50 The cold chain of silence had hung o'er thee long. In that rebellious but beautiful song, "When Erin first rose," there is, if I recollect right, the following line: "The dark chain of silence was thrown o'er the deep." The chain of silence was a sort of practical figure of rhetoric among the ancient Irish. Walker tells us of a celebrated contention for precedence between Finn and Gaul, near Finn's palace at Almhaim, where the attending Bards, anxious, if possible, to produce a cessation of hostilities, shook the chain of silence, and flung themselves among the ranks." See also the "Ode to Gaul, the Son of Morni," in Miss Brooks's Reliques of Irish Poetry. 51 'Mid desolation tuneful still. Dimidio magicæ resonant ubi Memnone chordæ, 51 Air-Limerick's Lamentation. Our right to this fine air (the "Lochaber" of the Scotch) will, I fear, be disputed; but, as it has been long connected with Irish words, and is confidently claimed for us by Mr. Bunting and others, I thought I should not be authorized in leaving it out of this collection. 52 Tho' the nymphs may have livelier poets to sing them. Tous les habitans de Mercure sont vifs.-Pluralité des Mondes. 53 And look, in their twilights, as lovely as you. La Terre pourra être pour Vénus l'étoile du berger et la mère des amours, comme Vénus l'est pour nous.-Pluralité des Mondes. 54 Written on the river St. Lawrence. I wrote these words to an air which our boatmen sang to us very frequently. The wind was so unfavourable that they were obliged to row all the way, and we were five days in descending the river from Kingston to Montreal, exposed to an intense sun during the day, and at night forced to take shelter from the dews in any miserable hut on the banks that would receive us. But the magnificent scenery of the St. Lawrence repays all these difficulties. Our voyageurs had good voices, and sung perfectly in tune together. The original words of the air to which I adapted these stan zas, appeared to be a long incoherent story, of which I could understand but little, from the barbarous pronunciation of the Canadians. It begins, Dans mon chemin j'ai rencontér Deux cavaliers três-bien montés, And the refrain to every verse was, A l'ombre d'un bois je m'en vais jouer, A l'ombre d'un bois je m'en vais danser. I ventured to harmonize this air, and have published it. Without that charm which association gives to every little memorial of scenes or feelings that are past, the melody may, perhaps, be thought common and trifling; but I remember when we have entered, at sunset, upon one of those beautiful lakes into which the St. Lawrence so grandly and so unexpectedly opens, I have heard this simple air with a pleasure which the finest compositions of the first masters have never given me ; and now, there is not a note of it which does not recall to my memory the dip of our oars in the St Lawrence, the flight of our boat down the rapids, and all those new and fanciful impressions to which my heart was alive during the whole of this very interesting voyage. The above stanzas are supposed to be sung by those voyageurs, who go to the Grand Portage by the Utawas River. For an account of this wonderful undertaking, see Sir Alexander Mackenzie's General History of the Fur Trade, prefixed to his Journal. 55 Yes, sad one of Sion-if closely resembling. Those verses were written after the perusal of a treatise by Mr. Hamilton, professing to prove that the Irish were originally Jews. 56 And" while it is day yet, her sun has gone down." Her sun is gone down while it was yet day.-Jerem. xv. 9. 57 Ah, well may we call her, like thee, “the forsaken.” Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken.-Isaiah Ixii. 4. 58 When that cup, which for others the proud Golden City. How hath the oppresor ceased! the Golden City ceased.-Isaiah xiv. 4. 59 The Lady of Kingdoms lay low in the dust. Thy pomp is brought down to the grave-and the worms cover thee Isaiah XIV 11. Thou shalt no more be called the Lady of Kingdoms.-Id. xlvii. 5. 60 To freeze mid Hecla's snow. Paul Zeland mentions, that there is a mountain in some part of Iceland, where the ghosts of persons who have died in foreign lands walk about and converse with those they meet like living people. If asked why they do not return to their homes, they say they are obliged to go to Mount Hecla, and disappear immediately. 61 Air-Unknown. I have heard that this air is by the late Mrs. Sheridan. It is sung to the beautiful old words, "I do confess thou'rt smooth and fair." 62 Her love, thy fairest heritage. I have left mine heritage; I have given the dearly-beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies.-Jerem. xii. 7. 63 Her power thy glory's throne. Do not disgrace the throne of thy glory.-Jerem. xiv. 21. 64 Thy long-loved olive-tree. The Lord called thy name a green olive-tree; fair and of goodly fruit, &c.-Jerem. xi 16 65 Like heath that in the wilderness. For he shall be like the heath in the desert-Jerem. xvii 6. 66 And raze to earth her battlements. Take away her battlements; for they are not the Lord'sJerem. v. 10. 67 And Hinnom's vale of slaughter. Therefore, behold the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for they shall bury in Tophet till there be no place.-Jerem. vii. 32. 68 Saint Jerome's Love. These lines were suggested by a passage in St Jerome's reply to some calumnious remarks that had been circulated upon his intimacy with the matron Paula. "Numquid me vestes serica, nitentes gemmæ, picta facies, aut auri rapuit ambitio? Nulla fuit alia Romæ matronarum, quæ meam possit edomare mentem, nisi lugens atque jejunans, fletu pene cæcata."-Epist. Si tibi putem." 69 To mourn her frailty, still is frail. Ου γαρ κευσοφέρειν, την διηρησαν δει. Chrysost. Homil. 8, in Epist. ad Tim. 70 The bird, let loose in eastern skies. The carrier pigeon, it is well known, flies at an elevated pitch, in order to surmount every obstacle between her and the place to which she is destined. 71 Mourn not for her, the young Bride of the Vale. This second verse, which I wrote long after the first, alludes to the fate of a very lovely and amiable girl, the daughter of the late Colonel Bainbrigge, who was married in Ashbourne church, October 31, 1815, and died of a fever in a few weeks after; the sound of her marriage-bells seemed scarcely out of our ears when we heard of her death. During her last delirium, she sung several hymns, in a voice even clearer and sweeter than usual, and among them were some from the present collection, (particularly, "There's nothing bright but Heaven,") which this very interesting girl had often heard during the summer. 72 And silent thoughts my only prayer. Pii orant tacité. 73 Air-Avison. I have so altered the character of this air, which is from the beginning of one of Avison's old-fashioned concertos, that, without this acknowledgment, it could hardly, I think, be recognised. 74 For the Lord hath look'd out from his pillar of glory. And it came to pass, that in the morning-watch, the Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians, through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians.-Exod. xiv. 24. 75 Lord! thou rememb'rest the night, when thy Nation. And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light, by night to these.-Exod. xiv. 20. My application of this passage is borrowed from some late prose writer, whose name I am ungrateful enough to forget. 76 On Egypt thy pillar frown'd dark desolation. Instead of "on Egypt" here, it will suit the music better to sing "on these;" and in the third line of the next verse, "while shrouded" may, with the same view, be altered to while wrapp'd." 77 "Love much”—and be forgiven. Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much.St. Luke vii. 47. 78 Which hides the nations now. And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering east over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations.Isaiah xxv. 7. |