EDITOR'S POSTSCRIPT. THE first number of this popular work was Issued in 1807; Mr. Moore writing the words, and Sir John Stevenson selecting the music and composing the accompaniments. The following extract of a letter from the poet to the musician is highly interesting, as it shows the germ of an undertaking which has since become so famous: heart would have been proud of such music, and his genius would have made it immortal. เ "Another difficulty (which is, however, purely mechanical) arises from the irregular structure of many of those airs, and the lawless kind of metre which it will in consequence be necessary to adapt to them. In these instances the Poet must write, not to the eye, but to the ear; and must be content to have his verses of that description which Cicero mentions, 'Quos si cantu spoliaveris nuda remanebit oratio.' That beautiful Air, The Twisting of the Rope,' which has all the romantic character of the Swiss Ranz des Vaches, is one of those wild and sentimental rakes which it will not be very easy to tie down in sober wedlock with Poetry. However, notwithstanding all these difficulties, and the very moderate portion of talent which I can bring to surmount them, the design appears to me so truly National, that I shall feel much pleasure in giving it all the assistance in my power." "I feel very anxious that a work of this kind should be undertaken. We have too long neglected the only talent for which our English neighbors ever deigned to allow us any credit. Our National Music has never been properly collected; and, while the composers of the Continent have enriched their Operas and Sonatas with melodies borrowed from Ireland,—very often without even the honesty of acknowledgment, we have left these treasures, in a great degree, unclaimed and fugitive. Thus our Airs, like too many of our countrymen, have, for the want of protection at home, passed into the service of foreigners. But we are come, I hope, to a better period of both Politics and Music; and how much they are connected, in Ireland, at least, appears too plainly in the tone of sorrow and depression which charac-identified himself with the democratic party. He terizes most of our early Songs. "The task which you propose to me, of adapting words to these airs, is by no means easy. The Poet who would follow the various sentiments which they express, must feel and understand that rapid fluctuation of spirits, that unaccountable mixture of gloom and levity, which composes the character of my countrymen, and has deeply tinged their Music. Even in their liveliest strains we find some melancholy note intrude,-some minor Third or flat Seventh,-which throws its shade as it passes, and makes even mirth interesting. If Burns had been an Irishman, (and I would willingly give up all our claims upon Ossian for him,) his In Moore's dedication to the Marchioness of Donegal, there are many observations which evince how thoroughly at that time the young poct had truly observes of Ireland, "Nothing is remembered but her virtues and her misfortunes-the zeal with which she has always loved liberty, and the barbarous policy which has always withheld it from her-the ease with which her generous spirit might be conciliated, and the cruel ingenuity which has been exerted to wring her into undutifulness." We can well conceive how the poet's ardent spirit must have glowed, as he married the glorious old tunes of his native land to his own immortal verse. He well observes, that "in our music is found the truest of all comments upon our history. The tone of defiance, succeeded by the languor of despondency-a burst of turbulence dying away into softness-the sorrows of one moment lost in the levity of the next-and all that romantic mixture of mirth and sadness, which is naturally produced by the efforts of a lively temperament to shake off, or forget the wrongs which lie upon it. Such are the features of our history and character, which we find strongly and faithfully reflected in our music." There is certainly a touching sadness and fitful power in the Irish Melodies, which penetrate deeper into the heart than any national airs we have ever heard. As Moore says, they are the true echoes of the Irish character, and it is on account of this peculiarity of temperament which has rendered that nation less prosperous than others. We feel strongly tempted to say that it is a nation of genius, and we need no confirmation to prove the checkered nature of God's highest gift. Byron has remarked, that even in our own age, Ireland, poor and wretched as she is, has produced some of the highest specimens of man to be found in the literature and fame of England. In oratory, Curran, Burke, Shiel, O'Connell, and Sheridan; the latter of whom is famous also for his wit, conversation, and dramatic powers. Goldsmith, too, in the same class. In poetry, Moore; in war, Wellington; in statesmanship, Palmerston; in chemistry they can boast of Michael Faraday; and we offer Emmett and Fitzgerald as instances of lofty and unselfish patriotism. Of the uncalculating valor of the people, no student of the history of Great Britain can doubt. Their achievements are stamped in every battle of the Peninsular War-but we repeat, that this very enthusiasm and sentiment have militated against their political greatness and national happiness. In this light, how inexpressibly affecting becomes every melody now offered to the American public. The sorrow— the gladness-the wrongs-the hopes-the fearsthe regrets-the passionate loves-the vindictive hates, are here breathed, not from the heart of a solitary being, but the Heart of the Nation. It is a chorus of either madness, gloom, and despair, or exuberant gayety, amorous expectations, and victorious exultation. It matters not how many thousand miles the "Green Island" is from this great republic, every throb of its music is felt here as vividly as on the