E312 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS DDQD33SESaH , »* A <* 'o . * * Jy ^ci ... . s>^^ ^ • -r^ A*' V AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY IRISH SONG RELATING TO WASHINGTON BY THOMAS O'MEEHAN A C|UcU U>n4iiTi" TU >t:5Ui*tt a*m^po 'puiitfiiiO >n>;yt«0Uc inlK ^^'^ M> \ — — IP' — ] — r "'i' " ■--—-■ • — 1 — i-i"-^*^^ AN EIGHTEENTH -CENTURY IRISH SONG RELATING TO WASHINGTON BY THOMAS O'MEEHAN REPRINTED FROM THE PUBLICATIONS OF €l|e Colonial ^ocittyi of iSl^aUfifacljus^rttfif Vol. XIII CAMBRIDGE JOHN WILSON AND SON 191 1 .Oi-5' S. "2- ^ ' f '2 — AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY IRISH SONG RELATING TO WASHINGTON 254 THE COLONIAL aOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [Feb. FEBRUARY MEETING, 1911 A Stated Meeting of the Society was held at No. 25 -^^ Beacon Street, Boston, on Thursday, 23 February, 1911, at three o'clock in the afternoon, the President, Henhy Lefavour, LL.D., in the chair. The Records of the last Stated Meeting were read and approved. The Corresponding Secretary reported that letters had been received from Mr. Mark Antony DeWolfe Howe and Dr. Charles Pickering Putnam, accepting Resident Membership. Mr. George L. Kittredge exhibited a photograph of a fine portrait of Wasliington in the possession of Professor F. Wulff of Lund, Sweden, thought to have been painted in the eighteenth century by a French artist. It is clearly a copy of the Lansdowne portrait by Stuart. Professor Wulff had the kindness to send a photograph of this portrait for exhibition to the Society .i Mr. Kittredge also exhibited a photograph of a page of an Irish manuscript belonging to the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin ; and spoke as follows : AN IRISH SONG RELATING TO WASHINGTON Dr. Tom Peete Cross of Harvard University recently informed me of the existence of a manuscript in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy containing a short eighteenth-century poem about Washington. At my request, Dr. Cross procured for me a photograph * Dr. Henry Goddaxd Leach of Harvard University called Mr. Kittredge's attention to the portrait and procured the photograph from Professor Wulff. Dr. Leach recognized the photograph as of the Lansdowne type. 1911] AN IRISH SONG RELATING TO WASHINGTON 255 of the page that bears the poem.^ This page is presented in full-size facsimile. For the following transliteration and translation I am indebted to Dr. Cross and Professor F. N. Robinson. The poem is a song by Thomas O'Miodhachain (O'Meehan), lamenting the woes of the Pretender Charles Edward, but foretelling his final triumph and the restoration of Ireland to the Stuart rule. Incidentally, in a highly picturesque stanza, O'Meehan speaks of the news that has just reached him that Washington has discomfited Howe. The reference must be to the Evacuation of Boston on March 17, 1776. This fixes the date of the song. The manuscript is somewhat later, but was written in the eighteenth century. Professor Robinson has furnished me with the subjoined note on Thomas O'Meehan, the author of this song: Very little of O'Meehan's verse seems to have been published. A lamentation, apparently by him, on the death of Mary Baun MacDonnell is printed in Brian O'Looney's edition of the Clare Bards (Dublin, 1863), p. 178, and the editor states that O'Meehan was a schoolmaster of high repute at Ennis, and that he continued to write until 1798. According to the Catalogue of the British Museum, another poem of his is printed as a preliminary address to John Lloyd's Short Tour; or an Impartial Description of the County of Clare, 1780. The facsimile shows the heading and the first two stanzas of another of O'Meehan's songs, but this has nothing to do with America. Transliteration of the Irish Text^ Tomds 6 Miodhachain cecinit. Air Washington's Frohck. Ar an sean fhonn Sir (?) Sud an Fear B[ ] ^ gan Briste. A chraobha comainn na nGaoidhel ccomais do shaoircheap mhuireannach MMedh Ta treathlag tuirseach a pise le bniscar gan r^im fe urchall ciosa Sin sceala * sonais do thearnaigh chugainra a ccein tar dhromaibh na dileanw Go bh-fuil meirligh mustair go deighenach gonta na bheile fiolar is faoileanw. 1 MS. 23. L. 35, p. 128. ^ Contractions are expanded in italics. 3 Read B[reagh]? * Perhaps to be expanded scealaidhe. 