Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/470

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. VIL JUNE 15, 1901.

without the participation of Wolfe, had got into an Irish newspaper, whence they were copiejd into a magazine. I did not see them published until they reappeared within the last year in the Devizes Gazette under the title of ' The Dead Soldier.' "

In the letter just quoted a copy of which exists in the British Museum Mr. Taylor distinctly states from his own personal know- ledge that Wolfe wrote the poem in question ; that it at first consisted of only two stanzas, as Wolfe himself mentions in the letter pre- viously cited ; and that its completion was due to the praise bestowed upon the afore- said stanzas by enthusiastic friends to whom they were shown one of these being the Rev. S. O'Sullivan.

III. The Rev. Samuel O'Sullivan's evidence : " I think it was about the summer of 1814 or 1815 (I cannot at the moment say for certainty which), I was sitting in my college rooms. I then occupied the floor of No. 26, and reading in the ' Edinburgh Annual Register, 3 in which a very striking and beautiful account is given of the burial of Sir John Moore, Wolfe came in, and (as you know my custom was) I made him listen to me as 1 read the passage, which he heard with deep and sensible emotion. We were both loud and ardent in our commenda- tion of it, and after some little time 1 proposed to our friend to take a walk into the country. He consented, and we bent our way to Simson's nursery, a place about half-way between Dublin and the Rock. During our stroll Wolfe was unusually meditative and silent, and I remember having been provoked a little by meeting with no response or sympathy to my frequent bursts of admiration about the country and the scenery, in which on other occasions he used so cordially to join. But he atoned for his apparent dulness and insensibility on his return, when he repeated for me the first and last verses of his beautiful ode. I expressed a rapturous approbation, with which he seemed greatly pleased. My brother ( Rev. Mortimer O'Sullivan) was present when this took place, and was also greatly delighted. These were the only verses which our dear friend at first contemplated ; but moved, as he said, by my approbation, his mind worked on the subject after he left me, and in the morning he came over to me with the other verses by which the poem was completed."

In this letter quoted in a note on p. 23 of the eighth edition of Wolfe's 'Remains,' 1842 the Rev. S. O'Sullivan distinctly states from his own personal knowledge that the ode was written by Wolfe ; that it at first consisted of only two stanzas ; and that its completion was due to the approbation these received on recital. In the fundamental points here mentioned all three witnesses hitherto ad- duced perfectly agree; the non-essential points on which they differ, namely, the number of the parties whose admiration led the poet to finish his task, and the length of time inter- vening between its beginning and end, may well be accounted for by forgetfulness or a difference in the sense of self-importance, and

do not in any wise detract from the value of ! the other part of their testimony, but rather I tend to confirm it by manifesting the absence of collusion.

Besides O'Sullivan's evidence, as given by | himself directly and at first hand in the letter i just quoted, there exists, in a letter by Siri William Hamilton to A. De Morgan, dated 2 September, 1852, a report of O'Sullivan's] testimony as given by him to the writer, i Sir William says :

"Dr. Samuel O'Sullivan, who knew a vast deal| about Irish life and society in a now past genera- tion, often told me that he was with Wolfe during j a part of the time when poetical afflatus was upon i him in connection with the subject of the ode."

See 'Life of Sir W. Hamilton,' by R. P. Graves, Dublin University Press Series,) vol. iii. p. 411.

IV. The Rev, Mark Perrin's evidence. This I i testimony, given in a letter, is of two kinds : j I first, as in the case of Sir William Hamilton, \ i it is merely a report of O'Sullivan's evidence : j secondly, it testifies to Wolfe's having admitted i to the writer in person his authorship of the i poem, which the said writer had ascribed to him and had had printed with his initials. The letter containing the evidence is signed Mark Perrin, Preb. of Taghsaxon, Diocese of Tuam, Blackrock, Dublin, 1877, and it ap- peared in the Dublin Daily Express, Friday, 22 August, 1879. The editor of the journal states at the top of the letter that it was " written by request for the New Zealand! Tablet a few weeks before the death of thej writer in March, 1877." Mr. Perrin's statement is as follows : "One morning in the year 1816 I was with my I friend Samuel O'Sullivan at his rooms, No. 26 1 Trinity College, when he produced a written paper, j saying, 'Here are some pretty verses of Charles] Wolfe's. He was here a few evenings since, and I read to him from the " Edinburgh Annual Register " I a graphic account of the burial of Sir John Moore, | which we both agreed must have been written by I Walter Scott. Wolfe was greatly moved, and re- mained for a good while silent and thoughtful. His I mood was altogether changed from that boyish tone j and flow of spirits which make his presence so delightful wherever he is. At last he brightened again and said, "I have been trying to give a rhythmical colouring to that beautiful picture. Just hear how it runs " ; and he poured forth rich fragments of these verses which he presented to me on the following day in their perfect form.' j O'Sullivan allowed me to take a copy, which in the j spring of the following year, when I served the | curacy of Rathfriland in the county of Down, I gave to Mr. Steward, the editor of the Newry Telegraph, and he published the verses in his paper with the author's initials ' C. W.' subscribed. Not a little disturbed was Wolfe when Dr. Davenport, his college tutor, showed him the provincial journal and
 * as given by him to the writer personally :j