Echo, now sleep morn and even— Stag, exult on glen and mountain, Erin's stay no more ye are, Woe is me! by fraud and wrong, Woe to Eman, roof and wall! Dig the grave both wide and deep, THE RAKES OF MALLOW. Air-"Sandy lent the Man his Mull." Some hundred years ago Mallow was a fashionable watering-place, and enjoyed the title of "Irish Bath," according to Dr. Smith, who wrote about it in those days. But, to judge by the following song, the rakes of Mallow did not trouble the water much. BEAUING, belling, dancing, drinking, Breaking windows, damning, sinking, Live the rakes of Mallow. Spending faster than it comes, Live the rakes of Mallow. One time nought but claret drinking, To raise the sinking funds when sinking, When at home with dadda dying, But where there is good claret plying Live the rakes of Mallow. Living short but merry lives, Live the rakes of Mallow. Racking tenants, stewards teasing, Raking as at Mallow. Then to end this raking life And wish again for Mallow. LAST WISH. FRANCIS DAVIS. OH! gather me the flowers fair, I drew the curls across his brow, Till I could gaze no more: Oh! there's a spot at Devis' foot Look on them kindly as you pass, For Willie said they bloomed for him, Then draw the curtains closer round, And raise ye up this swimming head, Now mother, mother, mind ye this- THE LAMENTATION OF HUGH REYNOLDS. A Street Ballad. The Hugh Reynolds, who is the hero of this ballad (which is clearly genuine), was guilty of abduction. It is generally believed, in Ireland, that abduction is an offence never committed without an implied consent on the part of the woman, and sympathy always exists in favour of the criminal who is brought to justice by the woman swearing against him afterwards, on his trial, as it appears she did in this case. My name it is Hugh Reynolds, I come of honest parents, By loving of a maid, one Catherine MacCabe, My life has been betrayed; she's a dear maid to me. * The country were bewailing my doleful situation, But still I'd expectation this maid would set me free; Young men and tender maidens, throughout this Irish nation, For now my glass is run, and the hour it is come, And I must die for love, and the height of loyalty; I thought it was no harm to embrace her in my arms, Or take her from her parents; but she's a dear maid to me. * This phrase must be taken idiomatically. As, if a man were killed in a fox chase, the Irish peasant would say, "it was a dear hunting to him;" so Hugh says of the girl that costs him his life, "She's a dear maid to me." Adieu my loving father, and you my tender mother, Now, I can say no more; to the Law-board I must go, I would call the English reader's attention to the triple rhymes through this ballad, and though the rhymes be not always perfect, they are sufficiently close (vowel rhymes) to ring on the ear. The word in the first line, at the cæsural point, rhymes to the final word, which is again rhymed to at the cæsural point of the second or alternate line, as thus: “The truth I will unfold, that my precious blood she sold, In the grave I must lie cold; she's a dear maid to me." If the rhymes were always as perfect as these, any one conversant with metrical structure will see that they might be given in three separate lines with an alternate fourth and eighth ; but as that would tax the rhymer too heavily, he adopts the expedient o writing a quatrain of which only the second and fourth lines must rhyme, of necessity leaving him free to rhyme as often and as closely as he can, throughout the first and third, as thus, in the first verse : "By loving of a maid, one Catherine MacCabe, My life has been betrayed, she's a dear maid to me." It is with a view to the English reader I have made this note, and given an example (once for all) of what I have spoken of frequently in this volume as a peculiarity in genuine Irish songs. The Irish reader, I hope, will not, therefore, think me guilty of an editorial intrusion, and mistake an intended courtesy for a mere impertinence. WILLY REILLY. This ballad has ever been a great favourite in Ireland, particularly in the North, where the incident is said to have occurred on which it is founded; and as the hero and the heroine were of different religious communions, a certain party spirit became engaged in the feelings excited by this ballad, which, doubtless, increased its popularity. But, setting aside any other cause than its own intrinsic qualities, it is no wonder it found an abiding place in the hearts of the people: it is full of tenderness, and has great dramatic power. "OH ! rise up, Willy Reilly, and come along with me, I mean for to go with you and leave this counterie, To leave my father's dwelling-house, his houses and free land;" They go by hills and mountains, and by yon lonesome plain, * Fair young girl. It's home then she was taken, and in her closet bound, "Now, in the cold, cold iron, my hands and feet are bound, The jailor's son to Reilly goes, and thus to him did say, وو The Judge he said, "This lady being in her tender youth, 66 Oh, gentlemen," Squire Foillard said, "With pity look on me, The lady with a tear began, and thus replied she,— Out bespoke the noble Fox,† at the table he stood by, "Oh! gentlemen, consider on this extremity; To hang a man for love is a murder you may see, So spare the life of Reilly, let him leave this counterie." *Afraid. Afeard is the universal pronunciation of this word among the peasantry in Ireland to this day, and is but the retention of the old English mode-witness Shakspeare: "Fye, my Lord, fye-a soldier and afeard?"-Macbeth. The prisoner's counsel. |