Page:A Compendium of Irish Biography.djvu/372

 MOO

land in the Boston frigate, with his friend Captain Douglas, to the great joy of his numerous friends. Lord Moira now pro- cured a situation for his father in the Customs ; but Moore for himself preferred trusting to his talents for a livelihood. In 1806 he published a volume of Odes, Epistles, and other Poems, for which he was criticised in the Edinburgh Review as " the most licentious of modern versi- fiers, and the most poetical of the propaga- tors of immorality." His Odes of A nacreon had perhaps given some ground for these charges, but it is possible that Jeffrey was prejudiced against him on account of his aristocratic tendencies. A duel between them, at Chalk Farm, in the month of August 1806, was interrupted by the police. Both gentlemen were sub- jected to much ridicule, when it was stated that the bullet had fallen out of Jeflfrey's pistol, and it was suggested that, by consent, both pistols were leadless. Jeffrey and Moore after this became fast friends. The latter says : " He had taken a fancy to me from the first moment of our meeting together in the field, and I can truly say that the liking for him is of the same early date." Lord Byron men- tioned the duel with ridicule in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, and in his turn was challenged by Moore. The letter was delayed some months in reaching its destination, and the affair termi- nated in a good-humoured explanation from Byron, and a life-long friendship between them. In 1807 Moore entered into an arrangement with Mr. Power, the musical publisher, to write suitable words to a collection of old Irish tunes, which were to be arranged by Sir John Stevenson. The Irish Melodies were completed in ten numbers, issued between 1807 and 1834. Supposing him to have received the f uU re- muneration agreed upon (£500 per annum), he was }. j,id for them £5 a line. They are the most lasting monuments of his genius, and have been translated into both Latin and Irish. Byron declared some of them were " worth all the epics that ever were composed ; " while the Biographie Generale says: "Thomas Moore has vividly repro- duced in his Melodies the characteristic traits of Irish music. Originality is the special claim of these short pieces. They have neither the vigour, nor the nature, nor the profound and passionate sensibility of the works of another national poet, Eobert Bums; but, at the same time, they have not the same air of rudeness. A sustained elegance, a lightness, a ten- derness, an esprit, a rich and brilliant imagery, give ttem a durable, though per- 348

MOO

haps a somewhat artificial charm." Of the same character as the Irish Melodies are the i\^aiionaO/e^oc?ie5, published 1815, and the Sacred Songs, in 18 16. Three satirical pieces. Corruption, Intolerance, and the Sceptic, appeared in 1808 or i8og. In 181 1 one of the happiest events of his life occurred — his marriage to a Pro- testant lady, Miss Bessy Dyke. Lord John Russell says : " From 181 1, the year of the marriage, to 1852, that of his death, this excellent and beautiful person received from him the homage of a lover, enhanced by all the gratitude, all the confidence, which the daily and hourly happiness he enjoyed was sure to inspire. Thus, what- ever amusement he might find in society, whatever sights he might behold, whatever literary resources he might seek elsewhere, he always returned to his home with a fresh feeling of delight. The time he had been absent had always been a time of exertion and of exile ; his return restored him to tranquillity and peace." "I'd Mourn the Hopes that Leave me," " 'Tis all for Thee," and others of his poems were addressed to her. In public life he lost none of his home affections. With a never-dying love, he wrote regularly twice a week to his parents, and settled £100 a year on them as soon as he could afford it. At first he and his wife lived at Lord Moira's ; in the spring of 1812 he took a house at Keyworth ; whence they re- moved next summer to Mayfield Cottage, near Ashbourne. His independence was strikingly shown in 1 8 1 4 by the publication of the Twopenny Postbag, hy Thomas Brown the Younger, a bitter satire directed against the Prince of Wales and his ministers. It immediately became popular, and ran through fourteen editions in one year. In 18 1 2 Messrs. Longman offered him £3,000 for an oriental romance he had in contemplation. The work, Lalla Rookh, was not written until after the most careful and extensive reading on eastern subjects — until he had thoroughly imbued his mind with oriental tradition and romance. It was published in 181 7, and was received most favourably; but the estimate of his contemporaries, and even of Lord John Russell writing in 1853, has not been endorsed by more recent critics — Lalla Rookh now holding a far inferior place to the Irish Melodies, and many of his lighter pieces. In the autumn of 181 7 Moore occupied Sloperton Cottage, near Devizes, at the moderate rent of £40 a year. It continued, with intervals, to be his resi- dence during the rest of his life. Next year he visited Ireland, where he was received with the most flattering attentions, and