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DE LA SALLE MONTHLY.

VOL. III.-JULY, 1870.-No. 13.

THERE

THOMAS MOORE.

HERE are features in the general red with her blood, is ever in the hands character of every people which of her children; and the two sentiments determine the quality of the poetry we of pity and indignation most prolific of may expect from them. The wit, the song are constantly awakened in their polish and the vivacity of the French breasts. Hence, not only is the bardic find free expression in the productions of period well represented in Irish history, Racine, Boileau and Moliere; while the but more recently the simple ballad and speculative turn of the German mind is high-toned lyric have largely swelled the aptly illustrated in the "Messiah" of volume of national song. Davis, Mangan Klopstock and Goethe's "Sorrows of and Moore, and numberless others whose Werter." If any exceptions to this rule erratic light flashed in the pages of Engmay be admitted, it is in the case of lish and Irish magazines, have helped to England alone, whose great poets are weave melody and poetic expression so not the exponents of the cold materialism intimately together, that never before of British insularity, but the revivers of were English words so musical. The old English romancism, to whom inspir- latter especially excelled in this deftation comes, as to Tennyson, from the blending of sense and song, and he may, legendary lore of the knights and preux therefore, be regarded in this light, if chevaliers of the "Round Table." On not in the intensity of his patriotism, as the other hand, of no country can the the most thoroughly national of Irish remark be more truthfully predicated poets.

than of Ireland, that her poets are the Thomas Moore was born at Dublin on natural and familiar mouth-pieces of the 20th of May, 1779, his father being national feeling, the many-voiced organs a respectable tradesman of that city. of her joys and hopes, her wrongs and sorrows. With a history exhibiting great and brave deeds, even in the most remote antiquity; with traditions embodying as much noble sentiment and poetic conception as are to be found in any nation's literature,it is but natural that Erin should be the home of song, and that her gifted sons should often render into melodious verse the legends of her varied history. pleasures. The poet's youth was conThen the volume of her wrongs, written sequently very happy, and he ascribed Vol. III.-1.

His mother, in whom his fondest affections were centred, was a noble woman, whose chief ambition was to promote the happiness and welfare of her children. She, indeed, merited the unbounded love of her warm-hearted son, for she was ever a faithful counsellor and vigilant guardian of his interests. Both his parents were amiable and fond of social

to the genial influences of the home circle in the classics; and the poet tells us that that sweetness of temper and love of en- about the principal profit he derived from joyment which permanently distinguish- the tuition was an ardent love for his oped his character during a long and pressed fatherland, and a bitter hatred troubled career. From his natural quick- for its oppressors, which the sturdy old ness of parts and cheerful vivacity of Celt implanted in his breast, a love disposition, Moore was the pride of the which, were it not for the careful vigihousehold; and almost as soon as he had lance of his excellent mother, would have attained the use of speech, he was made entangled him in the abortive schemes a "show child" for the amusement of of the United Irishmen. friends and acquaintances. A talent for The Catholic Relief Bill, which was recitation and acting, which he manifest- passed in 1793, and by which members ed at a very early age, was carefully cul- of the Catholic faith were admitted to tivated by his mother, and warmly en- the University and the bar, left Mrs. couraged by Whyte, the master of the Moore at liberty to indulge in her long grammar school to which he was sent. cherished design of bringing her son up So proficient did he become in both of to the profession of the law. Young these arts, that it was often predicted to Thomas was accordingly entered at his fond mother, that her son, though Trinity College, Dublin, in 1794, but destined for the bar, would be more did not commence the course till the follikely to don the sock and buskin. At lowing year. His career at college was school the facility with which he acquir- an honorable, if not a very distinguished ed a knowledge of the various branches one. He was granted a degree in 1798, caused him to be looked upon as a kind and immediately set out for London to of prodigy. His mother, ever desirous enter upon his legal studies. The dry that her son should bear away the palm subtleties of law were, however, little in everything, was accustomed to cate- suited to the disposition of the pleasurechize him daily before his departure for loving rhymer. At College, his studies school, and to impress upon him the had been directed more to the mastering necessity of constant and unwearied ap- of the old classic poets than to the subplication to study. So great, indeed, tleties of metaphysics; and in his solitary was her desire that he should excel, as chambers at the Temple he found pleashe himself tells us, that oftentimes, when ant recreation in turning into English unable to examine him during the day, the verses of his favorite authors. When she would go to his bedside as late as in London but a short time, he prepared two o'clock in the night, and at that un- a translation of the Odes of Anacreon. seasonable hour cause him to repeat his The beauty and artistic finish of this daily lessons to her. She was anxiously work at once gave him rank as an auawaiting the removal of the Catholic dis- thor, and gained him the entree of the abilities, in order that she might give best society. His brilliant conversationher son the advantage of an education al powers made him a most acceptable in Trinity College, with a view to the and welcome guest at the houses of study of law; but in the meantime she the English nobility and gentry; and neglected no opportunity to qualify him ladies of the highest rank felt pride and for matriculation therein. A tutor at pleasure in the society of the brilliant the grammar school, named Donovan, little Irishman. To be made so much was engaged to instruct young Moore of by intellect and rank, to have his

