224 



of the Pagan king, Leogaire, was one of the first converts to Chris- 

 tianity.* Adamnan furnishes a very beautiful notice of the Irish poet, 

 Cronan, in A. D. 560 i-f and there are poems of this period even 

 yet extant, which are said to evince much learning and talent. One 

 attributed to A. D. 511, has been already alluded to,|. and the 

 author of this Essay has had the pleasure of translating into Enghsh 

 verse, together with several other ancient Irish poems, the celebrated 

 " Lament of Torna,"| which is generally supposed to have been writ- 

 ten about the year 420, or at latest, at the commencement of this 

 period. There is, however, a naivet6 in the original Irish, that seems 

 to preclude the possibility of their being effectively rendered into any 

 other language. 



Music naturally succeeds, and on this subject, besides the trum- 

 pets of brass which have been every where found in the country, 

 Cambrensis will be discovered speaking of the harp of Keivin, the 

 patron and founder of the ecclesiastical city of Glendaloch, at the 

 close of the sixth century. || Columba is mentioned as having ex- 

 pounded the psalms and many other things which were thought wor- 



* See ante, p. 184. 



f " Alio in tempore S. Columba, cum juxta stragnum Cei," (which Doctor O'Conor con- 

 jectures to be the lake at Rockingham in the ancient district of Moy Lurg, County Roscom- 

 mon,) "prope ostium fluminis, quod latine Bos (Boyle) dicitur, die aliqua cum fratribus aederet, 

 quidam ad eos Scoticus poeta devenit, qui cum post aliquam recessisset sermocionationem, 

 fratres ad sanctum, cur, aiunt, a nobis regrediente Cronano aliquod ex more sua arlis canticum 

 non postulasti modulabilUer decantari ? Quibus Sanctus, quare et vos nunc inutilia praefatis 

 verba? Quomodo ab illo misero homuncione carmen postularim laetitiae, &c." — Vita Columb. 

 lib. 1. c. 42. The close of the extract bears a striking similarity to the beautiful passage in the 

 137th Psalm. 



t Ante, p. 56. 



§ They will appear in Mr. Hardiman's interesting collection of ancient Irish poems, now 

 in the press. 



II " Hinc accidit ut episcopi et abbates el sancti in Hibemia viri cytharas circumferre, 

 et in eis modulando pie delectari, consueverint. Quapropter et sancti Keivini cythara ab indi- 

 genis in reverentia non modica • « • « habetur.'' — Top. Hib. Dist. 3. c. 12. 



