PREJUDICES AGAINST CELTIC LITERATURE.

WHEN an empire includes within itself two distinct peoples whose ancestors spoke different languages, the dispossessed or conquered race must resign itself to see its ancient literature disliked, or despised, or, under the most favourable circumstances, neglected by the dominant one. Probably the ancient Finnish literature was formerly held in no esteem by the Swedes, nor at present by their masters the Russians. Except in this example of the Finns, the condition of the Celtic subjects of Her Majesty Queen Victoria has no parallel which we can call to mind through Europe. Their spoken language will in time cease to be heard, and the relics of their ancient literature are in no favour with the descendants of the supplanters of their forefathers. Many of the influential journals of Great Britain are hostile to the preservation of Gaelic and Welsh as spoken languages, and will not take the trouble to examine whether they are worth preserving in print, or whether their literature is worth attention or study. We shall take an average specimen of editor or contributor to one of the eminent London periodicals, and strive to enter into his opinions and feelings concerning the still existing literature of the native Irish, Welsh, or Highland Scotch. He has studied British letters since the Norman conquest, and on all points of English literature since the days of Chaucer his opinion is as trustworthy as that of his father on matters connected with the port of London and its Isle of Dogs. He can even speak with a fair degree of certainty on the literature of a few European kingdoms bevond the strait. "Your Germans, Italians, Spaniards, and French (he acknowledges), have been pretty fellows in their days. They have produced some things worthy to be mentioned in the same breath with our Anglo-Norman masterpieces." But while his mind is in this unruffled and tolerant state, mention but an unfortunate bard or historian of either Celtic branch, and no bull ever found

his wits so thrown off their balance by the appearance of á scarlet mantle, as our hard-headed English scholar and critic by the mere sounds which embody the names of Tiernach, or Oisin, or Taliesin, or any work imputed to them. Let a living poet whose whole being is imbued with the spirit of the old bards, and who may be said to think in the ancient language of the Gael,-let him, we repeat, produce to the world lays embodying wild imagery summoned from the most remote realms of fancy,-let him clothe his imaginings in the most picturesque poetic language, as Gaelic in its garb as the English idiom can brook,-let the ideas be original, and such as at once seize and hold captive the attention of the genuine man of letters, poet, or critic; our AngloNorman will have nought to say in commendation. "The new recruit in the literary corps has present to his inner sight a confused crowd of imagery, and these and their relations he presents to his readers in a half-barbarous and unidiomatic-jargon meant to be English."

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Even should our splenetic censor be obliged against his will to own that isolated bits of prose or poetic romance in the Gaelic or Cymric are excellent in their way, he will not allow them the merit of age. "They are the productions of comparatively modern men, at all events they did not exist before the twelfth century. Taliesin, Llywarch Hen, and Aneurin, are as much the creation of modern bards as the poetry attributed to them. There was neither Gaelic poem nor Gaelic MS. in the Highlands before MacPherson's day. The Ossianic poetry preserved in Ireland, more likely to be genuine, taking its bombast and extravagance into account, owes its existence to a few smiths and schoolmasters of the last two centuries." The object of this paper is to show that the productions of the Celtic intellect are not of the worthless character with which our model Aristarchus would like to stamp them. We shall first establish the long duration of polite literature among our Celtic ancestors.

ANTIQUITY OF CELTIC LETTERS.

The non-existence of an ancient MS. on any subject is no positive argument against that subject having occupied people's minds at a very early period. Of the voluminous collection of our ancient laws, the Senchus Mor, no MS. can be produced earlier than the middle of the fourteenth century. Yet it is certain that the collection was extant long before the ninth century, for there are frequent references to it in Cormac's Glossary which was composed sometime before A.D. 900. In the copies used by the Mac Egans and by Duald Mac Firbis there is a copious running commentary in language which is modern compared with the text. The Mac Egans and Mac Firbis understood that commentary, but unfortunately left no gloss on it which would make difficult passages intelligible to Gaelic scholars of our days. The consequence is that these last feel the difficulty of interpreting this gloss only a little less than what they find in explaining the original.

Any unprejudiced person even casually glancing through the portion of the body of laws already published in English, cannot escape the conviction of the high degree of civilization and love of justice that prevailed among the people whose conduct they were intended to regulate. So minutely did the laws enter into the common concerns of life, that even detaining the play-toys of children was considered a cognizable legal offence. The text_says "they must be restored in one day, i.e., these goodly things which remove dulness from little boys, viz., hurlets, balls, and hooks, except little dogs and cats, for it is in three days that the cats are to be restored.

