Part 46 (1/2)
Notwithstanding the persecutions to which the Irish had been subjected for so many centuries, they preserved their love of literature, and the cultivated tastes for which the Celt has been distinguished in all ages.
Indeed, if this taste had not existed, the people would have sunk into the most degraded barbarism; for education was absolutely forbidden, and the object of the governing powers seems to have been to reduce the nation, both intellectually and morally, as thoroughly as possible. In such times, and under such circ.u.mstances, it is not a little remarkable to find men devoting themselves to literature with all the zest of a freshman antic.i.p.ating collegiate distinctions, while surrounded by difficulties which would certainly have dismayed, if they did not altogether crush, the intellects of the present age. I have already of the ma.s.s of untranslated national literature existing country and in continental libraries. These treasures of mental labour are by no means confined to one period of our history; but it could scarcely be expected that metaphysical studies or the fine arts could flourish at a period when men's minds were more occupied with the philosophy of war than with the science of Descartes, and were more inclined to patronize a new invention in the art of gunnery, than the _chef d'oeuvre_ of a limner or sculptor. The Irish language was the general medium of conversation in this century. No amount of Acts of Parliament had been able to repress its use, and even the higher cla.s.ses of English settlers appear to have adopted it by preference. Military proclamations were issued in this language;[512] or if the Saxon tongue were used, it was translated for the general benefit into the vernacular. During the Commonwealth, however, the English tongue made some way; and it is remarkable that the English-speaking Irish of the lower cla.s.ses, in the present day, have preserved the idioms and the accentuation used about this period. Many of the expressions which provoke the mirth of the modern Englishman, and which he considers an evidence of the vulgarity of the uneducated Irish, may be found in the works of his countrymen, of which he is most justly proud.
The language of Cromwell's officers and men, from whom the Celt had such abundant opportunities of learning English, was (less the cant of Puritanism) the language of Shakspeare, of Raleigh, and of Spenser. The conservative tendencies of the Hibernian preserved the dialect intact, while causes, too numerous for present detail, so modified it across the Channel, that each succeeding century condemned as vulgarism what had been the highest fas.h.i.+on with their predecessors. Even as Homeric expressions lingered for centuries after the blind bard's obit had been on record, so the expressions of Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakspeare, may still be discovered in provincial dialects in many parts of the British Isles. I do not intend to quote _Tate and Brady_ as models of versification and of syntax; but if the best poets of the age did not receive the commission to translate the Psalms into verse, it was a poor compliment to religion. We find the p.r.o.nunciation of their rhymes corresponding with the very p.r.o.nunciation which is now condemned as peculiarly Irish. Newton also rhymes _way_ and _sea_, while one can scarcely read a page of Pope[513] without finding examples of p.r.o.nunciation now supposed to be pure Hibernicism. In the Authorized Protestant version of the Bible, _learn_ is used in the sense of _to teach_, precisely as it is used in Ireland at the present day: ”If thy children shall keep my covenant and my testimonies that I shall _learn_ them” and their use of the term _forninst_ is undoubtedly derived from an English source, for we find it in Fairfax's _Ta.s.so_.[514]
History and theology were the two great studies of the middle ages, and to these subjects we find the _literati_ of Ireland directing special attention. The importance and value of Latin as a medium of literary intercommunication, had been perceived from an early period: hence that language was most frequently employed by Irish writers after it had become known in the country. It is unquestionably a national credit, that no amount of suffering, whether inflicted for religious or political opinions, deprived the Irish of historians.[515] Some of their works were certainly compiled under the most disadvantageous circ.u.mstances.
None of the writers whom we shall presently enumerate, worked for hope of gain, or from any other motive save that of the purest patriotism.
Keating, whose merits are becoming more and more recognized since modern research has removed Celtic traditions from the region of fable to the tableland of possibility, wrote his _History_ princ.i.p.ally in the Galtee Mountains, where he had taken refuge from the vengeance of Carew,[516]
Lord President of Munster. Although he had received a high education in the famous College of Salamanca, for the sake of his people he preferred suffering persecution, and, if G.o.d willed it, death, to the peaceful life of literary quiet which he might have enjoyed there. He wrote in his mother-tongue, although master of many languages; and in consequence of this choice his work remained in MS. for many years. When it came to light, those who were ignorant of the MS. materials of ancient Irish history, were pleased to suppose that he had invented a considerable portion, and supplied the remainder from the _viva voce_ traditions of the country people. Unfortunately, he was not sufficiently master of the science of criticism to give the authorities which he had used so carefully, and to prove their value and authenticity. But truth has at length triumphed. Several of the works from which he has quoted have been discovered; and it has been shown that, wild as some of his legends may read in the garb in which he has given them, there is proof that important facts underlie the structure, though it has been somewhat overembellished by a redundant fancy.
