Chapter X: Part 10

Mr Davidson was born at Barrhead, near Paisley, on April 11th, 1857. After his preliminary education at the Highlanders’ Academy, Greenock, he went to Edinburgh University. For a time he taught in Greenock, and also gained a certain amount of literary experience in occasional contributions to the _Glasgow Herald_ and other papers. In 1886 he published _Bruce: a Drama_, followed by _Smith: a Tragedy_ (1888), _Scaramouch in Naxos: and other Places_ (1889), _In a Music Hall, and other Poems_ (1891), _Fleet Street Eclogues_ (1893), _Ballads and Songs_ (1894), _Second Series of Fleet Street Eclogues_ (1895), besides several volumes of prose papers and fiction. Although _Bruce_ was Mr Davidson’s first published work, he had begun to write at a much earlier period: his _An Historical Pastoral_ was composed in 1877; _A Romantic Farce_ in 1878; while _Bruce_ was written four years before its publication. Mr Davidson’s later poetical writings have been mainly in the form of songs and lyrical ballads, and these have placed him in the foremost rank of the younger poets of to-day. He has the widest range, the largest manner, and the intensest note of any of the later Victorians. The two poems by which he is represented here are eminently characteristic, and none the less Celtic in their essential quality from the fact that the one deals with a loafer of the London streets and the other with a scenic rendering of an impression gained in Romney Marsh. Mr Davidson’s latest writings are “The Ballad of an Artist’s Wife,” not as yet issued in book form, and the just published second series of the _Fleet Street Eclogues_ (John Lane). Both “A Loafer” and “In Romney Marsh” are from _Ballads and Songs_.

JEAN GLOVER. (1758-1800.) PAGE 246

The author of “O’er the Muir amang the Heather” was the daughter of a Highland weaver settled in Kilmarnock. She married a strolling actor, and her fugitive songs became familiar throughout the West of Scotland. “O’er the Muir amang the Heather” has become a classic.

GEORGE MACDONALD. PAGE 247

This popular Scottish novelist and poet was born at Huntly, in Aberdeenshire, December 10, 1824. As a novelist he has almost as large an audience as have any of his contemporary romancists. His poems are less widely known, though in them he has expressed himself with great variety and subtlety. The Celtic element is not conspicuous in Dr Macdonald’s work either in prose or verse; but sometimes, as in the little song “Oimè,” quoted here, it finds adequate expression. This song is from his early volume _Within and Without_.

RONALD CAMPBELL MACFIE. PAGE 249

The author of _Granite Dust_ (Kegan Paul) is one of the most promising of the younger Celtic Scots.

WILLIAM MACDONALD. PAGE 250

One of the band of young writers associated with _The Evergreen_ (Patrick Geddes and Colleagues, Edinburgh). Mr Macdonald has not yet issued his poems in book form.

AMICE MACDONELL. PAGE 251

Miss Macdonell has not, so far as I know, published a volume. “Culloden Moor” appeared in the _Celtic Monthly_ in June 1893.

ALICE C. MACDONELL. PAGE 252

Miss Alice Macdonell of Keppoch has contributed many poems to Scottish and other periodicals. “The Weaving of the Tartan” appeared in the _Celtic Monthly_ for December 1894.

WILLIAM MACGILLIVRAY. (1796-1852.) PAGE 254

The author of “The Thrush’s Song” was not a poet, but occasionally indulged in the pleasure of verse-making. He was a well-known Highland ornithologist, and it may be added that his attempt at an onomatopoeic rendering of the song of the thrush has been pronounced by Buckland and other ornithologists to be remarkably close.

FIONA MACLEOD. PAGE 255

Miss Macleod is one of the younger writers most intimately associated with the Celtic Renascence in Scotland. “The Prayer of Women” (see page 255) is from _Pharais: a Romance of the Isles_ (Frank Murray, Derby, 1894); “The Rune of Age” and “A Gaelic Milking Song” are from _The Mountain Lovers_ (John Lane); the “Lullaby” and the two songs of Ethlenn Stuart are from her last volume, _The Sin-Eater: and other Tales_ (Patrick Geddes and Colleagues, Edinburgh). “The Closing Doors” has not been published hitherto. The brief lyric, “The Sorrow of Delight,” was contributed to an as yet unpublished fantastic sketch, _The Merchant of Dreams_, written in collaboration with a friend. Such of the poems scattered through her several volumes, and others, as she wishes to preserve in connected form, will be published by Miss Macleod early in 1896 (Patrick Geddes and Colleagues), under the title of _Lyric Runes and Fonnsheen_.

