Page:Irish minstrelsy, vol 2 - Hardiman.djvu/137

Rh Cliona appears to have had another establishment on the mountain of Carrigalea, in the county of Clare. She was, however, but a provincial ruler, for "the paramount fairy queen of Ireland, was Maidib, that is, mortifying the d, Maib, pronounced Meiv, by a common metathesis of v for b in Irish. From this country the appellation was conveyed to Scotland, and thence to the north of England There Shakspeare found our Maib, and espoused her, Mab, to Oberon, as his Fairy Queen." This has escaped the poet's learned commentators.

$2$William dall (or the blind) O'Heffernan, the author of this allegorical poem, was a native of the county of Tipperary, and appears to have been living, an old man, within the last fifty years. He composed many poetical pieces which are deservedly popular, but, if he had left no other than the present, it would in itself, be sufficient to rescue his memory from oblivion, and stamp him with the name of poet. The original is adapted and sung to the Irish air, "Staca an Mhargaidh," or the "Market Stake," (which may be seen in Bunting's collection of Irish Music, p. 69,) but, in the translation, it was found impracticable to retain the air without falling short of the beauty of the original.

The machinery (if the term be allowable,) of this ode, or the vision introduced by the poet, has been a favorite form of composition with our later bards. They delighted in decorating these visionary beings with all the charms of celestial beauty; and in this respect, our author appears to have been no mean proficient. His description is heightened with all the glow and warmth of the richest oriental colouring, and the sentiments and language are every way worthy of the subject. "Nothing," observes the ingenious and learned Arthur Browne, formerly Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, "marks more strongly the apathy of some musicians, than their perfect indifference about the words that accompany music. We have had all the polite world lately singing infantine words to the finest music.—To me, sublimity of words adds infinitely to