the Cathedral of Florence, which again fits in marvellously well with Byron's verse:
”Florence! whom I will love as well As ever yet was said or sung, Since Orpheus sang his spouse from h.e.l.l, Whilst thou art fair and I am young.
”Sweet Florence! those were pleasant times, When worlds were staked for ladies' eyes.
Had bards as many realms as rhymes, Thy charms might raise new Antonies!”
True it is that _this_ Florence seems to have had dazzling eyes and ringlets curled; and it is on the other hand not true that Orpheus sang his spouse from h.e.l.l-he only tried to do it. And it is worth noting that one of the commonest halfpenny pamphlets sold in Florence, which is to be found at every public stand, is a poem called ”Orpheus and Eurydice.”
This fact alone renders it less singular that such cla.s.sical incantations should exist.
The early Christians, notwithstanding their antipathy to heathen symbols, retained with love that of Orpheus. Orpheus was represented as a gentle youth, charming-wild beasts with the music of the pipe, or as surrounded by them and sheep; hence he was, like the Good Shepherd, the favourite type of Christ. He had also gone down into shadowy Hades, and returned to be sacrificed by the heathen, unto whose rites he would not conform.
Miss Roma Lister found traces of Orpheus among the peasantry about Rome, in a pretty tradition. They say that there is a spirit who, when he plays the _zufolo_ or flageolet to flocks, attracts them by his music and keeps them quiet.
”Now there were certain shepherd families and their flocks together in a place, and it was agreed that every night by turns, each family should guard the flocks of all the rest. But it was observed that one mysterious family all turned in and went to sleep when their turn came to watch, and yet every morning every sheep was in its place.
Then it was found that this family had a spirit who played the _zufolo_, and herded the flock by means of his music.”
The name is wanting, but Orpheus was there. The survival of the soul of Orpheus in the _zufolo_ or pipe, and in the sprite, reveals the mystic legend which indicates his existing to other times. In this it is said that his head after death predicted to Cyrus the Persian monarch that he too would be killed by a woman (_Consule Leonic_, _de var. histor._, lib.