Part 38 (2/2)

He dates his _Memoir_ from ”Ludlow Castell, with more payne than harte, the 1st of March, 1582.” In this doc.u.ment he complains bitterly of the neglect of his services by Government, and bemoans his losses in piteous strains. He describes himself as ”fifty-four yeres of age, toothlesse and trembling, being five thousand pounds in debt.” He says he shall leave his sons 20,000 worse off than his father left him. In one place he complains that he had not as much ground as would ”feede a mutton,”

and he evidently considers his services were worth an ampler remuneration; for he declares: ”I would to G.o.d the country was yet as well as I lefte it almost fyve yeres agoe.” If he did not succeed in obtaining a large grant for his services, it certainly was not for want of asking it; and if he did not succeed in pacifying the country, it was not for lack of summary measures. Even in his postscript he mentions how he hanged a captain of Scots, and he thinks ”very nere twenty of his men.”

It seems almost needless to add anything to the official descriptions of Ireland, which have already been given in such detail; but as any remark from the poet Spenser has a special interest, I shall give some brief account of his _View of Ireland_. The work which bears this name is written with considerable prejudice, and abounds in misstatements. Like all settlers, he was utterly disgusted with the hards.h.i.+ps he endured, though the poet's eye could not refuse its meed of admiration to the country in which they were suffered. His description of the miseries of the native Irish can scarcely be surpa.s.sed, and his description of the poverty of the country is epitomized in the well-known lines:--

”Was never so great waste in any place, Nor so foul outrage done by living men; For all the cities they shall sack and raze, And the green gra.s.s that groweth they shall burn, That even the wild beast shall die in starved den.”[442]

Yet this misery never touched his heart; for the remedy he proposes poses for Irish sufferings is to increase them, if possible, a thousandfold; and he would have troops employed to ”tread down all before them, and lay on the ground all the stiff-necked people of the land.” And this he would have done in winter, with a refinement of cruelty, that the bitter air may freeze up the half-naked peasant, that he may have no shelter from the bare trees, and that he may be deprived of all sustenance by the chasing and driving of his cows.

It is probable that Spenser's ”view” of Irish affairs was considerably embittered by his own sufferings there. He received his property on the condition of residence, and settled himself at Kilcolman Castle. Here he spent four years, and wrote the three first books of the _Faerie Queene_. He went to London with Sir Walter Raleigh to get them published. On his return he married a country girl, named Elizabeth--an act which was a disgrace to himself, if the Irish were what he described them to be. In 1598, during Tyrone's insurrection, his estate was plundered, his castle burned, and his youngest child perished in the flames. He then fled to London, where he died a year after in extreme indigence.

His description of the condition of the Protestant Church coincides with the official account of Sidney. He describes the clergy as ”generally bad, licentious, and most disordered;” and he adds: ”Whatever disorders[443] you see in the Church of England, you may find in Ireland, and many more, namely, gross simony, greedy covetousness, incontinence, and careless sloth.” And then he contrasts the zeal of the Catholic clergy with the indifference of ”the ministers of the Gospel,”

who, he says, only take the t.i.thes and offerings, and gather what fruit else they may of their livings.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE HOUSE WHERE SIR WALTER RALEIGH LIVED.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: SALTEE ISLANDS, WEXFORD.]

FOOTNOTES:

[426] _Willing_.--Sidney's Despatches, British Museum, MSS. Cat. t.i.tus B. x.

[427] _Irreligion_.--Mant, vol. i. p.287.

[428] _Scattered_.--c.o.x, vol. i. p.319.

[429] _Civility_.--Sidney's _Letters and Memorials_, vol i. p.112.

Sidney's memoir has been published _in extenso_ in the _Ulster Arch.

Journal_, with most interesting notes by Mr. h.o.r.e of Wexford.

[430] _Reformation_.--_Past and Present Policy of England towards Ireland_, p. 27. London, 1845.

[431] _Depend_.--s.h.i.+rley, p. 219. An admirable _History of the Diocese of Meath_, in two volumes, has been published lately by the Rev. A.

Cogan, Catholic Priest of Navan. It is very much to be wished that this rev. author would extend his charitable labours to other dioceses throughout Ireland.

[432] _Majority_.--Leland, vol. ii. p.241.

[433] _Pike_.--This was probably the _Morris pike_ or _Moorish pike_, much used in the reign of Henry VIII and Elizabeth. The common pike was used very generally by foot soldiers until the reign of George II. The halberd was introduced during the reign of Henry VIII. It was peculiar to the royal guard, and is still carried by them. In s.h.i.+rley's comedy, _A Bird in a Cage_ (1633), one of the characters is asked, ”You are one of the guard?” and replies, ”A Poor halberd man, sir.” The caliver was quite recently introduced. It was a light kind of musket, fired without a rest. It derived its name from the _calibre_ or width of its bore.

[434] _Staffe._--This was probably a cane staff. We read in _Piers Plowman's Vision_ of ”hermits on a heap with hookyd staves.”

[435] _Dagges._--”Pistols.”--”My _dagge_ was levelled at his heart.”

[436] _Livery_--It was usual for all retainers of a n.o.ble house to wear a uniform-coloured cloth in dress. Thus, in the old play of _Sir Thomas More_, we find:

”That no man whatsoever Do walk without the _livery_ of his lord, Either in cloak or any other garment.”

[437] _Irish_.--Four Masters, vol. v. pp. 1678-9. Camden mentions the capture of O'Neill, and says Ess.e.x slew 200 of his men; but he does not mention the treachery with which this ma.s.sacre was accomplished.

[438] _Pestilence_.--Memoir or Narrative addressed to Sir Francis Walsingham, 1583. Ware says he wrote ”Miscellanies of the Affairs of Ireland,” but the MS. has not yet been discovered. The Four Masters notice the pestilence, which made fearful ravages.

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