登陆注册
5220900000002

第2章 Volume 1(2)

Or shall I aspire on To tune my poetic lyre on The same key touched by Byron,And laying my hand its wire on,With its music your soul set fire on By themes you ne'er could tire on?

Or say,I pray,Would a lay Like Gay Be more in your way?

I leave it to you,Which am I to do?

It plain on the surface is That any metamorphosis,To affect your study You may work on my soul or body.

Your frown or your smile makes me Savage or Gay In action,as well as in song;And if 'tis decreed I at length become Gray,Express but the word and I'm Young;And if in the Church I should ever aspire With friars and abbots to cope,By a nod,if you please,you can make me a Prior--By a word you render me Pope.

If you'd eat,I'm a Crab;if you'd cut,I'm your Steel,As sharp as you'd get from the cutler;I'm your Cotton whene'er you're in want of a reel,And your livery carry,as Butler.

I'll ever rest your debtor If you'll answer my first letter;Or must,alas,eternity Witness your taciturnity?

Speak--and oh!speak quickly Or else I shall grow sickly,And pine,And whine,And grow yellow and brown As e'er was mahogany,And lie me down And die in agony.

P.S.--You'll allow I have the gift To write like the immortal Swift.'

But besides the poetical powers with which he was endowed,in common with the great Brinsley,Lady Dufferin,and the Hon.Mrs.Norton,young Sheridan Le Fanu also possessed an irresistible humour and oratorical gift that,as a student of Old Trinity,made him a formidable rival of the best of the young debaters of his time at the 'College Historical,'not a few of whom have since reached the highest eminence at the Irish Bar,after having long enlivened and charmed St.Stephen's by their wit and oratory.

Amongst his compeers he was remarkable for his sudden fiery eloquence of attack,and ready and rapid powers of repartee when on his defence.But Le Fanu,whose understanding was elevated by a deep love of the classics,in which he took university honours,and further heightened by an admirable knowledge of our own great authors,was not to be tempted away by oratory from literature,his first and,as it proved,his last love.

Very soon after leaving college,and just when he was called to the Bar,about the year 1838,he bought the 'Warder,'a Dublin newspaper,of which he was editor,and took what many of his best friends and admirers,looking to his high prospects as a barrister,regarded at the time as a fatal step in his career to fame.

Just before this period,Le Fanu had taken to writing humorous Irish stories,afterwards published in the 'Dublin University Magazine,'

such as the 'Quare Gander,''Jim Sulivan's Adventure,''The Ghost and the Bone-setter,'etc.

These stories his brother William Le Fanu was in the habit of repeating for his friends' amusement,and about the year 1837,when he was about twenty-three years of age,Joseph Le Fanu said to him that he thought an Irish story in verse would tell well,and that if he would choose him a subject suitable for recitation,he would write him one.

'Write me an Irish "Young Lochinvar,"'said his brother;and in a few days he handed him 'Phaudrig Croohore'--Anglice,'Patrick Crohore.'

Of course this poem has the disadvantage not only of being written after 'Young Lochinvar,'but also that of having been directly inspired by it;and yet,although wanting in the rare and graceful finish of the original,the Irish copy has,we feel,so much fire and feeling that it at least tempts us to regret that Scott's poem was not written in that heart-stirring Northern dialect without which the noblest of our British ballads would lose half their spirit.Indeed,we may safely say that some of Le Fanu's lines are finer than any in 'Young Lochinvar,'

simply because they seem to speak straight from a people's heart,not to be the mere echoes of medieval romance.

'Phaudrig Croohore'did not appear in print in the 'Dublin University Magazine' till 1844,twelve years after its composition,when it was included amongst the Purcell Papers.

To return to the year 1837.Mr.William Le Fanu,the suggester of this ballad,who was from home at the time,now received daily instalments of the second and more remarkable of his brother's Irish poems--'Shamus O'Brien'(James O'Brien)--learning them by heart as they reached him,and,fortunately,never forgetting them,for his brother Joseph kept no copy of the ballad,and he had himself to write it out from memory ten years after,when the poem appeared in the 'University Magazine.'

Few will deny that this poem contains passages most faithfully,if fearfully,picturesque,and that it is characterised throughout by a profound pathos,and an abundant though at times a too grotesquely incongruous humour.

