GENERAL APPRECIATION
Of Moore's personal qualities not much remains to be said; but we may
endeavour to account for the fact that he became the fashion when he was
one-and-twenty, and retained an undiminished vogue for a matter of forty
years.
His singing undoubtedly first brought him into notice; a late passage in
the Journal recalls, across a gulf of years, one evening at a musical
assembly, when people laughed and stared to see a little Irish lad
brought out to sing after some distinguished professionals; and how the
contemptuous wonder was changed to wonder of a very different kind when
the singer had produced his effect. Hard upon these successes, and
helped by them to succeed, came his _Anacreon_, a volume of easy,
springing and melodious verse, flushed with prodigal youth; and the
combination of the two gifts excited such widespread admiration, that
their fortunate possessor was much sought out. In these early days Moore
was no doubt largely what is called a ladies' man, and the genius for
friendship which he possessed showed itself a good deal with women. From
these years dates the long intimacy with Lady Donegal and her sister,
Miss Godfrey--an intimacy which his marriage in no way ended. These
friends continued for years to correspond with him and to advise on his
affairs. But after marriage, he formed no new friendships with women.
His delight in feminine society never left him, but it was of a special
order.
Moore was by universal consent the very best of company; a talker who
delighted in the give and take of conversation, and was at least as well
pleased with other people's wit as his own. He had perhaps the less
occasion to be jealous, having in his singing a resource which made him
unrivalled. This talent, however, he would only use in a mixed
company--"hating this operation with he-hearers," as he notes somewhere
of a men's dinner when he was forced to depart from his habit. To women
and for them he sung, while his singing powers lasted; but it is not
unfair to say that he valued women in society chiefly as decorative
accessories and as an audience. Among the innumerable good things noted
in his Diary, hardly one is credited to a woman. And, well as he liked
singing to a mixed audience, it is clear that his chief pleasure, as he
advanced in life, lay in the society of men.
With men, his intimacies were numerous enough, for Moore was as popular
in clubs as in drawing-rooms, and most of his intimates were persons of
title. Byron said that "Tommy dearly loved a lord"; and a hundred people
know this saying, for one who has seen Byron's sincerer utterance (not
published in Moore's edition of the _Life and Letters_):--"I have had
the kindest letter from Moore. I do think that man is the
best-hearted--the only _hearted_ being I ever encountered; and his
talents are equal to his feelings." It is therefore worth while to note
that Moore by no means loved any or every lord. He did, however,
certainly desire to associate with those who possessed hereditary
station and had the brains to make a generous use of it, both in
acquiring power and in drawing to their houses men like Moore
himself--or Sydney Smith, whom Moore loved better to meet than any lord,
except perhaps Lord John Russell. His deliberate opinion, stated more
than once in the Diary, was that in his time the most agreeable and also
the purest tone of society was to be found at the top of the social
ladder. And in point of fact he was admitted to intimacy with the Whig
aristocracy in its most brilliant day. Bowood and Holland House, as
Moore knew them, were probably the best things of their kind that
England has ever seen.
For a description of the charm which made him not only welcome but
courted in these great houses, it would be hard to better that set down
by Haydon the painter, in his autobiography:--
"Met Moore at dinner, and spent a very pleasant three hours. He
told his stories with a hit-or-miss air, as if accustomed to people
of rapid apprehension. It being asked at Paris who they would have
as godfather for Rothschild's child, 'Talleyrand,' said a
Frenchman. _'Pourquoi, Monsieur?' 'Parce qu'il est le moins
chrétien possible.'_ Moore is a delightful, gay, voluptuous,
refined, natural creature; infinitely more unaffected than
Wordsworth; not blunt and uncultivated like Chantrey, or bilious
and shivering like Campbell. No affectation, but a true, refined,
delicate, frank poet, with sufficient air of the world to prove his
fashion, sufficient honesty of manner to show fashion has not
corrupted his native taste; making allowance for prejudices instead
of condemning them, by which he seemed to have none himself; never
talking of his own work from an intense consciousness that
everybody else did; while Wordsworth is talking of his own
productions from apprehension that they are not enough matter of
conversation. Men must not be judged too hardly. Success or failure
will either destroy or better the finest natural parts. Unless one
had heard Moore tell the above story of Talleyrand, it would have
been impossible to conceive the air of half-suppressed impudence,
the delicate light-horse canter of phrase, with which the words
floated out of his sparkling anacreontic mouth."
To the personal notability which his social talent secured him, Moore
owed much of his later successes as a prose writer: in part because of
the access which it afforded to sources of information; in part because
everybody knew him, and read with expectation whatever he wrote. But as
a poet, his fame was a thing wholly independent of personal charm.
People knew that the writer whose songs they had by heart was courted in
the most brilliant world; they knew also that he had shown in various
difficult junctures a high spirit of honour and independence. But they
knew these things mainly because they liked his poetry. Prom all this
contemporary fame of the poet, one must try to analyse what remains.
Moore himself--except during his stay in Paris, when much adulation led
him to question whether he might not perhaps really deserve to rank with
Scott and Byron--always regarded his poetry as unlikely to last. His
modesty was real; for not only did he feel himself overshadowed by Scott
and Byron, but, placed in the difficult position of knowing himself
popular and Wordsworth all but unread, he never hesitated in recognising
Wordsworth's as by far the greater talent. His growing admiration for
this poet is all the more remarkable, because at many meetings his sense
of ridicule was frequently stimulated by Wordsworth's egotism and
"soliloquacious" habit of conversation. Coleridge he could neither like
nor understand, and it seems that he did not care much for Shelley. But
throughout his Diary, one finds him manifesting, in many passages, the
conviction that these men, the unread, were better artists than himself;
and he notes with exceptional pleasure any word of praise from them, as
if he expected only dislike and disapprobation for his facile and
popular verses. Not less should it be noted, that none of them praised
his longer poems, but all (except of course Wordsworth) spoke with
sincere enthusiasm of his lyrics. The opinion of Landor and of Shelley
was, in effect, that expressed by Moore himself: that of his whole work
the _Irish Melodies_ alone were likely to last into future times. But
both Shelley (as reported by his wife) and Landor agreed in attributing
to Moore's lyrics the highest poetical merit. How far critical opinion
may ultimately bear out this estimate must remain to be seen; but
probably the depreciation of Moore's work, which prevails at present, is
hardly more judicious than Lord John Russell's extravagant over-praise.
