24 Like the wreath of Harmodius, should cover his sword.

See the Hymn, attributed to Alcæus,

Εν μυρτε κλαδι το ξίφος φορήσω.

"I will carry my sword, hidden in myrtles, like Harmodius and Aristogiton," &c.

25 Which near our planet smiling came.

Of such celestial bodies as are visible, the sun excepted, the single moon, as despicable as it is in comparison to most of the others, is much more beneficial than they all put together.-Whiston's Theory, &c.

In the Entretiens d'Ariste," among the other ingenious emblems we find a starry sky without a moon, with the words "Non mille, quod absens."

26 The brook can see no moon but this.

This image was suggested by the following thought, which occurs somewhere in Sir William Jones's works :

"The moon looks upon many night-flowers; the night flowers see but one moon."

27 May we pledge that horn in triumph round.

"The Irish Corna was not entirely devoted to martial purposes; in the heroic ages our ancestors quaffed Meadh out of them, as the Danish hunters do their beverage to this day."-Walker.

1

28 We have but to make love to the lips we are near.

"Quand on n'a pas ce que

There are so many matter

I believe it is Marmontel who says, l'on aime, il faut aimer ce que l'on a." of-fact people, who take such jeux d'esprit as this defence of inconstancy, to be the actual and genuine sentiments of him who writes them, that they compel one, in self-defence, to be as matterof-fact as themselves, and to remind them, that Democritus was not the worst physiologist for having playfully contended that snow was black, nor Erasmus in any degree the less wise for having written an ingenious encomium of folly.

29 Where shineth thy spirit, there liberty shineth too! "Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."-St. Paul, 2 Corinthians iii. 17.

30 It is not the tear at this moment shed.

These lines were occasioned by the loss of a very near and dear relative, who died lately at Madeira.

31 Fell over her white arm, to make the gold strings!

This thought was suggested by an ingenious design, prefixed to an Ode upon St. Cecilia, published some years since, by Mr. Hudson of Dublin.

32 The Prince's Day.

This song was written for a fête in honour of the Prince of Wales's birth-day, given by my friend, Major Bryan, last year, (1810,) at his seat in the county of Kilkenny.

33 Than to remember thee, Mary!

I have here made a feeble effort to imitate that exquisite inscrip. tion of Shenstone's-" Heu! quanto minus est cum reliquis versari quam tui meminisse?"

34 By that Lake, whose gloomy shore.

This ballad is founded upon one of the many stories related of St. Kevin, whose bed in the rock is to be seen at Glendalough, a most gloomy and romantic spot in the county of Wicklow.

35 Skylark never warbles o'er.

There are many other curious traditions concerning this Lake, which may be found in Giraldus, Colgan, &c.

36 Air-Crooghan a Venee.

The name of this beautiful and truly Irish air, is, I am told, properly written "Cruachan na Fèine," ie. the Fenian Mount, or Mount of the Finnian Heroes, those brave followers of Finn Mac Cool, so celebrated in the early history of our country.

The words of this song were suggested by the very ancient Irish story, called "Deirdri, or the lamentable Fate of the Sons of Usnach," which has been translated literally from the Gaelic, by Mr. O'Flanagan (see vol I. of Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin,) and upon which it appears that the "Darthula” of Macpherson is founded. The treachery of Connor, King of Ulster, in putting to death the three sons of Usna, was the cause of a'desolating war against Ulster, which terminated in the destruction of Eman. "This story (says O'Flanagan) has been from time immemorial held in high repute, as one of the three tragic stories of the Irish. These are, The Death of the Children of Touran,' The Death of the Children of Lear,' (both regarding Tuatha de Danans,) and this, The Death of the Children of Usnach,' which is a Milesian story. ."-It will be recollected that, in the second number of these Melodies, there is a ballad upon the story of the Children of Lear or Lir:-" Silent, oh Moyle!" &c.

Whatever may be thought of those sanguine claims to antiquity, which Mr. O'Flanagan and others advance for the literature of Ireland, it would be a very lasting reproach upon our nationality, if the Gaelic researches of this gentleman did not meet with all the liberal encouragement which they merit.