NORMAN MACLEOD. PAGE 266

There is no Highlander held in more affectionate remembrance and admiration than the late Dr Norman Macleod: and with justice; for no one worked more arduously, understandingly, and sympathetically for the cause of the Gaelic language, Gaelic literature, and the Gaelic people than the famous poet-minister, who, to this day, is commonly spoken of as “The Great Norman.” It was, however, Dr Norman the elder who wrote “Fiunary,”--and not, as commonly stated, the late Dr Norman. His “Farewell to Fiunary” is probably the most universally-known modern poem in the West Highlands. (For critical remarks as to the authenticity of this poem, see Dr Nigel M‘Neil’s _Literature of the Highlanders_, pp. 283-286.)

SARAH ROBERTSON MATHESON. PAGE 267

Mrs Robertson Matheson, some of whose poems in periodicals have attracted the attention of lovers of poetry, is chief secretary and treasurer of the Clan Donnachaidh Society. The fine lyric, “A Kiss of the King’s Hand,” appeared in the _Celtic Monthly_ for May 1894; but I regret that version has inadvertently been followed, for it twice misspells _tae_ for “to,” and in the third line of the third quatrain has a misreading (“jewels” instead of “ruffles”).

It may interest many readers to know that “A Kiss of the King’s Hand” decided the descendant of Flora Macdonald to leave Mrs Robertson Matheson the last heirloom of Scottish romance, the “ring of French gold” given by Prince Charlie to Flora, and holding the lock of hair cut from “the king’s head” by her and her mother.

DUGALD MOORE. PAGE 268

“The First Ship” is so remarkable a poem that it is difficult to understand how it has met with so little recognition, and escaped most, if not all, of the Scottish and British anthologists. Dugald Moore was the son of Highland parents, and was born in Glasgow in 1805. His first book was entitled _The Bard of the North_, and consisted of a series of poetical tales illustrative of Highland scenery and character (1833). _The Hour of Retribution_ and _The Devoted One_ appeared respectively in 1835 and 1839. Moore died unmarried in the 36th year of his age (Jan. 2, 1841), and was buried in the Necropolis of Glasgow. It is a pity that the poem could not have appeared without its fourth stanza, which is inferior to the others.

LADY CAROLINE NAIRNE. (1766-1845.) PAGE 269

Needless to say anything here concerning the “Flower of Strathearn.” Baroness Nairne was mainly Celtic in blood and wholly Celtic in genius. “The Land o’ the Leal” is now one of the most famous and most loved lyrics in the English language. (Readers may be referred to _Life and Songs of Baroness Nairne_, 1868.)

ALEXANDER NICOLSON. PAGE 270

Besides this fine poem, “On Skye,” Sheriff Nicolson has translated the “Birlinn” of Alexander Macdonald, and has written many moving verses full of Gaelic sentiment of a robust kind.

SIR NOËL PATON. PAGE 272

Joseph Noël Paton was born at Dunfermline on the 13th of December 1821; and while his father was also of partial Celtic origin, Sir Noël is, through his mother, the descendant of the last of the Scoto-Celtic kings. Of his career as a painter it is not necessary to speak here. His two volumes of poetry are _Poems by a Painter_ (1861) and _Spindrift_ (1867). The best account of the life and work of this distinguished Scot is the monograph recently published by Mr David Croal Thomson, as the “Art-Annual” of _The Art Journal_. The two poems by which Sir Noël is represented in this book are not to be found in either of his volumes, and their appearance here is due to the courtesy of the author.

WILLIAM RENTON. PAGE 274

Mr Renton was born in Perthshire, of Scoto-Celtic parents. “Mountain Twilight” is taken from his first volume of poems called _Oils and Water Colours_ (Hamilton, Edinburgh, 1876). Mr Renton’s only other volume of verse is his _Songs_ (Fisher Unwin, 1893).

LADY JOHN SCOTT. PAGE 275

The author of “Durisdeer” was of mixed Highland and Lowland descent. Her poem has a permanent place in our literature because of its haunting passion and pain.

EARL OF SOUTHESK. PAGE 276

Lord Southesk (James Carnegie) was bom in 1827. He first made his name in literature by his strange and vigorous _Jonas Fisher_ (1875). This was followed by _Greenwood’s Farewell_ (1876), and _The Meda Maiden_ (1877); though most of the poems contained in these two volumes, with several others, are comprised in _The Burial of Isis_ (1884).

JOHN CAMPBELL SHAIRP. PAGE 277

This able Scottish writer was of Celtic origin through his mother. Readers unacquainted with the poems of the late Principal Shairp, and ex-Professor of Poetry at Oxford, will do best to turn to the posthumous volume, edited, with a memoir, by Francis Turner Palgrave, entitled _Glen Dessary_ (Macmillan, 1888).

UNA URQUHART. PAGE 279

I know nothing else of Gaelic or English verse by this young writer. “An Old Tale of Three,” as it appears here, is a rendering of the original by Miss Fiona Macleod.

