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THE ANGLO-NORMAN TROUVÈRES

CONTINUED.

TERRESTRIAL PARADISE-DESCENT TO HELL.

AN anonymous trouvère describes the voyage of St. Bradan, an Irishman, to the terrestrial Paradise. The saint, accompanied by his monks, discovers in an island the paradise of birds these birds respond to the psalms sung by the saint. They were probably the ancestors of the bird in the gardens of Armida.

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In another island is a tree, with leaves of a pale red. White birds are perched upon the tree. One of these birds, being questioned by St. Bradan, gives this answer : My companions and I are angels expelled from heaven with Lucifer. We obeyed him as our chief in his quality of archangel; but, as we did not share his pride, God has only banished us to

this island." Here is the repentant angel of Klopstock.

From the paradise of birds, St. Bradan, still attended by his monks, proceeds to another island, in which stands the abbey of St. Alban.

He again puts to sea, is attacked by a serpent, which a beast sent by God comes and battles with, and afterwards by a gryphon which is swallowed by a dragon. Strange fishes assemble to listen to the hermit celebrating the feast of St. Peter on the open

sea.

The bark arrives at hell. The accursed region is enveloped in darkness: smoke, sparks, and flames form a veil impenetrable to the light of day. On a steep rock is perceived a naked man; his flesh, torn by the scourge, is ready to drop from the bones; his face is covered by a cloth. This wretch is Judas. He describes to the saint his inexpressible torments: there is a fresh one for every day in the week.

Marie, surnamed of France, by whom we have a collection of lays, turned into verse the Purgatory of St. Patrick of Ireland, which Henry, a monk of Saltry, originally composed in Latin, in the 12th century. The descent to the place of expiation was by a cavern, over which St. Patrick built a convent.

Two other trouvères took up the same subject. They conduct O'Wein to purgatory; the knight passes by hell, the torments of which he witnesses, arrives at the terrestial paradise, and approaches the celestial.

Adam de Ross sings in his turn the descent of St. Paul to hell. The archangel Michael performs the office of guide to the apostle.

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My good man," says he to him, "follow me without fear and without suspicion. God commands me to show thee the gnashing of teeth, the pangs, and the anguish, which sinners undergo."

Michael goes first: Paul follows, repeating psalms. At the gate of hell grows a tree of fire; from its branches hang the souls of misers and scandal-mongers. The air is full of flying imps who drag the wicked to the furnace.

The two travellers pursue their way through the desolate regions. The archangel explains to the apostle the torments inflicted for different crimes; from the bosom of an immense forge, a vast mine, in which burning furnaces roar and sparkle, issue rivers of molten metals, in which demons are disporting. The further the envoys of heaven penetrate into the bowels of the earth, the more terrible become the torments. St. Paul is filled with pity.

They arrive at the mouth of a pit sealed with seven seals. The archangel removes the seals, and pushes back the apostle, till the pestilential vapour exhaled from the pit has passed off. From the bottom of this pit ascend the moans of the greatest sinners. St. Paul inquires how long their punishment shall last. "One hundred and forty thousand years," replies St. Michael, though I am not quite sure of it."

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The apostle begs the archangel to implore the Almighty to mitigate the punishment of these reprobate spirits. Their prayers, joined by those of other compassionate angels, are granted: God ordains that, in future, the tortures shall be suspended from Saturday till Monday morning. St. Bradan, in his voyage to the terrestial paradise, had obtained the same favour for Judas. The term for this suspension of punishment is the same as that fixed for the first truces, which were called peace of God.

The middle ages are not the time of style, properly so called, but they are the time of picturesque expression, of natural delineation, and of fertile invention. We see, with a smile of admiration, what simple nations derived from the creed that was taught them. To their strong, lively, vagabond imagination, their cruel manners, their indomitable courage, their

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