The last century has been one of increasing virtuosity in the management
of lyric metres. From Cowper and Crabbe to Mr. Swinburne, is a strange
distance; and it has not been sufficiently realised that Moore is very
largely responsible for the advance. Many critics have noted the change
from the strictly syllabic scansion of Pope's school to metres like
those of Tennyson's _Maud_, and a hundred later poems, in which syllabic
measurement is wholly discarded. It has been noted also that, even in
the freer metres of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, lyric
writers confined themselves to variations of the trochee or iambic, and
that an anapæstic or dactylic measure is hardly found before Waller. But
it has hardly been recognised that till Moore began to use these triple
feet, no poet used them with dexterity and confidence.
Coleridge, it is true, and Scott had employed a broken rhythm,
substituting the temporal for the syllabic ictus, to vary the monotony
of the eight-syllabled narrative verse. But, to judge of the best that
could be done before Moore's time with a purely anapæstic measure, one
may refer to Wordsworth's "At the corner of Wood Street, when daylight
appears." These verses are sufficiently destitute of the lyrical quality
which is so constantly present in any work of Shelley's. But Moore had
done all but all his best work, before Shelley had written six poems
worthy of remembrance.
Going back, as we have seen, to the seventeenth century for his
inspiration in style, Moore began by using only the trochaic and iambic
measures. In the _Epistles and Odes_, we find one epistle (that to
Atkinson) written in well-managed anapæests, but more notable is the
very delicate rhythm of the Canadian Boat Song--inspired by a tune. It
is Moore's great distinction that he brought into English verse
something of the variety and multiplicity of musical rhythms. When the
_Irish Melodies_ began to appear, it is no wonder that readers should
have been dazzled by the skill with which a profusion of metres were
handled; and the poet showed himself even more inventive in rhythms than
in stanzas.
The most curious part of the matter is that Moore was really importing
into English poetry some of the characteristics of a literature which he
did not know. He had not a word of Gaelic, and (like O'Connell) desired
to see it die out. He observes that Spanish alone of European metrical
systems employs "assonantic" instead of consonantic rhyme, though he was
bred in a country where rhyme of this order had been brought to an
extraordinary pitch of perfection. But he based his work upon Irish
times, composed in the primitive manner, before music was divorced from
poetry. One may say, virtually, that in fitting words to these tunes, he
reproduced in English the rhythms of Irish folk song.
The thing was not done completely: for instance, in the first number of
the _Melodies_, the song "Erin, the smile and the tear in thine eye," is
to the tune of "Eileen Aroon," and the Irish words (which survive in
this instance and, I am told by my friend Mr. O'Neil Russell, in only
one other), do not correspond in metre with Moore's. He has varied the
tune, and is consequently using a different stanza, which corresponds
with the Irish only in the last three lines of the refrain. In the other
instance, that of "O blame not the bard," there is a general
correspondence in metre, but here the Irish metre is one not very
different from an ordinary English stanza--though, as usual in Irish
folk-poetry, the line is measured by time and not by syllables.
The need for fitting metre to music forced Moore into employing a wide
variety of stanzas; and his example was of service in a day which had
been little used to anything but the couplet and quatrain of three or
four well-worn types. But by far more remarkable was the achievement in
three separate poems of a metrical effect wholly new in English. Of
these, one is probably the most beautiful lyric that Moore ever wrote:--
"At the mid hour of night, when the stars are weeping, I fly
To the lone vale we loved, when life shone warm in thine eye;
And I think oft, if spirits can steal from the regions of air,
To revisit past scenes of delight, thou wilt come to me there,
And tell me our love is remember'd, even in the sky!
"Then I sing the wild song 'twas once such pleasure, to hear,
When our voices, commingling, breathed, like one, on the ear;
And, as Echo far off through the vale my sad orison rolls,
I think, O my love! 'tis thy voice, from the Kingdom of Souls,
Faintly answering still the notes that once were so dear."
In the second, the same structure is used for the line, but with a
different and simpler stanza:--
"Through grief and through danger thy smile hath cheer'd my way,
Till hope seemed to bud from each thorn that round me lay;
The darker our fortune, the brighter our pure love burn'd;
Till shame into glory, till fear into zeal was turn'd;
Yes, slave as I was, in thy arms my spirit felt free,
And bless'd even the sorrows that made me more dear to thee.
"Thy rival was honour'd, whilst thou wert wrong'd and scorn'd,
Thy crown was of briers, while gold her brows adorn'd;
She woo'd me to temples, while thou layest hid in caves,
Her friends were all masters, while thine, alas! were slaves;
Yet cold in the earth, at thy feet, I would rather be,
Than wed what I love not, or turn one thought from thee.
"They slander thee sorely, who say thy vows are frail--
Hadst thou been a false one, thy cheek had look'd less pale,
They say too, so long thou hast worn those lingering chains,
That deep in thy heart they have printed their servile stains--
Oh! foul is the slander--no chain could that soul subdue--
Where shineth _thy_ spirit, there liberty shineth too!"
