Hymns and Spiritual Songs (book) - Hymns and Spiritual Songs

Hymns and Spiritual Songs

The Hymns were composed between June 1762 and January of 1763 while Christopher was in a mental asylum for "religious mania", as "D Fragment" of Jubilate Agno claims:

The Lord magnify the idea of Smarts singing hymns on this day in the eyes of the whole University of Cambridge. (D148)

Novr 5th 1762. N.S.

This fragment led Robert Brittain, one of Christopher Smart's editors, to claim that "Smart had just written his 'Hymn xxix. The Fifth of November'." This would verify that Christopher Smart wrote these Hymns while in a mental asylum and that he was creating hymns to follow the Church Year. Furthermore, the references to hymns in the "D Fragment" of Jubilate Agno does not allow a definite date of creation to exist, but can narrow down their origins to a few years.

The actual Hymns are modeled after a tradition of hymn writing exemplified by Robert Nelson. However, a connection between Nelson and Christopher Smart's hymns may only be coincidental, because they both rely on common Anglican texts. The texts that Christopher Smart relies on most for his Hymns are the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. They form a sort of "companion" to the Book of Common Prayer. However, the complexity of the Biblical allusions and Biblical works may confuse or mislead a reader who is not steeped in Biblical tradition.

The actual Hymns do follow the festivals and fasts that were important to Anglican tradition, but they also include four "Solemn Days": the "Martyrdom of the Blessed King Charles the First" on January 30; the "King's Restoration" on May 29; the "Accession of the Ruling Monarch" on October 25; and the "Most Traiterous and bloody intended Massacre by Gunpowder" on November 5. These days are outlets for Christopher's patriotism and his dislike of the Catholic Church.