In the ninth century the Senchus Mor needed glosses as was said, and contained a large body of social regulations adapted to the circumstances of a civilized people to whom the arts and conveniences of life were familiar. These circumstances indicate the influence of the Brehon jurisprudence for a long period previous to the composition of Cormac's Glossary. The early missionaries would naturally re

present to converted kings, chiefs, and Brehons, the necessity of modifying the laws which had been in force during heathen times, as many of them would naturally be imbued with a pagan spirit and be found in strict relation with the old superstition. So we find it stated that three kings, three bishops, and three ollamhs (chief councillors), took on themselves in the time of St. Patrick, fifth century, to revise the code or codes then in force, and adapt their enactments to the needs of a Christian community. This revision must have taken place whether the commissioners were nine in number or not, or whether they did or did not consist of these personages mentioned in the introduction to the Senchus,-Saints Patrick, Benin (Benignus), and Cairnech ; Kings Laeghaire, Corc, and Daire; and the poetic sages, Rossa, Dubhthach, and Fergus.

CELTIC CLAIMS AND CELTIC VITALITY.

Having written thus far, a passage came under our notice in Mr. Arnold's* thoughtful and candid essay on a germain subject, and so applicable to our concern that we cannot refrain from quoting it.

to do with the Welsh language and litera"My brother Saxons will have nothing ture on any terms (ditto Irish). They would gladly make a clean sweep of it from the face of the earth. I, on certain terms, wish to make more of it than is made now, and I regard the Welsh literature, or rather, dropping the distinction between Welsh and Irish, Gaels and Cymris, let me say Celtic literature, as an object of very great interest. My brother Saxons have, as is well known, improve everything but themselves off the a terrible way with them of wanting to face of the earth. I have no such passion for finding nothing but myself everywhere. I like variety to exist and to show itself to me, and I would not for the world have the lineaments of the Celtic genius lost. . . It is not in the outward or visible world of material life that the Celtic genius of Wales or Ireland can at this day hope to count for much; it is in the inward world of thought

and science.

What it has been, what it has done-let it ask us to attend to that as a

matter of science and history, not to what

it will be or will do as a matter of modern

politics. It cannot count appreciably now as a material power, but perhaps if it can

get itself thoroughly known as an object of science it may count for a good deal-far more than we Saxons, most of us, imagine -as a spiritual power.

The bent of our times is towards science, towards knowing things as they are. So the Celt's claim towards having his genius and its works fairly treated as objects of scientific investigation the Saxon can hardly reject, when these claims are simply urged on their own merits, and are not mixed with extraneous pretensions which jeopardize them. The science of origins, a science which is at the bottom of all real knowTedge of the actual world, and which iз every day growing in interest and importance, is very incomplete without a thoroughly critical knowledge of the Celts, and their genius, language, and literature. This science has still great progress to make, but its progress made even within the recollection of those who are in middle life, has already affected most of our common notions about the Celtic race; and this change shows, too, how science, the knowing things as they are, may even have salutary practical consequences.'

Appreciating the kindly feeling evident in this extract, as well as through the entire essay, towards Gael and Cymro, we are sensible of an undue depreciation of Celtic power and influence in modern times and in this very day. Mr. Arnold has scarcely taken into account the large number of individuals plodding and planning for existence or independence or station at this moment in England and the Scottish Lowlands, in whose veins Celtic blood is careering. When he has realized this, let him add the millions of American Celts, guessing and calculating, and making fortunes in a hurry, and acting as the pioneers of civilization, and growing up into members of congress. Let him then look to our colonies, east and west, for myriads of industrious and estimable descendants of Irish, and Highlanders, and Welsh. If a question be proposed to an examiner in any academy or college in Great Britain as to the relative proficiency of his Celtic and Saxon students, we know well what answer will be given, as we have more than once made the inquiry. If a scrutiny were instituted as to the birthplace and the descent of the host of literary men by whom the existence of the daily, and weekly, and monthly, and quarterly periodicals in the modern Babylon is maintained it would redonad to the credit of Celtic ta

lent, and industry, and perseverance. There is a vitality in the Celtic element which manifests itself in many lies in the same neighbourhood; let ways. Settle Saxon and Celtic famiall things be equal, and let there be no bar to the good qualities of our common nature on either side. In a few generations the Celtic spirit and Celtic usages will be predominant. This has happened in sundry parts of Ireland. In Tipperary and its adjacent counties there are thousands of the descendants of the Saxon soldiers and settlers of Elizabeth's and Cromwell's days. Many and very many families have assumed Irish surnames. They are, as in so many other cases, more Irish than the natives, and in no part of Ireland are found subjects of the English crown more lukewarm in their fealty.

