and frequently played at Lady Borrowe's private theatre in Dublin. In 1790, while as yet he was only eleven years of age, "An Epilogue, A Squeeze at St Paul's, by Master Moore," formed a portion of the evening entertainment at her Ladyship's. The boyish sympathies of Moore were enlisted in favour of the French Revolution by his parents, who, labouring under pains and penalties as Roman Catholics, had a better reason for their republican proclivities than our own English poets, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey, who lived long enough to be ashamed of ever having regarded that frightful Saturnalia of cruelty and murder as the herald of freedom to oppressed peoples all over the world. Moore was taken by his father to the banquet got up by rash and disloyal Irishmen in honour of the barricaders of Paris; and at one of these, in 1792, he sat on the chairman's knee while enthusiastic cheers greeted the toast, "May the breezes from France fan our Irish oak into verdure!" Young Moore, thus initiated into rebellion, became intimate with its most active promoters-the misguided but honest Emmetts, Arthur O'Connor, and others. He was a member of their debating clubs, and a contributor to the newspaper called the Press, which was the recognised organ of the United Irishmen. One of his letters in that paper, of a very fiery character, was taken notice of in Parliament; and there is strong reason to believe that if Moore had not been warned by his mother, who was a person of excellent sense and judgment, to break the connexion existing between him and the "patriots," he would have shared their fate. As it was he did not escape suspicion of being concerned in their serious conspiracies; but, on examination before the Vice-Chancellor, it was found that he was not really implicated in any plot. In 1793 an act of Parliament opened up Dublin University, hitherto an exclusively Protestant institution, to Roman Catholic students, who, however, were not permitted to share in the honours and emoluments of the University. Moore was entered at Trinity College in 1794, and there pursued his studies with diligence and success. And while engaged with his classics at the university, at home he was learning Italian from a priest, French from one of the many emigrants who sought refuge on our shores during that unhappy time for their own country, and pianoforte music from his sister's teacher. About 1796, he wrote a masque with songs, which was performed in his father's small drawing-room, in presence of a few friends, and some of the songs were received with much applause. He was also at this period a leading member of a kind of poetical court, that on certain seasons held high festive days on a little island in the Bay of Dublin. In 1799 Moore, having taken his degree of B.A., and carrying with him a translation of Anacreon's Odes, for which he had hoped to gain a prize at his college, but was disappointed, started for London to enter himself as a student of the Middle Temple. He was not flush of cash, and the few guineas he had with him were sewed up in the waistband of his breeches by his careful mother, along with a bit of cloth blessed by the priest, as an additional safeguard against theft, we presume. More lucky than many of his brother poets who have sought that mighty city with nothing but their brains for a fortune, Moore, though so scantily supplied with capital, never ran any risk of being in want. He had a kind friend in Lord Moira, who obtained for him permission to dedicate his Odes to the Prince of Wales, and a profitable subscription was raised, chiefly among the nobility, for their publication. In after years, Moore was unsparing in his satire of "the fat Adonis of Fifty." When the charge of ingratitude was hurled against him for thus assailing one who had benefited him in earlier days, the poet replied—“These favours and benefits are very easily summed up: I was allowed to dedicate 'Anacreon' to his Royal Highness; I twice dined at Carlton House; and I made one of the fifteen hundred envied guests at the Prince's grand fete in 1815!" Coke Moore's success with Anacreon was fatal to his law studies. upon Lyttleton, and Blackstone's Commentaries were thrown aside that he might have more time for the wooing of the Muses. In 1801, about a year after the Odes had been published, appeared a volume of original verse by Moore, purporting to be "The Poetical Works of the late Thomas Little," a cognomen the poet adopted in allusion to his stature, which was unusually diminutive, Sir Walter Scott describing him as the smallest of men not to be deformed. These poems were of a loose and immoral nature; but the age was not particularly fastidious, and though many blamed, yet Moore found friends ready to overlook their want of decency in consideration of their poetical ability. He himself, however, in his later days, remembered these productions with feelings of shame. In 1803 he obtained an appointment under Government, as Registrar to the Court of Admiralty at Bermuda, and arrived at his post in the beginning of the following year. A couple of months were sufficient to shew that the place was not suitable for him, and he left, having appointed a deputy to do his work. Moore then travelled over a part of America, and, notwithstanding his early republican sympathies, he was far from satisfied with the state of society in that country, and recorded his sentiments in a series of poetical satires, which were then, and since have been, much condemned as ungenerous and ill-natured, and as shewing a great want of acuteness in observation. It is said, indeed, in a work which within the last week or two has been issued from the press-" The Life and Letters of Washington Irving "—that Moore expressed himself to Irving "in the fullest and strongest manner on the subject of his writings on America, which he pronounced the greatest sin of his early life." (It is curious, if he said so, that he did