LOST LOVE. PAGE 280

The author of this poem is unknown. The original is in the Gaelic of the Western Isles, and is one of the several fugitive songs rescued by Thomas Pattison. The version given here, however, is not identical with his, the first and last quatrains having been added by another hand.

CONTEMPORARY ANGLO-CELTIC POETS (WALES)

GEORGE MEREDITH. PAGE 283

Mr George Meredith, who recently has been addressed in a dedication as “The Prince of Celtdom,” is rather the sovereign of contemporary English literature. Although of Welsh descent and sympathies, and with a nature pre-eminently Celtic in its distinguishing characteristics, Mr Meredith was born in Hampshire on February 12th, 1828. Part of his early education was received in Germany, and after his return to England it was intended that he should pursue the legal profession: an intention set aside on account of an irresistible bias toward literature. His first published writings were in verse: and now this early little book, _Poems_, published in his twenty-third year (1851) is one of the rarest treasures for the bibliophile. It is dedicated to Thomas Love Peacock, whose intellectual influence upon the young writer is obvious. In 1850 the poet married the daughter of Peacock, but it was not till a year or two later that he definitely set himself to the profession of literature as also a means of livelihood. It is characteristic of him that his first prose book should be one of his most individual writings; for _The Shaving of Shagpat_ might have been written at almost any period of its author’s career. A fascinating and perplexing production it must indeed have seemed at that time, published as it was in a year which, with the exception of two radically distinct American works of pre-eminent note, Longfellow’s _Hiawatha_ and Walt Whitman’s _Leaves of Grass_, was a singularly barren one. The fantasy has always remained a favourite with staunch Meredithians. It was followed two years later by the somewhat akin _Farina_; and two years passed again before that first important work appeared which so profoundly affected the minds and imagination of Mr Meredith’s contemporaries--the now famous _Ordeal of Richard Feverel_, (1859). Since that date Mr Meredith has given us what many consider the greatest literary legacy of our time; and unquestionably he has had no compeer in brilliant delineation of life at white heat. It is unnecessary to specify the works of an author with which all lovers of literature must be familiar; but a word must be added as to the delight which the reading world has known this year in the publication of _The Amazing Marriage_, one of the most brilliant and vivid of all Mr Meredith’s romances, and, in its display of his characteristic quality at his best, ranking with _Harry Richmond_, _The Egoist_, and _Diana of the Crossways_. As a poet George Meredith is less widely known, or, rather, is less widely accepted. There are, nevertheless, many who regard his poetic achievement as perhaps the most essential part of what he has given us. In depth of thought, in clarity of vision, and in remarkable expressional subtlety,--often, if not invariably, set forth in a lyric utterance whose only fault is that of an occasional apparent incoherence due to rapidity of thought and eagerness of rhythmic emotion--he stands here, as in all else, alone. From that extraordinarily powerful study of contemporary life, expressed emotionally and rhythmically in singularly convincing verse, _Modern Love_, to his latest volume, _The Empty Purse_, there is a range of rhythmic and lyric beauty which may well be a challenge to posterity to redeem the relative neglect of the mass of Mr Meredith’s contemporaries. I am not of those who consider Mr Meredith’s least popular poems as mere cryptic utterances in verse; for everywhere I find the lyric spirit,--hampered, at times, it is true, by a wind-rush of images, and by a sudden drove of unshepherded words. But who could read “Love in the Valley,” “The Lark Ascending,” “The Woods of Westermain,” “The South-Wester,” “The Hymn to Colour,” to mention five only, without recognising that here indeed we have one of the great poets of our time. The poems by which, owing to the gracious courtesy of Mr Meredith--who has consented to forego for once his great objection to the appearance of any of his poems in miscellaneous collections--he is here represented, are from his later volumes. The “Dirge in Woods,” “Outer and Inner,” and the superb “Hymn to Colour,” are from _A Reading of Earth_ (1888), the volume which contains “Hard Weather,” “The South-Wester,” “The Thrush in February,” “The Appeasement of Demeter,” “Woodland Peace,” the noble ode “Meditation under Stars,” and that flawless and memorable sonnet, “Winter Heavens.” The “Night of Frost in May” is from the volume entitled _The Empty Purse_ (1892). Mr Meredith’s other volume of poetry, the favourite with most of his readers, is _Poems and Lyrics of the Joy of Earth_ (1883). This book includes “The Woods of Westermain,” “The Day of the Daughter of Hades,” “The Lark Ascending,” “Phœbus with Admetus,” “Melampus,” “Love in a Valley,” and the group of sonnets beginning with “Lucifer in Starlight,” and ending with “Time and Sentiment.” All Mr Meredith’s poetical writings are now published by Messrs Macmillan.

