"That royal, ravening flock, whose vampire wings
O'er sleeping Europe treacherously brood,
And fan her into dreams of promised good,
Of hope, of freedom--but to drain her blood!"
This sounds very bad and very dangerous; the distance separating such
a writer from the older generation of poets strikes us as great; it
seems but a step from this to Shelley and Byron. But as a matter
of fact, it is a long way; for all these attacks are not quite so
seriously meant as one would imagine. This champion of the cause of
Ireland was no advocate of her independence; Moore did not desire
the separation of his country from England; he only desired that she
should be ruled better and more justly. This bold denouncer of kings
was no republican, but a sincere believer in monarchy, who would have
had bad kings replaced by good ones. He was no free-thinker, this man
who railed so violently at the hypocrisy of the Holy Alliance, but a
sincere, enlightened Catholic, who, though he brought up his children
as Protestants, wrote a thick book, _Travels of an Irish Gentleman
in search of a Religion_, in defence of the most important doctrines
of the Catholic faith. With all his apparent unrestraint, Moore kept
within the bounds prescribed by the society in which he lived. The
Whig leaders had, when he came to London, received him with open arms,
and Moore became and remained the Whig poet, who in a long series
of playfully sarcastic letters--rhymed feuilletons one might call
them--treated the public questions and Parliamentary events of the day
with sparkling wit and drawing-room humour of the best style, in the
spirit of the Whig party.
[1] Massey: _History of England_, iv. 302. The whole account is founded
upon descriptions given by _English patriots_.
[2] _Lalla Rookh: The Fire-worshippers_.
[3]
"An eloquence rich, wheresoever its wave
Wander'd free and triumphant, with thoughts that shone through,
As clear as the brook's 'stone of lustre,' and gave,
the flash of the gem, its solidity too."
--Moore: _Shall the Harp be silent_.
"Ever glorious Grattan! the best of the good!
So simple in heart, so sublime in the rest!
With all which Demosthenes wanted endued,
And his rival or victor in all he possess'd."
--Byron: _The Irish Avatar_.
[4] Thomas Moore: _Memoirs of Lord Edward Fitzgerald_.
[5] Madden: _The United Irishmen, Their Lives and Times_.
[6]
"Already has the child of Gallia's school,
The foul Philosophy that sins by rule,
With all her train of reasoning, damning arts,
Begot by brilliant heads or worthless hearts--
Already has she poured her poison here
O'er every charm that makes existence dear."
--_Epistle to Lord Viscount Forbes_.
[7] Madden: _United Irishmen. Robert Emmet_: anonymous, but known to be
written by Madame d'Haussonville.