deliberately cut two such extreme radicals, and induced his noble friend to do likewise. How could a prudent man who had given hostages to fortune, which Moore by this time had, in a wife and children, act otherwise?

66

Again,

turn of expression. And the gay, witty melodies -"Wreath the Bowl," "Fill the Bumpers Fair," and many others, not even excepting the brilliant song of Through Erin's Isle". -are theirs the wit and humor-the Irish wit and humor which Moore had long cherished a hope of allying his the graphic pens of Edgeworth and others have poetry with the expressive music of Ireland; of made familiar to us, and of which such ballads as giving appropriate vocal utterance to the strains" Rory O'More" give a faithful reflex, though a which had broken fitfully from out the tumults pale and faint one? It is just as much English, and tramplings of centuries of unblest rule. A French, Italian wit and humor as Irish. noble task! in which even partial success demands great powers and deserves high praise. The execution of the long-meditated design now commenced; and the Melodies," as they appeared, obtained immense and well-deserved popularity. It is upon these his fame as a poet will mainly rest; and no one can deny that, as a whole, they exhibit great felicity of expression, and much graceful tenderness of thought and feeling, frequently relieved by flashes of gay and genial wit and humor. No one could be more keenly aware, or could more gracefully acknowledge, than Moore, the great help to a poet's present reputation of connecting his verse with national or local associations. He instances in proof of its value the popularity in Bermuda of a song comparatively valueless in itself-a popularity owing to its association with a wellknown tree growing near Walsingham in that group of islets

'T was there in the shade of a calabash tree,

what distinctive Irish character, or what distinctive
national sentiment is enshrined in the great mass
of the more tender and graceful melodies" Flow
on, thou Shining River!” “ Fly not Yet," "The
Young May Moon," "Go where Glory waits
Thee,' or "Love's Young Dream"? Take, for
instance, the concluding verse of the last song,
where a hackneyed thought-common to all coun-
tries-by the aid of the beautiful Irish air sinks
with such a dying fall upon the ear-

Oh, that hallowed form is ne'er forgot,
Which first love traced;

It fondly haunts the greenest spot,
On memory's waste:

"T is odor fled, as soon as shed

Tis morning's wingéd dream— ·
'Tis a light that ne'er shall shine again

On life's dull stream!

The melody of these lines glides into the heart and sparkles in the brain of young and old-harWith a few who could feel and remember like me, &c. monizing with the fresh romance of youth, and reMr. Dudley Costello brought him home a goblet, the calling to the aged the far-off music of their prime; inscription on which states that it was formed of but surely the sentiment the verses embody is cosone of the fruit-shells of the tree which he had mopolitan, not Irish, chiefly or especially. Moore, rendered famous, and which now bears his name. whether for good or evil, has, temporarily at least, But it must be confessed that this kind of appre- divorced Irish music-at all events, in the great ciative association, however gratifying to an author's majority of instances-from Irish sentiment; and vanity, or decisive of present success, is but a frail, the national airs, as illustrated and rendered vocal by unpromising plank to float down to posterity upon. him, will recall to the exile and wayfarer not memIf the poetry of a song is only remembered because ories of Ireland, but of the home where the brother it recalls local incidents, or objects, or memories, or the lover first heard a sister or a mistress sing its power must be a very confined and fleeting one. them-be that home in the Green Isle, in Scotland, The man who had sung or heard Moore's song England, or wherever else the English race dwell under the calabash tree, if a sojourner in distant and the English song is cultivated. In his warlands, would dwell upon its words and air with melodies Moore fails, not from coldness of national pleasure for no other reason than because he had partisanship, but from want of power. Compare so sung or heard them; but not so his son-not so the best of them with the “ Battle-Song" of Burns, his descendants: it must for them have a distinct and the difference between the two men in high self-existent beauty of its own, or it will pass from poetic faculty will be at once apparent. The their lips and language. If, therefore, Moore's Minstrel Boy," and "Let Erin Remember the songs are, as we are frequently told, to perpetuate Days of Old," would find appropriate expression the music and poetry and romance of Ireland in from a lady's voice and a pianoforte accompaniBurns' distant climes, it must be for some other reason ment. War Ode" would most fitly rethan because they were once heard on the banks of sound from the lips of valiant men in the very the Shannon, or that they allude incidentally to shock and grasp of battle, accompanied by the flash Irish events, or bear Irish names. It is not from of swords and the roar of cannon. individual local association that the song of the Moore is not the poet of strong emotions. Yet "Captives of Israel" awakens a tide of gush- is there genuine pathos in many of his beautiful ing emotions in the Jewish soul. The song em- songs; but it is pathos of the gentler kind, such bodies an enduring national sentiment, expresses as a cambric handkerchief wipes away, to leave and enshrines a national lamentation and a national hope, in strains exclusively of Israel. Do Moore's graceful, and tender, and witty melodies do this? How many of them are Irish songs in the sense in which those of Béranger are French-those of Burns Scotch-idiomatic, national, racy of the soil? There are not very many of them that even allude to Irish topics, and those that do-" Oh! breathe not his Name!" "The Harp that once through Tara's Halls," and a dozen others-are essentially English songs-always excepting the air, to the magical beauty of which English music has no pretence-English in their mode of thought and