SEBASTIAN EVANS. PAGE 292

Born in 1830, the grandson of the Rev. Lewis Evans, a well-known Welsh astronomer, and the son of the Rev. Arthur Benoni Evans, a linguist, scholar, and author. He was not the only one of this parentage who came to some distinction, for his brother, John Evans, F.R.S., became President of the Society of Antiquaries, and his sister, Anne, had some repute as a poetess and musician. Sebastian Evans won a fair measure of fugitive fame by his _Brother Fabian’s Manuscript and Other Poems_ (Macmillan, 1865). In the early ’70’s Dr Evans published his second volume, _In the Studio: a Decade of Poems_ (Macmillan). The true note of his strangely subtle and illusive muse is not that of either irony or audacity as commonly supposed, but rather a living belief in the passage of the contemporary mind and aspiration from the sureties of the ancient faith to the assurance of a still finer faith to come. Among his short poems perhaps the most indicative is that entitled “The Banners”--

Lordly banners, waving to the stars,
Flap upon the night-wind, heavy with the dew,
Trustful youth is wending to the wars,
Strong in ancient faith to battle with the new.

Lordly banners, trodden in the clay,
Lie upon the mountain dank with other dew,
Hapless Youth hath lost the bloody day,
Ancient faith is feeble, stronger is the new.

Lordly banners, other than of yore,
Flap upon the night-wind, heavy with the dew:
Youth to battle girdeth him once more,
New and Old are feeble,--mighty is the True!

EBENEZER JONES. (1820-1860.) PAGE 293

Of Welsh parentage and descent, Ebenezer Jones was born in Islington, London. Much has been written upon the famous Chartist poet, both in his relation to the socialistic movements in which he participated, and in literary criticism of his two at one time much discussed volumes, _Studies of Sensation and Event_ (1843), and _Studies of Resemblance and Consent_ (1849); but perhaps the best critical summary of his life-work is that of Mr Wm. J. Linton in Miles’ _Poets and Poetry of the Century_, Vol. V. The two poems by which Ebenezer Jones is represented here are respectively from his second and first volumes.

EMILY DAVIS (MRS PFEIFFER). (1841-1890.) PAGE 296

Mrs Pfeiffer, many of whose poems achieved a wide popularity, was the daughter of a Welsh gentleman settled in Oxfordshire, and an officer in the army. She was born in Wales. Of her several volumes of verse, the first was _Gerard’s Monument_, etc. (1873), and the best are _Sonnets and Other Songs_, _Under the Aspens_ (1884), and _Sonnets_ (1887).

ERNEST RHYS. PAGE 297

“The House of Hendra” is not given here intact: for the whole poem, see _A London Rose_, etc. (Elkin Mathews). Mr Rhys is the most noteworthy of the younger generation of Welsh poets and romancists, and may well be accepted as the leader of the Neo-Celtic movement in Wales. He has in a more marked degree than almost any of his compatriots of his own period the gift of style; and already his enthusiasm, knowledge, and fine and notable work in prose and verse have brought him to the front as the recognised representative of young Wales. Of Welsh parentage, Mr Rhys was born in London in 1860, spent much of his boyhood in South Wales, and his youth and early manhood in the north-country, where he intended to follow the profession of a mining engineer. However, he came to London in the early ’eighties and settled down to literary work. His first publication in book form was _The Great Cockney Tragedy_ (1891). His poems first became known to the outside reading world through his contributions to _The Book of the Rhymers’ Club_ (1893). In the following year he published his first and as yet sole volume of verse: _A London Rose: and Other Rhymes_, whence comes the fine “House of Hendra” by which he is represented here. Besides other writings, in prose, Mr Ernest Rhys was editor of the “Camelot Series” of popular reprints and translations in 65 volumes (1885-1890), and now is critical editor of _The Lyric Poets_ (Dent), one of the most delightful poets-series extant.

CONTEMPORARY ANGLO-CELTIC POETS (MANX)

