Page:EB1911 - Volume 05.djvu/658

IRISH LITERATURE] later commentators. Kuno Meyer has pointed out that in the commentary to one text, Críth Gablach, there are linguistic forms which must go back to the 8th century, and Arbois de Jubainville, who apart from Sir Henry Maine is the only scholar who has dealt with the subject, has attempted to prove from internal evidence that part of the oldest tract, the one on Athgabáil or Seizure, cannot, in its present form, be later than the close of the 6th century. Cormac’s Glossary contains a number of quotations from the commentary to Senchus Mór, which would therefore seem to have been in existence about 900. The Irish Laws were transcribed by O’Donovan and O’Curry, and have been published with a faulty text and translation in five volumes by the government commissioners originally appointed in 1852. A number of other law tracts must have existed in early times, and several which have been preserved are still unedited. Kuno Meyer has published the Cáin Adamnáin or Adamnan’s Law from an Oxford MS. Adamnan succeeded in getting a law passed which forbade women to go into battle. An interesting but little-investigated text in prose and verse called Leabhar na gCeart or Book of Rights was edited with an English translation by O’Donovan (1847). It deals with the rights to tribute of the high-king and the various provincial kings. The text of the Book of Rights is preserved in YBL. and BB. In its present form it shows distinct traces of the influence of the Viking invasions, and cannot go back much beyond the year 1000. At one time it was incorporated in a larger work now lost, the Psalter of Cashel. We also possess a 9th-century treatise on Sunday observance (Cáin Domnaig).

The medical profession in Ireland was hereditary in a number of families, such as the O’Lees (from Irish liaig, “a leech”), the O’Hickeys (Irish icide, “the healer”), the O’Shiels, the O’Cassidys, and many others. These families each had their own special leech-books, some of which are still

preserved. In addition to these there are many others. The medical literature which has come down to us is contained in MSS. ranging from the 13th to the 18th centuries. The Irish MSS. are translations from the Latin with the invariable commentary, and they further contain additions derived from experience. YBL. contains four of these tracts, and amongst others we may mention the Book of the O’Hickeys, a translation of the Lilium Medicinae of Bernard Gordon (written 1303), the Book of the O’Lees (written in 1443), the Book of the O’Shiels, transcribed in 1657, and the Book of MacAnlega, transcribed in 1512. Of these texts only two have been published as yet from MSS. in Edinburgh. O’Curry drew up a MS. catalogue of the medical MSS. in the Royal Irish Academy, and many more are described in O’Grady’s catalogue of Irish MSS. in the British Museum. Some few MSS. deal with the subject of astronomy, but up to the present no description of the texts has been published.

With the steady advance of the English power after 1600 it was only natural that the school of bardic poets should decline. But at the beginning of the 17th century for the last time they gave a great display of their resources. Tadhg MacDaire, the ollam of the earl of Thomond,

composed a poem in elaborate verse exalting the line of Eber (represented by the reigning families of Munster) at the expense of the line of Eremon (represented by the reigning families of the other provinces). In a body of verse attributed to Torna Éces (c. 400), but obviously of more recent origin, the Eremonian, Niall Noigiallach, is lavishly praised, and Tadhg’s attack takes the form of a refutation of Torna’s pretensions. The challenge was immediately taken up by Lughaidh O’Clery. The recriminations of the two bards extend to nearly 3000 lines of verse, and naturally drew down the attention of the whole Irish world of letters. Soon all the hereditary poets were engaged in the conflict, which raged for many years, and the verses of both parties were collected into a volume of about 7000 lines in debide metre, known as the Contention of the Poets. Amongst the prominent poets of the period may be mentioned Tadhg Dall O’Higinn (d. shortly before 1617) and Eochaidh O’Hussey, who between them have left behind nearly 7000 lines in the classical metres, Bonaventura O’Hussey and Ferfesa O’Cainti. The intricate classical measures gradually broke down. Dr Douglas Hyde gives it as his opinion that the exceedingly numerous metres known in Middle Irish had become restricted to a couple of dozen, and these nearly all heptasyllabic. Nevertheless they continued to be employed till into the 18th century. However, during the 17th century we find a new school arising with new principles and new methods. These consisted in (1) the adoption of vowel rhyme in place of consonantal rhyme, (2) the adoption of a certain number of accents in each line in place of a certain number of syllables. Thus, according to what we have just said, the accented syllables in a line with four accents in one line will fall on, say, the following vowels e, u, u, e, and the line rhyming with it will have the same sounds in the same or a different sequence. (For English imitations see Hyde, A Literary History of Ireland, pp. 548 ff.)

The consequences of the changed political conditions were of the greatest importance. The bards, having lost their patrons in the general upheaval, threw behind them the old classical metres and turned to the general public. At the same time they had to abandon the countless chevilles and other characteristics of the old bardic language, which were only understood by the privileged few. But to compensate for this much more freedom of expression and naturalness were possible for the first time in Irish verse. The new metres made their appearance in Ireland about 1600, and the learned Keating himself was one of the first to discard the ancient prosody. During the latter half of the 17th century and throughout the 18th century the body of verse produced in Ireland voices the sorrows and aspirations of the whole nation, and the literary activity in almost every county was correspondingly great. It is only during the last few years that the works of any of the poets of this period have been published. Pierce Ferriter was the last chieftain who held out against Cromwell’s army, and he was hanged in 1653. His poems have been edited by P. S. Dinneen (Dublin, 1903). The bard of the Williamite wars was David O’Bruadar (d. 1697–1698). From this period date three powerful satires on the state of affairs in Munster, and in particular on the Cromwellian settlers. They are of a coarse and savage nature, for which reason they have never been printed. Their titles are the Parliament of Clan Thomas, the Adventures of Clan Thomas, and the Adventures of Tadhg Dubh (by Egan O’Rahilly). A description of the parliament of Clan Thomas is given by Stern in the ''Zeitschr. f. celt. Phil.'' v. pp. 541 ff.

A little later we come across a band of Jacobite poets. The gallant figure of Charles Edward was so popular with Irish bards that a conventional stereotyped form arose in which the poet represents himself as wandering in a wood and meeting a beautiful lady. We are treated to a full description of all her charms, and the poet compares her to all the fair heroines of antiquity. But she replies that she is none of these. She is Erin seeking refuge from the insults of foreign suitors and looking for her mate. The idea of such poems is a beautiful one, but they become tedious when one has read a dozen of them only to find that there are scores of others in exactly the same strain. Besides the Visions (Aisling), as they are termed, there are several noteworthy war-songs, whilst other poems are valuable as giving a picture of the state of the country at the time. We can do no more than mention the names of John O’Neaghtan (d. c. 1720; edition of his poems by A. O’Farrelly, Dublin, 1908), Egan O’Rahilly, who flourished between 1700 and 1726; Tadhg O’Naghten, Andrew MacCurtin (d. 1479), Hugh MacCurtin, author of a grammar and part editor of O’Begley’s Dictionary; John Clárach MacDonnell (1691–1754), John O’Tuomy (d. 1775); Andrew Magrath, Tadhg Gaolach O’Sullivan (d. c. 1795), author of a well-known volume of religious poems, a valuable source of information for the Munster dialect; and Owen Roe O’Sullivan (d. 1784), the cleverest of the Jacobite poets (his verses and bons mots are still well known in Munster). These poets hailed mostly from the south, and it is chiefly the works of the Munster poets that have been preserved. Ulster and Connaught also produced a number of writers, but very little beyond the mere names has been preserved except in the case of the Connaught poet Raftery