the eyes of the fair songstress only the more ra-
diant for such sweet tears, and revealing an expres-
sion, or rather realizing one of the most charming
similes Moore himself has ever penned-

Her floating eyes! Oh, they resemble
Blue water-lilies, when the breeze

Is making the waves round them tremble!

It must not, however, be forgotten, in estimating the value of Moore's ballads, that before his time fashionable English songs were, almost without exception, as far as words went, mere rubbish. He effected a valuable reform in this department

of poetry and verse, and hosts of imitators main- | knowledge, that a great Eastern traveller, after tain the improvement so well that it is sometimes reading "Lalla Rookh," and being assured that difficult to distinguish between the productions of the poet had never visited the scenes in which he the master and those of some of his self-constituted placed his stories remarked that, if it were so, a pupils and followers. His wit, however, cannot be man might learn as much of those countries by so easily imitated; and there is certainly a wide reading books as by riding on the back of a camel! difference between the classical and polished fan- This, however, was but a part of the requisite cies of Moore and the tinsel conceits of the mass preparation. "I am," says Mr. Moore," a slow, of our latent song-writers. painstaking workman, and at once very imaginative and very matter-of-fact;" and he goes on to say that the slightest exterior interruption or contradiction to the imaginary state of things he was endeavoring to conjure up in his brain threw all his ideas into confusion and disarray. It was necessary, therefore, to surround himself in some way or other with an Eastern atmosphere. How this could be managed in the face of the snows of three Derbyshire winters, during which the four stories which compose "Lalla Rookh" were written, it is difficult to conceive, and perhaps to the fact that it could not be effectually done, must be ascribed the ill-success which beset the poet during an entire twelvemonth. Vainly did he string together peris and bulbuls, and sunny apples of Totkahar; the inspiration would not come. all" Double, double, toil and trouble," to no purpose. Each story, however trippingly it began, soon flagged, drooped, and, less fortunate than that of

66

In 1812 Moore determined on writing an Eastern tale in verse; and his friend Mr. Perry of the "Chronicle" accompanied him to Messrs. Longman, the publishers, to arrange for the sale of a work of which the proposed author had not yet written a line nor even settled the subject. Mr. Perry appears to have been an invaluable intermediary. He proposed at once, as the basis of the negotiation, that Moore should have the largest sum ever given for such a work. That," observed the Messrs. Longman, "was three thousand guineas." And three thousand guineas it was ultimately covenanted the price should be, thanks to Moore's reputation, and the business abilities of his friend Perry. It was further agreed that the manuscript should be furnished at whatever time might best suit the author's convenience, and that Messrs. Longman should accept it for better for worse, and have no power or right to suggest alterations or changes of any kind. The bargain was altogether a safe one on Moore's side, and luckily it turned out equally profitable for the publishers.

