Come down, O Love Divine

This translation of a 15th-c Italian text, made by Richard F Littledale for The People’s Hymnal in 1867, is a comparatively late arrival among the ranks of standard hymns. It has come to be one of the few almost indispensable items addressed to the Holy Spirit. The original Discendi, amor santo, visita la mie mente is by Bianco of Siena, who lived in Venice as a member of the ‘Jesuates’ (a religious order not to be confused with the Jesuits), wrote some 90 hymns, compiled Laudi Sprituali (‘Spiritual praises’) from which this is taken, and died in 1434. These vernacular ‘praise-songs’ were nonliturgical, unofficial and set to simple melodies; even their place in ‘alternative churches’ has a modern ring to it. They had to wait nearly 4 centuries before being published in Lucca in 1851 by Telesforo Bini. Even the translation (from The People’s Hymnal of 1867) was not widely noticed until EH, when the tune ensured an immediate recognition of its merits. Littledale has used just over half of the Italian text and slightly simplified its unique iambic metre—complex to write but not difficult to sing. ‘Exquisitely translated’; ‘beautiful translation’, say various commentators. The Jubilate revision used here changes 2.6 from ‘… clothe me round, the while my path illuming’; smaller changes replace ‘thou’ at 1.2, ‘outpass’ at 4.3, ‘he’ at 4.5. Some have objected to the ‘loathing’ in 3.6; self-loathing is not always healthy, but may have a place on the path towards healing by the Spirit of God, as enlarged on in 827. In spite of ‘they’ introduced in the penultimate line, where HTC prefers ‘we’, this remains an individual and highly distinctive sung prayer. Not the least remarkable feature is the delaying of the title ‘Holy Spirit’ until the last line, as in the Italian original.

Although a fine tune cannot entirely save a poor hymn, where quality meets quality it may be the tune which lifts it into the first rank. Ralph Vaughan Williams composed DOWN AMPNEY (named after his Gloucs birthplace, a village near Cirencester), for these words in EH; ‘so perfect a setting … that no other has been proposed’ (W Milgate). This is not quite true, since A&M, lacking the necessary permission until its 1983 edition, was obliged to print STEPHENS (by Charles E Stephens) and then William H Harris’s NORTH PETHERTON, each as a filler which has not survived. Other authors, however, have occasionally ventured to use the Vaughan Williams tune, as for 849. The Parry/Routley Companion to Congregational Praise (1953) calls it ‘perhaps the most beautiful hymn-tune composed since the OLD HUNDREDTH’. Down Ampney parish ch is ‘All Saints’; cf. 585.

b ?Anciolina, Val d’Arno, Tuscany, C Italy, ?, d ?Venice, ?1434. In 1367 he entered the Jesuate order (not the Jesuits, but lay followers of the Augustinian Rule), lived for some time in Venice and probably died there. He may have represented a dissenting or ‘alternative’ group within the RC church of his day; 4 centuries later, in 1851, his Italian hymns were published by Telesforo Bini in a new edition. The popularity of the English version of one of them since the 1906 EH owes much to the Vaughan Williams tune, but Richard F Littledale deserves some credit for his translations published in 1867. No.518.

b Dublin 1833, d Bloomsbury, C London 1890. Bective House Seminary and Trinity Coll, Dublin (BA 1855, LL.D 1862); Oxford DCL, 1862. Ordained in 1856, he served contrasting curacies at Thorpe Hamlet nr Norwich, Norfolk, and Soho in C London. But he was obliged to leave the parochial ministry for health reasons, devoting himself to academic study and authorship which included much liturgical and hymnological work. Among some 50 books from this convinced Anglo-catholic were the influential Plain Reasons for not joining the Church of Rome (1880). He made translations into English from 7 other languages, completed a Commentary on the Psalms left unfinished by J M Neale at his death, and compiled Carols for Christmas and Other Seasons (1863) and The People’s Hymnal of 1867. He used at least 9 different sets of initials to disguise his own authorship; in praising his diction, metres, rhythm, earnestness, and (in translation) faithfulness to his originals, Julian concludes, ‘His main object throughout is to teach through Praise and Prayer’. As with several other authors, one single achievement of his has outdistanced and outlived the entire remainder of his output and would now be considered indispensable. No.518.