204
THE
JiEW
CMiEGRO
In the latter passages, there is a naivete, and also a faith and fervor, that are mediseval. Indeed one has to go to the Middle Ages to find anything quite like this combination of childlike simplicity of thought with strangely consummate artistry of mood. A quaintly literal, lisping, fervent Chris¬ tianity, we feel it to be the evangelical and Protestant counter¬ part of the naive Catholicism of the tenth to the thirteenth centuries. And just as there we had quaint versions of Ber¬ nard of Clairvaux and Saint Francis in the Virgin songs and Saints Legends, so here we have Bunyan and John Wesley per¬ colated through a peasant mind and imagination, and concen¬ trated into something intellectually less, but emotionally more vital and satisfying. If the analogy seems forced, remember that we see the homely colloquialism of the one through the glamorous distance of romance, and of the other, through the disillusioning nearness of social stigma and disdain. How regrettable though, that the very qualities that add charm to the one should arouse mirthful ridicule for the other. Over-keen sensitiveness to this reaction, which will com¬ pletely pass within a half generation or so, has unfortunately caused many singers and musicians to blur the dialect and pun¬ gent colloquialisms of the Spirituals so as not to impede with irrelevant reactions their proper artistic and emotional effect. Some have gone so far as to advocate the abandonment of the dialect versions to insure their dignity and reverence. But for all their inadequacies, the words are the vital clues to the moods of these songs. If anything is to be changed, it should be the popular attitude. One thing further may be said, without verging upon apologetics, about their verbal form. In this broken dialect and grammar there is almost invariably an unerring sense of euphony. Mr. Work goes so far as to sug¬ gest—rightly, I think—that in many instances the dropped, elided, and added syllables, especially the latter, are a matter of instinctive euphonic sense following the requirements of the musical rhythm, as, for example, “The Blood came a twinklin’ down” from “The Crucifixion” or “Lying there fo’ to be heal” from “Blind Man at the Pool.” Mr. Work calls attention to the extra beat syllable, as in “De trumpet
