baron, John, and Brian; Art Oge, son of Cormac, who was son of the baron; Ferdoragh, son of Con, who was son of O'Neill; Hugh Oge, son of Brian, who was son of Art O'Neill; and many others of his most intimate friends. These were they who went with the Earl O'Donnell-namely, Caffer his brother, with his sister Nuala; Hugh, the earl's child, wanting three weeks of being one year old; Rose, daughter of O'Dogherty and wife of Caffer, with her son Hugh, aged two years and three months; his (Rory's) brother's son, Donnell Oge, son of Donnell, Naghtan, son of Calvach, who was son of Donogh Cairbreach O'Donnell, and many others of his intimate friends. They embarked on the festival of the Holy Cross, in autumn. This was a distinguished company; and it is certain that the sea has not borne and the wind has not wafted in modern times a number of persons in one ship more eminent, illustrious, or noble, in point of genealogy, heroic deeds, valour, feats of arms, and brave achievements, than they. Would that God had but permitted them to remain in their patrimonial inheritances until the children should arrive at the age of manhood! Woe to the heart that meditated, woe to the mind that conceived, woe to the council that recommended the project of this expedition, without knowing whether they should, to the end of their lives, be able to return to their native principalities or patrimonies.""] O, Woman of the Piercing Wail, Who mournest o'er yon mound of clay Would God thou wert among the Gael! 'Twere long before, around a grave Near where Beann-Boirche's banners wave Beside the wave, in Donegall, In Antrim's glens, or fair Dromore, Or Killilee, Or where the sunny waters fall, On Derry's plains-in rich Drumclieff— In olden years, 1 St. Peter. This passage is not exactly a blunder, though at first it may seem one: the poet supposes the grave itself transferred to Ireland, and he naturally in No day could pass but woman's grief Would rain upon the burial-ground Fresh floods of tears! O, no!-from Shannon, Boyne, and Suir, Would flock alike both rich and poor, One wail would rise from Cruachan's halls And some would come from Barrow-side, And by melodious Banna's tide, O, horses' hoofs would trample down From glen and hill, from plain and town, There would not soon be found, I ween, So many shriekers of the keen 1 Two princes of the line of Conn Sleep in their cells of clay beside Three royal youths, alas! are gone, Ah! could the men of Ireland read The names those noteless burial-stones Their wounded hearts afresh would bleed, The youths whose relics moulder here Were sprung from Hugh, high Prince and Lord Of Aileach's lands; Thy noble brothers, justly dear, Thy nephew, long to be deplored Theirs were not souls wherein dull Time They passed from earth ere manhood's prime, cludes in the transference the whole of the immediate locality around the grave.-J. C. M. 2 The funeral wail. after was made chaplain to Albert, archduke of Austria, who was then governor of the Spanish Netherlands. In 1618 he died at Brussels, leaving an only son, who became a Jesuit. [Stanihurst may be said to be the first Irish | ship. Here he took holy orders, and not long writer of importance who wrote in English. His importance, however, arises not so much from the value of his English writings in a literary point of view-for in this some of them were sadly deficient- -as in the fact that one at least, Descriptio Hiberniæ, which, notwithstanding its Latin title, is written in English, is essential to every student of Irish history. His position is also important from the fact that he had for friends some of the most remarkable men of his day-Gabriel | Harvey, who induced him to produce his lumbering hexameters, Sir Henry Sidney, and the gallant Sir Philip-and that he was recognized by all as deserving the words applied to him by Camden-" Eruditissimus ille nobilis Richardus Stanihurstus." A great portion of Stanihurst's writings are in Latin, a language which he wrote with considerable vigour and even elegance. His first work, which was published at London in folio, 1570, is entitled Harmonia, seu catena dialectica Porphyrium, and is spoken of with particular praise by Edmund Campion, then a student of St. John's College. His other works are-De rebus in Hibernia gestis (Antwerp, 1584, 4to); Descriptio Hibernia, which is to be found in Holinshed's Chronicle, of which it formed a part of the second volume; De Vita S. Patricii (Antwerp, 1587, 12mo); Hebdomada Mariana (Antwerp, 1609, 8vo); Hebdomada Eucharistica (Douay, 1614, 8vo); Brevis praemonitio pro futura commentatione cum Jacobo Usserio (Douay, 1615, Svo); The Principles of the Catholic Religion; The four first Books of Virgil's Æneis in English Hexa Richard Stanihurst was born in Dublin in or about the year 1545. In 1563 he removed to Oxford, where he became a commoner in University College. After graduating he left Oxford and entered at Furnival's Inn, which he soon left for Lincoln's, where he pursued the study of the law with diligence for some| time. From Lincoln's Inn he returned to Ire-meters (1583, small 8vo, black letter), with land, where he married a daughter of Sir Charles Barnewell, who accompanied him shortly afterwards to London. About 1579 he moved to Leyden, where in a short time he acquired considerable reputation for scholar which are printed the four first psalms, “certayne poetical conceites" in Latin and English, and finally some epitaphs. To this last work is prefixed a curious and pedantic preface, the apologetic reasoning of which seems to have been overlooked by the critics with a common consent. The work is now very rare, and commands a high price among bibliophiles. Several of the critics have been very severe upon Stanihurst's poetical attempts. Warton, speaking of his