37 By the red cloud that hung over Conor's dark dwelling.

"Oh Naisi! view the cloud that I here see in the sky! I see over Eman green a chilling cloud of blood-tinged red."-Deirdri's Song.

38 When Ulad's three champions lay sleeping in gore.

Ulster.

39 And neglected his task for the flowers on the way. Proposito florem prætulit officio.-Propert. lib. i. eleg. 20.

40 A triple grass.

Saint Patrick is said to have made use of that species of the trefoil, to which, in Ireland, we give the name of Shamrock, in explaining the doctrine of the Trinity to the Pagan Irish I do not know if there be any other reason for our adoption of this plant as a national emblem. Hope, among the ancients, was sometimes re

presented as a beautiful child, "standing upon tiptoes, and a trefoil or three-coloured grass in her hand."

41 I think, oh my love! 'tis thy voice from the kingdom of souls.

"There are countries," says Montaigne, "where they believe the souls of the happy live in all manner of liberty, in delightful fields; and that it is those souls repeating the words we utter, which we call Echo."

42 Through Morna's grove.

"Steal silently to Morna's grove."

See a translation from the Irish, in Mr Bunting's collection, by John Brown, one of my earliest college-companions and friends, whose death was as singularly melancholy and unfortunate, as his life had been amiable, honourable, and exemplary.

43 The song of O'Ruark, Prince of Breffni.

These stanzas are founded upon an event of most melancholy importance to Ireland; if, as we are told by our Irish historians, it gave England the first opportunity of dividing, conquering, and enslaving us. The following are the circumstances, as related by O'Halloran. "The King of Leinster had long conceived a violent affection for Dearbhorgil, daughter to the King of Meath; and though she had been for some time married to O'Ruark, Prince of Breffni, yet could it not restrain his passion. They carried on a private correspondence, and she informed him that O'Ruark intended soon to go on a pilgrimage (an act of piety frequent in those days) and conjured him to embrace that opportunity of conveying her from a husband she detested to a lover she adored. Mac Murchad too punctually obeyed the summons, and had the lady conveyed to his capital of Ferns." The monarch Roderic espoused the cause of O'Ruark, while Mac Murchad fled to England, and obtained the assistance of Henry II.

"Such," adds Giraldus Cambrensis (as I find him in an old translation,) is the variable and fickle nature of woman, by whom all mischiefs in the world (for the most part) do happen and come, as may appear by Marcus Antonius, and by the destruction of Troy."

44 You remember Ellen.

This ballad was suggested by a well-known and interesting story, told of a certain noble family in England.

45 Air-Cuishlih ma chree.

The following are some of the original words of this wild and sin-
gular air; they contain rather an odd assortment of grievances:--
Cuishlih ma chree,
Did you but see

How, the rogue, he did serve me :-(bis)
He broke my pitcher, he spilt my water,
He kiss'd my wife, and he married my daughter
O! Cuishlih ma chree! &c.

46 Been like our Lagenian mine.

Our Wicklow gold mines, to which this verse alludes, deserve, I fear, the character here given of them.

47 Has Hope, like the bird in the story.

"The bird having got the prize, settled not far off, with the talisman in its mouth. The prince drew near it, hoping it would drop it, but, as he approached, the bird took wing, and settled again," &c.-Arabian Nights, story of Kummiral Zummaun and the Princess of China.

48 Like him, the sprite.

This alludes to a kind of Irish fairy, which is to be met with, they say, in t e fields, at dusk. As long as you keep your eyes upon him, he is fixed and in your power; but the moment you look away (and he is ingenious in furnishing some inducement) he vanishes. I had thought that this was the sprite which we call the Leprechaun; but a high authority upon such subjects, Lady Morgan (in a note upon her national and interesting novel, O'Donnel,) has given a very different account of that goblin.

49 At once, like a sun-burst, her banner unfurl'd. "The Sun-burst" was the fanciful name given by the ancient Irish to the Royal Banner.