In these verses we have of course an allegory. By a fashion common in
Irish poetry, the poet expresses as a love song his political
allegiance--though here the Catholic Church, rather than Ireland, is the
"Dark Rosaleen" or "Kathleen ni Houlihan," to whom the passion is
addressed. The third of this remarkable group has been quoted already:
it is Moore's rebuke to Ireland, or to O'Connell, "The dream of those
days when first I sung thee is o'er"; and it is very notable that for
such an occasion he should have chosen his most distinctively Irish
manner. The peculiarity of these metres--the dragging, wavering cadence
that half baulks the ear--is the distinctive characteristic of Irish
verse. No English poet, so far as I know, has caught it; but Mangan gave
this character to some of his finest renderings from the Irish, and in
our own day Mr. Yeats has shown an increasing tendency towards this
subtle and evasive beauty.
It is I think mainly as an artist in metre that Moore still holds an
importance in the history of English poetry; and any one considering the
poems just quoted will see how individual and original were his
achievements. But the admirable qualities in his verse by which he
impressed his contemporaries were rather those of lightness and
swiftness: its sweetness, of which much was made, is a good deal less
admirable. For this, however, the nature of his best lyric work was
largely responsible.
He wrote songs to be sung; and the best verse is not that which sings
best. Language has to be softened down for singing, as it need not be
for speech; and this softening approaches to emasculation. The habit of
writing for music injured Moore's versification even when he wrote
narrative verse; and we have the result in the excessive smoothness of
_Lalla Rookh_.
Even more unfortunately did the medium of production affect his style.
Moore's conception of singing was certainly not one in which the words
were to be sacrificed to the music; but he wrote his words to be sung;
and words for singing must carry their meaning easily through the ear to
the intelligence--for what is sung can never be caught so easily as what
is spoken. He was led, therefore, to use a strict economy of ideas; to
expand rather than condense his meaning. Take such a verse as this (from
"Farewell, but whenever you welcome the hour"):--
"Let Fate do her worst; there are relics of joy,
Bright dreams of the past, which she cannot destroy,
Which come in the night-time of sorrow and care,
And tiring back the features that joy used to wear.
Long, long be my heart with such memories fill'd!
Like the vase, in which roses have once been distill'd--
You may break, you may shatter the vase if you will,
But the scent of the roses will hang round it still"--
and set beside it Shelley's:--
"Music when soft voices die
Vibrates in the memory:
Odours when sweet violets sicken
Live within the sense they quicken;
Rose leaves when the rose is dead
Are heaped for the beloved's bed;
And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,
Love itself shall slumber on."
There is no doubt of Shelley's superiority; but on the other hand
Shelley's words, if sung, would not carry their sense so easily as
Moore's. The mind would lose itself in the quick succession of
metaphors; and it is noticeable in the _Melodies_ how often the whole
song is merely the skilful and deliberate evolution of a single
metaphor--an art akin to the rhetorician's. This is true even of the
famous "Oh breathe not his name"; and, indeed, it is not less true that
Emmet's utterance was the real poem--Moore's only an ingenious
amplification of the thought--or rather of a part of it.
One must bear in mind, then, that Moore's lyrics are verse written for
public utterance, designed to produce their impression instantly, and
not to sink slowly into the mind: and it is useless to compare them with
the packed thought of Shakespeare's sonnets, Wordsworth's odes, or
whatever else is in the highest category of lyric poetry.
There is, however, a class of verse to which hardly anything can be
preferred, and in it are not only the songs of Shakespeare, but some of
Scott's and many of Burns's; music as simple as a bird's, dealing in the
simplest emotions, free from all taint of rhetoric. In that class I do
not think that anything of Moore's can be placed. But one must remember
when Moore wrote. He wrote under the influence of the eighteenth
century, when the reaction towards a style less coloured by convention
had barely set in. He wrote, it is true, when Scott did, and not long
after Burns; but both Burns and Scott (whenever Scott is at his best)
had the guiding inspiration of a perfect style in the Lowland vernacular
poetry, never sophisticated by criticism, or by the intrusion of a
dialect of polite prose. And if one compares Moore's lyrics with the
best that Burns wrote _in English_, when liable to the influence of Gray
and the rest, I do not think it is to Burns that the preference will be
given--by the impartial arbiter, who should be neither Scot nor Irish.
It is, however, unreasonable to talk about Moore's lyrics as a whole,
for the work falls into two distinct categories, and in one of these
Moore must be pronounced the equal of any man who ever lived. The
lighter numbers breathe the very spirit of gaiety, united to a real
distinction of style:--
"Drink to her, who long
Hath waked the poet's sigh,
The girl who gave to song
What gold could never buy."
Still more characteristic perhaps is another, so melodious and so
roguish:--
"The young May moon is beaming, love,
The glow-worm's lamp is gleaming, love,
How sweet to rove
Through Morna's grove,
When the drowsy world is dreaming, love!
Then awake!--the heavens look bright, my dear,
'Tis never too late for delight, my dear,
And the best of all ways
To lengthen our days
Is to steal a few hours from the night, my dear."
Neither Prior nor Praed, nor any other master of the lighter lyric, has
equalled these; and better still, perhaps, is the well-known verse:--
"The time I've lost in wooing,
In watching and pursuing
The light that lies
In woman's eyes,
Has been my heart's undoing.
Though Wisdom oft has sought me,
I scorn'd the lore she brought me.
My only books
Were woman's looks,
And folly's all they've taught me."
But it should be noticed that the gay metre, which fits this last humour
like a glove, is on the very next page applied to a serious theme, which
it dishonours, none the less for the refrain tacked on:--
"Oh, where's the slave so lowly,
Condemn'd to chains unholy,
Who, could he burst
His bonds at first,
Would pine beneath them slowly?
What soul, whose wrongs degrade it,
Would wait till time decay'd it,
When thus its wing
At once may spring
To the throne of Him who made it?
Farewell, Erin,--farewell, all,
Who live to weep our fall."