ter, Clarencieux, Lyon, or Ulster, if Our Kings at Arms, whether Garinclined to be communicative on the comparative numbers of living representatives of the ancient Celtic and Anglo-Norman nobility, would show that the ancient Gaelic chiefs of Scotland and Ireland, if permitted to gaze from the clouds so uncomfortably arranged for them by James M'Pherson, would smile and look with contemptuous pity on the sorrowful shades of the Norman conquerors at Hastings, now left without direct descendants to maintain state in their family halls. To enhance their satisfaction they have only to contemplate the royal residences of England to find healthy Celtic blood coursing through the veins of our august Sovereign and her children, whom God preserve!

Dwelling on these and kindred subjects, we are not much dismayed by the discouraging view taken by Mr. Arnold of the struggle between Celtic and Saxon powers, in which we must say he exhibits no vainglorious boasting over the weaker party.

"I know my brother Saxons; I know their strength; and I know the Celtic genius will make nothing of trying to set up barriers against them in the world of fact and brute force, in trying to hold its own against them as a political and social

counter-power, as the soul of a hostile

nationality.

"To me there is something mournful in hearing a Welshman or an Irishman making

pretensions-natural pretensions I admitbut how hopelessly vain, to such a rival establishment; there is something mournful in hearing an Englishman scout them we have plenty of strength for swallowing up and absorbing as much as we choose. There is nothing to hinder us from effacing

that last poor material remains of that Celtic power which once was everywhere, but has long since in the race of civilization, fallen out of sight. We may threaten them with extinction if we will, and may almost say in threatening them, like Cæsar threatening with death the tribune Metellus who closed the treasury doors against him:-'And when I threaten this, young man, to threaten it is more trouble to me than to do it.'”

This if the view were correct would be a terrible state of things. Alas! if all the Celtic genius, and talent, and skill, and thought, and mere bodily power, now at the service of the genius that represents Britannia were withdrawn tomorrow, Mr. Arnold and the Saxon element left to itself would be not a little terrified, and with good reason. We return to our exploration among the ancient Gaelic remains, with the view of exhibiting the early spread and influence of letters among the Gael of Ireland.

GAELIC MSS.: THE LEABHAR NA HUIDHRE.

The Library of the Royal Irish Academy possesses a rare volume entitled the "Book of the Dun Cow." The contents were copied into it by one Maelmuirre (Mary's Tonsured Servant), a monk of Clonmacnois, whose death is recorded at the year 1106. This is established by the following entry by the same hand which filled the body of the volume at the top of folio 45.

"This is a trial of his pen here, by

Maelmuiri son of the son of Conn."

The latest year in which the book could have been written is determined by the following entry in the "Annals of the Four Masters," at the date quoted, 1106.

"Maelmuiri, son of the son of Con nam Bocht* was killed in the middle of the church at Cluainmacnois by a party of

robbers."

In this ancient MS. are contained several tracts, some of which shall be noticed.

1. A translation into Gaelic of the history of Nennius, by Gilla Caemhain, who died A.D. 1072.

2. An elegy by the poet Dallan Forghaill, on the death of St. Colum Cille, A.D. 592. The composition is accompanied by an interlined gloss, for many words used in the sixth century had become obsolete in the eleventh. References are made in this gloss to authorities now unknown. 3. A large fragment of the Tain/Bo Chuailgne, a celebrated cattle raid, occurring just before the commencement of the Christian era, in which the redoubted Cuchulain, Conor King of Ulster, Maev Queen of Connaught, Fergus Roy and other heroes of history and romance were concerned.

4. A tract on the Mesca Uladh or drunken fit of the men of Ulster, during which they invaded Munster, and killed King Conri at his abode of Teamhair Luachra in Kerry.

