1829.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



105 



trouble thrown any. The writer had better 

 have written the Irish history and antiqui- 

 ties of the period in good set terms, and 

 abandoned her love tale. Thoroughly has 

 Miss Crumpe mistaken the taste of the 

 readers she expected to gratify, if she 

 imagined for a moment that her detailings 

 of dresses and pageantries, however correct 

 and curious, or her political discussions, Iiow- 

 ever sound, and perhaps serviceable else- 

 where, mixed up, and suspending the inte- 

 rest ofa tale, small as it is, would suit that 

 taste. Nobody will or can tolerate any tiling 

 so wearisome, when the object of reading is 

 merely to kill time — and who has any other 

 in reading tales of this kind ? Facts, or 

 what lays claim to the certainty of facts, 

 will bei attended to in a sober shape, and 

 so will political discussions in tlieir places, 

 but not where the writer perversely con- 

 founds the memory, and blinds the judg. 

 ment, by mixing the real v/ith the ficti- 

 tious — relating one thing in the text and 

 another in the note — fabricating in one 

 place, and rectifying in a second. Gravity 

 is one thing and gaiety another. The 

 lady, moreover, competent and cultivated 

 as she obviously is, has missed the line of 

 the " historical romance." That line is 

 easily drawn. No admitted facts should be 

 disturbed or distorted. The imagination of 

 the romancer is free only where the record 

 fails. Tlie story of Desmond had enough 

 in it of what is now-a-days called the 

 romance of life, and space and verse 

 enough remained unoccupied by any- known 

 circumstances, for the indulgence of the 

 writer's fancy ; but when — to give an in- 

 stance — she impeaches the Irish chief be- 

 fore the Lords, and tries him, in tlie full 

 pomp of judicial splendour, in Westminster 

 Hall — she does it in violation of the 

 known fact, that he was only examined be- 

 fore the Council. AVHiy should the author 

 fry him before the Peers ? Because she 

 has collected certain details of ceremony in 

 unpublished MSS., which she wishes to 

 prottucc ; but if such was the motive, it was 

 her business to manage the matter better, 

 and not at once pervert facts, and betray 

 her own poverty. 3Iiss C. seems to tliink 

 she is sticking close to history, as is per- 

 petually hinted, when an act or a plirase is 

 assigned to one person which historically 

 belongs to another. Desmond and his 

 Countess, in flying from their enemies, 

 once stood up to their necks in a river ; 

 but Miss C, for tlie purposes of her story, 

 chooses to place her heroine, the daughter, 

 in this comfortable position, and consign 

 the mother, the meanwhile, to a convent. 

 In his final extremity, Desmond exclaimed 

 to the wretch, who butchered him — "Spare 

 me, I am Earl of Desmond !" but the au- 

 thor makes him say — " Spare her (meaning 

 the heroine), I am Earl of Desmond," and 

 then quietly observes in a note, as if tlic 

 change of the one little word made none in 

 the sense — " The substitution of her for 

 M.M. New Seriet Vol. VII. No. 43. 



me, is the only alteration I have made in 

 Desmond's dying words." Historical facts, 

 in short, are placed here, or placed there, 

 just as it best suits what appears to the 

 author the interest of her narrative. This, 

 however, is plainly overstepping tlie bounds 

 of the historical romance ; no liberties 

 should be taken with authenticated mat- 

 ters ; and it is quite superfluous, for there 

 must always be room enough for the play 

 of fancy in the deficiencies of records. 



The subject of the tale is the revolt and 

 ruin of Desmond — the prince of a large 

 portion of the South of Ireland, in the reigu 

 of Elizabeth. The Fitzgeralds and the 

 Butlers were hereditary enemies, and the 

 chiefs personal foes. Omiond was a Pro- 

 testant, a lord of the pale, and in favour 

 with the court ; Desmond, a Catliolic, tlie 

 descendant of a family of English origin, 

 but ipsis Hibernis Hiberiiior, the acknow- 

 ledged chief of the Catholic jiarty — the op- 

 ponent of the pale — the resister of political 

 oppression, and, of course, in ill odour at 

 court. In a conflict with Oimond's feuda- 

 tories he was taken prisoner, and conveyed 

 to Ormond's castle — where, in disguise, his 

 daughter gained access to him, and first 

 fascinated Ormond's son ; and whence he 

 was at last released upon galling terms. 

 " Wrung into undutifulness," as he well 

 expressed it, " by his enemies, he entered 

 into schemes for the rescue of his country, 

 and the gratification of his own revenge;" 

 but before the committal of any overt act, 

 he was entrapped by the queen's troops, and 

 carried to London — whither his daughter 

 again followed him. In his absence his 

 friends piarsued the plan, and found them- 

 selves in a condition to propose terms 

 to the government ; and Desmond was 

 despatched by the^ government to Dub- 

 lin to confirm them. Treacherously treat- 

 ed, or suspecting it, Desmond made his 

 escape before the compact was signed, and 

 openly took up arms against the queen, 

 joined by a few Spanish forces, and sanc- 

 tioned by the pope. Though occasionally 

 successful, he was finally beaten in detaU — 

 his castles, one after another, destroyed — 

 and himself a wanderer, and dying of hun- 

 ger, was killed for the price that had been 

 set upon his head. His vast estates were 

 lavished among the courtiers — among some 

 perhaps who had been mainly instrumental 

 in pushing him to extremities, of whom 

 Raleigh got 40,000 acres. Spencer, the 

 poet, had above 3,000. 



M'^ith these, for the most part, historical 

 details, is mixed up a tale of no great intc. 

 rest, from the dearth of incident, consisting 

 of the loves of Desmond's daughter and Or- 

 mond's son. She is of course all that is 

 beautiful and intelligent, but, with all her 

 accomplishments and wisdom, ardent and 

 impetuous as the most uncurbed of Irish 

 maidens. Tiiarles, too, is tlie observed of 

 all observers — the prrnv chevalier — a most 

 faithful and impassioned lover, and one 



