The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-05-28
WILMINGTON, n. C.
LAST VIEW OF IRISH LITERATURE.

we have a second time read Andrew
Lang's interesting essay published ten
years ago on Charles Lever. 1t is very
agreeable reading, full of insight, kind
ness. appreciation, and with an abun-
dance Of check upon enthusiasm and
general exaggeration. e was very
severely handled by his contemporary
critics, but the great reading public In
spite of all that was said in severe
-derogation liked his best books ana
laughed over them with exceeding Joy.
O'Malley' was his most pop
uIs.r hit. We think that no one with
the sense of fun can read it now and
not guffaw over Micky Free, 1.-The Irish
Sancho Panza" as Lang calls him.
Major Monsoon is immense, a very
original creation. Of tom Burke"
MIR. Lang refers to it as that vivid
and chivaIrous romance" His really
bzzt book Mr.. Lang thinks was Con
c egan," and he calls the hero the
IT: n "GfI Bias" He was not OF the
fir. or second rank,did not belong to
the circle among his great contempor-
art, of Dickens, Bulwer, Thackeray
al George Eliot, but he was a bright,
~m~5ing. spirited novelist, and Lang
says was a worthy member" of the
foremost men of ictive genius in his
Gay.
Since last Sunday we lave read a
sympathetic and entertaining short ar
-ticIe of but two pages in that really
oliver literary monthly in Philadelphia,
~ re Literary Era" which we always
I'd with both satisfaction and inter-
e.. and to us preferable to any New
York literary monthly, illustrated or
otherwise. 1t was upon an Irish author,
scholar and wit whose writings we used
to enjoy fifty years since. His literary
name was "Fathe Prout," a Roman
Catholic priest, but whose real lame
wa Francis Mahoney. He was a ire
Tnendous vogue in his day and his wide
learning. very rare gifts. inexhaustible
ayit and his genuine poetical endow-
ment drew readers of all religions and
conditions to him. The London CORE
sponden of THE Literary Era" MIR. II.
T. keenan,, a decidedly capable writer
of real cultivation, writes of him in a
esprit of healthful but but genuine ap-
Z probation. What ne writes is really
so pleasant to us and informing Withai
' we would be glad if we could draw
upon it at length. We a only give a
little Of it which will show the estimate
ii which he is held, and, our own i'm
preston is that it is not overdrawn.
Mr.. keenan, writes:
-FHe adopted the name Father
EProut," for sketches n stories min
s+gIed with poems in various tongues,
chiefly Latin and French. Among his
companions at the Fraser Round Table
were Thackeray, Maginn, Macllse,
Lockhart, and the venerable Coleridge.
1t was on the flashes and
of the meetings Of this delectable Fras-
er company that Thackeray based the
literary vagaries of '~Pendennis,' and
from one of Prout's masterpieces that
he cherished his delightful Captain
-Shandon.' Father Prout was invented
as the parish priest of Wathergrassh1ll,
near Cork, and endowed with vast and
various learning. He was fluent in all
tongues and an authority on every alb
.strusity. The 'Reliques Of Father
Prout" were erudite enough to mystify
lHC CAPOA - oNA o.
Francis Mahoney such delight as the
~perplexities they aroused. But in every
lire the learning is mingled with fun
and the fun with learning. He gave
Tom Moore many a trying half hour
in the production Of Latin verses which
read like the original of Moore's most
famous pieces"
He was the most noted correspondent
when in the diplomatic service of
English journals. He was indeed a
radiant and rare genius" classic to his
eyebrows. and invested all subjects he
touched with such artistic and brilliant
skill as to impart to them the very fra
GRANGE of letters. One more citation:
He issued pretended translations
IroEn Latin. which made writers Of the
day very uncomfortable by the Sugges-
ton OF plagiarism, and he kept states
men in constant wonder as TO MS
sources of information on occult pro-
iects. . = He was made much of in
the London clubs; he was courted In
great houses as the British call pala-
tial abodes where patrician dilettanti
live sybarite lives on the spoil or gen.
serations of pillage. He had the NOR
xdant humor of Swift and a
his learning; he was as dainty and
charming in verse as Heinrich Heine
and possessed tenfold as much heart;
he was as keenly sensitive in art ano
the .senuousness of beauty as Talne Oh
Saint Beauve, he had the clarlIy U
Voltaire in expression and some OF ina
wonderful creatures mastery touch II
F4analysis-that is, the true toucn o
y~ridicule."
In poetry Ireland has been success
tut but not at all comparable to Eng
land. From early times there hav'
come down poems not without merit
Owing to, the exciting and trying or
deals hat Ireland was forced to pas
through there were not favorable OPP
portunities for h development OF let
tiers. This is not exceptional. Othe
peoples have had such Eng
land itself is in evidence. An lrlsi
writer, MI. Edward Hayes writes o
his country: ireland has been calles
the Cinderella of Nations She hae