Other subjects copied into the volume were Cattle Raids arising from the great one, the Wanderings of Maelduin's ship in the Atlantic for three years; the death of Conairy the Great at the Bruighean da Dearga (near Bornabreena in the Dublin mountains); Poems by Flann of Monasterboyce, 1056; Romances of the Ante-Christian times; a History of the great Pagan Cemeteries of Erinn, and accounts of the books from which the several subjects were borrowed.

That several of these subjects had been familiar to poets and storytellers some centuries previous appears plainly enough from the statements made by their successors in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, concerning the loss of the tale of the Tain Bo Chuailgne (driving away of the cattle of Cooley) and the troubles inflicted on the bards of the sixth century in order to its recovery. In one account it was stated that a rare old volume the Cuilmenn (consisting of a cow-hide) had been conveyed to Italy, that the Tain was contained in

this volume, and that the great-bard Seanchan Torpest being taunted with his inability to recite the old heroic lay, sent his sons to Italy in search of the volume in which it was preserved. One of these young men having left the other resting beside a tall standing stone in the evening, went to look for a suitable lodging. The other (Murgen) tracing in the Oghuim inscription of the stone the name of Fergus Mac Roy, one of the chief personages of the lay, adjures his spirit to appear and relate the lost romance. Immediately he becomes sensible of the presence of the mighty shade refulgent in his beautiful brown hair, his green mantle, his gold-ribbed shirt, his gold-hilted sword, and his sandals of bronze, a fog gathers round and the wild legend is related to the son of Seanchan.*

Another version represents Seanchan and the great bardic body put under interdict by St. Marvan, brother to Guaire, King of Connaught, for their insolence at the court of this monarch. They are not allowed to recite poem nor story, nor sleep the second night in the same place, till they have recovered the complete story. St. Kiaran (this was in the 6th century) and other saints whose holiness had not extinguished their love of letters, assembled at the tomb of Fergus, and used such powerful adjurations for three days, that at last he appeared and recited the Cattle Raid of Cooley from beginning to end. In order to obviate all risk of future mischance, St. Kiaran of Clonmacnois copied it out during the recitation in a volume made from the hide of a pet cow. Pass we now to another valuable but not so old a collection.

THE BOOK OF LEINSTER.

This valuable volume preserved in Trinity College, Dublin, was transcribed in the lifetime of Finn Mac Gorman, Bishop of Kildare, whose death occurred in 1160. He wrote it for the amusement and edification of Hugh Mac Crimthainn, some time tutor to that bad boy, the future Dermod Mac Murroch, the

Gaelic brother of Henry VIII. This statement is made from internal evidence furnished by the volume. At the end of page 202 of the MS. in the same handwriting as the rest of the book, is inserted a note of which the following is a portion

"Benediction and health from Finn the

Bishop of Kildare to Aedh Mac Crimthainn, the tutor of the chief King of Leth Mogha Nuadhat,

chief historian of Lein

ster, in wisdom, intelligence, and the cultivation of books, knowledge, and learning.

At top of folio 200 appears in a very ancient hand, a tribute of sorof Leinster, written while Dermod row for the exile of the wicked King was over with Henry II. in France

"O Virgin Mary! it is a great deed that has been done in Erinn this day, the

Kalends of August, viz., Dermod, Son of and of the Danes (of Dublin), to have been Donnoch Mac Murroch King of Leinster banished over the sea eastwards by the men of Erinn. Uch, uch! O Lord, what shall I do!"

The Book of Genesis and the "Invasions of Ireland" were sure to be found in most of these fine old collections. Genesis happens not to be in the volume under notice; some of the subjects are named below

1. Specimens of ancient versification, poems on Tara, and an explanation and plan of its Midchuarta or Banqueting Hall, sundry poems on the ancient wars, and Leinster sketches in prose and poetry.

2. An account of the Battle of Ros na Righ (promontory of the Kings) fought by the men of Leinster against the Ulster men about the beginning of the Christian era.

3. An imperfect copy of the Mesca Uladh, which may be found also in our contents of the Leabhar na hUidhre (Book of the Dun Cow).

4. Part of Cormac's Glossary apparently copied from the original written three centuries before.

5. A copy of the Dinnsenchus, a topographical tract supposed to have been copied at Tara, A.D. 565.

6. The Battle of Mach Mucruimhe, in which was slain Art the Melancholy (2nd century).