THOMAS EDWARD BROWN. PAGE 307

Was born at Douglas, in the Isle of Man, in 1830. After a career of exceptional distinction at Oxford, he was appointed Vice-Principal of King William’s College in the Isle of Man (1855). Since 1863 he has been assistant-master of Clifton College. The book by which Mr Brown is best known is his admirable _Fo’c’sle Yarns_ (Macmillan, 1881 and 1889), though the first of his tales in verse included therein, “Betsy Lee,” appeared in _Macmillan’s Magazine_ in 1873 where it at once attracted wide attention. He has also published _The Doctor_ (1887) and _The Manx Witch_ (1889). The author of _Fo’c’sle Yarns_ is by far the most noteworthy poetic representative of the Isle of Man. In range, depth of insight, dramatic vigour, keen sympathy, and narrative faculty, all transformed by the alchemy of his poetic vision, he is not only the foremost Manx poet, but one of the most notable of living writers in verse. It is probably because most of his poems deal almost wholly with Manx scenes and characters, and are for the most part written in the Manx dialect, that he is so little talked of by literary critics and so little known to the reading world at large. Than “Betsy Lee” (_Fo’c’sle Yarns_) there is no more moving, human, and beautiful poem, of the narrative kind, written in our time. The fragmentary lines by which the author is represented here were selected from one of his most characteristic Manx poems, and give a good idea of the common parlance of the islanders of to-day. It is from _The Doctor: and Other Poems_ (Swan Sonnenschein, 1887).

HALL CAINE. PAGE 309

This fine Manx ballad of “Graih my Chree” appeared this year in the first number of _London Home_, to the editor and proprietor of which, as well as to Mr Hall Caine, I am indebted for the permission to include “Love of my Heart” here. Mr Caine, so celebrated as a novelist, has published no volume of poems; but at rare intervals something of his in verse has appeared. I think that his earliest appearance as a poet was in _Sonnets of this Century_ (1886, and later editions), where he is represented by two fine sonnets, “Where Lies the Land to which my Soul would go?” and “After Sunset.” Mr Caine’s own first acknowledged book was an anthology of sonnets (_Sonnets of Three Centuries_, Stock, 1882), published in the author’s twenty-seventh year. Of his many books, the best known are his _Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti_; and his romances, _The Shadow of a Crime_, _The Deemster_, _The Bondman_, _The Scapegoat_, and _The Manxman_. Mr Hall Caine is himself a Manxman, crossed with a strong strain of Cumberland blood. Both in his strength and weakness he is eminently Celtic, after his own kind; for he could belong to no other Celtic people than either the Manx or the Welsh. He has, and not without good reason, been called the Walter Scott of Man. Certainly, _The Deemster_ and _The Manxman_ alone have revealed Manxland and Manx life and character to the great mass of English readers.

CONTEMPORARY ANGLO-CELTIC POETS (CORNISH)

ARTHUR THOMAS QUILLER COUCH. PAGE 317

So well known as “Q,” was born at Bodwin, in Cornwall, of an old Cornish family, in 1863. He left Trinity College, Oxford, for London; but, after a brief experience of literary life in the metropolis, returned to the “Duchy,” and has since resided there, mainly at Fowey. He is not only the most noteworthy living Cornishman of letters, and the romancer _par excellence_ of contemporary Cornwall and Cornish life, but is acknowledged as one of the best story-tellers of the day. His first book was _The Splendid Spur_ (1889), a stirring romance, which was followed by _The Delectable Duchy_, _Noughts and Crosses_, and _I Saw Three Ships_. He has published little poetry; and even in his slender volume, _Green Bays_ (1893), there are not more than one or two poems, the other verses being for the most part what are called “occasional.” If, however, he had written nothing in verse except the lyric called “The Splendid Spur,” he would be accounted a poet for remembrance. “The White Moth” is the most distinctively Celtic poem he has written. In the main, he is more Cornish than Celtic--in this a contrast to Dr Riccardo Stephens, who is far more distinctively Celtic than Cornish.

ROBERT STEPHEN HAWKER. (1804-1875.) PAGE 319

The celebrated vicar of Morwenstow (born at Plymouth) came of an old Cornish family, and spent the greater part of his life in the Duchy. In 1834 he became Vicar of Morwenstow, a remote parish on the Cornish sea-board. His best-known book is _Cornish Ballads_ (1869); but the reader who may not be acquainted with his writings should consult the _Poetical Works, and Other Literary Remains, with a Memoir_ (1879). Hawker has much of the sombre note which is supposed to be characteristic of Celtic Cornwall.

RICCARDO STEPHENS. PAGE 321

Dr Stephens is a Cornishman settled in Edinburgh, where he practises as a physician. He has not, as yet, published any of his poems in book form; but, none the less, has won (if necessarily, as yet, a limited) reputation by his exceedingly vigorous and individual poems. He has written several “Castle Ballads” (of which the very striking “Hell’s Piper” given here is one)--poems suggested by legendary episodes connected with Edinburgh Castle, or perhaps only vaguely influenced by that romantically picturesque and grand vicinage--for Dr Stephens is one of the many workers, thinkers, and dreamers who congregate in the settlement founded by Professor Patrick Geddes on the site of Allan Ramsay’s residence--“New Edinburgh,” as University Hall is sometimes called, an apt name in more ways than one. Dr Stephens is a poet of marked originality, and his work has all the Celtic fire and fervour, with much of that sombre gloom which is held to be characteristically Cornish. “Hell’s Piper” has lines in it of Dantesque vigour, as those which depict, among “the shackled earthquakes,” the “reeking halls of Hell,” and the torture-wrought denizens of that Inferno. “The Phantom Piper” will never be forgotten by any one who has once read and been thrilled by this highly-imaginative poem.

MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY BRETON

THE POOR CLERK (IN BRETON, “AR C’HLOAREK PAOUR”) PAGE 331

is rather a mediæval than a modern folk-poem. The translation is that of the late Tom Taylor (_Ballads and Lyrics_, Macmillan), who has the following note upon it:--“The Klöarek is a seminarist of Tréguier, a peasant who has a turn for books, or shows some vocation for the priesthood. Their miserable life, hard study, and abnegation of family life are provocative of regretful emotion, passionate and mystic asceticism. The Klöarek is the poet and hero of most of the Breton _Sônes_; Tréguier, therefore, is the nursery of the elegaic and religious popular poetry of Brittany.”

THE CROSS BY THE WAY (KROAZ ANN HENT). PAGE 332

_Vide_ preceding Note. This translation is from the same source as last.

THE SECRETS OF THE CLERK, AND LOVE SONG. PAGES 335-337

See Note to “The Poor Clerk.” The first of these poems was probably composed in the transition period--late mediæval or early modern. Both are given in the rendering of Mr Alfred M. Williams (_vide_ “Folk-Songs of Lower Brittany” in _Studies in Folk-Song and Popular Poetry_ (1895)). “The Love Song” is modern--probably _circa_ 1800, or even 1750.

HERVÉ NOËL LE BRETON. PAGE 338

For all particulars concerning this poet I must refer interested readers to Mr W. J. Robertson’s brief memoir in that most delightful of all books of translation, _A Century of French Verse_ (A. D. Innes & Co., 1895). This is without exception the ablest work of its kind we have. It is the production of one who is unmistakably himself a poet, who has the rare double power to translate literally, and at the same time with subtle art and charm, so that the least possible loss in translation is involved. In addition to these often exquisitely felicitous, and always notably able and suggestive renderings, Mr Robertson has prefixed to each representative selection a brief critical and biographical study of the poet represented--short _études_ of remarkable insight and critical merit. Of Hervé Noël le Breton he gives some interesting particulars. The poet is of the ancient Armorican race, and was born in Nantes in 1851. He has not yet published any volume; and it is from an unpublished collection, _Rêves et Symboles_, that Mr Robertson has drawn. Strangely enough, neither in Tiercelin’s Breton Anthology nor anywhere else can I find any allusion to Hervé Noël le Breton: and his name is unknown to M. Louis Tiercelin, M. Anatole le Braz, and M. Charles Le Goffic, respectively the most eminent living Breton anthologist, Breton folk-lorist, and Breton poet-romancist and critic. For several reasons I take it that Le Breton is an assumed name; and it is even possible that the Armorican blood is only in the brain, and not in the body of the author of _Rêves et Symboles_. “The Burden of Lost Souls” is in three parts, of which that given here is the first. Here is the second:

THE BURDEN OF LOST SOULS.

II.

This is our doom. To walk for ever and ever
The wilderness unblest,
To weary soul and sense in vain endeavour
And find no coign of rest;

To feel the pulse of speech and passion thronging
On lips for ever dumb,
To gaze on parched skies relentless, longing
For clouds that will not come;

Thirsty, to drink of loathsome waters crawling
With nameless things obscene,
To feel the dews from heaven like fire-drops falling,
And neither shade nor screen;

To fill from springs illusive riddled vessels,
Like the Danaïdes,
To grapple with the wind that whirls and wrestles,
Knowing no lapse of ease;

To weave fantastic webs that shrink and crumble
Before they leave the loom,
To build with travail aëry towers that tumble
And temples like the tomb;

To watch the stately pomp and proud procession
Of splendid shapes and things,
And pine in silent solitary session
Because we have no wings;

To woo from confused sleep forlorn the dismal
Oblivion of despair;
To seek in sudden glimpse of dreams abysmal
Sights beautiful and rare,
And waking, wild with terror, see the vision
Cancelled in swift eclipse,
Mocked by the pallid phantoms of derision,
With spectral eyes and lips;

To turn in endless circles round these purlieus
With troops of spirits pale,
Whose everlasting song is like the curlew’s,
One ceaseless, changeless wail.

Mr Robertson gives four poems by this poet: “_La Plainte des Damnés_,” “_Vers les Etoiles_,” “_Le Tombeau du Poète_,” and “_Hymne au Sommeil_.” His translation of the last-named also appears in this anthology.