Can we wonder,then,at the immense popularity with which Samuel Lover recited it in the United States?For to Lover's admiration of the poem,and his addition of it to his entertainment,'Shamus O'Brien'owes its introduction into America,where it is now so popular.Lover added some lines of his own to the poem,made Shamus emigrate to the States,and set up a public-house.These added lines appeared in most of the published versions of the poem.But they are indifferent as verse,and certainly injure the dramatic effect of the poem.

'Shamus O'Brien'is so generally attributed to Lover (indeed we remember seeing it advertised for recitation on the occasion of a benefit at a leading London theatre as 'by Samuel Lover')that it is a satisfaction to be able to reproduce the following letter upon the subject from Lover to William le Fanu:

'Astor House,'New York,U.S.America.

'Sept.30,1846.

'My dear Le Fanu,'In reading over your brother's poem while I crossed the Atlantic,I became more and more impressed with its great beauty and dramatic effect--so much so that I determined to test its effect in public,and have done so here,on my first appearance,with the greatest success.

同类推荐
  • 慎言

    慎言

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佛说护诸童子陀罗尼咒经

    佛说护诸童子陀罗尼咒经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 玄肤论

    玄肤论

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The Queen of Hearts

    The Queen of Hearts

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佛说前世三转经

    佛说前世三转经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 修仙之别样女配

    修仙之别样女配

    木沐最初以为她穿越到修真界是来当女主的,结果她发现自己只是个悲催的女配。接下来木沐以为自己该是打倒女主在修仙大道上飞奔,却又发现自己的穿越都是别人设计好的!不行,得扫清一切阻挡自己修行的障碍。
  • 我家客人你惹不起

    我家客人你惹不起

    五月一日,死神小学生柯南来家里做客,我被迫卷入到了一场刑事案件中。五月八日,蝙蝠侠韦恩老爷来家里做客,我被迫跟着他去打击犯罪,五月十六日沉默的羔羊汉尼拔来家里做客,我只能说一句,我家的客人你真的惹不起。
  • 都市万妖尊

    都市万妖尊

    万世妖尊被人陷害转生来到地球,附在龙天笙身上,家世的迷离恢复的记忆,最终将何去何从。
  • 心理司马

    心理司马

    年轻时他心存理想,却在乱世中屡遭险境;从曹操、曹丕到曹叡,他辅佐曹氏三代,渐渐摸索出权力之道;逆境中坚忍不发,出手时残忍无情,他是用兵和政治的绝顶高手--司马懿是三国时代的大赢家,但他为生存而孤独挣扎的曲折心路又有谁知道?
  • 重生之七彩神体

    重生之七彩神体

    他被兄弟陷害被迫自爆同归于尽,一缕残魂飘落世俗界转世沐家废物三少爷沐风身上。从此废物少爷突飞猛进,一日千里,灭杀曾经欺压他的族人……七彩神体,天底下最强大的体魄,没有之一!携天神剑,带罗天戒,练绝世神诀,坐拥天下美女,成就至高神道。且看沐风如何征服修真界,大闹仙境,问鼎神界,揪出前世仇人,解开身世之谜!
  • 无量门破魔陀罗尼经

    无量门破魔陀罗尼经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 刻中丞肖岩刘公遗稿

    刻中丞肖岩刘公遗稿

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 倘若不曾嫁你

    倘若不曾嫁你

    他跟我说,老婆,我们要个孩子吧。我不知道,他说的是让我给别的男人生孩子。所有人都说,结婚是女人第二次投胎,那我上辈子一定恶贯满盈,才会摊上这样的婚姻。曾经的爱,到后来的恨,我只希望自己不曾嫁你。--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 邪王萌宠:天才神妃难驯服

    邪王萌宠:天才神妃难驯服

    她,国际第一间谍,却痴迷古剑。一次穿越成了明神国的三公主。斗太子坑皇上,打王爷欺魔君。时而装逼卖萌,时而霸气侧漏。他,舜祁大陆的最强者,翻手为云覆手为雨,却独独对她情有独钟,溺爱成瘾。他,魔域大陆的统治者,嗜血狠戾,誓言一统天下,却甘为她粉身碎骨。他,一国皇帝,心怀天下,却为她倾尽所有,誓言非卿不娶。穿越逗比无极限,却引无数英雄尽折腰!【情节虚构,请勿模仿】
  • 唐书志传

    唐书志传

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。