The tune no doubt demanded the double rhyme, and in Irish, it must be
remembered, double rhymes do not involve a jingle, being only an
assonance of the vowels ("weepeth" for instance would be a full rhyme to
"meeting"). Moore, writing English, was profuse in double rhymes, and
did not even shrink from the device, proper only, with few exceptions,
to trivial and comic verse, of forming the rhyme with two words. Thus,
for instance, we find him destroying a fine opening in the lyric:--
"Avenging and bright fall the swift sword of Erin
On him who the brave sons of Usna betray'd--
For every fond eye he hath waken'd a tear in,
A drop from his heart-wounds shall weep o'er her blade."
All this criticism is of course from the standpoint of a reader.
Considered as compositions to be sung, the _Melodies_ are probably
little injured by this defect in style, and the rhetorical effect of--
"Where's the slave so lowly
Condemned to chains unholy,"
may even gain by the amplitude of the ending.
Throughout, I think, it can hardly be denied that the poetry of Moore's
lyrics lies very close to eloquence and is remote from that distinctive
quality of the highest poetic expression which transcends rhetoric
altogether. A proof lies in the fact that these songs are among the most
translatable of all poetry--and among the most translated. Their charm
lies, like that of French poetry (before the Romantic movement), in the
felicitous expression of an apt or moving thought. It might be difficult
to express the idea so well in another language; but no one would feel
it impossible. Take such lines as:--
"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,"
and the most careless will feel that, beyond the idea expressed, there
is an accent, and a suggestion as if of gesture, somehow incorporated
with the actual words and inseparable from them. An effect of this kind
is rarely achieved by Moore. His words always clearly convey the
definite thought, but they hardly ever convey anything more. We have, in
the most characteristic examples of his art, a quite extraordinary
eloquence, in such poems as those on Emmet and on Emmet's betrothed, or
that on Lord Edward ("When he who adores thee"), or "The Prince's Song"
("When first I met thee"); or again in the fierce strain of "Sad one of
Sion." The last stanzas of this may be quoted; they compare the fate
that was Judea's with the fate that may be Ireland's.
"Yet hadst thou thy vengeance--yet came there the morrow,
That shines out, at last, on the longest dark night,
When the sceptre that smote thee with slavery and sorrow,
Was shiver'd at once, like a reed, in thy sight.
"When that cup, which for others the proud Golden City
Had brimm'd full of bitterness, drench'd her own lips;
And the world she had trampled on heard, without pity,
The howl in her halls, and the cry from her ships.
"When the curse Heaven keeps for the haughty came over
Her merchants rapacious, her rulers unjust,
And, a ruin, at last, for the earthworm to cover,
The Lady of Kingdoms lay low in the dust."
Nothing could be more complete and rounded as the expression of an
emotion than "The Harp that once"; but I find less rhetoric and even
more poetry in the lovely address to the spirit of Irish music which
closed the sixth number of the _Melodies_, and should have closed the
series. Familiar as it is, Moore has become so far obsolete, for English
readers, that it may be given here:--
"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!
The warm lay of love and the light note of gladness
Have waken'd thy fondest, thy liveliest thrill;
But so oft hast thou echo'd the deep sigh of sadness,
That even in thy mirth it will steal from thee still.
"Dear Harp of my Country! farewell to thy numbers,
This sweet wreath of song is the last we shall twine!
Go, sleep with the sunshine of Fame on thy slumbers,
Till touch'd by some hand less unworthy than mine:
If the pulse of the patriot, soldier, or lover,
Have throbb'd at our lay, 'tis thy glory alone;
I was but as the wind, passing heedlessly over,
And all the wild sweetness I waked was thy own."
Except in the _Sacred Songs_ there is nothing in Moore's work fit to
stand beside such lyrics as these; and the finest of these _Songs_
breathes an inspiration very like that of the _Melodies_:--
"Fall'n is thy throne, O Israel!
Silence is o'er thy plains;
Thy dwellings all lie desolate,
Thy children weep in chains."
Another opens with a very beautiful verse:--
"The turf shall be my fragrant shrine;
My temple, Lord! that arch of thine;
My censer's breath the mountain airs,
And silent thoughts my only prayers."
But here, in the working out of the idea, one feels, as so often in
Moore, rather sated with sweetness. For an extreme example of this
cloying ornament, to which he owed so much of his popularity, one would
quote:--
"Oh! had we some bright little isle of our own,
In a blue summer ocean far off and alone,
Where a leaf never dies in the still-blooming bowers,
And the bee banquets on through a whole year of flowers;
Where the sun loves to pause
With so fond a delay,
That the night only draws
A thin veil o'er the day;
Where simply to feel that we breathe, that we live,
Is worth the best joy that life elsewhere can give."
There is no flaw in such work, but the taste is too florid.
Occasionally, however, we find his taste wholly at fault in the choice
of a phrase, as in "Sir Knight, _I feel not the least alarm_," or the
still worse "Believe me, if all those _endearing young charms_,"--a
lapse into the worst dulcification of confectionery.
There is of course a fashion in verse as in anything else, and Moore's
excellences are precisely the least congenial to the current taste in
criticism. There is a fashion for nakedness of expression, and Moore
always shrank from brutality; there is a fashion for strained uses of
language, and Moore was always studiously accurate and lucid. But it may
be questioned whether, setting aside the opinion of professed and
professional critics, Moore's poetry would not be found to retain a
vigorous life. He was never, and never wished to be, in the least
esoteric; his object was to be understood by all. A poet who insists
upon this aim must perhaps sacrifice something, but he may also achieve
something not common. Oddly enough, there is no poet in English except
Goldsmith who appeals to simple people so much as Moore. These two can
often bring poetry home in triumph where even Shakespeare would never
find an entrance.