VILLIERS DE L’ISLE-ADAM. (1838-1889.) PAGE 342

This famous French novelist and poet was born at St Brieuc, in Brittany, of parents who were each of old Breton stock. The full details of the life and work of Philippe-Auguste-Mathias de Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, son of the Marquis Joseph de Villiers de l’Isle-Adam and his wife Marie Françoise le Nepveu de Carfort, can be read in the recently-published _Life_, by the late Vicomte Robert du Pontavice de Heussey--an English translation of which, by Lady Mary Lloyd, was issued last year by Mr Heinemann. This distinguished writer lived in misfortune, and died amid darker shadows than those he had too long been bitterly acquainted with. His first volume of poems was published when he was little more than twenty years old--as Mr Robertson says, “one of the most remarkable ever written by so young a poet.” The young Breton poet came under the strong personal influence of Baudelaire, and in the process he lost much of his native Celtic fire and spirituality. Besides the poems given here, “Confession” (“_D’aveu_”) and “Discouragement” (“_Découragement_”), Mr Robertson translates, in his _Century of French Verse_, “_Eblouissement_” and “_Les Présents_.”

LECONTE DE LISLE. (1818-1894.) PAGE 344

“The great Creole poet, Charles Marie René Leconte, known as Leconte de Lisle, was the child of a Breton father and a Gascon mother, and was born at St Paul, in the isle of Bourbon (_Réunion_) in 1818. He had the Celtic clearness of vision and love of beauty, and the vigour and courage of the Pyrenean race. In his youth he travelled through the East Indies, and the vivid impressions of tropical colour and warmth which are visible in his poetry derive their value from the personal observation of Nature in those regions” (W. J. Robertson, _A Century of French Verse_). Leconte de Lisle, one of the greatest of modern French poets, is assured of immortality by his beautiful trilogy:--_Poèmes Antiques_ (1852), _Poèmes Barbares_ (1862), and _Poèmes Tragiques_ (1884). The reader who, unfamiliar with this poet, wishes to know more of Leconte de Lisle and his work, cannot do better than turn first to Mr Robertson’s biographical and critical memoir in _A Century of French Verse_. There, too, he will find five poems from _Poèmes Antiques_, including the long “_Dies Iræ_”; two from _Poèmes Barbares_, and two from _Poèmes Tragiques_. Of the two given here, the first (“The Black Panther”) is from _Poèmes Barbares_, and “The Spring” (“_La Source_”) from _Poèmes Antiques_. Leconte de Lisle strove after an ideal perfection of form. The spirit of that almost flawless work of his, is of intellectual emotion rather than of passion; but in colour, and splendour of imagery, no romanticist can surpass him. He is of the great minds who create, calm and serene. He is often classed with the two great master-spirits of modern German and French literature; but, while he has neither the lyric rush nor epic sweep of Victor Hugo, nor the philosophical modernity and innate human sentiment of Gœthe, he is much more akin to the latter than to the former. For the rest, to quote Mr Robertson, “he gives the noblest expression to human revolt and desire, to ideal dreams, and to the pure and sometimes pathetic love of external nature.”

LEO-KERMORVAN. PAGE 348

Leo-Kermorvan has been represented here as one of the most distinctively Celtic of the contemporary Breton poets. In translating his “Taliesen,” as well as Louis Tiercelin’s “By Menec’hi Shore,” I have endeavoured to convey the atmosphere, as well as to be literal; and, partly to this end, and partly because of a personal preference for unrhymed metrical translation, have not ventured to make a rhymed paraphrase. M. Kermorvan is a poet worthy to be named with his two most notable living compatriots, Tristran Corbière and Charles Le Goffic.

LOUIS TIERCELIN. PAGE 351

(See foregoing note.) M. Tiercelin is a Breton poet and critic, perhaps best known as co-editor of the _Parnasse de la Bretagne_. No more characteristic Breton poem, apart from folk-poetry, could close _Lyra Celtica_. It is the keynote of the poetry that is common to all the Celtic races.

THE CELTIC FRINGE

BLISS CARMAN. PAGE 355

Mr Bliss Carman, the trans-Atlantic poet who, it seems to me, has the most distinctive note of any American poet (and the word “American” is used in its widest sense), is of Scoto-Celtic descent through his father’s side, and of East-Anglian through the maternal side; but was born of a family long settled in Canada--viz., at Fredericton, New Brunswick, in 1861. His poetry is intensely individual, and with a lyric note at once poignant and reserved. Work of very high quality is expected of him, on both sides of the Atlantic; for his beautiful lyrics and poems have appeared in the periodicals of both countries. His slight volume, _Low Tide on Grand-Pré_ (1893), is published in this country by Mr Nutt. About half of the _Songs from Vagabondia_ (written in collaboration with Mr Richard Hovey) are of his authorship. This book, published in 1894 by Messrs Stone & Kimball of Chicago, is to be had here through Mr Elkin Mathews. It is from the _Songs_ that the stirring war-chant of “Gamelbar” comes.

