Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 1.djvu/398

 CAROLAN. 387 him; no sallies of a lively imagination escaped him; every moment was marked with a dejection of spirits, approaching to the deepest melancholy; and his harp, his favourite barp, lay in some obseure corner of his habi- tation, neglected and unstrung. Passing one day by a grocer's shop in the town (where a Mr. Curifteene at present resides) our Irish Orpheus, after a six week's quarantine, was tempted to step io ; undetermined whether he should abide by bis late resolution, or whether ue should yield to the impulse which he felt at the moment. "Well, my dear friend," eried he to the young man who stood bebind the compter, "you see l am a man of eonstancy; for siz long weeks I have refrained from whiskey. Was there ever so greal an instance of self-denial? But a thought strikes me, and surely you will not be cruel enough to refuse one gratification which 1 shall earnestly solicit. Bring hither a measure of my favourile liquor, which I shall smell to, bul indeed shall not taste." The lad indulged him on that con- dition; and no sooner did the fumes ascend to his brain, than every latent spark within him was rekindled, his countenance glowed with an unusual brightness, and the soliloquy which he repeated over the cup, was the effusions of a heart newly animated, and the ramblings of a gepius which a Sterne would have pursued with rap- tures of delight. At length, to the great peril of his healtb, and contrary to the advice of his medical friends, he once more quaffed the forbidden draught, and renewed the brimmer, until his spirits were sufficiently exhilarated, and until his mind had fully resumed its former tone. He immediately set about composing that much-admired song which goes by the name of Carolan's (and sometimes Stafford's) Receipt. For sprightliness of sentiment, and harmony of numbers, it stands unrivalled in the list of our best modern drinking songs, as our nicest crities will readily allow. He commenced the words, and began to modulate the ais, in the evening at Boyle; and, before the following morning, he sung and played this noble off-