THOMAS MOORE.

(1780-1852.)

"THE National Poet of Ireland," "The Bard of Erin," "Anacreon Moore," "Jove's Poet," "That Popular Poet of Green Erin," "Sweet Melodious Bard," are among the epithets or nicknames by which Moore has been characterized in and since his day. But for the most of us he is "Tom Moore," and in the hearts of English-speaking people all over the world many of his Irish melodies have an abiding place from which they will not easily be uprooted.

He was born in Dublin in the year 1780. His father was a grocer and keeper of a small wine-store. He was sent to school at an early age, and in 1794 he entered Trinity College, Dublin, with a view to studying law. While in college in 1798 Moore narrowly escaped being involved with Emmet and others in a charge of sedition. He sympathized with their cause, and anonymously wrote a poem and a fiery letter in favor of the movement.

He was graduated as B.A., and in 1798 set out for London, where he entered as a student at the Middle Temple. He had already translated the 'Odes of Anacreon.' Lord Moira, the Duke of Bedford, the Marquis of Lansdowne, and the Prince of Wales became subscribers for this work. To Lord Moira he owed his introduction to this select circle, and the Prince of Wales permitted the dedication of the 'Odes' to himself. His brilliant conversational powers, with his poetical and musical gifts, rendered him everywhere a welcome guest, and he was now plunged headlong into the vortex of London fashionable society. In 1801 he published a volume of 'Poems' under the name of "The Late Thomas Little, Esq.," of which, however, he was afterward ashamed. But, as our own sweet singer, Oliver Wendell Holmes, has said— "If in his cheek unholy blood

Burned for one youthful hour,

'T was but the flushing of the bud
That blooms a milk-white flower."

Appointed Registrar of the Admiralty to the Court of Bermuda, he went there in 1803, but finding the work uncongenial he left it to be performed by a deputy. He paid a visit to this country, meeting President Jefferson and many prominent citizens. After a short trip through Canada, he returned to London again to enter into the whirlpool of its social life.

His Odes and Epistles' was very severely handled by Jeffrey in The Edinburgh Review, and Moore, irritated, foolishly sent him a challenge. The affair was stopped on the ground by the police and the would-be combatants afterward became fast friends. Byron's sarcastic allusion to the duel stung Moore, and he also

received a challenge; but, fortunately, matters were adjusted by mutual friends without a hostile meeting. In 1808 he published anonymously two poems, Intolerance' and 'Corruption,' and in 1809 The Sceptic,' none of which, however, was very successful.

He married in 1811 Miss Bessie Dyke, a native of Kilkenny, a charming and amiable young actress of considerable ability. In the autumn of that year 'M. P., or the Blue Stocking,' a comic opera, was produced on the stage.

In 1812 appeared 'The Intercepted Letters, or the Two-penny Post Bag, by Thomas Brown, the Younger.' The wit, pungency, and playfulness of these satires, aimed at the Prince Regent and his Ministers, made them immensely popular, and fourteen editions were called for in the course of one year. At this time the Messrs. Longmans arranged to give him three thousand guineas ($16,500) for a poetical work of which they had not seen a single line. Moore determined not to disappoint the trust placed in him, and in his cottage in Derbyshire studied Oriental literature summer and winter; and, in four years after his arrangement with the firm, 'Lalla Rookh' was completed. 'National Airs,' a volume of poems containing 'Flow on, thou shining river,' All that 's bright must fade,' 'Those Evening Bells,' 'Oft in the stilly night,' and others, was published in 1815. In 1816 appeared two series of 'Sacred Melodies.' He removed to Hornsey, near London, in this year, in order to see 'Lalla Rookh' through the press. It was published-a quarto volume—in 1817, and, striking a new note, was a splendid success, dazzling the readers of the day with its gorgeous Eastern illustration and imagery. Within a fortnight of its issue the first edition was sold out, and within six months it had reached a sixth edition. Parts of the work were rendered into the Persian tongue and sung in the streets of Ispahan.

In 1817 he visted Paris with the poet Rogers. The Bourbon dynasty had just been restored; society was in a chaotic state, and Paris swarmed with English, whose ridiculous cockneyism and nonsense furnished him with materials for the letters entitled 'The Fudge Family in Paris,' published in 1818, and consisting of a happy blending of the political squib and the social burlesque. This was succeeded in 1819 by the publication of Tom Crib's Memorial to Congress.' About this time the news reached him that the deputy whom he had appointed at Bermuda had absconded and involved him in a debt of £6,000 ($30,000) for which he was responsible. Friends at once offered pecuniary aid, but Moore resolved to help himself by his pen. To avoid arrest he was advised to visit the Continent till matters were arranged; so, in September, 1819, he set out with Lord John Russell to visit Switzerland and Italy. returning from Rome to Paris, in January, 1820, he was there joined by his family and settled down to literary work. He lived nearly three years in Paris, during which time his life was precisely the same as in England, one continual round of visiting among the English aristocracy and travelers who came there. At the same time he was busy on 'The Life of Sheridan,' 'The Epicurean,' 'Rhymes on the Road,' 'The Loves of the Angels,' etc., which were published at a later period,

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In 1822 he received a letter from Longmans informing him that the Bermuda defalcation had been arranged and that he might now safely return to England. In the end of November, 1822, he returned to Sloperton Cottage, and in 1823 published Rhymes for the Road,' with Fables for the Holy Alliance' and 'Loves of the Angels,' which he had written when in exile. In June of this year his publishers placed £1,000 ($5,000) to his credit from the sale of the lastnamed work, and £500 ($2,500) from the Fables for the Holy Alliance.'

