been extensively sung, are now printed for the first time; and all the songs in the present volume will be found, not mere English imitations of Irish peculiarities, as in most former collections, but the real productions of Ireland: not whimsical caricatures, but genuine specimens of national feelings, prejudices, poetry, and humour. An attempt has also been made to assign to these fugitive lyrics their proper parentage; and slight biographical notices of Dr. Brenan, Mr. Callanan, Mr. W. P. Carey, Mr. Andrew Cherry, Mr. Lysaght, Mr. Millikin, the Right Hon. George Ogle, Mr. Patrick O'Kelly, and other writers of popular songs, occur in the introductions prefixed. In these introductions, my view is to explain distinctly to the English reader various circumstances of local and temporary interest, evidences of originality that cannot be doubted. The features I have mentioned, give the present collection of Irish popular songs a distinct character from any hitherto published. With regard to the principles which have guided me in the selection, I may state that my object was to steer a middle course between the lower class of vulgar ballad and the exquisite compositions of Moore and Lover. The former gentleman, indeed, has been thus humorously assailed for the want of Irish feeling and character which has been charged against his national work:-" It has often struck me with astonishment, that the people of Ireland should have so tamely submitted to Mr. Thomas Moore's audacity in prefixing the title of Irish to his 'Melodies.' That the tunes are Irish, I admit; but as for the songs, they in general have as much to do with Ireland, as with Nova Scotia. What an Irish affair, for example, ' Go where Glory waits thee!' &c. Might not it have been sung by a cheesemonger's daughter of High Holborn, when her master's apprentice was going, in a fit of valour, to list himself in the Third Buffs, or by any other amatory person, as well as a Hibernian Virgin? And if so, where is the Irishism of the thing at all? Again, 'When in death I shall calm recline, O bear my heart to my mistress dear; Tell her it lived upon fiddlesticks! pretty food for an Irishman's heart for the ladies.' Not a man of us, from Carnsore Point to Bloody Foreland, would give a penny a pound for smiles; and as for wine, in the name of Decency is that a Milesian beverage? Far from it, indeed; it is not to be imagined that I should give five or six shillings for a bottle of grape-juice, which would not be within five quarts of relieving me from the horrors of sobriety; when, for the self-same sum, I could stow under my belt a full gallon of Roscrea, drink beyond comparison superior. The idea is, in fact, absurd; but there would be no end were I to point out all the un-Irish points of Moore's poetry. Allusions to our localities, it is true, we sometimes meet with, as thinly scattered as plums in the holyday puddings of a Yorkshire boarding-school, and scattered for the same reason-just to save appearances, and give a title to the assumed name. There's The Vale of Avoca,' for instance, a song upon a valley in Wicklow, but which would suit any other valley in the world, provided always it had three syllables, and the middle one of due length." But, to return to my own collection. I have, in the first instance, taken as a fit subject for the inspiration of the National Muse, St. Patrick, the guardian Saint of Ireland. From him I have proceeded to the national emblem, the Shamrock; then to an Irishman's food, the potato; subsequently to his drinkwhisky; and, finally, to his favourite plaything -"a sprig of Shillelah." These matters are followed by a collection of local songs, in my choice of which various considerations have guided me. First, I deemed it very desirable to exhibit as rarities, and also to prove how much historical matter respecting Ireland lies buried in the libraries of England, three specimens of ancient local song. I have therefore given a very remarkable ballad on the entrenchment of New Ross, which was unquestionably composed so early as the year 1265, and to the cheerful sound of which the walls of that town arose, nearly six hundred years ago. The other two ballads are connected with the history of the city of Waterford, and were composed in the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII.; the former of these examples of" rhyme royall" is now for the first time printed. And here I cannot refrain from expressing my deep and heart-felt regret that the translation of the ballad respecting New Ross, which was made by the late Mrs. George Maclean-the lamented L. E. L. -should be a posthumous publication. My next object was to introduce some examples of the convivial songs of the middle of the last century; such as "The Kilruddery Hunt," "The County of Limerick Buck-hunt," "The Praises of Limerick," "Garryowen," and "The Rakes of Mallow." Thirdly, to contrast with them the pastoral style, which became fashionable about the close of the last century, and is fairly represented by "Shannon's Flowery Banks," and Ogle's "Banna's Banks," and "Hermit of Killarney." Fourthly, to treat of the Anglo-Irish burlesque a style which, in a national point of view, may be referred to as eminently characteristic, and which the passage copied at page 143, from Stanihurst, shews to be at least as old as the time of Elizabeth. It appears to have been revived by Millikin's far-famed Groves of Blarney," the imitation of which, in "O Blarney Castle, my Darling!" "The Town of Passage," and other songs, is obvious. In lyrics of this nature it may be remarked, that the sportiveness with which rhymes are strung together sometimes accidentally produces whimsical combinations; such as « 'Tis there is handy Both beer and brandy, With sugar-candy, &c." |