[Ill.u.s.tration: TUBRID CHURCHYARD--BURIAL-PLACE OF THE HISTORIAN KEATING.]
Keating was also a poet. Many of his pieces are still well known and highly popular in Munster, and copies of nearly all of them are preserved by the Royal Irish Academy. One of his ballads has been ”coaxed” into verse by D'Arcy M'Gee, in his _Gallery of Irish Writers_.
It is ent.i.tled ”Thoughts on Innisfail.” I shall give one verse as a specimen, and as an ill.u.s.tration of the popular feelings of the time:
”And the mighty of Naas are mighty no more, Like the thunders that boomed 'mid the banners of yore; And the wrath-ripened fields, 'twas they who could reap them; Till they trusted the forsworn, no foe could defeat them.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: INSCRIPTION IN HONOUR OF KEATING.]
The poet-priest must have died at an advanced age, though the precise date of his demise has not been ascertained. He has also left some religious works; and his ”Shaft of Death” is well known and much admired both by divines and Celtic scholars.[517]
O'Sullivan Beare's history is too well known to require more than a pa.s.sing mention. It was said that he wrote as fiercely as he fought.
Archbishop Usher, with whom he had many a literary feud, appears to have been of this opinion; for, after having described O'Sullivan as an ”egregious liar,” he was so sensitive to any counter abuse he might receive in return, that he carefully cut out every disparaging epithet which the historian used from the copy of his reply, which at present lies, with Usher's other works, in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin.
The Four Masters are included amongst the Irish writers of this century, but I have already given ample details of their labours. The _Acta Sanctorum_ of Colgan, and Ward's literary efforts in a foreign land for his country, are beyond all praise. Usher and Ware were also amongst the giants of these days; and, considering the state of political and religious excitement amongst which they lived and wrote, it is incomparably marvellous that they should not have dipped their pens still deeper into the gall of controversy and prejudice. Usher was one of the _Hibernis ipsis Hiberniores_, for his family came to Ireland with King John; but he admired and wrote Celtic history with the enthusiasm of a Celt, and he gathered materials for other men's work with patient industry, however he may have allowed party spirit to influence and warp his own judgment in their use. Usher was Ware's most ardent patron.
Habits of indefatigable research did for him, in some degree, what natural genius has done for others. Nor was he slow to recognize or avail himself of native talent; and there can be no doubt, if he had lived a few years longer after his acquaintance with MacFirbis, that Irish literature would have benefited considerably by the united efforts of the man of power, who was devoted to learning, and the man of gifts, who had the abilities which neither position nor wealth can purchase.
John Lynch, the Bishop of Killala, and the indefatigable and successful impugner of Cambrensis, was another literary luminary of the age. His career is a fair sample of the extraordinary difficulties experienced by the Irish in their attempts to cultivate intellectual pursuits, and of their undaunted courage in attaining their end. Usher has himself recorded his visit to Galway, where found Lynch, then a mere youth, teaching a school of humanity (A.D. 1622). ”We had proofe,” he says, ”during our continuance in that citie, how his schollars profitted under him, by the verses and orations which they brought us.”[518] Usher then relates how he seriously advised the young schoolmaster to conform to the popular religion; but, as Lynch declined to comply with his wishes, he was bound over, under sureties of 400 sterling, to ”forbear teaching.” The tree of knowledge was, in truth, forbidden fruit, and guarded sedulously by the fiery sword of the law. I cannot do more than name a few of the other distinguished men of this century. There was Florence Conry, Archbishop of Tuam, and founder of the Irish College of Louvain. He was one of the first to suggest and to carry out the idea of supplying Irish youth with the means of education on the Continent, which they were denied at home. It is a fact, unexampled in the history of nations, that a whole race should have been thus denied the means of acquiring even the elements of learning, and equally unexampled is the zeal with which the nation sought to procure abroad the advantages from which they were so cruelly debarred at home. At Louvain some of the most distinguished Irish scholars were educated. An Irish press was established within its halls, which was kept constantly employed, and whence proceeded some of the most valuable works of the age, as well as a scarcely less important literature for the people, in the form of short treatises on religion or history. Colleges were also established at Douay, Lisle, Antwerp, Tournay, and St. Omers, princ.i.p.ally through the exertions of Christopher Cusack, a learned priest of the diocese of Meath. Cardinal Ximenes founded an Irish College at Lisbon, and Cardinal Henriquez founded a similar establishment at Evora. It is a remarkable evidence of the value which has always been set on learning by the Catholic Church, that even in times of persecution, when literary culture demanded such sacrifices, she would not admit uneducated persons to the priesthood. The position which the proscribed Catholic priesthood held in Ireland at this period, compared with that which the favoured clergy of the Established Church held in England, is curious and significant. Macaulay says of the latter: ”A young levite--such was the phrase then in use--might be had for his board, a small garret, and ten pounds a year; and might not only perform his own professional functions, but might also save the expenses of a gardener or a groom.