In order to obtain the necessary leisure and quiet for the composition of such a work, Moore resolved to retire from the gayeties of Holland and Lansdowne Houses, and other mansions of his distinguished patrons and friends, to the seclusion and tranquillity of the country. He made choice of Mayfield Cottage, near Ashbourne, in Derbyshire, and not far distant from Donnington Park, Lord Moira's country seat, where an excellent library was at his service. It may be as well to mention that when this early and influential friend of Moore went out to India as governor-general, he apologized for not being able to present his poetical protégé with anything worth his acceptance in that country. 66 But," said Lord Moira (Marquis of Hastings), "I can perhaps barter a piece of Indian patronage against something at home that might suit you." This offer, which would have gravely compromised Moore with his whig friends, he with some asperity declined. The governorgeneral went to India, and Moore retired to Derbyshire, remaining, with the exception of his Bermudan registrarship, placeless. This offer and refusal Moore communicated by letter to Leigh Hunt.

lit

-The bear and fiddle,

Begun and broke off in the middle,

It was

expired of collapse after a brief career of a few score lines only, frequently nothing like so many. Some of these fragments have since been published. One of them, "The Peri's Daughter," ran to some length, and is rather pretty and sparkling.

We subjoin a brief specimen. A peri had married the "rightful Prince of Ormuz," and must be supposed to have left this heir-apparent de jure to the crown of Ormuz, as after a time she comes floating back to her husband's bower with a charming present in her care :

Within the boat a baby slept,

Like a young pearl within its shell,
While one who seemed of riper years,
But not of earth or earth-like spheres,
Her watch beside the slumberer kept ;
Gracefully waving in her hand
The feathers of some holy bird,
With which from time to time she stirred
The fragrant air, and coolly fanned
The baby's brow, or brushed away
The butterflies that bright and blue
As on the mountains of Malay
Around the sleeping infant flew.
And now the fairy boat hath stopped
Beside the bank-the nymph has dropped
Her golden anchor in the stream.

Here concluded both the peri's voyage and the
"Peri's Daughter," both muse and boat coming
alike to a dead stop; and Mr. Moore, finding the

Mayfield Cottage, when the poet and his wife arrived to view it, wore anything but an inviting aspect. "It was a poor place," Moore wrote, ile better than a barn; but we at once took it, and set about making it habitable and comfortable." He now commenced the formidable task of work ing himself up into a proper Oriental state of mind" Peri's Daughter "-spite of his most desperate for the accomplishment of his work. The first part of this process consisted in reading every work of authority that treated of the topography, climate, zoology, ornithology, entomology, floriculture, horticulture, agriculture, manners, customs, religion, ceremonies, and languages of the East. Asiatic registers, D'Herbelot, Jones, Tavernier, Flemming, and a host of other writers, were industriously consulted; and so perfect did Mr. Moore become in these various branches of

efforts to get on-immovably aground, abandoned the lady, the child, the ferry-boat, and the golden anchor, notwithstanding the rightful prince was, and is to this day, anxiously but vainly expecting his peri-wife and semi-peri child.

This uninspiring state of things seemed interminable-the three thousand guineas were as far off as ever; and apprehension of the necessity of a bodily journey to the East, in order to get at the genuine" atmosphere," must have suggested itself,