But Moore's importance in the history of literature lies in his
connection not with English but with Irish literature. It was not for
nothing that Ireland hailed him for her first national poet. Nowadays,
even English readers probably know that poetry of a class not inferior
to Moore's was being written in Ireland in Moore's lifetime. He was the
younger contemporary of Seaghan Clarach, the full contemporary of
Raftery. But the nation which stood behind Grattan--that fused,
bi-lingual people welded into a unity during the years that led up to
1782, yet not so closely welded but that a wedge could be driven
in--accepted English as the language of political leadership; and it
caught eagerly at any manifestation of its national unity. Deprived of a
parliament, it found a poet of its own. It heard for the first time in
the _Irish Melodies_ a song that came from the heart of Ireland, uttered
in a language which nine out of every ten Irishmen could understand. A
journalist, writing in 1810, says: "Moore has done more for the revival
of our national spirit than all the political writers whom Ireland has
seen for a century." The other Irishmen who had shown great literary
talent--Burke, Goldsmith, and Sheridan--belonged body and soul to
English letters. Moore's case was different. Almost without knowing it,
he wrote primarily for his own countrymen, and in return they honoured
him, not perhaps on this side idolatry, but with a sane instinct,
because he had done for Ireland, what neither Seaghan Clarach nor
Raftery, nor all the bards of Munster and Connaught, could at that
moment do for her. He had given a voice to Ireland; he had put into her
mouth a song of her own.
Standing apart now, from the times and circumstances in which Moore
wrote, we can see that what Ireland got from him was not all gain. The
literature produced so profusely in the days of Young Ireland, and
modelled mainly upon him, echoes only too faithfully his declamatory
tone; and worse than that, it is flooded by the exuberance of sentiment,
which was Moore's besetting weakness. Other models, and, it is to be
hoped, better ones, now are rapidly replacing those of Moore and his
followers; with the younger generation, even in Ireland, he has lost his
hold. But in Ireland his poetry is still, as a matter of course,
familiar to all Irishmen of the nationalist persuasion, young and old.
And for the older men, he has lost none of his magic. To them such
criticism as is found in this book will seem, one must fear, a kind of
impiety and certainly of ingratitude; for they remember the days when
many and many an Irish peasant, leaving his country for the New World,
carried with him two books--_Moore's Melodies_ and the _Key of Heaven_.
And certainly it is no small title to fame for a poet that he was in his
own country for at least three generations the delight and consolation
of the poor. Tattered and thumbed copies of his poems, broadcast through
Ireland, represent better his claim to the interest of posterity than
whatever comely and autographed editions may be found among the
possessions of Bowood and Holland House.
APPENDIX
DATES OF MOORE'S PUBLICATIONS
The kindness of Mr. Andrew Gibson allows me to reprint from a privately
circulated pamphlet the following catalogue, compiled by him for his
Lecture (delivered in Belfast), on "Thomas Moore and his First
Editions"[1]:--
List showing the order in which the various Editions were taken up in
the course of Mr. Gibson's Lecture; and giving, together with the sizes,
the actual or supposed dates of publication.[2]
_Works with music are distinguished by an asterisk._
1. The Odes of Anacreon. 4to. 1800.[3]
2. The Poetical Works of the late Thomas Little, Esq. 8vo. 1801.
3. Sheet Songs*:[4]
(a) Published by F. Rhames, No. 16 Exchange Street,
Dublin, before Sir John Stevenson received
his knighthood in 1803:--
Buds of Roses, Virgin Flowers, a chearful Glee,
for 4 voices, the poetry translated from
Anacreon by T. Moore, Esqr. The Music
composed (& respectfully dedicated to the
Honble. Augustus Barry) by J.A. Stevenson,
Mus. D. Price Is. 6d. British.
Though Fate, my Girl, a Canzonet with an
Accompaniment for the Piano Forte or Harp,
the Poetry by Thos. Moore, Esqr. The Music
Composed by J.A. Stevenson, Mus. D.
Price 1/1.
Dear! in pity do not speak, a Canzonet for
two Voices, with an Accompaniment for the
Piano Forte or Harp, the Poetry by Thos.
Moore, Esqr., set to Music by J.A. Stevenson,
Mus. D. Price 1s.
Scotch Song [Mary, I believ'd thee true] with an
Accompaniment for the Piano Forte or Harp,
the Poetry by Thos. Moore, Esqr., the
Music Composed by J.A. Stevenson, Mus. D.
Price 6d.
(b) Music as well as words by Moore. Published by
Carpenter, Old Bond Street, London:--
Oh Lady Fair! A Ballad for Three Voices.
Dedicated to the Rt. Honble. Lady Charlotte
Rawdon. 1802.
When Time who steals our years away. A Ballad
dedicated to Mrs. Henry Tighe of Rosanna.
Fly from the World O Bessy to me.
Farewell Bessy.
Good Night.
Friend of my Soul.
(c) "Dublin, Published by F. Rhames, 16 Exchange
Street. Price 3 British Shillings":--
Give me the Harp. A Chorus Glee, with an
Accompaniment for two Performers on one
Piano Forte. Sung with great applause at the
Irish Harmonic Club on Wednesday, the 4th
May, 1803, when that Society had the Honor
of entertaining His Excellency Earl Hardwicke.
The Words translated from Anacreon
by Thomas Moore, Esqr. The Music composed
by Sir John A. Stevenson, Mus. Doc.
(d) "London, Printed for James Carpenter, Old Bond
Street. 1805":--
A Canadian Boat Song [Faintly as tolls the
evening chime] Arranged for Three Voices.
By Thomas Moore, Esqr.
4. Epistles, Odes, and other Poems. 4to. 1806.
5. Irish Melodies. First Number. Fol. [1808]*.[5]
6. Irish Melodies. Second Number. Fol. [1808]*.
7. Corruption and Intolerance: two Poems. 8vo. 1808.
8. The Sceptic: a Philosophical Satire. 8vo. 1809.[6]
9. Irish Melodies. Third Number. Fol. [1810]*.
10. A Letter to the Roman Catholics of Dublin. 8vo. 1810.
11. A Melologue upon National Music. ?Fol. [1811]*.[7]
12. M.P. or The Blue Stocking. Sm. fol. [1811]*.
13. M.P. or The Blue-Stocking. 8vo. 1811.[8]
14. Irish Melodies. Fourth Number. Fol. [1811]*.[9]
15. Intercepted Letters; or, The Twopenny Postbag. 8vo. 1813.
16. Irish Melodies. Fifth Number. Fol. [1813]*.[10]
17. A Collection of the Vocal Music of Thomas Moore.
Sm. fol. [1814]*.
