The Legends of Saint Patrick

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Legends of Saint Patrick, by Aubrey de Vere
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Title: The Legends of Saint Patrick
Author: Aubrey de Vere
Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7165]?[This file was first posted on March 18, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
? START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE LEGENDS OF SAINT PATRICK ***
This etext was prepared by Les Bowler, St. Ives, Dorset.
THE LEGENDS OF SAINT PATRICK BY?AUBREY DE VERE, LL.D.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION BY HENRY MORLEY.
SAINT PATRICK--FROM "ENGLISH WRITERS," BY HENRY MORLEY.
PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR.
POEMS:-?THE BAPTISM OF SAINT PATRICK.?THE DISBELIEF OF MILCHO.?SAINT PATRICK AT TARA.?SAINT PATRICK AND THE TWO PRINCESSES.?SAINT PATRICK AND THE CHILDREN OF FOCHLUT WOOD.?SAINT PATRICK AND KING LAEGHAIRE.?SAINT PATRICK AND THE IMPOSTOR.?SAINT PATRICK AT CASHEL.?SAINT PATRICK AND THE CHILDLESS MOTHER.?SAINT PATRICK AT THE FEAST OF KNOCK CAE.?SAINT PATRICK AND KING EOCHAID.?SAINT PATRICK AND THE FOUNDING OF ARMAGH CATHEDRAL.?THE ARRAIGNMENT OF SAINT PATRICK.?THE STRIVING OF SAINT PATRICK ON MOUNT CRUACHAN.?EPILOGUE. THE CONFESSION OF SAINT PATRICK.
INTRODUCTION BY HENRY MORLEY.
Once more our readers are indebted to a living poet for wide circulation of a volume of delightful verse. The name of Aubrey de Vere is the more pleasantly familiar because its association with our highest literature has descended from father to son. In 1822, sixty-seven years ago, Sir Aubrey de Vere, of Curragh Chase, by Adare, in the county of Limerick--then thirty-four years old--first made his mark with a dramatic poem upon "Julian the Apostate." In 1842 Sir Aubrey published Sonnets, which his friend Wordsworth described as "the most perfect of our age;" and in the year of his death he completed a dramatic poem upon "Mary Tudor," published in the next year, 1847, with the "Lamentation of Ireland, and other Poems." Sir Aubrey de Vere's "Mary Tudor" should be read by all who have read Tennyson's play on the same subject.
The gift of genius passed from Sir Aubrey to his third son, Aubrey Thomas de Vere, who was born in 1814, and through a long life has put into music only noble thoughts associated with the love of God and man, and of his native land. His first work, published fortyseven years ago, was a lyrical piece, in which he gave his sympathy to devout and persecuted men whose ways of thought were not his own. Aubrey de Vere's poems have been from time to time revised by himself, and they were in 1884 finally collected into three volumes, published by Messrs. Kegan Paul. Left free to choose from among their various contents, I have taken this little book of "Legends of St. Patrick," first published in 1872, but in so doing I have unwillingly left many a piece that would please many a reader.
They are not, however, inaccessible. Of the three volumes of collected works, each may be had separately, and is complete in itself. The first contains "The Search after Proserpine, and other Poems--Classical and Meditative." The second contains the "Legends of St. Patrick, and Legends of Ireland's Heroic Age," including a version of the "Tain Bo." The third contains two plays, "Alexander the Great," "St. Thomas of Canterbury," and other Poems.
For the convenience of some readers, the following extract from the second volume of my "English Writers," may serve as a prosaic summary of what is actually known about St. Patrick.
H. M.
ST. PATRICK.
FROM "ENGLISH WRITERS."
The birth of St. Patrick, Apostle and Saint of Ireland, has been generally placed in the latter half of the fourth century; and he is said to have died at the age of a hundred and twenty. As he died in the year 493--and we may admit that he was then a very old man--if we may say that he reached the age of eighty-eight, we place his birth in the year 405. We may reasonably believe, therefore, that he was born in the early part of the fifth century. His birthplace, now known as Kilpatrick, was at the junction of the Levin with the Clyde, in what is now the county of Dumbarton. His baptismal name was Succath. His