when a gleam of light, in the idea of the "Fire- | peculiar modes of thought, impulse, action. If to Worshippers," broke in upon the poet; the multi-dress people in Eastern clothes, and to take care farious collection of eastern materials deposited in that neither they in their speech, nor the author in the chambers of his brain arranged themselves in his descriptions, miscall anything, nor make any flowing numbers, without encountering any further considerable blunder in the conventional language accident; and, at the end of three years, "Lalla of ceremony, be to write an Eastern tale, then are Rookh" was ushered before an admiring world. Racine's Frenchmen, with classical tropes and Its success was immense, and the work ran rapidly figures in their mouths, and tunics and togas on through many editions. "Paradise and the Peri," their backs-Pyrrhus, Orestes, Britannicus-true the second story, although not so much praised as Greeks and Romans, and Shakspeare's Coriolanus, the first and third, is, we fancy, much the most Brutus, Antony, who talk very little mythology, read of the four; and from its light, ringing tone, and utter not a few anachronisms, are not true its delicate and tender sentiment, its graceful and types-real living incarnations of the Roman charmusical flow, will always be a principal favorite acter and spirit. Neither is Juliet-in whose with the admirers of Thomas Moore's poetry. glowing, impassioned speech we hear nothing Amongst the numerous testimonials to the merits about myrtles, or sunny skies, or madonnas—a true of "Lalla Rookh" there is one, pridefully recorded Italian woman! Surely that which stamps men by the author, that must have compensated him and women, Greeks, Italians, Turks, is the chara thousand-fold for the coarse remark of Hazlitt, acter which religion, manners, usages, climate, inthat Moore ought not to have published "Lalla stitutions, impress upon their minds, giving to each Rookh" even for three thousand guineas. Its separate, well-defined nationality its peculiar ideas, chief incidents were represented by tableaux vivans expression, action! Judged by this test, where is at the Chateau-Royal, Berlin, in 1822, by, amongst the Orientalism of these tales? The actors in others, the imperial and royal personages whose them, so far as they have any individuality, are all names appear in the following extract from a Europeans-chiefly English and Irish. Hafed printed French programme of the entertainments: talks lofty patriotism, just as Captain Rock would Fadladin, Grand Nasir, Comte Haach, Maréchale had he the faculty of verse-Al Hassan is the de Cour. Aliris, Roi de Bucharie, S. A. I. Le Grand stereotyped European tyrant. The love of Azib Duc Nicholas de Russie. Lalla Roûkh, S. A. I. La has not a tint of Orientalism about it; and Zelica, Grande Duchesse. Arungzebed, le Grand Mogul, an enthusiastic young lady, cruelly deceived by a S. A. R. Le Prince Guillaume (Frère du Roi.) Ab-monster-not an uncommon result, we grieve to say dallah, Père d'Aliris, S. A. R. Le Duc de Cumberland. La Reine, son épouse, S. A. R. La Princesse Louise de Radzivil.