18. Irish Melodies. Sixth Number. Fol. [1815]*.[11]
19. The World at Westminster. A Periodical Publication.
2 vols. 12mo. 1816.
20. Sacred Songs. First Number. Fol. [1816]*.[12]
21. Lalla Rookh. 4to. 1817.
22. The Fudge Family in Paris. 8vo. 1818.
23. National Airs. First Number. Sm. fol. 1818*.[13]
24. Irish Melodies. Seventh Number. Fol. 1818*.[14]
25. Tom Crib's Memorial to Congress. 8vo. 1819.
26. National Airs. Second Number. Sm. fol. 1820*.
27. Irish Melodies, with a Melologue upon National Music.
8vo. 1820.
28. Irish Melodies. Eighth Number. Fol. 1821*.[15]
29. Irish Melodies, by Thomas Moore, Esq. With an
Appendix, containing the Original Advertisements
and the Prefatory Letter on Music. 8vo. 1821.[16]
30. National Airs. Third Number. Sm. fol. 1822*.
31. National Airs. Fourth Number. Sm. fol. 1822*.
32. The Loves of the Angels, a Poem. 8vo. 1823.
33. The Loves of the Angels, an Eastern Romance. The
Fifth Edition. 8vo. 1823.[17]
34. Fables for the Holy Alliance, Rhymes on the Road,
etc., etc. 8vo. 1823.
35. Sacred Songs. Second Number. Fol. [1824]*.
36. Irish Melodies. Ninth Number. Fol. [1824]*.
37. Memoirs of Captain Rock. 12mo. 1824.
38. Memoirs of the Life of the Right Honourable Richard
Brinsley Sheridan. 4to. 1825.
39. National Airs. Fifth Number. Sm. fol. [1826]*.
40. Evenings in Greece. First Evening. Sm. fol. [1826]*.
41. The Epicurean, a Tale. 12mo. 1827.
42. National Airs. Sixth Number. Sm. fol. [1827]*.
43. A Set of Glees. Sm. fol. [1827]*.
44. Odes upon Cash, Corn, Catholics, and other Matters. 8vo. 1828.
45. Legendary Ballads. Sm. fol. [1830]*.
46. Letters and Journals of Lord Byron: with Notices of
his Life. 2 vols., 4to., 1830.[18]
47. The Life and Death of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 2 vols., 8vo. 1831.
48. The Summer Fête. Sm. fol. [1831]*.
49. Evenings in Greece. [Second Evening]. Sm. fol. [1832]*.
50. The Works of Lord Byron: with his Letters and
Journals, and his Life. 17 vols., 8vo. 1832-33.
51. Travels of an Irish Gentleman in search of a Religion.
2 vols., 8vo. 1833.
52. Irish Melodies. Tenth Number. [With Supplement]. Fol. [1834]*.
53. Vocal Miscellany. Number 1. Sm. fol. [1834]*.
54. Vocal Miscellany. Number 2. Sm. fol. [1835]*.
55. The Fudge Family in England. 8vo. 1835.
56. The History of Ireland. First Volume. 8vo. 1835.
57. The History of Ireland. Second Volume. 8vo. 1837.
58. Alciphron, a Poem. 8vo. 1839.
59. The History of Ireland. Third Volume. 8vo. 1840.
60. The Poetical Works of Thomas Moore. Collected by
himself. 10 vols., 8 vo. 1840-41.
61. The History of Ireland. Fourth Volume. 8vo. 1846.[19]
[1] I have altered the dates given for the first and second numbers of
Irish Melodies in accordance with Mr. Gibson's recent discoveries.--S.G.
[2] Copies of all the editions were exhibited, with the exception of
Nos. 8, 11, 13, and 46.
[3] A copy of the second edition, 2 vols. 8vo., 1802, also was shown.
[4] These were only given as a selection.
[5] This edition ends at page 68. Copies of the first reprints, ending
at page 51, also were exhibited.
It is to be understood that copies of the Dublin editions and the London
editions (both copyright), up to the seventh number, were shown.
[6] A copy is in the British Museum.
[7] This is advertised in William and James Power's trade lists of the
period. It is thus referred to in a letter from Moore to his mother,
dated "Saturday, May 1811":--"I have been these two or three days past
receiving most flattering letters from the persons to whom I sent my
Melologue." Kent, in his edition of "The Poetical Works of Thomas
Moore," makes the "Melologue" an integral part of the "National Airs,"
and states the following in reference to the latter:--"Another
collection of songs, not unworthy of being placed in companionship with
the Irish Melodies, appeared from the hand of Moore in 1815." But the
"Melologue" was produced in 1811, as has now been shown, and the first
number of the "National Airs" did not make its appearance until 1818,
while the last one was only originally published in 1827.
[8] A copy is in the British Museum.
[9] In the London edition the Advertisement is dated "Bury-Street, St.
James's, Nov., 1811," whereas in the Dublin edition it is dated
"London,--January, 1812."
[10] The London and Dublin editions have each the following "Erratum"
annexed to the Advertisement:--"The Reader of the Words is requested to
take notice of an alteration (which was made too late to be conveniently
printed) in the first verse of the first Song, 'Thro' Erin's Isle'; he
will find the verses, in their corrected form, engraved under the Music,
Pages 2 and 3."
[11] In the London edition the Advertisement is dated "Mayfield,
Ashbourne, March, 1815." In the Dublin edition it has "April" instead of
"March."
[12] The London edition imprint reads:--"London, Published by J. Power,
34, Strand." The Dublin edition imprint reads:--"Dublin. Published by W.