256 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [Feb. Is fonn s'is aitheas leam Howe s'na Sagsanaigh tabhartha trascartha choidhche Sa crobhaire Washington cabharthach calma a cceann s'a cceannas a Tigheacht Sin arahais ag screadadh gan chuil gan chathatr gan truip gan barcaibh ar taoide Is fe samhain go dearbhthe buir na Breataine a b-piinc fa thearmain Laoisigh. D'cis an chluithche-si Eire leigfear da eeile dlightheach ceart dileas An ieincdh fuinneamach faobhrach fulangach Searlas soineanrita Stiobhard Biaidh reim ag h\edh s'go saoghal an fhiolair cead feir is uisge ag Gaoidhe- laibh Gach geag ag QWedh le h-eigean duillec^A s'na h-eisg ag lingedh asa lintibh. Go saor am fhochatr le m^in dom fhocalaibh ag dheanadh an ghortha 6 Mhaoidheachan An te gan dochma nach n-gl6asfaigh ^ portaibh go s^idtear gothaibh a pipe Taosgam srutha don daor-phunch torainn is reabam cornaibh crin- bhreach A Thoirdhealbhaigh brostaigh lead Mheidhbh inghin Chrotaigh is claon do chosa chum rincedh. Translation Thomas O'Meehan cecinit. Air, Washington's Frolick, to the old tune of "Seek Yonder the Fine Fellow without Breeches" (?). 1. O branches of the league of the mighty Gaels, of the noble, long- haired stem of Milesius,^ who are exhausted, tired, in their struggle with the rabble, without power, under shackle of tribute! Those are stories of good fortune that have come to us from afar over the ridges of the sea, — that the arrogant robbers are wounded at last, the food of eagles and sea-gulls. 2. It is a source of joy and triumph in my eyes that Howe and the Saxons are taken and overthrown forever, and that the sturdy Wash- ington, helpful and brave, is at the head and command of his realm. The hirelings are screeching, without shelter, without city, without ' Before n-gUasfaigh, n-glaoghfaigh is written and then expunged. ' For the suggestion that miledh is Milesius, the translators are indebted to Professor Douglas Hyde. 1911] AN IRISH SONG RELATING TO WASHINGTON 257 army, without ships on the tide. Verily the boors of Britain before November Day suddenly will be under the bondage of Louis.^ 3. After this exploit, Ireland will be given to her lawful spouse, just, beloved, the vigorous champion, sharp, patient, the innocent Charles Stuart. Coiu'age shall be with the poet, and, for the lifetime of the eagle, per- mission to use grass and water shall belong to the Gael, every branch returning with the power of the leaves [i. e. bursting out into fresh leaf- age], and the fish jumping out of their waters. 4. Freely beside me, with good will to my words, kindling the heat, [sits] O'Meehan, the man without weakness, who will not make ready with tunes till it is blown with the sounds of his pipe. Let us drain rivers of good flowing punch and flourish the ancient drinking-horns. O Turlough, make haste with thy Meave daughter of Crotach,^ and bend thy legs to the dance! The last stanza is not intelligible in all its details. It is in general a summons to festivity. Turlough and Meave (Medb) are either friends of the poet or types of village lovers. The "air" of the song is mentioned, in the heading, as "Wash- ington's Froliek" (in English). Mr. James E. Whitney, Jr., oblig- ingly writes that he knows no tune by that name. "1 suspect," he adds, "that the song was set to an existent tune to which a new title was given, expressive of the subject — a very common practice." ^ This conjecture of Mr. Whitney's is substantiated by the form of the heading, in which an Irish tune is mentioned. Professor Robinson has had the kindness to give me a stanza of another eighteenth-century Irish poem which also celebrates some victory of Washington over the British. It is as follows, both text and translation being from Professor Douglas Hyde's MacTernan Prize Essay on Gaelic Poetry {Filidheacht Ghaedhealach) , Dublin, 1903, pages 13G-137. Do labhair 'na dheigh sin go beusach i nGaoidheilge, A's d'aithris dam sgeala do mheadaigh mo cliroidhe-se. Go rabhadur Bearaibh an Bhearla go claoidhte, Gan armaibh, gan ^adach, gan treadaibh, gan tiorthaibh. 1 That laoisigh is Louis XVI, is Professor Hyde's suggestion. ^ For Chrotaigh perhaps we should read chruthaigh, "shapely." » Letter to Mr. Albert Matthews, March 3, 1911. Cf. p. 259, note 2, below. 