Sometimes the reverend man nailed up the apricots, and sometimes he curried the coach-horses. He cast up the farrier's bills. He walked ten miles with a message or a parcel. He was permitted to dine with the family, but he was expected to content himself with the plainest fare--till he was summoned to return thanks for the repast, from a great part of which he had been excluded.”[519]
In Ireland there were few learned men in the Established Church, and even Usher seems to have been painfully indifferent to the necessity of superior education, as well as regular ordination, for his clergy. In 1623 Dr. Blair was invited to Ireland by Lord Clannaboy, to take the living of Bangor, vacated by the death of the Rev. John Gibson, ”sence Reformacione from Popary the first Deane of Down.” Dr. Blair objected both to episcopal government and to use the English Liturgy; yet he ”procured a free and safe entry to the holy ministry,” which, according to his own account, was accomplished thus. His patron, Lord Clannaboy, informed ”the Bishop Echlin how opposite I was to episcopacy and their liturgy, and had the influence to procure my admission on easy and honorable terms.” At his interview with the Bishop, it was arranged that Dr. Blair was to receive ordination from Mr. Cunningham and the neighbouring clergy, and the Bishop was ”to come in among them in no other relation than a presbyter.” These are the Bishop's own words; and his reason for ordaining at all was: ”I must ordain you, else neither I nor you can answer the law nor brook the land.” In 1627 Blair had an interview with Archbishop Usher, and he says ”they were not so far from agreeing as he feared.” ”He admitted that all those things [episcopacy and a form of prayer] ought to have been removed, but the const.i.tution and laws of the place and time would not permit that to be done.” A few years later Mr. John Livingstone thus relates his experience on similar subjects. He had been appointed also by Lord Clannaboy to the parish of Killinchy; and, ”because it was needful that he should be ordained to the ministry, and the Bishop of Down, in whose diocese Killinchy was, being a corrupt and timorous man, and would require some engagement, therefore my Lord Clannaboy sent some with me, and wrote to Mr. Andrew Knox, Bishop of Raphoe, who told me he knew my errand, and that I came to him because I had scruples against episcopacy and ceremonies, according as Mr. Josiah Welsh and some others had done before; and that he thought his old age was prolonged for little other purpose than to perform such ceremonies.” It was then arranged that he should be ordained as Dr. Blair and others had been. The Bishop gave him the book of ordination, and said, ”though he durst not answer it to the State,”
that he might draw a line over anything he did not approve of, and that it should not be read. ”But,” concludes Mr. Livingstone, ”I found that it had been so marked by some others before, that I needed not mark anything; so the Lord was pleased to carry that business far beyond anything that I have thought, or almost ever desired.”[520]
Such facts as these were well known to the people; and we can scarcely be surprised that they increased their reverence for the old clergy, who made such sacrifices for the attainment of the learning necessary for their ministry, and who could not minister, even if they would, without having received the office and authority of a priest by the sacrament of orders.
But literary efforts in Ireland were not confined to the clergy; O'Flaherty and MacFirbis devoted themselves with equal zeal to the dissemination and preservation of knowledge; and we envy not the man who can read without emotion the gentle complaint of the former, in his _Ogygia_: ”I live a banished man within the bounds of my native soil--a spectator of others enriched by my birthright.” And again: ”The Lord hath wonderfully recalled the royal heir to his kingdom, with the applause of all good men; but He hath not found me worthy to be restored to the kingdom of my cottage. Against Thee, O Lord, have I sinned: may the Lord be blessed for ever!”