Power 4 Westmorland St."
[13] The London edition imprint reads:--"London, Published April 23rd,
1818, by J. Power, "34, Strand." The Dublin edition imprint
reads:--"Dublin, Published 6th July 1818, by W. Power 4 Westmorland
Street."
[14] The London edition imprint reads:--"London, Published October 1st
1818, by J. Power, 34, Strand." The Dublin edition imprint
reads:--"Dublin, Published 9th Decr. 1818, by W. Power, 4, Westmorland
Street."
[15] The Symphonies and Accompaniments in the London edition are by
Henry R. Bishop. Those in the Dublin edition are by Sir John Stevenson.
I exhibited copies of both editions, and read to my audience a telling
Advertisement by William Power in the Dublin edition, in which he states
that "with _him_ originated the idea of uniting the Irish Melodies to
characteristic words."
Moore had already entered into a new agreement with James Power, who had
not permitted his brother to share in it; and in July 1821, "James
Power, of the Strand, London, Music Seller, obtained an injunction to
restrain William Power, of Westmorland Street, Dublin, from publishing a
pirated edition of the Eighth Number of Moore's Irish Melodies"--_vide_
"Notes from the Letters of Thomas Moore to his Music Publisher, James
Power," page 88.
[16] The manuscript of the Dedication and the Preface, in Moore's
handwriting, also was exhibited. It is the property of Mr. William
Swanston.
[17] The copy shown belongs to Mr. Robert May.
[18] A copy of the third edition, 3 vols. 8vo., 1833, was exhibited. I
have since obtained a copy of the first edition.
[19] Having spoken for nearly two hours, I found it necessary to refrain
from also referring to the following, together with several other
works:--
1. Memoirs, Journals, and Correspondence of Thomas Moore. Edited by the
Right Honourable Lord John Russell, M.P. 8 vols. 8vo., 1853-56.
2. Notes from the Letters of Thomas Moore to his Music Publisher, James
Power (the publication of which was suppressed in London). 8vo. [1854].
3. Prose and Verse, Humorous, Satirical and Sentimental. By Thomas
Moore. With suppressed passages from the Memoirs of Lord Byron. Chiefly
from the Author's own Manuscript, and all hitherto inedited and
uncollected. 8vo. 1878.
The last-named publication includes the contributions of Moore to the
_Edinburgh Review_, between 1814 and 1834.
INDEX
A
"After the Battle" (quotation).
_Alciphron_.
Alliance, The Holy.
_Anacreon, Odes of_ (Moore's Translation).
Anglesey, Lord.
_Anthologia Hibernica_.
Atkinson, Joseph.
Auckland, Lord.
B
_Belfast Commercial Chronicle_.
Bermuda.
Bishop, Sir Henry.
Blake.
Blessington, Lady.
Boswell.
_Bride of Abydos, The_ (Byron).
"Brown, Thomas".
Burke.
Burns.
Byron.
Byron's Memoirs.
Byron, Lady.
C
Campbell.
"Canadian Boat-song".
Canning.
-----, Lady.
_Captain Rock, History of_.
Carpenter (publisher).
Castlereagh, Lord.
Catholicism.
Catholic Emancipation.
Chantrey.
Charlotte, Princess of Wales.
_Childe Harold_ (Byron).
Church of Ireland.
Clarach, Seaghan.
Clare, Lord.
Coleridge.
_Corsair, The_ (Byron).
_Corruption and Intolerance_.
Corry, Isaac.
Cowper.
Crabbe.
Curran.
-----, Sarah.
D
Dante.
"Dear Harp of my Country" (quotation).
Donegal, Lady.
Doyle, Colonel.
"Drink to her who long" (quotation).
Dryden.
Dyke, Miss E..
-----, Miss H..
E
Edgeworth, Miss.
_Edinburgh Review, The_.
_Emancipation, Catholic_.
Emmet, Robert.
_English Bards and Scotch Reviewers_ (Byron).
_Epicurean, The_.
_Epistles and Odes_.
"Erin, the smile and the tear in thine eye".
_Evenings in Greece_.
_Examiner, The_.
F
_Fables_.
"Farewell, but whenever you welcome the hour" (quotation).
"Feast of Roses at Cashmere, The" (quotation).
"Fire Worshippers, The" (quotation).
_Fitzgerald, Lord Edward, Life of_.
FitzGibbon, Lord Chancellor.
Fitzwilliam, Lord.
Fletcher.
_Fragments of College Exercises_.
_Freeman's Journal_.
_Fudge Family in Paris, The_.
_Fudge Family in Italy, The_.
_Fudges in England, The_.
G
George, Prince of Wales.
_Giaour, The_ (Byron).
Gibson, Mr. Andrew.
Godfrey, Miss.
Goethe's _Dr. Faustus_.
Goldsmith.
Grattan.
Gray.
Grey, Lord.
Griffin, Gerald.
Guiccioli, Countess.
H
Hardwicke, Lord.
"Harp that once, The".
Haydon (painter).
Heath (engraver).
Hobhouse.
Holland.
Horace.
Horton, Mr. Wilmot.
Hudson, Edward.
Hume, Dr. (Moore's friend).
Hunt, Leigh.
I
_Intercepted Letters; or The Twopenny Postbag_.
_Ireland, History of_.
Irish folk-songs.
_Irish Melodies_ (see _Melodies_).
"Irish Peasant to his Mistress, The.
Irish verse.
Irving, Washington.
J
Jackson (painter).
Jeffrey (_Edinburgh Review_).
K
Kearney, Dr.
Kinnaird, Douglas.
L
_Lalla Rookh_.
Landor.
Lansdowne, Marquis of.
Leigh, Mrs..
_Leinster Journal, The_.
Lessing.
"Little, Mr."
_Little, Poetical Works of the late Thomas_.
"Little Grand Lama, The".
Lockhart.
