Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

"land-very often without even the honesty of " acknowledgment-we have left these treasures " in a great degree unclaimed and fugitive. Thus "our Airs, like too many of our Countrymen, for "want of protection at home, have passed into the "service of foreigners. But we are come, I hope, "to a better period both of Politics and Music; “and how much they are connected, in Ireland "at least, appears too plainly in the tone of sor"row and depression which characterizes most of 66 our early Songs.-The task which you propose to "me, of adapting words to these airs, is by no " means easy. The Poet, who would follow the " various sentiments which they express, must feel "and understand that rapid fluctuation of spirits, "that unaccountable mixture of gloom and levity, "which composes the character of my country"men, and has deeply tinged their Music. Even "in their liveliest strains we find some melan

66

choly note intrude-some minor Third or flat "Seventh-which throws its shade as it passes, "and makes even mirth interesting. If BURNS "had been an Irishman (and I would willingly "give up all our claims upon OSSIAN for him), his

"heart would have been proud of such music, "and his genius would have made it immortal.

"Another difficulty (which is, however, purely "mechanical) arises from the irregular structure of "many of those airs, and the lawless kind of metre "which it will in consequence be necessary to adapt "to them. In these instances the Poet must write "not to the eye but to the ear; and must be con"tent to have his verses of that description which "CICERO mentions, Quos si cantu spoliaveris, "nuda remanebit oratio.' That beautiful Air, "The Twisting of the Rope,' which has all "the romantic character of the Swiss Ranz des "Vaches, is one of those wild and sentimental "rakes, which it will not be very easy to tie down "in sober wedlock with Poetry. However, not"withstanding all these difficulties, and the very "little talent which I can bring to surmount "them, the design appears to me so truly Na❝tional, that I shall feel much pleasure in giving "it all the assistance in my power.

"Leicestershire, Feb. 1807."

NUMBER I.

IRISH MELODIES.

m

No. I.

mmmm

GO WHERE GLORY WAITS THEE.

AIR.-Maid of the Valley.

I.

Go where glory waits thee,
But, while fame elates thee,
Oh! still remember me.
When the praise thou meetest
To thine ear is sweetest,

Oh! then remember me.
Other arms may press thee,
Dearer friends caress thee,
All the joys that bless thee

« PredošláPokračovať »