O Love, who formedst me to wear

O Love, who formedst me to wear. Johannes Scheffler* (1624-1677), translated by Catherine Winkworth* (1827-1878). The German text, ‘Liebe, die du mich zum Bilde’*, was published in Scheffler’s Heilige Seelen-lust, oder Geistliche Hirten-Lieder (‘Holy soul-longing, or spiritual pastoral songs’, Breslau, 1657), in six 6-line stanzas. Another stanza (4, ‘Liebe die du Kraft und Leben’) was added in a Geistreiches Gesangbuch published in Halle in 1697. Winkworth’s translation of all seven stanzas was made for Lyra Germanica II (1858), where it was entitled ‘The exceeding great Love of our Master and only Saviour Jesus Christ’. It was ascribed there to ‘Angelus’, the name taken by Scheffler when...