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8o A CENTURY OF BALLADS |
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mere breathing." Frequently he seems to have moved his hearers, and even himself, to tears. Mrs. Byrne, in her Gossip of the Century, quotes a letter from Mr. N. P. Willis describing a party at Lady Blessington's, in which he says : "We all sat round the piano ; after two or three songs of Lady Blessington's choice, Moore rambled over the keys awhile, and then the stillness of the room becoming absolute silence, he softly, and as it were gradually, melted into ' When first I met you,' with a pathos that beggars description. When the last word had died away he arose and took Lady Blessington's hand, said 'Good night,' and was gone before a word was uttered."
Moore composed several original songs, amongst which were " Love Thee, Dearest," " One dear Smile," and "The Canadian Boat Song," which for a long while was thought to be a native melody, but was afterwards claimed by Moore as his.
Another Irishman, Samuel Lover, may briefly be mentioned here. Lover was song-writer, novelist, and painter all in one. Like Moore, he made a practice of singing his own songs at the piano; and he won the latter's friendship by producing at the Moore banquet in 1818 a lively eulogy on the poet. In his later years his eyesight began to fail, and as he could no longer paint, he devised an entertainment which he gave |
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