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xxiv |
PREFACE. |
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letters to me: — "I have heard from London that you have left Chatsworth and all there full of
'entusymusy'......and, in particular, that
' When first I met thee' has been quite overwhelming in its effect. I told you it was one of the best things you ever wrote, though that dog * * * * wanted you to omit part of it."
It has been sometimes supposed that " Oh, breathe not his name," was meant to allude to Lord Edward Fitzgerald: but this is a mistake; the song having been suggested by the well-known passage in Robert Emmet's, dying speech, "Let no man write my
epitaph......let my tomb remain uninscribed,
till otlrtf. times and other men shall learn to do justice to my memory."
The feeble attempt to commemorate the glory of our great Duke—"When History's Muse," &c.— is in so far remarkable, that it made up amply for its want of poetical spirit, by an outpouring, rarely granted to bards in these days, of the spirit of prophecy. It was in the year 1815 that the following lines first made their appearance: —
And still the last crown of thy toils is remaining, The grandest, the purest, ev'n thou hast yet known;
Though proud was thy task, other nations unchaining, Far prouder to heal the deep wounds of thy own.
At the foot of that throne, for whose weal thou hast stood, Go, plead for the land that first cradled thy fame, &c.
About fourteen years after these lines were written, the Duke of Wellington recommended to the throne the great measure of Catholic Emancipation. |
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