Ir's little for glory I care; Sure ambition is only a fable; And drame when my faytures is scorchin', And in winter, with bacon and eggs, CRUISKIN LAWN.* LET the farmer praise his grounds, With my charming little cruiskin lawn. Slainte geal ma vourneen, Gra-ma-chree a coolin bawn, Gra-ma-chree ma cruiskin, Slainte geal ma vourneen, Gra-ma-chree a coolin, bawn, bawn, bawn, * Little jug. The chorus, without which this song would be as short of its honours as a Highland chieftain without "his tail on" (vide Waverley), is given, in deference to the integrity of the original, in Irish. The spelling is not quite correct, but as nearly so as the representation of the sound of the Irish will permit. I am not a Celtic scholar, but it would be easy to give the real spelling of the words, and in the Irish alphabetical character, too, if it had been thought requisite. The meaning of the chorus, in English, is something like the following 66 'My heart's love is my little jug, Bright health to my darling! My heart's love, her fair looks," &c. Immortal and divine, * Great Bacchus, god of wine, And when grim Death appears, To tell me that my glass has run; Then fill your glasses high, Let's not part with lips adry, Though the lark now proclaims it is dawn; May we shortly meet again, To fill another cruiskin lawn. Gra-ma-chree, &c. OH! Larry M'Hale he had little to fear, And never could want when the crops didn't fail ; The soul of a party—the life of a feast, And an illigant song he could sing, I'll be bail; It's little he cared for the judge or recorder, t With a cruel four-pounder, he kept all in great order, * Here we have one of the numerous instances of the love of the heathen mythology on the part of the Irish. I remember a street ballad, in which the poet insinuates that whiskey was the draught divine, by the phrase "Bacchus's still." Burns, by the way, adopts his native phraseology, when he calls the Castalian fount"Castalia's burn, and a' that." I forget the name of the quaint old chronicler who, speaking of the unsettled state He'd a blunderbuss, too, of horse-pistols a pair; His ancestors was kings before Moses was born; He sat down every day to a beautiful dinner, And, though loaded with debt, oh! the devil a thinner With a larder supplied, and a cellar well-stored, And the Lord he is good to old Larry M'Hale." So fill up your glass, and a high bumper give him, of Ireland, writes, "They say the King's writ runneth not here, but to that I say nay : the King's writ doth runne-but it runneth awaye." Once upon a time it was nearly as much as a bailiff's life was worth to cross the Shannon westward with a writ. If he escaped with his life, he was sure to get rough treatment anyhow. One fine morning, for example, a bailiff returned to the solicitor who had sent him into Galway with the king's parchment, and his aspect declared discomfiture he looked singularly bilious, moreover. "I see," said the attorney, 66 you did not serve it." "No, faith." "Then you will return it with an affidavit that—" "I can't return it," said the bailiff. "Why not?" "They cotch me and made me ate it." "Is it eat the parchment?" "Every scrap of it." "And what did you do with the seal?" "They made me eat that too, the villains!" Let it not be imagined, however, that we had all the fun to ourselves in Ireland, or that we can even claim originality in our boluses for bailiffs; for it is recorded that a certain "Roger, Lord Clifford, who died 1327, was so obstinate and careless of the king's displeasure, as that he caused a pursuivant that served a writ upon him in the Baron's chamber, there to eat and swallow down part of the wax that the said writ was sealed with, as it were in contempt of the said king.”—Memoir of the Countess of Pembroke, MS. MARY DRAPER. CHARLES LEVER. DON'T talk to me of London dames, Her cheeks were red, her eyes were blue, She'd ride a wall, she'd drive a team, 66 I've seen her, too-upon my word— And, at the spring assizes ball, The junior bar would, one and all, For all her fav'rite dances call, And Harry Deane* would caper; Lord Claret would then forget his lore; * Harry Deane Grady, a distinguished lawyer on the Western Circuit. + Lord Chancellor of Ireland, celebrated for his hatred of Curran. He carried this feeling to the unjust and undignified length of always treating him with disrespect in Court, to the great injury of Curran's practice. On one occasion, when that eminent man was addressing him, Lord Clare turned to a pet dog beside him on the bench, and gave all the attention to his canine favourite which he should have bestowed on the counsel. Curran suddenly stopped. Lord Clare, observing this, said, "You may go on, Mr. Curran-I'm listening to you." "I beg pardon for my mistake, my Lord," replied Curran. "I stopped, my Lord, because I thought your Lordships were consulting." The parson, priest, sub-sheriff too, Of such a face or shape, or Such girls were found-and now they're gone- PHELIM O'NEILE. CAROLAN. Translated by THOMAS FURLONG. Ar length thy bard is steering, Their fame with friendly pride we hail; But a milder, gentler, glory Is thine, my belov'd O'Neile ! Still cheerful have I found thee, Of blameless joy the centre, Thy home thro' each night hath been, And there the blind bard was seen; There wit and sport came blended Who loves not my lov'd O'Neile ? "Time has not handed down any particulars of Phelim O'Neile, here commemorated, except that he was descended from that powerful family which so long ruled Ireland with sovereign sway. The violent commotions of the seventeenth century struck to the topmost branch of this great Milesian tree."-Hardiman's Minstrelsy. |