Before the Ending of the Day

Lyrics

Before the ending of the day,
creator of the world, we pray,
that with thy wonted favour thou
wouldst be our guard and keeper now.

From all ill dreams defend our eyes,
from nightly fears and fantasies;
tread under foot our ghostly foe,
that no pollution we may know.

O Father, that we ask be done,
through Jesus Christ thine only Son,
who, with the Holy Ghost and thee,
doth live and reign eternally.
Amen.

History

This is the ancient office hymn of Compline, the Church's last prayer before sleep: the Latin Te lucis ante terminum ('to thee before the close of day'). Hymnary.org dates the Latin original to around the eighth century — a Compline office hymn sung nightly for well over a thousand years — and its three short verses ask, in turn, for God's guard through the night, for defence 'from all ill dreams' and 'nightly fears and fantasies', and close with a doxology to Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The English translation sung here was made in 1852 by John Mason Neale, and the hymn appears in 69 hymnals, most often to its own plainsong melody.

Neale, born in London in 1818 and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, was the great Victorian translator of the ancient Latin and Greek hymn heritage. As warden of Sackville College, East Grinstead — a retirement home for poor men — from 1846 until his death in 1866, he produced the collections that restored plainsong hymns to English congregations, among them The Hymnal Noted (1852, 1854) and Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences (1851). His other enduring translations include 'All Glory, Laud and Honour' and 'Christ Is Made the Sure Foundation'.

Performance

This recording by St Martin's Voices runs a little under two minutes: the three verses of Neale's translation are sung through to the plainsong melody, closing with an Amen.

Sources: hymnary.org · St Martin's Voices recording and Words book (Before_the_ending_of_the_day_sung_structure.docx): 'Latin, tr. John Mason Neale', 'Te lucis ante terminum (plainsong)'