The customs and dress of the upper cla.s.ses in Ireland were probably much the same as those of a similar rank in England.[521] Commerce was so constantly restricted by English jealousy, that it had few opportunities of development. In a curious old poem, called the _Libel of English Policie_, the object of which was to impress on the English the necessity of keeping all trade and commerce in their own hands, we find Irish exports thus enumerated:--
”Hides and fish, salmon, hake, herring, Irish wool and linen cloth, falding And masternes good be her marchandie; Hertes, birds, and others of venerie, Skins of otter, squirrel and Irish hare, Of sheep, lambe, and fore is her chaffere, Felles of kids, and conies great plentie.”
It will be observed that this list contains only the natural produce of the country; and had any attempt been made to introduce or encourage manufactures, some mention would have been made of them. The silver and gold mines of the country are alluded to further on, and the writer very sensibly observes, that if ”we [the English] had the peace and good-will of the wild Irish, the metal might be worked to our advantage.” In the sixteenth century the Irish sent raw and tanned hides, furs, and woollens to Antwerp,[522] taking in exchange sugar, spices, and mercery.
The trade with France and Spain for wines was very considerable; fish was the commodity exchanged for this luxury; and even in 1553, Philip II. of Spain paid[523] 1,000 yearly--a large sum for that period--to obtain liberty for his subjects to fish upon the north coast of Ireland.
Stafford, in speaking of the capture of Dunboy Castle, says that O'Sullivan made 500 a-year by the duties which were paid to him by foreign fishermen, ”although the duties they paid were very little.”[524]
Stanihurst has described a fair in Dublin, and another in Waterford, where he says the wares were ”dog-cheap.” These fairs continued for six days, and merchants came to them from Flanders and France, as well as from England. He gives the Waterford people the palm for commerce, declares they are ”addicted to thieving,” that they distil the best _aqua vitae_, and spin the choicest rugs in Ireland. A friend of his, who took a fancy to one of these ”choice rugs,” being ”demurrant in London, and the weather, by reason of a hard h.o.a.r frost, being somewhat nipping, repaired to Paris Garden, clad in one of the Waterford rugs. The mastiffs had no sooner espied him, but deeming he had been a bear, would fain have baited him; and were it not that the dogs were partly muzzled and partly chained, he doubted not he should have been well tugged in this Irish rug.”
After the plantation of Ulster, Irish commerce was allowed to flourish for a while; the revenue of the crown doubled; and statesmen should have been convinced that an unselfish policy was the best for both countries.
But there will always be persons whose private interests clash with the public good, and who have influence enough to secure their own advantage at the expense of the mult.i.tude. Curiously enough, the temporary prosperity of Ireland was made a reason for forbidding the exports which had produced it. A declaration was issued by the English Government in 1637, which expressly states this, and places every possible bar to its continuance. The Cromwellian settlement, however, acted more effectually than any amount of prohibitions or Acts of Parliament, and trade was entirely ruined by it for a time. When it again revived, and live cattle began to be exported in quant.i.ties to England, the exportation was strictly forbidden. The Duke of Ormonde, who possessed immense tracts of land in Ireland, presented a pet.i.tion, with his own hands, against the obnoxious measure, and cleverly concluded it with the very words used by Charles himself, in the declaration for the settlement of Ireland at the Restoration, trusting that his Majesty ”would not suffer his good subjects to weep in one kingdom when they rejoiced in another.” Charles, however, wanted money; so Ireland had to wait for justice. A vote, granting him 120,000, settled the matter; and though for a time cattle were smuggled into England, the Bill introduced after the great fire of London, which we have mentioned in the last chapter, settled the matter definitively. The Irish question eventually merged into an unseemly squabble about prerogative, but Charles was determined ”never to kiss the block on which his father lost his head.”[525] He overlooked the affront, and accepted the Bill, ”nuisance” and all. One favour, however, was granted to the Irish; they were graciously permitted to send contributions of cattle to the distressed Londoners in the form of salted beef. The importation of mutton, lamb, b.u.t.ter, and cheese, were forbidden by subsequent Acts, and salted beef, mutton, and pork were not allowed to be exported from Ireland to England until the general dearth of 1757.
The commercial status of the princ.i.p.al Irish towns at this period (A.D.