O gladsome light, O grace

O gladsome light, O grace. Robert Bridges* (1844-1930). From the Yattendon Hymnal, Part IV (1899), prefaced with the words, ‘Fr. the Greek. 7th Cent. by R.B. for this tune’. The tune was the setting by Loys Bourgeois* for the Genevan Psalter* version of the ‘Nunc dimittis’*, while the text was from the Greek ‘Candlelighting Hymn’, thought to be one of the earliest hymns of the Christian church (see ‘Phos hilaron’*). It was translated, more sparingly and less regularly, by John Keble*, as ‘Hail, gladdening Light, of his pure glory poured’*. Bridges’s text has the virtue of being rhymed and metrical:    O gladsome light, O grace   Of God the Father's face,The eternal splendour wearing;...