here, although not often attended by such extremely fatal results as in her case-has, much to her credit, notions of purity and marriage entirely in Some portions of the scenery were magnificent, accordance with those of the thousands of fair especially the gate of Eden, with its crystal bar, readers who have wept through the twenty editions and occasional glimpses of splendor jetting through of her griefs. The Peri! Well, perhaps we and falling upon the repentant Peri. At the close must let the East have the Peri, although even she of the entertainments, Son Altesse Impériale la looks at times remarkably like a young and gentle Grande Duchesse, and now Empress of all the Irish Sister of Mercy. As for Fadladeen, he is a Russias, made, it is said, the following speech :- very "old courtier of the Queen's," and Mokanna "Is it then all over? Are we now at the close of dates as far back as the invention of minor theatres all that has given us so much delight? And lives and blue flame. No-no; "Lalla Rookh" there no poet who will impart to others and to sparkles with pretty fancies we admit, and contains future times some notion of the happiness we have passages of considerable beauty, but Oriental, in enjoyed this evening?" In answer to this irresist- the meaning which ought to attach to the word, ible appeal one of the actors, the poetical Baron the work is not. Nor do we hold that the poetic de la Motte Fouqué stepped gallantly forward, and fame of the writer of the "Melodies" will be at vowed that he would give the poem to the world in all enhanced by it as a whole, although Paradise a German dress. On hearing which the Empress and the Peri will perhaps always be attractive for Lalla Rookh "graciously smiled." This story, we innocent and gentle natures. It is in the more beg to observe, rests for its authority on the pref- impassioned portions of this series of poems that ace to Monsieur Le Baron de la Motte Fouqué's Moore chiefly fails. The light wings of his lyric translation, and whether, consequently, the speech muse are not fitted for either lofty or lengthened of the Grand Duchess is a veritable imperial flights. A brief, gay theme, a lively or tender speech or a trade puff, we cannot take upon our- sentiment breathed through a song-these are selves, from internal evidence alone, to determine. Moore's triumphs, and in this varied, if confined, It has already been remarked that the local de-range of composition, he has no superior, perhaps, scriptions in "Lalla Rookh" have been pronounced taken altogether, no equal; but of highly imagina by excellent authority to be surprisingly accurate. tive or sustained poetry he is hopelessly incapable; The trees and the birds are all called by their and when he does attempt to scale the lofty heights proper names, the right sort of perfumes are used, of human passion, the descent is lamentable. It eyelids and finger-nails are stained of the correct were easy to give proofs of this from the tragic color, Eastern ceremonial is truly described, and portions of "Lalla Rookh," but the task is an unmen in these tales wear turbans and swear by gracious one, and 'we decline it. Still one may Allah, with many other accuracies of the same hold this opinion of the comparative inferiority of kind. All this is said to constitute their beauty these poems without subscribing to Hazlitt's and excellence as Oriental romances. With all remark-that Moore ought not, for his fame's sake, proper deference to the critical authority which to have written them for three thousand 'guineas. thus pronounces, we beg to demur to such a dictum. The mechanical and elaborate accuracy so much extolled relates only to the dress, the externals of Eastern society, and does not touch its life, its

Whatever is vital in his writings will survive, spite of the earthy matter with which it may be for a time associated and partially confounded. It is difficult besides to pronounce dogmatically upon

what a man who has his bread to earn should not do for three thousand guineas, if it may be done without moral offence. Mr. Hazlitt could not be entitled to pronounce such judgment until after he had himself been similarly tempted and had not fallen.