not expunge the offensive pieces from the later editions of his works.) But looking at these poems in the light of recent events-in the light of that deplorable and horrible war which is now raging with so much ferocity between men and states that were, not long ago, members of the same great Republican Confederacy-we feel bound to say that, instead of a slanderer, Moore has proved himself to be a prophet. What could be more prescient then, more true of America now, than these lines ? "While yet upon Columbia's rising brow The showy smile of young Presumption plays, In 1806 Moore published "Odes and Epistles," which were treated with unmeasured severity by Jeffrey in the Edinburgh Review. Moore took mortal offence—nothing but blood could wash out the crime of the editor of the "blue and buff." Moore challenged, and Jeffrey felt bound to give him satisfaction. Chalk Farm, near Hampstead, was the place appointed for the duel, which ended in a most ludicrous fashion, no bullets having been present in the pistols. Both combatants, though ignorant of the innocuousness of their weapons, were delighted with the result, and remained sworn friends for ever after. Byron, in his "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers," does not fail to take advantage of the incident in the paragraph commencing— "Health to great Jeffrey! Heaven preserve his life To flourish on the fertile shores of Fife, And guard it sacred in his future wars, Since authors sometimes seek the field of Mars! Can none remember that eventful day, That ever-glorious, almost fatal fray, When Little's leadless pistol met his eye And Bow-Street myrmidons stood laughing by?" This sneering reference to his bloodless duel, made chiefly with a view to annoy Jeffrey, enraged the fiery Moore, who now sought to transfer the vengeance Fate, in the shape of kind friends, had prevented him from wreaking on the editor of the Edinburgh, to Byron. Fortunately for both, the letter demanding apology or satisfaction did not reach the vagrant "Childe" until months after date, when passion had been supplanted by reason, and explanations and a dinner were accepted by both as excellent substitutes for pistols and coffee. The intimacy thus commenced ripened into a firm friendship, on the part of Moore at least, who entertained the warmest affection for Byron, the latter reciprocating as far as he was capable. Indeed, his Lordship states, that he never felt the emotion of friendship towards any except Lord Clare, "and, perhaps, little Moore," though he does not appear to have been quite able to divest himself of the notion that some of Moore's regard depended upon his rank and title. At all events, he more than once repeats that "little Tommy dearly loves a lord," a weakness which Moore neither could nor cared to overcome. There is, perhaps, no other case on record of two life-long intimacies originating in challenges to fight a duel. Moore was now a constant guest at the tables of the aristocracy, where his genial manner, social accomplishments, and genteel satire, made him much admired, especially at Lansdowne and Holland Houses, and at his early friend's, Lord Moira of Donnington Park, with whom, indeed, he principally resided. Before Moore had left Ireland at all, he had cherished the notion of writing words for the beautiful music of his native land, and already had made verses suitable to various airs, which he sung with effect in the houses where he was entertained. About 1807 he entered ‘into an arrangement with Mr Power, a musical publisher, to furnish the words for a collection of these national melodies, Sir J. Stevenson supplying the accompaniments. Moore himself provided many of the airs, and all the changes in the melody were the poet's own invention. These "Melodies" are undoubtedly the keystone of the author's fame. None of his longer poems exhibit so much of excellence with so little of that which can be cavilled at by critics. They are remarkable for their felicitous expression, their sweet musical flow, and tender feeling, while flashes of genial wit and But they are not na- 'humour add to their attractiveness and force. tional songs as the songs of Burns are national. the lyre, the feelings of the national heart gush forth as the water from the rock smitten by the rod of Moses. "The Harp that once through Tara's Halls" is altogether too cosmopolitan in its symphonies to awaken such passionate outbursts as "Scots wha hae." The wit and humour too of Moore's "Melodies" are the wit and humour of a polished citizen of the world. There is not that naïveté in the one and rollicking abandon in the other which characterise the genuine Irish articles. Still, with the exception of the songs of Burns and Béranger, there are no songs that exhibit the true lyrical faculty more than those of Moore, or which are more deservedly popular; and none translate more pleasantly feelings of love, patriotism, festivity, and war. What Moore accomplished in these "Melodies" is well summed up in the song, "Dear Harp of my Country! "Dear Harp of my country! in darkness I found thee, "Dear Harp of my country! farewell to thy numbers, This sweet wreath of song is the last we shall twine! Has throbb'd at our lay, 'tis thy glory alone; I was but as the wind passing heedlessly over, And all the wild sweetness I waked was thy own!" The publication of the "Melodies" was not completed until 1834; "National Airs," "Sacred Songs," "Legendary Ballads," &c., being' also added to them during that time. 39.66 In 1808 and 1809 he published anonymously three poems, “Intolerance," Corruption," and "The Sceptic;" but they were consigned almost at once to the oblivion which was really their desert. In 1811 Moore married a Miss Bessy Dykes, a young Irish actress, who proved a sensible, loving, and most devoted wife, to whom he remained fondly attached throughout life; and never did the domestic hearth of a literary man exhibit a more perfect picture of household |