hexameters, says that "in the choice of his measure he is more unfortunate than his predecessors, and in other respects succeeded worse." He also quotes Thomas Nash where he says, "Stanyhurst, though other wise learned, trod a foul, lumbring, boistrous, wallowing measure in his translation of Virgil. He had never been praised by Gabriel Harvey for his labour, if therein he had not been so famously absurd." Wills says that "he seems to have been utterly devoid of all perception of the essential distinction between burlesque and serious poetry;" while Southey, more contemptuous than any, says that "as Chaucer has been called the well of English undefiled, so might Stanihurst be called the common sewer of the language. His version is exceedingly rare, and deserves to be reprinted for its incomparable oddity." Apart from his works Stanihurst has another claim to be remembered. He was uncle to the celebrated Usher (whom he would gladly have converted, and who would gladly have converted him), his sister being the mother of that prelate.] FIRST PREFACE TO TRANSLATION OF VIRGIL.1 TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE MY VERY LOVING What deepe and rare pointes of hidden secrets Virgil hath sealed up in hys twelve bookes of Eneis maye easily appeare to such reaching wits, as bend their endevours to the unfolding thereof; not only by gnibling upon the outward rine of a supposed historie, but also by grouping the pyth that is shrind up within the barke and bodie of so exquisit and singular a discourse. For whereas the chief praise of a wryter consisteth in the enterlacing of pleasure with profit; our author hath so wisely alayde the one with the other, as the shallow reader may be delighted with a smooth 1 The second preface, that "To the Learned Reader," | tale, and the diving searcher may be advantaged by sowning a pretious treatise. . . Having therefore (my good lord) taken upon mee to execute some parte of Master Askams will, who in his golden pamphlet, intitled the Schoolemaister, doth wish the Universitie students to applie their wittes in beautifying our Englishe language with heroicall verses: I held no Latinist so fit to give the onset on as Virgil, who for his perelesse stile and machlesse stuffe doth bear the pricke and price among all the Romane poëts. Howbeit, I have here halfe a gesse, that two sorts of carpers will seeme to spurne at this mine enterprise. The one utterly ignorant, the other meanely lettered. The ignorant will imagine that the passage was nothing craggy, in as much as M. Phaer hath broken the ice before mee: the meaner clearkes will suppose my travaile in these heroicall verses to carrie no greate difficultie, in that it laye in my choice, to make what word I woulde short or long, having no English writer before me in this kinde of poetrie, wyth whose squire I shoulde leavel my syllables. To shape therefore an aunsweare to the first, I say, they are altogether in a wrong boxe: considering that suche wordes as fit M. Phaer may be very unapt for me, whiche they woulde confesse if their skil were so much as spare in these verses. . . . To come to them that gesse my travaile to be easie, by reason of the libertie I had in English words . . . this much they are to consider, that as the first applying of a word may ease me in the first place, so perhaps, when I am occasioned to use the selfe same worde elsewhere, I may bee as much hindered as at the beginning I was furthered. . . . Touching mine owne triall, this muche I will discover. The three firste bookes I translated by starts, as my leasure and pleasure would serve me. In the fourth booke I did taske my selfe, and pursued the matter somewhat hotely. M. Phaer tooke to the making of that booke fifteene dayes: I hudled up mine in ten. Wherein I covet no praise, but rather doe crave pardon. . . . To the stirring therefore of the ryper, and the incouraging of the younger gentlemenne of our Universities I have taken some paines that waye, which I thought good to beetake to youre Lordships patronage, beeing of itselfe otherwise so tender, as happly it might scant endure the tippe of a frumping fillip. And thus omitting all other ceremoniall complementoes betweene your is, as we have said, very curious and pedantic, but to Lordeshippe and me, I committe you and the "general" reader almost unreadable. youre proceedings to the garding and guyding [Stanihurst may be said to be the first Irish writer of importance who wrote in English. His importance, however, arises not so much from the value of his English writings in a literary point of view-for in this some of them were sadly deficient-as in the fact that one at least, Descriptio Hibernia, which, notwithstanding its Latin title, is written in English, is essential to every student of Irish history. His position is also important from the fact that he had for friends some of the most remarkable men of his day-Gabriel Harvey, who induced him to produce his lumbering hexameters, Sir Henry Sidney, and the gallant Sir Philip and that he was recognized by all as deserving the words applied to him by Camden-" Eruditissimus ille nobilis Richardus Stanihurstus." Richard Stanihurst was born in Dublin in or about the year 1545. In 1563 he removed to Oxford, where he became a commoner in University College. After graduating he left Oxford and entered at Furnival's Inn, which he soon left for Lincoln's, where he pursued the study of the law with diligence for some time. From Lincoln's Inn he returned to Ire-meters (1583, small land, where he married a daughter of Sir which are print Charles Barnewell, who accompanied him tayne poetical shortly afterwards to London. About 1579 lish, and fin he moved to Leyden, where in a short time he work is acquired considerable reputation for scholar- face, t |