lakes of Killarney, or in the deserted palace-halls of the O'Brien. As Wordsworth says, the solution is simple— "Have we not all of us one human heart ?" One air carries us back to the battle-plain of the Boyne-another to the days of Carolan—in one, we have the plaintive, yet overpowering anguish of the exile, as he gazes his last on the dying vision of his beloved country, consecrated by her very misfortunes. Indeed, there is not a chord of feeling which is not touched in these beautiful compositions. NOTES. (1) Brien Borombe, the great monarch of Ireland, who was killed at the battle of Clontarf, in the beginning of the 11th century, after having defeated the Danes in twenty-five engagements. (2) Munster. (3) The palace of Brien. (4) This alludes to an interesting circumstance related of the Dalgais, the favorite troops of Brien, when they were interrupted in their return from the battle of Clontarf, by Fitzpatrick, prince of Ossory. The wounded men entreated that they might be allowed to fight with the rest.-"Let stakes (they said) be stuck in the ground, and suffer each of us, tied to and supported by one of these stakes, to be placed in his rank by the side of a sound man.” "Between seven and eight hundred wounded men, (adds O'Halloran,) pale, emaciated, and supported in this manner, appeared mixed with the foremost of the troops;-never was such another sight exhibited.”— History of Ireland, book xii. chap. i. (5) Solis Fons, near the Temple of Ammon. (6) In the twenty-eighth year of the reign of Henry VIII. an Act was made respecting the habits, and dress in general, of the Irish, whereby all persons were restrained from being shorn or shaven above the ears, or from wearing Glibbes, or Couline, (long locks,) on their heads, or hair on their upper lip, called Crommeal. On this occasion a song was written by one of our bards, in which an Irish virgin is made to give the preference to her dear Coulin (or the youth with the flowing locks) to all strangers, (by which the English were meant,) or those who wore their habits. Of this song, the air alone has reached us, and is universally admired."— Walker's Historical Memoirs of Irish Bards, p. 134. Mr. Walker informs us also, that, about the same period, there were some harsh measures taken against the Irish Minstrels. (7) This ballad is founded upon the following anecdote:"The people were inspired with such a spirit of honor, virtue, and religion, by the great example of Brien, and by his excellent administration, that, as a proof of it, we are informed that a young lady of great beauty, adorned with jewels and a costly dress, undertook a journey alone, from one end of the kingdom to the other, with a wand only in her hand, at the top of which was a ring of exceeding great value; and such an impression had the laws and government of this Monarch made on the minds of all the people, that no attempt was made upon her honor, nor was she robbed of her clothes or jewels."-Warner's History of Ireland, vol. i., book x. (10) "In every house was one or two harps, free to all travellers, who were the more caressed, the more they excelled in music."-O'Halloran. (11)This brought on an encounter between Malachi (the Monarch of Ireland in the tenth century) and the Danes, in which Malachi defeated two of their champions, whom he encountered successively, hand to hand, taking a collar of gold from the neck of one, and carrying off the sword of the other, as trophies of his victory."-Warner's History of Ireland, vol. i., book ix. (12) "Military orders of knights were very early established in Ireland; long before the birth of Christ we find an hereditary order of Chivalry in Ulster, called Curaidhe na Craiobhe ruadh, or the Knights of the Red Branch, from their chief seat in Emania, adjoining to the palace of the Ulster kings, called Teagh na Craiobhe ruadh, or the Academy of the Red Branch; and contiguous to which was a large hospital, founded for the sick knights and soldiers, called Bronbhearg, or the House of the Sorrowful Soldier."-O'Halloran's Introduction, &c., part i, chap. 5. (13) It was an old tradition, in the time of Giraldus, that Lough Neagh had been originally a fountain, by whose sudden overflowing the country was inundated, and a whole region, like the Atlantis of Plato, overwhelmed. He says that the fishermen, in clear weather, used to point out to strangers the tall ecclesiastical towers under the water. Piscatores aquæ illius turres ecclesiasticas, que more patriæ arcta sunt et altæ, necnon et rotunda, sub undis manifeste sereno tempore conspiciunt, et extraneis transeuntibus, reique causas admirantibus, frequenter ostendunt. - Topogr. Hib. dist. 2., c. 9. (14) To make this story intelligible in a song would require a much greater number of verses than any one is authorized to inflict upon an audience at once: the reader must therefore be content to learn, in a note, that Fionnuala, the daughter of Lir, was, by some supernatural power, transformed into a swan, and condemned to wander, for many hundred years, over certain lakes and rivers in Ireland, till the coming of Christianity, when the first sound of the mass-bell was to be the signal of her release.-I found this fanciful fiction among some manuscript translations from the Irish, which were begun under the direction of that enlightened friend of Ireland, the late Countess of Moira. (15) The inextinguishable fire of St. Bridget, at Kildare, which Giraldus mentions:-"Apud Kildariam occurrit ignis Sanctæ Brigidæ, quem inextinguibilem vocant; non quod extingui non possit, sed quod tam solicite moniales et sanctæ mulieres ignem, suppetente materia, fovent et nutriunt, ut a tempore virginis per tot annorum curricula semper mansit inextinctus."-Girald. Camb. de Mirabil. Hibern. dist. 2, c. 34. (16) Mrs. H. Tighe, in her exquisite lines on the Lily, has ap plied this image to a still more important object. |