Dr R F Littledale, the continuator of John Mason Neale's four-volume commentary on the (Coverdale) psalter, had a bit of a temptation to want to educate the (Anglican) clergy. So, in this psalm, he likes the idea that in verse 6 (where the correct and LXX/Vulgate reading is The earth hath brought forth her fruit), earth refers to our most blessed Lady; and he quotes (Octoechus) anerotos aroura horathes, ton stachun tekousa tes zoes. anerotos aroura ... gracious me, how those Byzantines did love that sort of thing ... as Peter Wimsey admitted with regard to himself, they were drunk on words; never really quite sober.
In the old Breviaries, Deus misereatur was umbilically joined to psalm 62/63; the latter preceded Deus misereatur and they shared one Gloria, one antiphon. This seems to me fitting: upon waking I recall my afflictions, my thirst ... but the combined psalm ends with the song of glory and divine blessing, which is Deus misereatur.
Older commentators sometimes related this psalm to the combination in one chosen race of 'believing gentiles' and 'the repentant people of the Jews'.
And in 62/63, I can offer you another example of Dr Littledale's didactic endeavours: in verse 9, he quotes the hymn Salutatio aurea, and relates the words of the psalm to devotion to the Lord's Five Precious Wounds: Ave dextra manus Christi/ Perforata plaga tristi,/ Nos ad dextram iube sisti,/ Quos per crucem redemisti.
Sometimes people want to know what this "Anglican Patrimony" is. Perhaps I might define it as a passion for making arcane connections between disparate texts. Farrer ... Thornton ... Littledale ... Neale ...
I wonder how our Holy Father would have got on with Gregory Dix ...
3 comments:
The Deus misereatur would make a very fitting "optional canticle" for Morning Prayer in the DWDO Ordinariate office, although it isn't explicitly included in the list of such.
Dix would be telling him some home truths, and letting him know how he was doing everything wrong. I suspect that Francis would be avoiding him.
Father, Your enthusiasm for intertextuality places you at the cutting edge of contemporary literary criticism!
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