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genius recognized and appreciated in a translation of "Anacreon" had given few short months, was enough to turn him a name, and a natural talent which the head of one more versed in the ways he possessed for versifying, determined of the world than the youthful Moore. him to take to authorship, at least until In Dublin, he was the son of a poor he could obtain a post under the Governtradesman, and as such, was compelled ment. His first original attempt was a to move in the humbler walks of life; in volume of Amatory poems, published London, his birth was not questioned. under the nom de plume of "Thomas The constant companion of the learned Little." These poems were immoral in and talented, the witty and fascinating tone, and, as such, were justly conIrishman ruled supreme the brilliant demned by critics; Moore himself discircle in which his good fortune had cast avowed them, and in a few years they him. Accustomed all his life to consider went out of print and were forgotten. the nobility as something above common The poor success of this work made men, it is not strange his reception by Moore despair of ever obtaining wealth them considerably influenced the tone of or fame as an author; but he was inhis subsequent writings. He moved al- duced to persevere by the encouragemost exclusively in their society, and ments of his friends. Connecting him- . came to consider himself as one in all self with politics, he published numberbut name and fortune. This idolatry for less witty effusions, characterizing and rank and wealth was a constitutional severely satirizing the follies and crimes weakness of Moore; and if his grand of the society and political systems of acquaintances chose to forget his humble the day. Fudges' orign, he of a certainty never lost sight Family" in Paris and England; the of the boundless respect which he con- "Holy Alliance," the "Two-Penny Post sidered due to the prerogatives of sta- Bag" and a host of others which, though tion. His school-boy patriotism was time has deprived them of much of their somewhat modified in deference to the pungency, still remain lasting monuopinions of his titled friends, and in their ments of our author's genius and rich society his republican sentiments were exuberance of fancy. The flattering rereplaced by the more fashionable views ception these satires, and the squibs he of aristocracy. Moore's admiration of wrote for the daily press, received from the nobility led him, for a time, to sur- the reading public, encouraged Moore to render his feelings of manly independ- embrace authorship as a profession. The ence, and trust to acquire worldly wealth patronage upon which he depended for by the patronage of the great. He had office had in the end gained for him the not as yet fully uncovered the fertile vein appointment to the registrarship of Berof riches which he possessed in his own muda-a position of trifling importance grand genius, and rarely did anything and emolument, and for which his eduat that most unpoetical of all pursuits cation and habits totally disqualified -the law. The position he sought him. He set out for Bermuda, intendthrough the influence of his admirers ing to apply himself to the performance was not soon obtained, and in the mean- of the duties of his office; but, after a while something had to be done to meet few months' stay, he resigned the cares the requirements of life. As he knew of this office to a deputy, and set out absolutely nothing of the law, ground upon his return to England. On his had to be broken in some other field. His way back, he passed through the north

thought that a brighter day was at
hand, when Ireland should stand forth to
take her place among nations-
"Great, glorious and free,
First flower of the earth, first gem of the sea."
The poet himself rested his hopes of
future fame upon these beautiful and in-
spiring songs, and the event has shown
how little of inspiration was needed to
predict with undoubted certainty that-
"Though his memory should now die away,
"Twill be caught up again in some happier
day;

And the hearts and the voices of Erin prolong
Through the answering future, his name and
his song."

While writing the melodies, Moore also began and completed many other works, the best known of which are "Lalla Rookh," a metrical romance of the Orient, of most elaborate finish; the "Life of Sheridan," and the "History of Ireland," in two volumes.

ern portion of the United States and the Canadas. In a volume of poems, published soon after reaching England, Moore was particularly severe in his criticisms upon the institutions and manners of the Americans, which, at the time, excited much resentment against him in this country. Afterward he came to see the injustice of his strictures upon a people undeserving of censure, at least from his pen. Moore now began those sweet lyrics which will ever connect his name with immortality-the Irish melodies, most exquisite effusions, in which the loftiest patriotism is wedded to melodious numbers. There may be isolated fragments of surpassing beauty in the writings of others, but they are only as oases in the desert; here we meet them, not singly, but in clusters, like ripe grapes springing up in the garden of his fancy, each as it were rivaling the other in beauty and lusciousness. The delightful music to which the melodies are set is not more harmonious than the words themselves, which, like the warblings of many birds, become more beautiful when joined in one harmonious whole. The melodies are Ireland's own; they are descriptive of her and her warm-hearted sons; they breathe in magic whisperings the unutterable devotion of Irishmen to their beautiful land, their ancient religion, and fond clinging to Erin's olden renown. The melodies clevated their author to the first rank among English plaint the sad story of ages upon ages of poets. Universally read and admired in the higher walks of life, they nowhere exerted more influence and excited more respect and love for the poet than among the Irish peasantry. The poorest and to a faith insulted and proscribed;-all most humble among them understood the this he sung in honeyed verse, and, more sweet simple language, which, recalling potent than the angry invective of to memory the traditions of what Ireland Plunkett, Grattan and Flood, the magic had been in other days, nerved the Celtic influence of the Irish muse won from heart to bear up under its grievous op- England concessions denied to the most pression, and held forth the consoling eloquent appeals of these gifted orators.

The exquisite wording and imagery of Moore's poetry diffuse over it an indescribable charm, a freshness, an originality all his own. To work his way to fame and honor, he chose for his muse no loftier themes than the sad, simple tales of his country's ancient greatness and present lowliness. These furnished him the key to the warm hearts of his countrymen, and with a master-hand he unlocked their overburdened breasts; he told the world in sweet but mournful

dire oppression and wrongs, of the desperate but fruitless attempts to shake off the cruel incubus that crushes out natural life; of the beautiful and stern devotion

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