92 



THE BATTLE OF VENTRY. 



treats it in the same way, and regardless of word accent, all the accent of the music 

 falls on the syllables -din, do, bhas, -mach, thus : 



Mai - din tnoch db gha - bhcis a - mach air bhru-ach L6- cha Lein. 



Whilst then the old metrical system has long been given up for recital and reading, 

 music has more faithfully preserved the old state of things. 



There can be no doubt that it was in consequence of their acquaintance with 

 Enghsh poetry that the Irish adopted the accentuating system of metric. Their 

 own imperfect system of counting the syllables was not able to stand its ground against 

 the superior one of bringing verbal and metrical accent into harmony. It is this adop- 

 tion of a new system which brought about the otherwise inexplicable condition in which 

 Old-Irish poetry has been transmitted to us since the last three centuries, for that I take, 

 roughly speaking, to be the time when the change set in. The scribes now ceased to 

 copy ancient poetry faithfully, but as they tried to read the verses according to the new 

 accentuating principle they altered them, putting in words according to their fancy. 



The following instances from two versions of the Aided CJainne Lir may serve as an 

 illustration of this fact. They might easily be multiplied. I give, first, the reading of 

 the older version in the Edinburgh IMS. 38 (Edin.) and then the text as it is printed by 

 the Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language, Dublin, 1883, from a later MS. 

 The numbers refer to the paragraphs of this edition ^. 



Edin, bhar seoladh risan n-gaoith n-gairbh 



20. bheith dha seoladh /isan n-gaoith n-gairbh, 



Edin, olc sen da ttugiis 'bhur g-ceann 



29. olc an sean da d-tiigas in bhur g-ceann. 



Edin. mghion 0'iliolla Arann 



29. Aoife highion Oiliolla Arann. 



Edin. diiit ar aon is d' ar n-athair 



35. diiit-si mar aon ts d' ar n-dthair. 



Edin. do Lir SUhe F'ionnachdidh 



35. do Ltr SUhe F'iomiachaidb chdidh. 



Edin. rdchmaoid ds sin d'dr b-piandd 



35. rdchfamdoid as s'in d^ar b-p^tanad. 



Edin. ds amla'idh orda'ighim m'iiaigh 



67. as dmlaidh 6rdaigh'tm an iiaigh. 



* I may here mention that the lines from the Aided Clainne Lir quoted by Atkinson, Irish 

 Metric, p. 20, and again referred to by Windisch (/;-. Tcxie, II. i. p. 169), run thus in the 

 oldest version of this tale in the Edinburgh MS. xxxviii : 



Budh hiad ar g-coilceacha cuanna 



tonda sdilc searbhniadha, 



'nar g-cethrar cdomhchloinne Lir 



gan donadhaigh dd easbuidh. 