As early as 1797 Moore's attention had been called to Bunting's collection of Irish melodies, and at intervals he had written words for some of them which he was accustomed to sing with great effect. In 1807 he began to publish these, receiving from Mr. Power £50 ($250) each for the first two numbers. The songs were immensely and deservedly popular, and now, in 1823, Mr. Power agreed to pay Moore £500 ($2,500) a year for a series of years, that he might have the exclusive right of publishing The Irish Melodies,' the whole ten numbers of which were not completed till 1834.

His Memoirs of Captain Rock' appeared in 1824, written after a tour in Ireland with the Marquis of Lansdowne. This year Lord Byron died, and thus the existence and the intended publication of his memoirs, which he had intrusted to Moore for that purpose, came to be known. Bryon's relatives strongly urged that the MS. should be destroyed, and after arrangements made accordingly it was burned in the presence of witnesses.

In October, 1825, his 'Life of Sheridan' appeared. In 1827 'The Epicurean' was published, illustrated with vignettes on steel after Turner. It is a romance founded on Egyptian mythology, and is the most highly finished, artistic, and imaginative of his prose writings. In 1830 he edited 'The Letters and Journals of Lord Byron, with Notices of his Life.' This work, which appeared in two quarto volumes, compiled from Byron's journals and such materials as he could subsequently procure, is interesting, but too copious and, as might be expected, partial and lenient in its criticism. For this biography he ultimately obtained £4,870 ($24,350). In 1831 was published his 'Life of Lord Edward Fitzgerald,' followed by 'The Summer Fête,' a poem celebrating an entertaiment given at Boyle Farm in 1827. At this time he chiefly adhered to prose, and only occasionally wrote verse in the shape of political squibs or satires for The Times or The Morning Chronicle, for which service he was paid at the rate of about £400 ($2,000) a year. In 1833 followed Travels of an Irish Gentleman in Search of a Religion,' a defense of the Roman Catholic system; and The History of Ireland' (4 vols. 12mo), in 1835, written for Lardner's Cabinet Cylopedia.' It embraced a long period, from the earliest king to the latest chief. In this year a pension of £300 ($1,500) a year was bestowed upon him.

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The rest of his literary work consisted of an occasional trifle in verse for the periodicals, and the prefaces and a few additions to a collected edition of his poetical works, issued by Longmans (1840-42) in ten volumes. His later years were clouded by domestic grief,

his children having all died before him. In 1846 the poet made this sad entry in his diary: "The last of our five children is gone, and we are left desolate and alone; not a single relative have I now left in the world." His memory failed rapidly: he stooped and looked old, and, in 1848-as in the cases of Swift, Scott, and Southey-imbecility gradually set in. He died at Sloperton Cottage, his residence for more than thirty years, on Feb. 26, 1852.

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Moore's life may be summed up as an untiring pursuit of poetry, prose, and fashionable society." Byron said, "Tommie dearly loved a lord"; and his journals continually evince his vanity in this respect, although it was, essentially, of a very harmless and kindly

sort.

The estimation of Moore's work has varied much. It was eclipsed by that of Keats and Tennyson for a while, and it was once the fashion to decry it. Whatever cold and unsympathetic critics may say, we think that the majority of our readers will re-echo the sentiment of Oliver Wendell Holmes

"And while the fresh blossoms of Summer are braided, For the sea-girded, stream-silvered, lake-jeweled Isle, While her mantle of verdure is woven unfaded,

While Shannon and Liffey shall dimple and smile,

The land where the staff of St. Patrick was planted,

Where the Shamrock grows green from the cliff to the shore,
The land of fair maidens and heroes undaunted,

Shall wreathe her bright heart with the garlands of Moore."

Furthermore, as Edmund Gosse reminds us, "it was into an atmosphere of refined and frigid reflection that Tom Moore brought the fervor of his Irish heart and the liquid numbers of his Irish tongue. . . . The easy muse of Moore conquered the town; he popularized the use of bright and varied measures, sparkling rhymes, and all the bewitching panoply of artistic form in which Shelley, the true son writer, was to array himself. In a larger sense than he himself was conscious of, he was a pioneer in letters. He boasted, with no more gayety than truth, that he originated modern Irish poetry:

"Dear Harp of my Country! in darkness I found thee,
The cold chain of silence had hung o'er thee long,
When proudly, my own Island Harp, I unbound thee,
And gave all thy chords to light, freedom, and song!

Those homely and sentimental lyrics which have endeared themselves to thousands of hearts under the name of the Irish Melodies form a part and parcel of our literature, the extinction of which would leave a sad blank behind it. When they were first produced they seemed universally brilliant and fascinating to the ears of those on whom their fresh tunes and dulcet numbers fell in a most amiable union. Here for once, it seemed, music and poetry agreed in complete harmony, the one not brighter or more dainty than the other.