ANCIENT IRISH POETRY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1108, 22 April 1911, Page 9

ANCIENT IRISH POETRY.

. Tho nearest parallels to "Beowulf" in ancient Irish arc the romances of the heroic age, itself, as Mr. Ridgeway argues, to be dated as far back as 100 B.C. to 100 a.d. In their descriptions of the heroic mode of life, especially in the use of ehniiutry in war, these prose romances, with recurrent passages of verse, are perhaps even more akin to Homer than "Btowull" is, and there am tragic passages, as when Cuchulainn is constrained ia light his Patreclus, his bosom friend, more 'dramatic than anything in "Beowulf."" But the Irish romances are spoiled by tho insistent passion for exaggeration lor mere bigness, which is carried to an infantile extent and does its bt-st to destroy the human interest. Why this is so, whether quite late professional reciters of the decadence introduced this manner, or whether early Irish poetry was always infected by a taste lor the absurdly and incredibly big (as in Indian epic and stories one cannot determine. The results are unfortunate, tor while modern taste can make allowance for the exaggeration that deforms some ; passages in "Beowulf" and even some few parts of- the Iliad, tho vice is in the Irish epical romances omnipresent. Mr. iiuiio Meyer ("selection from. Ancient Irish Poetry") translates nothing from the epical romances. He gives versions of lyrics originally couipostd between the sixth and eight centuries a.d., tho p.iimy days of an island "famous for us verduro and it-3 wrongs." After harrying England in company with the Picts, the Irish wero more or less quieted for a whilo by Christianity and the great monastic settlements, in which men had a glimpse of peace, and could attend to learning and tho Muses: Tho religious did not, of course, cease to fight like fiends, and the war of St. Columba, over a question of copyright, made Ireland so much too hot for him that he sailed to lona and evangelised the Picts.' Thus Ireland was not precisely what Dr. Johnson called • "the quiet habitation of sanctity and literature," but, compared with the rest of Europe, it was relatively peaceful and quite prodigiously, learned. At this time tho old oral literature was written down in the monasteries, says Mr. Meyer, but unhappily', the Vikings intervened, Beowulf's kinsmen, and destroyed almost all the manuscripts. Tho Viking terror wa6 like the Dorian invasion of Achaean- Greece, and literature could flee to no colonies liko thoso of the iEolians : and'--. lonians. Mr. Meyer thinks, and ho- ought to know, that tho ancient Irish "did not employ poetry for epical narrative"; they only put lyrics (some of which Mr. Meyer translates) into tho mouths of tho heroes. One docs not feel quito certain that no epic poetry existed. At all events, if it did it has perished. Mr. Meyer thinks that in poetry about Nature the Gaelic Muse may vie with any. Indeed, the Irish pcetry of Nature is rich and beautiful, liko that of tho Finns. But- in "Tho Isles of the Happy" it is not very coherent. The beauty of the wondrous land is too correctly stated to be Incomparable in its haze. That is of the essence of old Irish lyrics, tho. world is seen in a golden, magical mist. Speckled salmon leap from tho womb is a lino which displays a magnificent impatience of natural facts. "The Tryst After Death" is. on the lines of Scott's ballad "Tho Eve of St. John," but tho ghost of tho slain lover monolo.y.uises all throughout, tho lady "cannot get in a word edgewise." The

; "ghost' says concerning the casket which | i contains his chessmen: "Memory describes it as one of Turvey's masterworks." Hero tho Celtic Muse displays a strange alacrity in sinking. [ "The Hosts of Faery" aro "Melodious ' in the ale-house." Perhaps something ; of the Celtic glamour evaporates in 5 translation.—Andrew Lang, in the ' "Morning Post,"