17 258 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [Feb. Taid caithte i gcarcair 'n-a ndrongaibh gan treoir, Faoi fhad-tuirsc i nglasaibli ag Washington beo, I mairg, gan gradam, gan caraid, gan Ion, A's iad ag sgreadaigh le h-easbuidh na feola, Do chleachtadh na bathlaigh do chaitheamh gan teora. She spoke thereafter, notably, in Irish and she told me tidings that swelled my heart how the bears of the English-language were over- thrown without arms, without clothing, without flocks, without lands; they were thrown into prison in bands, without patience, beneath weari- ness, in locks (i. e. locked in) by lively Washington, in woe, without fame, without friend, without provisions, and they screeching with the want of meat which the clowns used to be in the habit of eating without limits (i. e. beyond measure). Professor Robinson has also been good enough to write to Pro- fessor Douglas Hyde, the eminent Irish scholar, with reference to Thomas O'Meehan, and Dr. Hyde, with his usual courtesy, has sent a number of important notes on the subject. Dr. Hyde writes that, although the song now printed is new to him, he has seen a number of Thomas O'IMeehan's poems in manu- script. He adds a reference to another published poem by this author. This was addressed to the IMunster poet Tadhg Gaolach O Suilebhain on the occasion of the latter's retirement to religious life. It is printed in Father Dinneen's edition of the poems of Tadhg Gaolach (Gaelic League, Dublin, 1903, pp. 29 ff). In the same letter. Dr. Hyde suggests the identification of Laoi- seach (genitive Laoingh), in the second stanza of the Washington song, with Louis XVI of France, which Professor Robinson regards as certainly correct, and which has been adopted in the translation. Miledh, in the first line of the song, may be the word for " soldiers," but the proper name Milesius (also proposed by Dr. Hyde) seems more likely to be the proper interpretation. , Concerning the persons named in the last stanza, Dr. Hyde says he can give no information. O'Mhaoidheachain, he writes, seems to be a piper, and a different man from the poet (O'lNIiodhachain). Turlough and Meave Dr. Hyde takes to be father and daughter, but he does not find the text completely readable as it stands. He suggests, therefore, the emendation Meidhhh-ingin, which would be a compound signifying "Meave-Iike daughter," or "daughter beau- 1911] AN IRISH SONG RELATING TO WASHINGTON 259 tiful as Meave " (the famous legendary Queen of Connaught, per- haps the original of Queen Mab). He would also change Chrotaigh to chruthaigh, "shapely," an emendation ah-eady suggested as a possibility by Professor Robinson/ but not adopted in the transla- tion. Thus, according to Dr. Hyde's view, the passage would run: "O Turlough, make haste with thy Meave-like, shapely daughter, and bend thy legs to the dance!" Dr. Hyde offers the emendation cruinn-bhreac ("round-speckled") for the epithet crinbhreach applied to the drinking-horns in this stanza. The latter is a dubious word, but, since it may mean "ancient" (Hterally, "withered-speckled"), that translation has been adopted.^ Mr. Albert Matthews remarked that at the close of the Revolution Washington received a congratulatory address from the Yankee Club of Stewartstown, County Tyrone, Ireland. This address has apparently not been preserved, but .Washington'sreply, dated Mount Vernon, 20 January, 1784, was printed by Sparks. Washington wrote in part: It is with unfeigned satisfaction, that I accept your congratulation on the late happy and glorious revolution. ... If, in the course of our successful contest, any good consequences have resulted to the oppressed kingdom of Ireland, it will afford a new source of fehcitation to all who respect the interests of humanity.^ 1 See p. 257 note 2, above. 2 As to the air (the Irish name of which is not wholly legible) Dr. W. H. Grattan Flood, the distinguished authority on Irish music, informs Dr. Hyde that the tune is probably that sometimes entitled Sa Maidin Fear gan Briste ("In the Morning the Man without Breeches" ) and better known as Nora an Chuil Omra ("Nora of the Amber Hair"). The music, Dr. Flood adds, was- printed as ' The Poor Thresher" in 1790, and a different version, entitled Bean Dubh an Ghleanna ("The Dark Woman of the Glen") is in O'Daly's Poets and Poetry of Munster (see the third edition, Dublin, 1850, p. 184). 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