but how I pity the sorry wight who hasn't learnt Greek ? What can he know of the recondite meaning of certain passages in the "Groves ?" He is incapacitated from enjoying the full drift of the ode, and must only take it diluted, or Veliuti-ed, in the common English version. Nórunt fideles, as Tom Moore says. For my part, I would as soon see such a periwig-pated fellow reading your last Number, and fancying himself capable of understanding the full scope of the poet, as to behold a Greenwich pensioner with a wooden leg trying to run a race with Atalanta for her golden apple, or a fellow with a modicum quid of legal knowledge affecting to sit and look big under a chancellor's peruke, like Bridlegoose on the woolsack. In verity, gentlemen of the lower house ought to supplicate Sir Daniel Sandford, of Glasgow, to give them a few lectures on Greek, for the better intelligence of the real Blarney style; and I doubt not that every member will join in the request, except, perhaps, Joe Hume, who would naturally oppose any attempt to throw light on Greek matters, for reasons too tedious to mention. Verb. sap. To have collected in his youthful rambles on the continent, and to have diligently copied in the several libraries abroad, these imperishable versions of an immortal song was the pride and consolation of Father Prout's old age, and still, by one of those singular aberrations of mind incident to all great men, he could never be prevailed on to give further publicity to the result of his labours; thus sitting down to the banquet of literature with the egotistic feeling of a churl. He would never listen to the many offers from interested publishers, who sought for the prize with eager competition; but kept the song in manuscript on detached leaves, despite of the positive injunction of the sibyl in the Æneid— "Non foliis tu carmina manda, Ne correpta volent rapidis ludibria ventis !" I know full well to what serious imputations I make myself liable, when I candidly admit that I did not come by the treasure lawfully myself; having, as I boldly stated in the last Number of REGINA, filched the precious papers, disjecta membra poeta, when the table was being cleared by Prout's servant maid for the subsequent repast. But there are certain "pious frauds" of which none need be ashamed in the interests of science: and when a great medal-collector, (of whom "Tom England" will tell you the particulars), being, on his homeward voyage from Egypt, hotly pursued by the Algerines, swallowed the golden series of the Ptolemies, who ever thought of blaming Mr. Dufour, as he had purchased in their human envelope these recondite coins, for having applied purgatives and emetics, and every possible stratagem, to come at the deposit of glory? But to describe" the repast" has now become my solemn duty-a task imposed on me by you, O Queen! to whom nothing relating to Sir Walter Scott, or to Father Prout appears to be uninteresting. In that I agree with you, for nothing to my mind comes recommended so powerfully as what hath appertained to these two great ornaments of “humanity ;” which term I must be understood to use in its double sense, as relating to mankind in general, and in particular to the literæ humaniores, of which you and I are rapturously fond, as Terence was before we were born, according to the hackneyed line "Homo sum: humani nihil à me alienum puto!" That banquet was in sooth no ordinary jollification, no mere bout of sensuality, but a philosophic and rational commingling of mind, with a pleasant and succulent addition of matter-a blending of soul and substance, typified by the union of Cupid and Psyche-a compound of strange ingredients, in which a large infusion of what are called (in a very Irish-looking phrase) "animal spirits" coalesced with an abundance of distilled ambrosia ; not without much erudite observation, and the interlude of jovial song; wit contending for supremacy with learning, and folly asserting her occasional predominance like the tints of the rainbow in their tout ensemble, or like the smile and the tear in Erin's left eye, when that fascinating creature has taken " a drop" of her own mountain dew. But though there were lots of fun at Prout's table at all times, which the lack of provisions never could interfere with one way or another, I have special reason for ecording in full the particulars of THIS carousal, having learned with indignation that, since the appearance of the Father's "Apology for Lent," calumny has been busy with his character, and attributed his taste for meagre diet, to a sordid principle of economy. No! Prout was not a penurious wretch! And since it has been industriously circulated in the club-houses at the west-end, that he never gave a dinner in his life, by the statement of one stubborn fact I must silence for ever that "whisper of a faction." From the first moment of delight, when the perusal of George Knapp's letter, (dated July 25, 1825) had apprised Prout of the visit intended by Sir Walter Scott to the Blarney stone, he had predetermined that the Great Unknown should partake of sacerdotal hospitality. I recollect well on that evening (for you are aware I was then on a visit to my aunt at Watergrasshill, and, as luck would have it, happened to be in the priest's parlour when the news came by express) how often he was heard to mutter