hope in the
heart which the season is fitted to awaken. The azure eyes glitter back
to ours, for the planets shine upon us from the lovely summer night; but
lovelier still are those 'dreams delicious, joys from some serener
star,' which at the same sweet season float down invisibly, and win
their entrance to our souls. The image of a bridal is happily and
naturally kept before us in the remaining stanzas of this poem, which
well deserve to be copied here, in continuation of these notes--the
former for its cheerfulness, the latter for its sweetness. I wish that
I knew the author, or even that I were acquainted with his name.--Since
ascertained to be D. F. MacCarthy."
4. The following are the titles and dates of publication: In 1853,
"The Constant Prince," "The Secret in Words," "The Physician of his own
Honour," "Love after Death," "The Purgatory of St. Patrick," "The Scarf
and the Flower." In 1861, "The Greatest Enchantment," "The Sorceries of
Sin," "Devotion of the Cross." In 1867, "Belshazzar's Feast," "The
Divine Philothea" (with Essays from the German of Lorinser, and the
Spanish of Gonzales Pedroso). In 1870, "Chrysanthus and Daria, the Two
Lovers of Heaven." In 1873, "The Wonder-working Magician," "Life is a
Dream," "The Purgatory of St. Patrick" (a new translation entirely in
the assonant metre). Introductions and notes are added to all these
plays. Another, "Daybreak in Copacabana," was finished a few months
before his death, and has not been published.
5. When the author of "Evangeline" visited Europe for the last time in
1869, they met in Italy. The sonnets at p. 174 [To Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow] refer to this occasion.
6. The "Campo de Estio," described in the lines "Not Known."
7. A fortnight after that of Longfellow. His attached friend and early
associate, Thomas D'Arcy M'Gee, perished by assassination at Ottawa on
the same day and month fourteen years ago.
8. Edited by his friend Br. W. K. Sullivan, President of Queen's
College, Cork, who, I may add, has in preparation a paper on the "Voyage
of St. Brendan," and on other ancient Irish accounts of voyages, of
which he finds an explanation in Keltic mythology. The paper will
appear in the Transactions of the American Geographical Society.
9. "The Combat at the Ford" being Fragment III. of his "Legends of
Ireland's Heroic Age." London, 1882.
10. In his "Beautes de la Poesie Anglaise, Rayons et Reflets," &c.
11. The fi
|