Longmans (publishers).
_Loves of the Angels, The_.
_Lyrical Ballads_ (Wordsworth).
M
Mackintosh, Sir James.
Mangan.
McNally, Leonard.
Marryat.
_Maud_ (Tennyson).
"Meeting of the Waters, The".
Melbourne, Lord.
_Melodies, Irish_.
_Melologue upon National Music_.
Milman.
Milton.
Moira, Lord.
Moore, Thomas,
birth and family history_;
precocious boyhood;
early verses;
schooldays;
Trinity College;
association with Robert Emmet;
entered at Middle Temple;
literary activity;
acquaintances in London;
presented to the Prince of Wales;
increasing social success;
publishes _Odes of Anacreon_;
_Poetical Works of the late Thomas Little_;
_Fragments of College Exercises_;
connection with Lord Moira;
goes to Bermuda;
visits America; widespread fame;
returns to England;
_Epistles, Odes, and Other Poems_;
attacked by _Edinburgh Review_;
challenges Jeffrey to a duel;
returns to Dublin;
inception of the _Irish Melodies_;
_Corruption and Intolerance_;
_The Sceptic_;
writes opera _M.P. or The Blue Stocking_;
marriage;
retires to the country;
commences _Lalla Rookh_;
_Intercepted Letters_;
_Sacred Songs_;
his reputation at its height;
contributes to the _Edinburgh Review_;
_Lalla Rookh_;
retires to Sloperton;
_The Fudge Family in Paris_;
financial troubles;
birth of a son;
begins the _Life of Sheridan_;
leaves England to escape imprisonment for debt;
declines offers of assistance from his friends;
life on the Continent;
visit to Byron;
lionised abroad;
end of his financial embarrassments;
_Loves of the Angels_;
returns to England;
_Odes on Cash, Catholics, and other matters_;
_The Fudges in England_;
_Fables for the Holy Alliance_;
_Rhymes on the Road_;
makes a tour through Ireland;
_History of Captain Rock and his Ancestors_;
difficulties with regard to Byron's Memoirs;
_Life of Sheridan_;
contributes to _The Times_;
death of his father;
story of his quarrel with Byron;
his friendship with Byron;
_Life of Lord Edward Fitzgerald_;
_Travels of an Irish Gentleman in search of a Religion_;
_History of Ireland_;
end of his literary career;
visit to Sir Walter Scott;
honoured in Ireland;
invited to enter Parliament;
receives a pension of £300 a year;
domestic troubles;
culmination of his sorrows;
illness and death; general appreciation;
Reputation on the Continent;
popularity;
causes of his popularity;
his own estimate of his work;
his wide reading;
literary models;
a careful craftsman;
characteristics of his verse;
his failures;
licentiousness of his poetry;
methods of composition;
limitations and defects of his poetry;
essentially an amatory poet;
his satiric verses;
his lyrics;
ease and variety of his rhythms;
source of his rhythms;
his finest lyrics;
an artist in metre;
comparison with other poets;
supremacy in the writing of lighter lyrics;
uses of rhyme;
his poetry understood by all;
connection with Irish literature;
musical gifts;
politics;
religious views;
devotion to his parents and home;
personal appearance;
charm of manner;
friendships;
his acting;
financial affairs;
independence and high-mindedness;
love for Ireland;
a ladies' man;
intimacy with persons of title.
_Moore, Memoirs of_ (Lord John Russell).
-----, John (father).
-----, Mrs. (mother).
-----, Katherine (sister).
-----, Ellen (sister).
-----, Mrs., Bessy, _née_ Dyke (wife).
Moore, Barbara (daughter).
-----, Olivia (daughter).
-----, Anastasia (daughter).
-----, Thomas (son).
-----, Russell (son).
_Morning Chronicle, The_.
Morpeth, Lord.
_M.P. or The Blue Stocking_.
Murray (publisher).
N
Napier, Sir William.
Napoleon.
_National Airs_ (of Ireland).
O
"O breathe not his name" (quotation).
O'Connell.
_Odes on Cash, Catholics, and other matters_.
"Oh, Where's the slave so lowly" (quotation).
P
Panizzi.
_Paradise and the Peri_.
Parr, Dr.
Peel, Sir Robert.
Pope.
_Postbag, The_,.
Powers (music publishers).
Praed.
Prior.
Protestantism.
Prout, Father.
R
Raftery.
"Rebellion! foul, dishonouring word" (quotation).
Reform Bill.
_Reuben and Rose_.
_Rhymes on the Road_.
_Ring, The_.
_Rock, Captain, History of_.
Rogers, Samuel.
_Rokeby_ (Scott).
Romilly, Sir Samuel.
Ronsard.
Russell, Lord John.
S
_Sacred Songs_.
"Sad one of Sion" (quotation).
_Sceptic, The_.
Scott.
Shakespeare.
Shelley.
"She is far from the land" (quotation).
Sheridan.
_Sheridan, Life of_.
"Sheridan, Death of" (quotation).
Sloperton.
Smith, Sydney.
Southey.
Staël, Madame de.
Stevenson, Sir John.
"Sweet was the hour" (quotation).
Swinburne.
T
Tandy, Napper.
Tavistock, Lord.
Tennyson.
"Time I've lost in wooing, The" (quotation).
_Times, The_.
_Tom Crib's Memorial to Congress_.
_Travels of an Irish Gentleman in search of a Religion_.
Trinity College, Dublin.
Troy, Archbishop.
"'Twas thus by the shade" (quotation).
"'Twas when the world was in its prime" (quotation).
U
Union, Repeal of.
V
_Veiled Prophet, The_.
W
Wellesley, Lord.
Wellington, Duke of.
"When first I met thee" (quotation).
"When he who adores thee" (quotation).
Whyte, Samuel.
"Woodpecker, The,".
Wordsworth.
Y
Yeats.
"Young May moon is beaming, love, The," (quotation).