to himself, as if resolving the mighty project of a "let out," in that beautiful exclamation borrowed from his favourite Milton— "What neat repast shall feast us, light and choice, Of Attic taste with wine ?" I then foresaw that there really would be "a dinner" and sure enough there was no mistake, for an entertainment ensued, such as the refinement of a scholar and the tact of a well-informed and observant traveller naturally and unaffectedly produced, with the simple but not less acceptable materials which circumstances allowed of and a style as far removed from the selfishness of the anchorite as the extravagance of the glutton. Prout had seen much of mankind; and in his deportment through life shewed that he was well versed in all those varied arts of easy, but still gradual acquirement, which singularly embellish the intercourse of society: these were the results of his excellent continental education—. Πολλων δ' ανθρωπων ιδον αστεα, και νοον έγνω. But at the head of his own festive board he particularly shone; for though in his ministerial functions, he was ex emplary and admirable, ever meek and unaffected at the altar of his rustic chapel, where "His looks adorned the venerable place," still, surrounded by a few choice friends, the calibre of whose genis was in unison with his own, with a bottle of his choice old claret before him, he was truly a paragon. I say claret; for when, in his youthful career of early travel, he had sojourned at Bourdeaux in 1776; he had formed an acquaintanceship with the then representatives of the still flourishing house of Maccarthy and Co.; and if the prayers of the old priest are of any avail, that firm will long prosper in the splendid capital of Gascony. This long-remembered acquaintanceship was periodically refreshed by many a quarter cask of excellent medoc, which found its way (no matter how) up the rugged by-roads of Watergrasshill to the sacerdotal cellar. Nor was the barren upland, of which he was the pastor (and which will one day be as celebrated for having been his residence as it is now for water-cresses), so totally estranged from the wickedness of the world, and so exalted above the common level of Irish highlands, that no whisky was to be found there; for though Prout never openly countenanced, he still tolerated Davy Draddy's public-house at the sign of the "Mallow Cavalry." But there is a spirit, (an evil one), which pays no duty to the King, under pretence of having paid it to her majesty the Queen (God bless her!)-a spirit which would even tempt you, O REGINA! to forsake the even tenour of your ways-a spirit which Father Prout could never effectually chain down in the Red Sea, where every foul demon ought to lie in durance until the vials of wrath are finally poured out on this sinful world -that spirit, endowed with a smoky fragrance, as if to indicate its caliginous origin-not a drop of it would he give Sir Walter. He would have wished, such was his anxiety to protect the morals of his parishioners from the baneful effects of private distillation, that what is called technically "mountain-dew" were never heard of in the district; and that in this respect Watergrasshill had resembled the mountain of Gilboa, in the country of the Philistines. But of legitimate and excellent malt whisky he kept a constant supply, through the friendship of Joe Hayes, a capital fellow, who presides, with great credit to himself, and to his native city, over the spiritual concerns of the Glin Distillery. Through his intelligent superintendence, he can boast of maintaining an unextinguishable furnace and a worm that never dies; and O! may he in the next life, through Prout's good prayers, escape both one and the other. This whisky, the pious offering of Joe Hayes to his confessor, Father Prout, was carefully removed out of harm's way; and even I myself was considerably puzzled to find out where the good divine had the habit of concealing it, until I got the secret out of Margaret, his servantmaid, who, being a 'cute girl, had suggested the hiding-place herself. I don't know whether you recollect my description, in your April Number, of the learned Father's bookcase and the folio volumes of stone-flag inscribed "CORNELII A LAPIDE Opera quæ ext. omn. :" well, behind them lay hidden the whisky in a pair of jars For buxom Maggy, careful soul, Had two stone bottles found, Orders had been given to this same Margaret to kill a turkey, in the first impulse of the good old man's mind, on hospitable thoughts intent:" but, alas! when the fowl had been slain, in accordance with his hasty injunctions, he bethought himself of the melancholy fact, that, the morrow being Friday, fish diet was imperative, and that the deathwarrant of the turkey had been a most premature and illconsidered act of precipitancy. The corpus delicti was therefore hung up in the kitchen, to furnish forth the Sunday's dinner next ensuing, and his thoughts of necessity ran into a piscatory channel. He had been angling all day, and happily with considerable success; so that, what with a large eel he had hooked out of the lake at Blarney, and two or three dozen of capital trout from the stream, he might emulate the exploit of that old Calabrian farmer, who entertained Virgil on the produce of his hives: cr "Serâque revertens Nocte domum, dapibus mensas onerabat inemptis.” |