The Purcell Papers, vol 1 | Page 6

I have no doubt there will be great praises
of the poem, and
people will suppose, most likely,
that the composition is mine, and as
you know
(I take for granted) that I would not wish to
wear a
borrowed feather, I should be glad to
give your brother's name as the
author, should
he not object to have it known; but as his
writings
are often of so different a tone, I would
not speak without permission
to do so. It is
true that in my programme my name is attached
to
other pieces, and no name appended to the
recitation; so far, you will
see, I have done all
I could to avoid "appropriating," the spirit of

which I might have caught here, with Irish
aptitude; but I would like
to have the means
of telling all whom it may concern the name of

the author, to whose head and heart it does so
much honour. Pray, my
dear Le Fanu, inquire,
and answer me here by next packet, or as soon

as convenient. My success here has been quite
triumphant.
'Yours very truly,
'SAMUEL LOVER.'
We have heard it said (though without having
inquired into the truth
of the tradition) that
'Shamus O'Brien' was the result of a match at

pseudo-national ballad writing made between Le
Fanu and several of
the most brilliant of his
young literary confreres at T. C. D. But

however this may be, Le Fanu undoubtedly was no
young Irelander;
indeed he did the stoutest
service as a press writer in the Conservative

interest, and was no doubt provoked as well as
amused at the
unexpected popularity to which
his poem attained amongst the Irish
Nationalists.
And here it should be remembered that the ballad
was
written some eleven years before the outbreak
of '48, and at a time
when a '98 subject might
fairly have been regarded as legitimate
literary

property amongst the most loyal.
We left Le Fanu as editor of the 'Warder.'
He afterwards purchased
the 'Dublin Evening
Packet,' and much later the half-proprietorship


of the 'Dublin Evening Mail.' Eleven or twelve
years ago he also
became the owner and editor
of the 'Dublin University Magazine,' in
which
his later as well as earlier Irish Stories
appeared. He sold it
about a year before his death
in 1873, having previously parted with
the
'Warder' and his share in the 'Evening
Mail.'
He had previously published in the 'Dublin
University Magazine' a
number of charming
lyrics, generally anonymously, and it is to be

feared that all clue to the identification of
most of these is lost, except
that of internal
evidence.
The following poem, undoubtedly his, should
make general our regret
at being unable to fix
with certainty upon its fellows:
'One wild and distant bugle sound
Breathed o'er Killarney's magic shore
Will shed sweet floating echoes
round
When that which made them is no more.
'So slumber in the human heart
Wild echoes, that will sweetly thrill
The words of kindness when the
voice
That uttered them for aye is still.
'Oh! memory, though thy records tell
Full many a tale of grief and sorrow,
Of mad excess, of hope decayed,

Of dark and cheerless melancholy;
'Still, memory, to me thou art
The dearest of the gifts of mind,
For all the joys that touch my heart

Are joys that I have left behind.
Le Fanu's literary life may be divided into
three distinct periods.
During the first of these,
and till his thirtieth year, he was an Irish


ballad, song, and story writer, his first published
story being the
'Adventures of Sir Robert
Ardagh,' which appeared in the 'Dublin
University
Magazine' of 1838.
In 1844 he was united to Miss Susan Bennett,
the beautiful daughter
of the late George
Bennett, Q.C. From this time until her decease,

in 1858, he devoted his energies almost entirely
to press work,
making, however, his first essays
in novel writing during that period.
The
'Cock and Anchor,' a chronicle of old Dublin
city, his first and,
in the opinion of competent
critics, one of the best of his novels,
seeing the
light about the year 1850. This work, it is to
be feared, is
out of print, though there is now a
cheap edition of 'Torlogh O'Brien,'
its immediate
successor. The comparative want of success
of these
novels seems to have deterred Le Fanu
from using his pen, except as
a press writer,
until 1863, when the 'House by the Churchyard'
was
published, and was soon followed by 'Uncle
Silas' and his five other
well-known novels.
We have considered Le Fanu as a ballad
writer and poet. As a press
writer he is still
most honourably remembered for his learning
and
brilliancy, and the power and point of his
sarcasm, which long made
the 'Dublin Evening
Mail' one of the most formidable of Irish press

critics; but let us now pass to the consideration
of him in the capacity
of a novelist, and in
particular as the author of 'Uncle Silas.'
There are evidences in 'Shamus O'Brien,' and
even in 'Phaudrig
Croohore,' of a power over
the mysterious, the