The shame. — Better take the face as a second object — shame hath covered me as to my face, i.e., covered my face. Though the record of the facts of a sad reality, these verses have also the value of a prophecy sadder still. Twenty centuries of misery are summed up in these few lines, which have been most literally repeated,
“By the torture, prolonged from age to age,
By the infamy, Israel’s heritage;
By the Ghetto’s plague, by the garb’s disgrace,
By the badge of shame, by the felon’s place.”
R. BROWNING: Holy Cross Day.