6

would not give a sixpence for it.' 'What is it?' I asked. My life and adventures,' he answered. On hearing this I raised my hands in a gesture. 'It is not a thing that can be published during my life, but you may have it if you like; then do whatsoever you please with it.' In taking the bag and An odd anecdote illustrative of Moore's increas- thanking him most warmly, I added: This will ing and widely-spread fame may here be given. He make a nice legacy for my little Tom, who shall was surprised one day at receiving from Sweden astonish the latter end of the nineteenth century an offer to be elected a knight of the ancient Order with it.' He then added: You may show it to of St. Joachim. This distinction, it was an- any of your friends you think worthy of it.' This nounced in the missive, which purported to come is as nearly as I can recollect all that passed." from the chancellor of the order, was tendered as a These memoirs Moore sold to Mr. Murray for two mark of the admiration entertained by the honora- thousand guineas, but at Lord Byron's death, his ble fraternity for his very charming poetry. Moore executors and family induced Moore to repay Mr. was puzzled-mystified. He had never before Murray, and destroy the manuscript. The precise heard of the Order of St. Joachim, and vehemently reasons which decided Moore to yield to the solici suspected some kind friend of seeking to play him tations of the deceased lord's friends and family are a malicious trick. St. Joachim! Might it not not known, but there can be little doubt that they turn out to be St. Jok'em? He, however, stealth- were urgent, and in a moral sense irresistible. A ily inquired amongst persons versed in knightly man does not usually throw away two thousand orders, and was informed that there really was a guineas for a caprice, even of his own, much less Swedish knighthood of the name mentioned, and for that of others. It is not likely that the world that several presentable persons had belonged to it. has lost much by the destruction of these memoirs. Still, after due deliberation, he resolved to decline Lord Byron's life is sufficiently written in his pubthe generously-proffered honor. It was too haz-lished works for all purposes save that of the gratardous. Sir Jok'em Moore ! He was a man to ification of a morbid curiosity and vulgar appetite face the battery of a three-decker cheerfully rather for scandal. than risk the possibility of such a sobriquet as that! During the journey to and from Italy, Moore The bow so long bent required relaxation, and in sketched the " Rhymes on the Road," which were the first flush of his great success, while his ears soon afterwards published. There is nothing rewere still ringing with the applauses, and his nos-markable about them except his abuse of Rousseau trils still titillating with the incense which the and Madame Warens, à propos of a visit to Les press showered upon "Lalla Rookh," pronounced Charmettes. Moore was violently assailed for this by general consent-" when they do agree, their by writers, who held that as he had himself transunanimity is wonderful"-to be unrivalled as a lated Anacreon, and written juvenile songs of an work of melody, beauty, and power, Moore set out immoral tendency, he was thereby incapacitated on a continental tour with his friend and brother- from fy, fying naughty people in his maturer and poet Rogers. On his return to England he pub- better years. This seems hardly a reasonable maxlished the "6 Fudge Family "-not a very brilliant im, and would, if strictly interpreted and enforced, performance, and which, with the exception of its silence much grave and learned eloquence, oral as political hits, is but an imitation of "Les Anglai- well as written. His denunciations of the eccensis Pour Rire." He also worked at the "Melo-tric and fanciful author of the "Confessions," dies," and wrote articles for the "Edinburgh Review." In 1818 one of the most pleasing incidents in his life occurred. A public dinner was given in his honor at Dublin, the Earl of Charlemont in the chair-the poet's venerable father, Garret Moore, being present on the chairman's right hand, the honored and delighted witness of the enthusiastic welcome bestowed upon his son by his warmhearted fellow-countrymen. Moore made a graceful, cleverly-turned speech; but he was no orator; few literary men are. He could not think upon his legs; and you could see by the abstraction of But it is scarcely worth while continuing the his look that he was not speaking in the popular quotation. The man in Goldsmith's play had sense, but reciting what had previously been carefully composed and committed to memory. Such speeches frequently read well, but, if long, they are terrible things to sit and hear.

The following year Moore accompanied Lord John Russell on a continental tour, taking the road of the Simplon to Italy. Lord John went on to Genoa, and Moore directed his steps toward Venice, for the purpose of seeing Byron. It was during this visit that the noble lord made Moore a present of his personal memoirs, for publication after the writer's death. Moore gives the following account of the transaction:-" We were conversing together when Byron rose and went out. In a minute or two he returned carrying a white leathern bag. · Look here!' he said, holding it up, this would be worth something to Murray, though you, I dare say,

which twenty years before he would probably have
called the enunciations of "Virtue with her zone
loosened," were certainly violent and unmeasured,
not perhaps in the very best taste. The following
little bit is genuine Moore :-

And doubtless 'mong the grave and good,
And gentle of their neighborhood,

If known at all, they were but known
As strange, low people-low and bad.
Madame herself-

nothing like the intense horror of anything low
which Moore had, and this with him, if a weak-
ness, was also a safeguard. The pity and indigna-
tion with which, now in his fortieth year of dis-
cretion, he looked upon literary talent if applied to
other than pure and holy purposes, he traces in
quite fiery lines-

Out on the craft! I'd rather be
One of those hinds that round me tread,
With just enough of sense to see
The noonday sun that 's o'er my head,
Than thus with high-trust genius curst,
That hath no heart for its foundation,
Be all at once that 's brightest, worst,
Sublimest, meanest, in creation.

Poor Jean Jacques had little of the "sublime" to
boast of, and we bave met in our time with much

meaner people than the half-mad pauper, as Mr. | made a reputation." "Ecod!" exclaimed the Moore pleasantly terms him. baronet, "we were very lucky to come before these fellows!"