ELLEN MACKAY HUTCHINSON. PAGE 361

This distinguished American lady is descended from old Highland stock. I know of no other book by her than _Songs and Lyrics_ (Boston, Osgood & Co., 1881), but that is one which all lovers of poetry should possess. Miss Hutchinson’s name is best known in connection with that colossal and invaluable work, the _Cyclopædia of American Literature_ (eleven vols.), in which she was the collaborator of Mr Edmund Clarence Stedman.

HUGH M‘CULLOCH. PAGE 364

This descendant of an old Highland family is the author of _The Quest of Heracles_ (Stone & Kimball, Chicago, 1894).

DUNCAN CAMPBELL SCOTT. PAGE 365

Mr Scott is a member of one of the many Scoto-Celtic families settled in Canada. He was born at Ottawa in 1862, and is the author of _The Magic House_ (1893).

THOMAS D’ARCY M‘CGEE. (1821-1868.) PAGE 366

This distinguished Irishman is to be accounted only an adopted American. He emigrated to the States in 1842, edited _The Boston Pilot_, and in 1857 went to Montreal and entered the Canadian Parliament. It was when returning from a night-session that he was assassinated in Ottawa by Fenian malcontents.

MARY C. G. GILLINGTON (MRS BYRON) AND ALICE E. GILLINGTON. PAGES 368-373

These two sisters, whose names have become so deservedly well-known by their contributions to British and American periodicals, are of Celtic blood, though born and resident in England. They are included here as representative of the Anglo Celtic strain so potent in England itself. The elder, Mrs Byron, was born in Cheshire in 1861. Their joint volume, _Poems_, was published in 1892. Mr Elkin Mathews has just published a volume entitled, _A Little Book of Lyrics_, by Mrs Byron.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Apropos, let me quote a word or two from Dr Douglas Hyde: “We all remember the inimitable felicity with which that great English-speaking Gael, Sir Walter Scott, has caught,” &c. (with this note) “Both the Buccleugh Scots, and the other four branches of the name, were originally Gaelic-speaking Celts.”

[2] “Failte do Mharcus Latharna ’s do ’Mhnaoi oig Rioghail.”

[3] Published by Mr Fisher Unwin at a shilling. The reader will have to discount Mr Brooke’s over-emphasis on the word Irish, which he frequently uses instead of Celtic, even when alluding to Scoto-Celtic literature and influence.

[4] “On the first day of the =Trogan-month=, we, to the number of Fianna’s three battalions, practised to repair to Arran, and there to have our fill of hunting until such time as from the tree-tops the cuckoo would call in Ireland. More melodious than all birds whatsoever, it was to give ear to the voices of the birds as they rose from the billows, and from the island’s coast line; thrice fifty separate flocks there are that encircled her, and they clad in all brilliance of all colours; as blue, and green, and azure, and yellow.”

[5] Readers should obtain Dr Hyde’s “Three Sorrows of Story-Telling” (1/-), wherein the beautiful old tale of Deirdrê is re-told by one who is at once a poet and a scholar.

[6] Whence comes the “Prologue to Gaul,” given at p. 187 of this book.

[7] =Dearg=-=drúchtach=--i.e. “Dewy-Red”--was the name of St Columba’s boat.

[8] That is, “Back turned to Ireland.”

[9] Solitary cell.

[10] i.e. the sheepskin or deerskin coverings for apertures, still used in some remote shealings and =bothain=.

[11] Shed.

[12] Here probably the byre.

[13] =Gracie óg mo-chridhe=--“Young Gracie, my heart.”

[14] Pron. =Cawn dhu dee-lish=--i.e. “darling black head.”

[15] The second line to the refrain translates the first.

[16] Creek.

[17] Piglings.

[18] Potatoes.

[19] My heart’s delight.

[20] A large basket carried on the back.

[21] =Maura du=, “Dear Mary.”

[22] =Asthore machree=, “The darling of my heart.”

[23] Pron. =Colleen Dhun=--a “brown (haired) girl.”

[24] Low Country.

[25] Mull.

[26] =Eilidh= is pronounced Eily (liq.).

[27] than.

[28] of hers.

[29] frightened.

[30] Hobgoblins.

[31] The Blackrock is a bold, dark, pillared mass of schist, which rises midway on the shore of Widemouth Bay, near Bude, and is held to be the lair of the troubled spirit of Featherstone the wrecker, imprisoned therein until he shall have accomplished his doom.

[32] The =bazvalan=, the bearer of the rod of broom.

[33] Twilight.

[34] Pronounce like English “hind.”

[35] Gaelic pronunciation of Mull.